Last week's diaries on President Bush and the photos of him drinking a beer while in Germany at the G8 Summit, created a few comments about beer, non-alcoholic beer and some of the technical points related to how beer was made. During one of the diaries, I had a few questions directed to me and thus I saw that there might be some interest in one of my favorite hobbies. Hopefully, after reading the diary you will either have your interest heightened, some questions answered, and probably more reasons to look into the hobby if you enjoy beer with friends. So grab a beer from the fridge and pull up a chair. It is time to start class-Beer 101.
First, a little history. Beer was discovered, probably by accident, over 6000 years ago in current Iraq. The "Fertile Crescent" between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was a haven for a crude version of today's barley. Early man moved from place to place just as American Indians did in early America. Once they discovered that grain could be planted and new plants sprouted from the seed heads, there wasn't as much need to travel the lands in search of natural fields that grew at random throughout the country. Our assumption is that barley was left in the storage container that became wet after rains. When it wasn't noticed for several days, the soupy mixture had fermented with wild yeast that caused the sugars of malted grain to be converted to alcohol. Although, I am sure this concoction was no Bud Lite, it caused some of the same effects as a current beer. These settlers learned to make bread and beer from the grain although it would be centuries before anyone learned the secrets of the yeasts that made this elixir of life.
The history of beer is a long but exciting study if you enjoy the intermingling of our human development and the many different routes we have taken because of inventions and discoveries. I'll leave it to you to take this detour if this is your interest. I would recommend an older book by Gregg Smith entitled Beer, a history of suds and civilization from Mesopotamia to microbreweries.
The era from the mid-1800's until Prohibition was one of the golden ages for beer in America. We were expanding westward and immigrants were flooding the country and bringing their craft of brewing a great lager beer with them. They settled in such great beer towns as Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Breweries during this period were to become the large corporations that we know today. Early leaders such as Adolphus Busch, Eberhard Anheuser, and Frederick Pabst were just a few of the famous brewers that contributed to our history.
After Prohibition was ended in 1933, the legislation allowed breweries to roll out beer again, they failed to address the brewing of beer at home. It was not considered legal although our entire American history had centered around brewers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It wasn't until 1978 when Jimmy Carter signed the bill allowing homebrewing under certain restrictions to become legal again. Senator Alan Cranston from California more than Carter should be associated with this effort. He introduced the bill in the Senate at the behest of the Maltose Falcon Homebrew Club. They have remained one of the premier homebrew clubs in the US.
The AHA has remained one of the primary sources for education and support for homebrewers throughout the US. As the craft has developed, the judging of beers and providing feedback for your efforts has moved from the AHA to the Beer Judge Certification Program. In addition to these organizations, there is a whole gamut of homebrew clubs in your local area that support your efforts and provide the social side to the hobby. You can find a club near you through the AHA site or at the Homebrew Digest which remains one of the best online resources for homebrewers.
Now, after all this background, it may be time for another beer and let's consider a few details of brewing beer in your home today. I have been brewing for over 15 years now. I started as most did with a small kit of extract, hops, yeast and a few basic equipment needs like a brewing pot, thermometer, fermenting bucket and some bottles and caps. After 4-5 batches, I moved to mashing the grain, sparging off the sugary wort, and boiling as usual. This added a step which allowed more control over the finished product and more variation on the style that I wanted to produce.
Someone can get into homebrewing for about $75 for the first batch including some of the basic equipment needs. After this first purchase, it will run you about $20-$25 each 5 gal batch. A 5 gallon batch will produce about 48 12 oz bottles. If you use grains like barley, wheat or specialty grains, you can produce 5 gal for about about $15 even if you buy fresh yeast every batch. Since I now maintain yeast cultures and grow my own yeasts for some batches, you can move the costs down to about $8-$10 for a batch not counting your investment in other brewing equipment. Many homebrewers are very frugal but many spend large amounts on their hobby to push the envelope on both quantity and quality. I tend to fall into the second group.
Today, I'll normally brew either 15 or 30 gal on a brew day. Brewing can be hard work. It takes all day including all the grinding of the grain, cleaning the equipment, mashing the grain, transferring the wort for boiling, adding the hops on schedule and in the correct quantities, cooling the wort after boiling it for 60-90 minutes, and then adding the various yeasts to the wort based upon the beer style I am producing. I currently have two systems similar to what you see at Sabco. My system is completely homemade from kegs I purchased over time, cleaned up, cut out the tops, and added thermometers, site tubes, valves and pumps to move the hot liquor (water), wort, or cooled wort after the chilling. I used a 50 ft coiled copper tube with an immersion chiller. I normally can lower the temperature on 15 gal of hot wort to about 65 degrees within about 15 minutes. Since my water comes from the well at about 55 degrees I don't normally have to use a pre-ice bath as some homebrewers do.
Normally, if I brew 30 gal, I'll have from 4-6 distinct beer styles ready to ferment. If I brew an ale, I can have beer ready to drink within 8-10 days since I now keg my own beer in 5 gal cornies rather than bottle. With kegging (an added expense), you can force carbonate the beer and have it ready to drink within 1-2 days after the fermentation is complete and the yeast is pulled off the finished beer. If you bottle the beer, it will usually take about 3-6 weeks after fermentation ends to have a conditioned beer ready to enjoy. If you like lagers, plan to add 4-8 weeks to the process to allow it to develop and produce a quality beer. I tend to enjoy ales more but one of my favorite styles is a good Czech Pilsener. I also like Oktoberfest and helles but predominately I'll make an American Pale Ale like Sierra Nevada or an IPA.
OK, this is enough to generate some discussion for Brewing 101. There is much information that I have left out but sorry but I'm not willing to go further until I find out if there is interest. If questions are asked and interest exists, we'll try Brewing 102 and delve into more detail.
Responses to this diary require two assignments in order to get full credit for Brewing 101. First, you need to answer the poll below on your favorite beer style. Since I can't list but 14 plus other, I'll try to select some of the more popular. Secondly, I would like to know your favorite commercial beer. I don't care if it is Bud Lite (but, God, I hope not) or a local brewpub recipe but please list your favorite in the body of the question or response to a comment. Thanks for your time and interest. Go call a friend and have a beer while we wait on news on Libby or other more important issues.