What’s a Carbohydrate? Why Are Low Carb Beers So Popular?

A carbohydrate is something your body turns into glucose. Your body then uses this glucose (sugar blood) as energy to fuel your cells, tissues, and organs. Simply put, it’s the energy your body runs on. This is why it’s important that you don’t entirely eliminate carbohydrates from your diet, but that you simply regulate the number of carbs you consume.

Going on a low carb diet and consuming the lowest carb beers is important if weight loss is your aim. Eating or drinking too many carbs (especially those from food sources such as bread, sugar, beer, etc.) can cause belly flat (i.e. a beer belly), high-sugar levels, and metabolic syndrome – which not only makes you look bad on the outside, but opens up the door to all kinds of more serious internal diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer).

Generally speaking, beer contains 145 calories and 11 grams of carbs per 12 ounce serving. Budweiser has 10.6 carbs, however, and Heineken has 9.8. These are two of the most widely consumed beers in the world.

Most craft beers, on the otherhand, have a high number of carbs. This is because so many craft beers are higher in alcohol and higher in calories. For example, a Double IPA could have almost twice the alcohol than that of a typical mass-produced beer. So if you’re looking for a beer with the lowest carb count, then a mass-produced light beer is probably your best bet.

What Beers are the Lowest in Terms of Carbohydrates?

Generally speaking, most low carb beers are light beers – which is the best selling beer category in America. While you might assume that the best selling suds are craft beers, you’d be wrong! Light beers still take up most of the American beer market. It’s the reason why you see so many low carb beers in every store. The best selling beer in America, for example, is Bud Light.

Light beers are generally Pilsners or Lagers. It can be quite difficult to know which light beers have the fewest carbs, so today we’re going to give you a few beers to try in this category. You may be surprised with the difference between the amount of carbs in these drinks.

America’s best selling light beer (Bud Light) has 6.6 grams of carbs, which is hardly the lowest of the bunch. In fact, it ranks up there as one of the highest. We’ll also give you few imports to try as well.

Budweiser Select weighs in at 3.1 grams per serving, while Michelob Ultra has 2.6 grams. And here’s a beer you probably haven’t seen in a while: Miller Genuine Draft Light – it only has 2.4 grams of carbs. It’s one of the more difficult light beers to come across.

While Miller Genuine Draft Light has been slowly disappearing from store shelves, Rolling Rock Green Light was and still is a fairly popular regional beer. Even though the Latrobe Brewing Company was bought out by InBev, their light and red beers are still difficult for most to find – which is a shame because this light beer ranks in at just 2.6 grams of carbs per serving.

While weight loss through a low carb diet is largely an American fad/concern, you might be surprised to discover that there are several low carb imports. The first is Labatt Sterling which comes all the way from Toronto, Canada – not exactly a world away. This Canadian beer has only 2.5 grams of carbs. Corona Light may be the beer you think of while at the beach, however, but it has 5 grams of carbs. Finally, Rhinebecker Extra comes all the way from Germany and it’s a beer with only 2.5 grams of carbs per serving.

What Do Low Carb Beers Taste Like?

There’s just one question everyone has when it comes to the lowest carb beers – “What do low carb beers like?”

Well, you should expect a light and watery mouth-feel. There is, however, not going to be a whole lot of flavor, so don’t go into drinking any one of these light, low-carb beers thinking there will be. These lowest carb beers do, however, make for great summertime drinks. They also pair well with delicate foods. For example, a low carb beer would go great with seafood. You wouldn’t want to drink a heavy stout while eating flaky white fish.

Low carb beers get a bad rap in some craft beer communities, but it’s important that you realize that all beers have a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is because you want a lowest carb beer, or to watch your weight and remain relatively healthy. While other times you might choose a drink based on whatever food you happen to be pairing that beer with.

Whatever the case may be, if you are looking for the lowest carb beers, then start with a light beer (or one of the beers mentioned on this page).

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Home Beer Brewing Kit: (LEFT) Midwest Supplies Brewing Basics Equipment Kit – (RIGHT) Mr. Beer 8 Liter Extra Kit

In this article, we’ll take a look at beer kits, what is included in a beer kit, which beer kits are best, and where you can purchase a beer kit for either yourself, a family member, friend, co-worker or loved one. Because beer kits are low in cost, they make for an affordable way to get started with homebrewing beer, and they make for excellent gifts as well!

Beer Kits – What is a Home Beer Brewing Kit?

A beer kit is a package of multiple beer making equipment (and sometimes, ingredients) into a well-packaged and relatively low cost grouping of items necessary to brew a simple batch of beer. Beer kits, as they are most commonly called, come in a variety of shapes, sizes and names. For example, a beer kit might also be refereed to as:

No matter what you choose to call it, your typical home beer brewing kit will come with at least some (but not necessarily all) of the following items:

Some beer kits also come complete with beer making ingredients (such as malt extract, hops, yeast, sugar, etc.), empty beer bottles, beer bottle labels, and a whole host of additional beer brewing basics.

The Best Beer Kits For Beginners

There are tons of different beer kits out there, from those available at mass-market retailers like Walmart and Amazon.com, to those sold at your local homebrew store. Of all the homebrew kits in the world, however, these three (sold by Northern Brewer, Mr. Beer, and Midwest Brewing) are easily the best selling beer kits in the world.

Even though the Northern Brewer Essential Brewing Starter Kit is the most expensive of these three home beer brewing kits, it is just a bit more popular than the other two beer kits mentioned here: Mr. Beer’s 8 Liter Extra Kit and Midwest Supplies’ Brewing Basics Equipment Kit. The popularity of this beer kit might have to do with the high quality of the product and the speedy and reliable shipping that Northern Brewer provides with all of their beer making equipment and ingredients.

Bigger / Best Beer Kits – With Ingredients Included

While the beer kits listed above are great for getting started in the home brew world of beer making, they do not come with any of the ingredients you are going to need to brew your first batch of beer. So, if you want to buy a beer kit that comes with everything you need (including ingredients) to brew your first batch of delicious homemade beer, then one of the following home beer brewing kits might serve you best.

The beer kits from Mr. Beer and Northern Brewer are quite similar here. Both come with all the necessary gear and equipment to brew several batches of beer, but they also come with the ingredients you’ll need to make your first batch of homemade bubbly.

