Beer is many things to many people, but fundamentally it is a fermented beverage made from four basic ingredients: malt from various grains, hops, yeast, and water. There are also occasions when one might desire to use certain adjuncts, but they are generally not required.
Contents
Commercial Brewing
(More complete article needed here) Many Homebrewers aspire to the level of brewing achieved by the brewing industry but in many ways homebrewers can brew better beer than the commercial breweries due to lack of cost constraint. Home brewers can use techniques not available to larger brewers.
Home Brew
People today have an unprecedented ability to brew almost anything they can imagine at home, and homebrewing has seen a surge in popularity in the last couple decades. More and more people are learning to brew, and becoming rather skilled at it. In fact, many microbreweries in operation today, such as Stone and Dogfish Head, to name just a couple, were started by former or current homebrewers.
Main Articles
Click on one of the beer links below to begin your journey of discovery into the wonderful world of home brewing.
- Home Brewing Process
- Brewing Equipment
- Storing your beer
- Serving and Consumption of your beer
- Styles of beer
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
History of Home Brewing
Through its evolution, beer has taken many forms, and drawn its character from a variety of grains and adjuncts. For centuries its production was cloaked in mystery, brewed by priests, called a gift from the gods. Even yeast, before it was understood, was called "godisgood" in old English. The ancient Egyptians were proficient brewers the earliest know production of fermented grains was by the Sumerians as early as 4000BC. It is thought that rather than anything like the current production of beer the earliest drinks were just a bread porridge left to ferment with wild yeast and would of borne no resemblance to today's beer. These brews where not flavoured with hops so in modern terms would not be classed has beer. The Romans used hops as a summer vegetable and used it with other things to flavour the beer but the first evidence of wide spread hop usage started around 1000 AD, before that other bittering herbs were used, nettles being popular.
History of Home brewing in the UK
The drink that we call "beer" today was originally called "ale." At first ale was made by fermenting an extract from cereals or grains. Herbs of one kind or another were used for flavouring, the stinging nettle was popular. Families made their own ale. Estate workers received ale as part of their wages. As communications developed and taverns came into existence each one brewed their own ale and put a fresh bush outside to indicate that a fresh brew was available. By the beginning of the 15th Century there was a distinction between Ale and Beer, the hopped beer had been introduced from Belgium. The first commercial breweries were to be seen in Monasteries. Throughout the country ale and beer was the drink of the common people, prior to the introduction of tea, coffee and cocoa and so on in the on the eighteenth century. One of the earliest attempts to control home production was the Inland Revenue Act of 1880 which required a 5 shilling licence. The popularity hit an all time low in the years after the second world war. In 1963 the Chancellor removed the need for a licence and paved the way for the popularity to rise. The first real surge of home brewers came from within the ranks of the home wine makers. C.J.J Berry helped to generate an interest in the first home wine making boom by producing the Amateur Winemaker magazine. After Dave line wrote for Amateur Winemaker he wrote The Big Book of Brewing in 1974. Over the next 20 or so the popularity peaked with major chain stores and chemists stocking equipment and ingredients. This meant that everybody had easy availability in their locality.
Today the local homebrew shop scene is a former shadow of its self. The dominance of a few larger Mail Order firms means its' easy to order standard Items from a few main distributors. Thankfully there are a few firms that are willing and able to supply imports from the USA where the range of ingredients and equipment is vastly superior to the UK. Camra who campaign for real ale are doing a good job in education the population and helping generate a new generation of home brewers.
History of Home brewing in the USA
(article Required.)
- 1920s Prohibition
- 1978 Congress passed a bill repealing Federal restrictions on the home Brewing of small amounts of beer. Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law in February 1979
- ???? Charlie Papazian founded the Association of Brewers.
- 1984 Papazian published The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.
Today's Beer
The beer that we know today and the process that we use were really natured from the period of 1750 onwards, with the birth of the industrial revolution things like the invention of the thermometer and hydrometer along with changes in the malting industry allowed for more efficient and repeatable brewing methods. The hydrometer probably did more to form modern brewing methods and styles than any other piece of equipment. Previous to that Beer was generally brewed from one malt. Light, brown, dark etc. But with the hydrometer breweries found that the paler the malt the more efficient it was so the base malt was switched to a pale barley malt and characteristic gained from the use of "specialty" malts. Much the same as it still done today.
External Links
Back to
