Digetopia > Wine > Beer < Recipes for Making Your Own Homebrew Beer

Homemade Beer: Get Started With This Simple Guide
By William Swan

She's a pretty girl, and she can make a cake from scratch, but can she make homemade beer? You might be surprised at how many people make and store homebrewed beer. Is your mate among them? Are you?

Beer making follows very simple rules. So, why wait? If homebrewed beer is something you'd like to try, then this should help you get started. And the good news is that it costs very little to bottle your first homemade brew.

People have been making homemade alcohol for thousands of years, ever since man first stumbled onto fermentation. After tasting the results of fruit left to rot in the bottom of a jug (wine), he moved to grains, which are the main ingredients of beer. Beer recipes have been found among some of the world's oldest recorded Sumerian writings.

Homebrewed beer is a thoughtful process, not a complicated one; it involves 6 components or steps:

1. Mash is made when a malted grain is mixed with water and then heated causing the starch to change into sugar. Mashes are available in a "No Boil" Kit, a partial mash, or the most complicated option, a full mash.
   
2. Wort (pronounced wirt, not wart) is the liquid formed by the malted grain mash. Wort can be purchased pre-made in dry or liquids.
   
3. Fermentation happens when a sugar mash is encouraged to convert into alcohol and carbon dioxide via the introduction of bacteria (yeast). Once yeast is added, wort becomes beer.
   
4. Conditioning (also known as secondary fermentation) is when the beer is siphoned from one container to another and allowed to brew again.
   
5. Carbonation takes place with the addition of a second sugar to the beer, which is then stored in either bottles or kegs.
   
6. And the easy part….Drinking!

Still afraid to get started? Perhaps master brewer and author, John Palmer, can help. He knows the ins and outs of home-brewing beer and the mistakes that can be made. He says his first homemade beer was "fit only for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in."

He suggests beginning with a "fool-proof" ale beer recipe because ale is the easiest type of homemade beer to make. Palmer includes terms and tools you'll need to make your first beer.

You could start brewing beer from scratch or you could begin with a home brewing beer kit which can be had for under $100. Beer kits are available from your local beer and wine supplies store, eBay, or one of the links below.

A simple search of the Internet will leave you with thousands of returns for recipes, games and other important beer information. Making your own beer can not only be useful it can also be a great experience. Think about it, they brewed their own beer years ago and look how much fun they had. So much they tried to shut them down! Try and stay out of trouble, but there is nothing any better than a home brewed cold one.

Caution: Homemade beer is for your consumption; stay out of trouble, don't sell it.

And play it safe, check with your state or provincial laws before embarking on your homebrew beer adventure.

Love beer? Check out theses beer t-shirts

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Swan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Homemade-Beer---Get-Started-With-This-Simple-Guide&id=523919