You will note, however, that there is a major difference in price between the Mr. Beer / Northern Brewer beer kits and the one Master Brewer’s Equipment Kit sold by Midwest Supplies. The difference in price here is justified in this instance, however, because the Master Brewer’s Equipment Kit comes with something that is not included with the other two beer kits – kegging equipment!

That’s right! The Midwest Supplies Master Brewer’s Equipment Kit comes with not only all the equipment and ingredients you’ll need to brew your first batch of beer, but also all the gear you’ll need to keg your beer

once you are finished brewing! This is a huge step up in homebrewing equipment that is not necessary for home brewers just getting their start in the world of beer making. But if you feel that you are going to be serious about brewing your own beers in the future, the Master Brewer’s Equipment Kit (with a complete kegging setup) from Midwest Supplies is an excellent beer kit to posses.

Beer Kit Reviews

Now it’s your turn! Do you have experience with any of the beer kits mentioned on this page? Is there a beer kit that should be listed here, but isn’t? Leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say about home beer brewing kits, beer kits or anything related to the subject of beer making kits!

The post The Home Beer Brewing Kit – Which Beer Kit Is Best? appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

When dealing with the mad science that is brewing your own beer, you’ll likely be inundated with ample opportunity to spend many a shilling on the latest technology in beer making supplies. As easy as it is to think that this mash tun or that beaker will make essential additions to your lab, it’s the science of fermentation that will dictate necessity in your brewing arsenal.

When you first set out on your beer brewing journey it’s important that you not go overboard by investing in gear, tools and equipment that you do not need. Instead, you should focus on acquiring the most important beer-making items first, and then build up your laboratory as both your experience and passion for homebrewing grows.

Beer Making Supplies: Extract Brewing Equipment

Should you decide to start out as an extract brewer (which I highly recommend you do) your requisite lab-ware is as follows:

1 large pot – capable of boiling a volume of water equal to half or more of your total batch size (5 gallon batches are the norm). You can also use a more professional “brew kettle” for this first step of the beer making process.

1 fermentation vessel – (usually made of plastic or metal) that has a capacity greater than your batch size. If brewing a 5 gallon batch, for example, a 6.5 gallon vessel will suffice. This fermentation vessel needs a lid of some kind and must be able to be closed off from the outside environment (unless the inclusion of wild airborne yeast is desired).

Mesh bags – used to filter the barley and hops out of your beer after fermentation has ceased. Mesh bags made of cheesecloth or nylon work well as long as the openings in the weave are small enough to hold back any debris while allowing your liquid beer/wort to pass through.

1 airlock – used to release the buildup of carbon dioxide while simultaneously preventing any outside contamination. This device is only necessary for beers that you will inoculate with a specific yeast strain and do not wish to expose to wild airborne yeast.

Sanitizer solution – a soap/cleanser that’s vital to successful beer production.

Empty beer bottles – brown glass bottles work the best. You want to make sure that the bottles can be capped and re-capped after you use them. The larger the batch of beer you produce, the more beer bottles you’re going to need.

1 bottle capper – This simple device comes in several variations and with a variety of price points. It’s an important piece of beer brewing equipment to posses, however, so be sure to get a good one.

Bottle caps – available from your local homebrew store or from a variety of online vendors. Just make sure you’re getting the right size caps for the beer bottles that you’re using, as there are two different commonly sold sizes.

Bottling vessel – a large container (similar in size to your fermentation vessel), which will be used to transfer your beer from the fermentation vessel after fermentation has ceased, and then into your beer bottles before carbonation.

That’s really all you need to get started! Everything listed here can be found at your local homebrew store or on the website at: www.doctorhomebrew.com/shop

Beer Making Supplies: Partial-Mash Brewing Equipment

Should you decide you’ve outgrown the extract game and are looking for more of a challenge, partial-mash brewing is the next logical step to take. Luckily, the differences in both beer making supplies and techniques between extract brewing and partial-mash brewing are minimal and ultimately come down to the inclusion of the mashing process.

While mashing is perceived by some as too difficult for the average homebrewer, this is simply not the case (provided of course, you’ve built up a strong brewing foundation with several extract beers already under your belt).

With extract brewing (which we discussed previously), you get the necessary fermentable sugars for your beer from pre-processed malt extracts. But with partial-mash brewing, you supplement those sugars with the sugars you extract from malted barley through the mashing process. Mashing, therefore, is much akin to steeping tea bags in a teacup until the desired flavor is attained.

With partial-mash brewing, your “tea cup” is a large waterproof container known as a “mash tun” and your “tea bag” is a bed (or bag) of grains. During the mashing process, your bed of grains will rest inside your mash tun on a perforated metal screen called a “false bottom,” which works to separate your grains from “the tea”(your wort) without removing “the tea bag” (the bed of grains) from “the tea cup” (your mash tun).

I cover the steps necessary for partial-mash brewing inside Dr. Homebrew’s How-To Beer Book. For now, however, just know that in addition to all the other beer making supplies necessary for extract brewing (listed above), you’ll also need to obtain the following additional items if you wish to brew your next beer using partial-mash brewing techniques:

1 mash tun – a large container in which your barley will be soaked and the water later drained. While commercial mash tuns do exist, many homebrewers create their own mash tuns using converted Igloo coolers. This is done by replacing the standard plastic spigot with a stainless steel ball valve that has the ability to attach to a false bottom.

1 ball valve – should be made of stainless steel. Some models have an attachment for a hose on both ends of the valve. This is convenient for controlling the flow from the mash tun to your boil kettle. (Note #1: The ball valve is usually included with commercial mash tuns, but if you make your own tun, you’ll need to purchase the ball valve separately.)

1 false bottom – usually made of stainless steel and designed to allow for a rate of flow of the wort leaving the mash tun while simultaneously being small enough to prevent the passage of any grain particles that might make it through otherwise. (Note #1: Fine mesh bags made of cheesecloth or nylon can be used in leiu of a false bottom.) (Note #2: The false bottom is usually included with commercial mash tuns (like this one, which I highly recommend), but if you make your own mash tun, you’ll need to purchase or construct the false bottom separately.)

Hosing – constructed of rubber, food safe materials, this short hose will connect the ball valve on your mash tun to the false bottom and the other end to the boil kettle. 3 or more feet of hosing is recommended. (Note#1: Be sure to purchase hosing of the correct diameter, as hosing can be found in a number of different sizes – although 1/2 inch and 3/8 inch is most common.)

Once again, all of the beer making supplies listed here can be found at your local homebrew store… or on the website here at: www.doctorhomebrew.com/shop/

Beer Making Supplies: All-Grain Brewing Equipment

After mastering both extract and partial-mash brewing, you may wish to advance to the all-grain brewing technique. While the beer making supplies and equipment necessary for partial-mash brewing and all-grain brewing are pretty much the same, there are a few additional beer-brewing items you might wish to add to your arsenal at this time:

Water filter – used to clean and filter your water before you begin the beer making process.

Stand-alone burner – used instead of the standard gas or electric burner you might find in your home kitche, stand-alone burners allow you to better regulate the temperatures of your brews, while at the same time boiling much larger batches that you might be able to brew otherwise.

Grain mill – a device that allows you to purchase raw grain and crack open the husks without destroying the grain inside. Once your grain has been milled in this way, you can then begin the all-grain brewing process.

Thermometer – used to take the temperature of your water, wort and beer at various stages of the beer making process.

Wort cooler – A device (also referred to as a “wort chiller” or “immersion chiller”) designed to rapidly cool your wort down after it has finished boiling. The rapid cool down that this device provides prevents your beer from spoiling due to unwanted bacteria getting into the beer between the time you finish the boiling process and the beer’s eventual transfer into the fermentation vessel.

If you have ambitions of experimenting with partial-mash or all-grain brewing in the future, plan on spending anywhere between 100 to 500 US Dollars  – depending on the size and quality of the beer making supplies you purchase.

For brewers on a tight budget, there are several opportunities to buy used beer making supplies from online retailers, Internet message boards, community classified ads, and postings made at your local homebrew store. If you acclimate yourself within the circles of beer brewers in your community, it’s not uncommon to find another brewmaster looking to sell or give away the equipment they’re no longer using.

While there are hundreds of optional beer brewing gadgets and gizmos available to you, you now know the basic beer making supplies of any homebrewer. With the beer making supplies listed above, some fresh extract, hops, viable yeast, and clean water, you’ll be able to whip up some wonderfully delicious concoctions to share with your friends and family… and you will be proud to say, “I made that!”

Click here to purchase Dr. Homebrew’s How-To Beer Book
and learn to make your own delicious beers straight away!

The post Beer Making Supplies – A Beginner’s Homebrewing Beer Equipment List appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

The only difference between making a pot of tea and brewing a six-pack of beer is that you won’t be steeping tea leaves in the beer-making process, but instead, an ingredient called “malted barley.” The steeping process will turn the otherwise unfermentable starches in the barley into simpler fermentable sugars. You’ll then bring that sugar water, now called “wort,” to a boil and make your hop additions.

Instead of letting the wort cool to drinking temperature like you would with a tea, you will bring the wort to fermentation temperature and add a small amount of yeast. After closing off the fermentation vessel of your choice and blocking your brew from the influence of unwelcome bacteria, all that’s left for you to do is wait until fermentation ceases, filter out any barley or hop particles, bottle your beer, let the drink carbonate and then enjoy!

• Step 1: Sanitize your work environment and lab equipment.
• Step 2: Gather together all of the tools and beer making ingredients you will need.
• Step 3: Clean and filter your water.
• Step 4: Steep your extract and/or malted barley (heat in hot water like you would with tea).
• Step 5: Bring your heated extract/barley water (“wort”) to a boil and add your hops.
• Step 6: Bring your wort to fermentation temperature and then add yeast.
• Step 7: Filter out any barley or hop particles from your liquid concoction.
• Step 8: Pour your beer into your fermentation vessel and then let your beer ferment.
• Step 9: Bottle your beer and let it carbonate.
• Step 10: Drink up… and enjoy!

That doesn’t sound too difficult, does it? It’s so simple a concept that its mere mention sends shivers down the spine of the corporate bigwigs that want nothing more than to put a stranglehold on beer production in your locale.

Beer Making: The Three Main Ways To Brew Beer

I go over the ten steps mentioned above (in much greater detail) inside Dr. Homebrew’s How-To Beer Book. For now, however, it’s important that you understand that as simple as beer making can be, there are a number of different ways to go about the process. In fact, there are three main ways in which beer can be produced… and these three main techniques are known as: extract brewing, partial-mash brewing and all-grain brewing.

Extract Brewing

Extract brewing is considered to be the easiest and most appropriate type of brewing for creating your own unique beer flavors while at the same time familiarizing yourself with the beer brewing process. For this reason, most new homebrewers begin by learning extract brewing.

Extract brewing is the act of beer making with one key step having already been done for you – the act of mashing the original grains. During extract brewing, this process has been accomplished for you by a team of experts who produce a liquid called “malt extract,” which is a syrup-like substance that contains all of the necessary enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and converted sugars required for feeding the yeast during the fermentation of your finished beer. This malt extract is mixed with boiling water during the first step of the extract brewing process.

Nearly every beer in the world can be brewed with malt extract, provided of course, you use the right type of extract for the beer you wish to brew. It’s choosing the type of extract you work with that will make or break your beer when aiming for a certain style. There are extracts catered towards dark beers, light beers, wheat beers and more! You simply start with a malt extract for the type of beer you wish to create and then continue on with the beer brewing process like your normally would, having skipped over the mashing steps that normally come first.

Extract brewing is a great way to brew your first beer because it can be done quickly and with minimal equipment. All you need to get started is a large pot to boil your water and malt extract in, and a fermentation vessel of some kind.

To make a beer by way of extract brewing, all you do is take your malt extract and mix it with boiling water – thereby creating something we brewers call “wort.” After your wort has been heated, you’ll need to add your flowery hops and then bring your boiling wort water down to fermentation temperature as speedily as possible (usually by submerging it in a bucket of ice). Finally, you’ll pour your wort and hop mixture into your fermentation vessel, add your yeast and then wait for the liquid to ferment. It’s that easy!

If you’re a beginner to the beer brewing process, I highly recommend you start with extract brewing. One of the easiest and most common ways to do this is by purchasing a beer brewing kit (either online or from your local homebrew store). Any quality homebrew outlet will carry a wide variety of extract brewing kits for you to get started with. After purchasing a kit, the only thing you’ll need to begin creating your own mouth-watering drinks is a little water. Everything else should be accounted for in the kit! With this kit in hand, a little elbow grease on your part, some water, and a maniacal laugh fit only for a mad scientist, you’ll have no trouble creating your first tasty brew.

Extract brewing is hands down the easiest and least time-consuming way to craft your own delicious drinks, but don’t let its simplicity fool you. Beer making by way of extract brewing is no less flavorful or rewarding than brewing a beer in any other manner.

Because of the simplicity inherent to using malted extract, you will have more time and freedom to formulate your own recipes while fine-tuning your own unique beer flavors. Extract brewing is the perfect way to learn about, simplify and master the beer-brewing process. Plus, you don’t have to restrain your creativity to the recipes included in beginner beer kits. As you become more experienced, you can begin to tweak the flavor profiles of your beer by adding more extract to your brew, using different types of extracts in conjunction with one another, using different types of hops or yeast, or experimenting in any way that you please. The sky’s the limit when you use extract brewing to craft your own delectable beers.

Partial Mash Brewing

With extract brewing, your beer gets much of its color and flavor from the extract(s) that you choose to use. Partial mash brewing, however, is a combination of extract brewing and all grain brewing (which we’ll talk about in just a moment). While extract brewing is both convenient and consistent due to the fact that the starch conversion has been done for you by a team of experts, partial mash brewing requires that you create your own individualized flavor by combining extract syrup with base and specialty grains in order to either bolster the gravity/sugar content or to alter the color/flavor of your finished beer.

Partial mash brewing is aptly named because part of the sugars needed for the beer making process come from the barley extract while the other sugars come from malted barley during the mashing process. This type of beer making is great for intermediate homebrewers because it’s not only a happy medium between small scale and mass-scale beer production, but it’s also a convenient way for brewers to familiarize themselves with the processes involved in all-grain brewing.

Because partial mash brewing involves mashing your grains, there are not only a few more skills you need to learn in order to pull off a successful brew, but also a few more tools you need to possess.

All-Grain Brewing

All-Grain brewing is the next and final step in your beer making education. While most of the practices used in partial-mash brewing will carry over to all-grain brewing, there is one major exception – no malt extract!

During the all-grain brewing process, the color, sugar, body and flavor of your finished beer will be determined in large part by the malted barley used during mashing. It’s only with all-grain brewing that you have total control over your final product and your prowess as a seasoned beer brewer will truly shine through. It is, therefore, all-grain brewing that nearly all professional brewmasters use when making beer on a commercial level.

It’s also here, during the all-grain brewing process, that faults and mistakes are less likely to be forgiven. Even the most subtle diversion from your intended recipe can cause the beer you were aiming to create to turn into something else entirely. The ability to fine tune your beer is a double edged sword that will either elicit a fantastically enjoyable brew that you’d proud to call your own, or turn out devastatingly sour and perplex you for months as you strive to determine what went wrong.

For the average beer brewer, the most important consideration during the all-grain brewing process is that of balancing flavor with fermentability. The more grain you use, the more alcohol you’ll be able to ferment. The more specialty grains you use, the greater the potential for flavor and color variation. The more complex you make your recipe, the longer the beer making process will take to complete and the greater chance you’ll have of steering astray of your original goal. Simplicity is key when concocting new recipes in this manner and only after you’ve mastered the basics of all-grain brewing should you begin to worry about more complex and exotic mashing protocols.

HOMEBREWRS: As you continue your homebrewing education, remember that your ancestors happily drank many a beer made with tools and techniques that predate airplanes, electricity and the Internet… and they did so for far more generations than you can count. While it may be tempting to jump straight into all-grain brewing, I strongly suggest you work first with a minimal amount of lab equipment while familiarizing yourself with the beer brewing process. Only after you’ve mastered both extract and partial-mash brewing should you consider taking on the all-grain brewing process.

The post Beer Making Done 3 Ways – How To Make Beer appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

Beer Ingredients

In 1516 a law was passed in Germany that is known today as the German Beer Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot. This law is often cited as the world’s first food and consumer protection law, mandated by legal decree, that no ingredients other than water, hops, and malted barley were to be used in the production of beer. (The four main beer ingredients!)

The reasons for this law were many, but the most important aspects were the inclusion of hops as a bittering agent to be used not only because of its efficiency in balancing out the sweetness of the malt, but also for its preservative nature. Prior to this law, some German brewers would use things such as soot, herbs, fruits, vegetables, bile, blood, and any other number of odd and disgusting beer ingredients to flavor or preserve their brews. A common problem with beer at the time was spoilage and many less than scrupulous brewmeisters would try to mask the off putting flavors of spoiled beer with things you wouldn’t normally care to consume (i.e. aweful beer ingredients such as blood, bile, semen, etc). By passing this new beer ingredients law, production of beer was much cleaner, and more akin to what we know as beer today.

An interesting side-note about the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 is the absence of yeast as a mandated beer ingredient. It wasn’t until yeast, and its fermentation properties, was discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1857 that brewers began to fully understand its contribution. The Reinheitsgebot has since been changed to include yeast as one of the mandated beer ingredients.

Today, the four main beer ingredients are: grains, hops, yeast and water.

Grains

Grains are one of the most important contributors to the flavor of your beer and one of the most common types of grain used in beer production is malted barley.

Beer uses malted barley to not only provide the framework for sugar fermentation from the starches within the grain, but also to add color to the beer. It is malted barley, for example, that makes your stout beer both roasty and dark, just as it is malted barley that gives your IPA enough sweetness to balance out the bitterness of the hops.

Malted barley, as its name suggests, is a term applied to barley that has undergone the malting process, which is a series of events similar to seed germination. With the right moisture and pH content, a seed will sprout and produce enzymes necessary to facilitate growth and, eventually, turn into something beautiful. Malting allows this process to occur, not in the ground, but in your fermentation vessel, and with a few exceptions.

After soaking barley for a set length of time (usually long enough to absorb a substantial amount of its body weight in water), the grain is removed from the water and allowed to dry and sprout. At this point a sprout forms and grows from inside of the grain. In order for this process to occur, the enzymes in the grain have to be active. Those enzymes became active during the soaking process and are used to generate the sprout. Maltsters, as they are known, will then apply heat to the sprouting grains so that the sugar inside the seed is not fully consumed in the process of creating and growing the sprout. The barley is then dried and the enzyme activity inside the grain is high enough to continue conversion of starch to sugar if reactivated by steeping in water at the right temperature. This steeping process is called “mashing.”

During the final heating process, the duration of heat and the temperatures applied will determine the majority of flavor that the malted barley will impart on your beer. With malts designed to provide more fermentable sugar (something known as “diastatic value”), less temperature is applied so as to not denature the enzymes necessary for starch conversion.

For grains used for either color, texture or flavors akin to caramel, toffee, fresh bread or dried fruit, varying lengths of heat are applied at different temperatures in order to produce a wide variety of colors and tastes.
Roasted malts, for example, which are dark in color, are responsible for the burnt coffee flavors of a stout, and underwent a higher temperature kilning and roasting process. Caramel malts, on the otherhand, lend a flavor of caramel or toffee and undergo a less extreme exposure to heat than their roasted brethren. But because of the high level of heat applied, the ability to convert the starches to a simpler sugar has been traded for flavor and color contribution.

While barley is the most commonly used malted grain in beer production, nearly any grain type can be malted. Beer ingredients such as rye, oats, wheat, spelt and even rice or corn can be used. Should you feel truly adventurous, you can even malt your own grains. For beginners, however, I recommend you let the professionals do the malting for you. In light of the growing popularity of brewing on both a commercial and amateur level, barley production has increased greatly and, as a result, the cost of buying beer ingredients such as malted barley has remained relatively low.

Yeast

As awful as its name may sound, yeast is an extraordinary beer ingredient that has a profound impact in determining a beer’s flavor, strength, aroma and appearance. Yeast is the tiniest of your beer brewing ingredients, but don’t lets its small stature fool you. Without yeast added to your brew, you’d end up with little more than a soup of cloudy sugar water. Therefore, yeast is one of the most important beer ingredients!

Yeast, in case you don’t know, is a single-celled organism that reproduces asexually as it feeds on sugars in your wort. As a result of its feeding, yeast produces alcohol, among other byproducts. It is the efficiency of the yeast and the byproducts it produces that determines what flavor contribution the yeast will impart on your finished beer.

Before 1857, brewers had no idea about the importance of yeast as a beer ingredient and assumed that fermentation was caused by a chemical reaction rather than by a separate, and microscopic, catalyst. It wasn’t until this discovery was made that brewers were able to cultivate and propagate their own yeast cultures. Up until that point, only airborne yeast was used. Due to the wonderful scientific achievements that have been made over the years, many companies (and individuals alike) have since developed their own unique yeast strains that are bred and cultivated to possess certain qualities and flavor contributions.

Despite the broad spectrum of flavors that can be derived from yeast when brewing your own beer, a beginner such as yourself will likely be dealing with only two main kinds of yeast – Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces carlsbergensis. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an ale yeast and prefers to exert the bulk of its activity at the top of the fermentation tank, at temperatures close to room temperature, whereas Saccharomyces carlsbergensis is a lager yeast and ferments mostly on the bottom of the tank at well below room temperature.

Each type of yeast has several variants that are specifically bred to do a specific job. Some strains of yeast are selectively bred to drop out of suspension better than others (something known as “flocculation”). Some yeasts are bred to produce more alcohol, some to produce more esters or phenolic compounds, and some to ferment at warmer or cooler temperatures.

As a rule of thumb, just keep in mind that the yeast you add to your beer (or pull from the air naturally) will consume the sugar in your mash while producing alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation process. Other compounds will be produced at this same time, contributing in a number of small ways to the overall flavor of your beer.

Hops

Hops are a flower that grow on a long bine (similar to a vine) and look much like a small, green pine cone. Most hop farms will hang their hop bines from a trellis twenty or more feet off the ground and then allow them to grow until the flowers are at peak flavor or have tested adequately for certain compounds that will contribute properly to the flavor of the final beer.

Once the hops have finished maturing on the bine, the hop farmer will unhook the bine from the top and sever it from the bottom, removing every single flower from the strand. After all the flowers have been removed, they undergo a drying process in an oast (a kiln built specially for drying hops). This stage is critical to preserving the bitter and flavorful properties of the flowers.

Hops are important in beer production because the natural bactericidal properties inside hops allow beer to last longer when it’s stored inside a bottle, keg, cask, barrel or fermenter. Hops also play an important role in the overall taste and bitterness of each and every brew.

There are well over 200 varieties of hops being grown and used as beer ingredients all around the world, with even more experimental varieties emerging on the brewing scene each and every year. Whether it’s the bitterness in your IPA, the flavor of your Scotch Ale, or that distinct aroma in your Pilsner, there are an endless number of hop combinations to please your palate and experiment with.

Regardless of where you live in the world, odds are you’ll be able to find hops at your local homebrew store which are either grown locally or produced on a commercial scale. If you’re lucky, you might even find hops growing in a neighbor’s backyard or somewhere in the wild. (Hey, FREE beer ingredients!)

Should you be inclined to grow your own hops, it’s important to realize that while hops grow well in a variety of climates, hop plants are incredibly resilient (meaning they can take over your yard if you’re not careful) and are toxic to many animals, including your dog. If growing your own hops sounds like an attractive enterprise, the plants you need to get started can usually be purchased from either your local homebrew store or from a garden center or nursery in your area.

Water

Water is the largest of the beer ingredients used in the production of any beer, and some would argue, the most important. Water not only makes up the most volume of the final beer drink, but it’s the one beer ingredient that tends to stay pretty much the same (depending on the chemistry of the water you’re using), while all of the other ingredients and their flavor contribution can be augmented and tinkered with.
Because water plays such an important role in beer production, most homebrewers (and commercial brewers alike) go to great lengths to filter and purify their water source. While you may be tempted to use the water that flows from the tap in your home kitchen, this water contains cleansing and disinfecting agents (such as chlorides and other metals) that many homebrewers try to remove from their finished beers.

As a brewer in this day and age, you’re fortunate that you not only have access to clean water, but you also have the ability (should you choose to do so) to augment your local water supply to fit the flavor profile you wish to create. Your local homebrew store will likely carry a whole line of salts and beer ingredients you can use to change the minerality, pH or hardness of your water. Adjusting your water chemistry in this way will give you an entirely new set of tools that you can use to brew unique and flavorful beer concoctions.

Other Beer Ingredients

In addition to the four main beer ingredients mentioned above, there are a number of additional ingredients that are also included in some (but not all) beers. For example, the following list is just a small sampling of the various foods and ingredients that are found in many of today’s modern beers:

Now that we’ve covered the basics of fermentation and the four main beer ingredients you’ll be using to brew your own delicious beers, let’s bring it all together for the sake of understanding.

Malted barley is added to hot water and provides the starches that are then converted to a simpler, more fermentable sugar. We call this liquid barley/sugar water the “mash.” Adding flowery hops to this mixture balances out any lingering sweetness left after fermentation and injects varying levels of bitterness, aroma and flavor depending on the hop variety used. The yeast we add next then eats most of the fermentable sugars in the mash and, in doing so, produces carbon dioxide, alcohol, and any number of esters, phenols, and other byproducts that will add to the flavor and appearance of the finished beer. Finally, our concoction is drained of any barley or hop particles and is then carbonated, bottled and cooled. And that, my friend, is how beer is made with the use of just four simple ingredients!

If you wish to learn how to brew your own delicious beers, be sure to pick up a copy of Dr. Hombrew’s How-To Beer Book.

The post Beer Ingredients – What Is Beer Made Of? appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

Types of Beer / Beer Styles

Stout – Stouts are dark colored beers with lots of roasted, dark chocolate, coffee or burnt notes to them. Jet black in color with roasted malts being the focal point, this dry beer style has a hoppy bitterness that floats in the background. Because this is a forgiving type of beer to brew at home, it’s easy for a beginner to produce.

Porter – Another dark beer style, porters tend to be a touch more subdued than stouts. More chocolate character than roast and sometimes not as dry, the hops in porters tend to be less present. Think of a porter as the middle ground between light and shadow, or better yet, between stout and brown ale types of beer. There is generally a fair amount of visibility when looking through a porter.

Brown Ale – Brown ales are exactly what you would expect them to be. They are an ale that is, are you ready for this… brown. A touch lighter than a porter and darker than an amber ale, brown ales tend to be a happy medium between malt flavor and roast, though most brown ales tend to favor notes of caramel and chocolate. Hops can be a little more noticeable in brown ales, as there is generally less malt or sweetness present.

Amber Ale – An exceptional example of balance in action, amber ales are not too sweet, not too dry and not too hoppy. An amber ale is a delicious beer type that almost anyone will enjoy. Plus, it’s a good type of beer to brew as a beginner because after making it several times, it will give you a good baseline for how to tweak ingredients and notice the subtle changes that come about because of your varying recipes.

Doppelbock – An impressively complex beer style from Germany, Doppelbocks will almost always be named with a suffix of “ator” in honor of the original Celebrator from the Ayinger brewery. This style of beer, a lager, tends to have a slight sweetness to it, with a strong nuttiness and some chocolate notes thrown in. Doppelbocks, have little to no hop presence, however, because of the use of Noble hop varieties.

Bock – A less toasty and more caramel-forward little brother to the Doppelbock, Bocks are another lager from Germany that favors those seeking a flavorful, but not overly heavy drink to sip and contemplate. Traditional German ingredients and brewing practices are used in the production of these beers and cooler climates help it ferment for longer periods of time.

E.S.B. – A British-born beer of impressive complexity given its less than overt stature, Extra Special Bitter, or E.S.B., as it is known, blends a unique water profile with traditional English ingredients to produce a beer with a pronounced hop bitterness that is offset by a delightful malt character. Reminiscent of caramel and sometimes a dried fruitiness, the malts used in this drink meld together harmoniously to balance its earthy, woody, and sometimes spicy hop bitterness. English beers such as this are oftentimes served from a cask in pubs, which adds to the presentation of the beverage by emphasizing the aforementioned flavor profiles.

Pale Ale – Pale Ale is a style of beer with origins in The United Kingdom, but with a large international presence as well, especially in North America. A hop forward beer with less malt complexity than the E.S.B., American variations of Pale Ale tend to further emphasize the hop presence beyond their English brewing brethren and subdue the malt presence even further. As a result, Pale Ales tend to be markedly bitter, but with a low enough alcohol concentration for the average working man to enjoy a pint or two at his local pub without getting too inebriated.

India Pale Ale – A style of beer born out of necessity, India Pale Ales, share a direct historical link to the colorful land of India. As a British colony, a favored drink of their homeland was often demanded by the ruling British guard, but a common complaint of the beers shipped to India was spoilage. Because the addition of hops to a beer helps to prevent spoilage, India Pale Ales were produced with an exceptionally large hop concentration, resulting in an exceptionally bitter beer that most would deem undrinkable had it not been for the fact that hop flavor and bitterness tends to dissipate as beer ages. The end result is a beer with an imbalanced flavor that leans toward hop dominance with a diminished malt presence and just enough residual sweetness to balance out the bitterness in an otherwise boldly dry beer. This historically hoppy brew was born out of necessity and the tradition has been carried on over the years. Today, India Pale Ales are abundant and alive, especially in the United States, with hop lovers uniting to partake in the many flavors that hops can impart in beer.

Pilsner/Light Lager – Another beer of European origin – often imitated, but never duplicated, Pilsners tend to be light in both body and color with a noticeable Noble hop variety presence in both aroma and taste, but by no means a bitter beer.

Hefeweizen – Hefeweizen is a wheat beer of German origin with a strong yeast presence in both aroma and appearance. A wonderfully complex, yet quaffable and refreshingly light beer with notes of clove, banana and a certain slight tanginess of the wheat, Hefeweizens are usually accompanied by a cloudiness of yeast cells indicative of the yeast varieties used to produce the spicy and fruity notes of the beer. This cloudiness is caused by the yeast’s inability fall out of suspension after fermentation. As concerning as this brew may appear when looking at it through a glass, I assure you that Hefeweizen is one fine beverage.

Saison – Also known as “farmhouse ale,” Saison beers are of Belgian origin and were born of necessity. Primarily brewed in the fall, Saisons were traditionally conjured up as a means of creating something with the leftover grains from that year’s harvest, with fermentation lasting throughout the winter and providing a refreshing beer for consumption after a long day in the field. The ingredients for these beers often varied greatly from farm to farm, but have more recently been narrowed down to just a few core ingredients for sake of style guidelines and competitive judging. Saison is a beer with a broad spectrum of flavor based on a lengthy fermentation time and the use of yeasts historically indicative of a localized region, with notes of spice, fruitiness, sourness, bread or any combination thereof.

Dubbel – Pronounced like the word “double,” Dubbels are another Belgian style of beer with a complex flavor profile, especially when the beer is drunk at just below room temperature. An amber to dark brown colored beer, Dubbel flavors range from sweet to dry with pronounced esters of the yeast ranging from dried fruit, raisin, fig, fine chocolates, or bananas and roasted nuts. Dubbels are a great beer to age if you have the ability to exercise such discipline and patience.

Tripel – Another Belgian example of brewing bliss, the tripel, pronounced like the world “triple,” is a less malty cousin to the dubbel and is more straw-like in color with a relatively higher alcohol concentration than most other beers. Tripels tend to be more yeast dominant in their flavor profile with notes of fruitiness taking the center stage. A big beer with big flavor, Tripels are another style of beer that does well with age.

Quadrupel – Pronounced exactly as it appears, but often times referred to just as “quads,” this Belgian beauty is one of the most exciting beer styles you’ll ever have the good fortune to enjoy. With ethereal complexity and a slight sweetness that is balanced perfectly by choice hops and a beautifully masked alcohol that provides a sturdy backbone, quads are beers for contemplation and reflection and represent a true connoisseur’s drink of choice when something simple simply will not do.

Scotch Ale – Scotch ales are, as the name implies, of Scottish origin. Not unlike its distilled cousin, Scotch ales usually have notes of smoke in them, even though common Scotch ales tend to shy away from smoked malt and achieve this smokiness through the use of roasted malts. As with most European brews, hops are not the focal point of this beer, but common varieties tend to add depth to the malt with flavors of earth and wood. Scotch ale is a wonderful beer to warm you up on a cool, cloudy day.

Types of Beer List

Below is a list of the various types of beer you might encounter as a beer lover… or that you might consider making for yourself as a fellow homebrewer!

As you can see, the simple act of fermentation produces a wide variety of drinks in a multitude of styles and flavors. Your location in the world, the temperature in which you brew, and the ingredients you choose to use will determine the taste of the finished drink that you produce.

Click here to learn about the two major types of beer – ALES and LAGERS.

Are there other types of beer that should be included in this list? Leave a comment below and let the Doctor know what you have to say!

The post Types of Beer List – The 16 Major Beer Types appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

There are two major types of beer – ALES and LAGERS.

While some will argue that there is no true difference between these two major beer types from a consumption standpoint, there is a major difference between these two beer styles from a homebrewer’s perspective – as can be seen by some of the popular Internet searches on the subject – “ales and lagers“.

Ales and Lagers: What’s The Difference?

In a broad sense, there are only two main types of beer – Ales and Lagers – and these two types of beer are determined by the temperature at which they ferment.

Ales, for example, are fermented at temperatures close to room temperature (or slightly above) and fermentation usually lasts no longer than two weeks. Lagers, on the other hand, ferment for much longer periods of time and at much cooler temperatures, sometimes just above freezing, but not as high as with drinks made with ale yeast.

With so many different factors playing a role in the production of a final beer beverage, no one ingredient is more temperamental and easily influenced than the yeast. And one of the most important conditions for successful yeast activity is temperature.

In the brewing days of old, brewers weren’t fortunate enough to have the modern convenience of refrigeration or space heaters and they based their beers on that understanding while letting the fermentation process run its natural course. Operating under these limitations, brewers frequently found themselves working to produce one of two major beer types – ales or lagers.

While temperature is important in understand the difference between ales and lagers, it is also important to know that lager yeasts usually referred to as “bottom fermenting” yeasts, whereas ale yeasts are “top fermenting.” This means that the primary activity of the yeast occurs either at the top or the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

LESSON FOR HOMEBREWERS: If you can ferment your beer in a cold basement or root cellar, you may wish to use a lager yeast in your brew. But if you’re operating at or near room temperature, an ale yeast may be your best bet when making your next beer.

While modern brewing technology has helped commercial breweries adapt to climatological differences and brew beers of different styles in a single location, it’s important to understand that you, as a homebrewer, will likely be limited to the environment around you.

So don’t worry if you can’t duplicate the mass-produced slop that’s put out by some of the world’s largest beer manufacturers. Instead, I encourage you to celebrate what you can do in your own environment. You probably won’t be able to change the temperature of the environment in which you are brewing your beers, nor will you be able to recreate a beer that has been crafted by scientists with fancy equipment and millions of dollars. But you can create beers that are distinctively your own! And that’s the mentality that, as a fellow homebrewer, I will happily raise my glass to!

That being said, fermenting beer is an organic process that, in conjunction with the right environment, clean instruments, and quality ingredients, will ultimately take on a life of its own and do what it wants when it wants to do it. Your environment, the tools you have available to you, and the ingredients you choose to use play a major role in how your beer turns out, but there is a part of the beer-making process that is entirely out of your control.

What do you say about Ales and Lagers?

What do you think about ales and lagers? Can you tell the difference between and ale and lager from a consumer standpoint? Do you know which beer styles are ales and which beer styles are lagers? And now that you understand that the difference between ales and lagers has to do with both the yeast that is used in those beers and the temperature at which the beer ferments, which type of beer will you be able to brew in your own home? Ales? Lagers? Or both ales and lagers?

If you have any questions about the difference between ales and lagers, please write a letter in the box below. Dr. Homebrew is happy to answer any questions you might have about the difference between ales and lagers and which of these beer styles is best to brew in various locations and under varying conditions.

The post Ales and Lagers: Two Major Types Of Beers appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

Define ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION: a biological process in which elements such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose are converted into cellular energy and thereby produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as metabolic waste products.

In the realm of imbibing, beer only makes up a small percentage of the drinks and libations that can be both concocted and consumed by way of alcoholic fermentation. Historically speaking, beer as we know it today is quite different than it used to be, and fermented beverages have taken on several different shapes and flavors over the millennia. Whether drinking to celebrate, to calm nerves, or to ritualize tribal traditions, drinks made by way of alcoholic fermentation have been enjoyed all around the world for reasons far beyond simply the taste and satisfaction we so commonly associate with the beverages today.

Sacramental wine in church, vodka shots on a cold Russian night, a mint julep at the Kentucky derby, a beer at the ball game, Champagne on New Years Day, and countless other reasons to enjoy a beverage of choice illustrate the natural inclination we have as a species toward imbibing (the result of alcoholic fermentation).

For how long the human race has been enjoying the fruits of alcoholic fermentation, none of us can say for sure, but one fact does remain agreed upon: HONEY, being the most easily accessible fermentable sugar, proves to be the first main ingredient in the fermented drink known commonly as “mead.”

Mead

Mead, as we know and recognize it today, is both revered and relished. It not only has a devout following of purists and traditionalists, but also a more recent cult following comprised of individuals seeking alternatives to mass-marketed, macro-produced beers and wines.

As a product made primarily of honey, water and naturally occurring yeast, the simplicity of the ingredients in this historic drink provides us with the ability to ferment mead nearly anywhere in the world in which bees are able to pollinate local plant life and, in turn, produce honey. As honey produced from pollen gathered in the United States will most certainly differ in taste compared to honey from the United Kingdom, for example, mead produced in these varying geographical regions will also take on tastes exclusive to their own respective regions. This difference in taste, as a result of location, is known as “terroir.”

France, for instance, is often considered to have set the standard by which wine produced from grapes should be made and compared, though Spain and Italy would certainly dispute that claim. Scotland and Ireland often argue as to who was the first to distill whiskey, even though each location has their own wonderful and individualized style of the drink. South Africa produces a liqueur called Amarula, which is made from indigenous ingredients available in the area and Belgian breweries often stand strong in the practice of introducing only naturally occurring yeast strains to their beers, akin to the brewers and winemakers of old. Regardless of location, fermentation has been a part of human cultures from all over the world – each making something unique to their environment by working with the ingredients that nature has provided for them.

When it comes to alcoholic fermentation, mead is merely a trendsetter in its ability to give regionality a taste by which it is recognized. Areas all over the world have developed alcoholic drinks exclusive in taste to their specific locale, based on contributing factors such as climate, ingredients, and even natural yeasts.

Wine

Wine, as it’s known today, is a beverage made by fermenting the juice from grapes. Though much more involved than simply grape juice and yeast, wine is a term often applied to nearly anything fermented and of an alcoholic strength above 10%. Mead, for example, would be a drink that is commonly referred to as “honey wine.”

When discussing wine today, there are generally two main styles of the drink – Old World and New World.
Old World wines tend to be produced in places known for wine production beyond the last two hundred years. This generalization usually applies to European winemakers and, particularly (though certainly not necessarily exclusively) those of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Austria. The standards of wine production in these regions has been interlaced with historical events such as Napoleonic invasions, world wars, and medieval monarchies. These events have produced a storied local history, which has brought on traditions in wine production that have not only survived the test of time, but have served to set a standard of winemaking that is revered the world over for its precision and dedication to excellence.

New World wines, on the other-hand, are wines made in parts of the world with a less ancestral wine-making history (such as North America, Australia, New Zealand and South America, etc.), or in a style of wine production that goes against the grain of its Old World brethren. While many winemakers wish to stick to the practices and techniques of the past, many modern winemakers, like many of today’s modern homebrewers, see their work with wine as an opportunity for self-expression and experimentation.

When drinking a fantastic bottle of Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in Australia, for example, it’s easy to see the differences between this New World wine and the Crozes-Hermitage from Old World France. I highly suggest you try each of these two wines at some point in your life – simply as a point of comparison. Both are produced using the same grape variety, but the similarities between these two drinks end there. The Shiraz has a bold, fruit-forward flavor with a deep, dark berry presence, whereas the Crozes-Hermitage tends to let its boldness take less of a starring role in order to allow the supporting cast of flavors (vanilla, clove, wood, spice, and a slight oxidation) to shine through.

The combination of possible wine flavors is truly endless, as every factor of the winemaking process plays a part in determining how the finished drink will ultimately taste to the consumer. From the type of soil the grapes are grown in, to the number of days of sunshine the grape plants receive, to the humidity of the region, the age of the vines, and the type of barrels that are used to age the drink, it all plays a part in the overall quality and taste of the finished product.

Because of the various factors involved in the taste of wine, it should come as no surprise that many of these factors will change from year to year, and as a result, produce a different flavored wine – something referred to in the winemaking world as “vintage.” Even though a winemaker can reproduce certain aspects of a successful wine, weather is truly the master of the winemaking ship and little can be done, at times, to duplicate a truly unique vintage.

Whiskey

Whiskey, or “Whisky” (without the “e”) as it is frequently labeled, is the product of alcoholic fermentation and distillation. Distillation in and of itself has many uses beyond the manufacturing of an alcoholic spirit, but for the context of this book, it’s essentially a way of extracting the alcohol from a beer-type liquid fermented from grains, water and yeast.

The concept of Whiskey fermentation is relatively simple. A process known as “malting” produces enzymes in a grain-like soup that converts otherwise unfermentable starches into more simplified and easily fermentable sugars during the “mashing” process. After mashing, the sugary sweet grain water known as “wort” is then fermented for a length of time dependent on the type of yeast and grain used. The “beer,” as it is called at this point, is then filled into a still and with the application of heat, alcohol begins to separate from the beer (i.e. alcoholic fermentation). It is the collection and condensation of this alcoholic vapor that produces a distilled spirit, which we then call “Whiskey.”

Whiskey’s produced in Ireland and Scotland are produced almost entirely from malted barley. Bourbon, which is an American export, however, is based primarily on corn with the addition of other grains such as rye, barley or wheat.

Water quality also plays into the distinct flavors of Whiskey. In Scotland, for example, the water itself is so revered that many distilleries are named after the water source they use. It is also the water source that contributes flavors often described as tasting salty, medicinal, briny or hard. In Kentucky, the birthplace of bourbon, it was the clean, iron-free limestone that housed the aquifers that distillers drew from, that helped to make that style of Whiskey an American Icon.

Rum

Rum is an an example of alcoholic fermentation that is very similar to Whiskey in that it too is distilled and traditionally aged in oak barrels. Usually produced in tropical regions where sugar cane grows and is easily accessible, Rum is distilled from a mash of sugar, minimally processed to retain all of the natural enzymes and nutrients present in the drink’s molasses, water and yeast ingredients. After fermentation, Rum typically undergoes two distillations (rather than just one) in a pot-style still and is then aged in oak barrels.

Oak aging helps to not only impart flavors from the barrels themselves, but also to allow the extraction of impurities from the Rum into the barrel. The constant process of expansion and contraction of the wood in the barrels allows for the drink to soak into the staves of the barrel during the day when it’s warm, and be forced out of the Rum, back into the drink, when the temperature drops each night. The result is that flavors from within the charred wood of the barrel itself can be tasted in the final Rum drink.

Cider

Cider, also known as “Hard Cider” or “Cyder,” is frequently considered an alternative to beer and is thought by many to be relatively new to the marketplace, even though cider has historically been around much longer than beer has. An  alcoholic fermentation of pressed apples, apple juice and yeast, Cider is a simple combination of ingredients with endless possibilities. Like beer, wine and rum, the combination of ingredients that go into this simple beverage will ultimately produce a product that is varied and original, depending on what type of apples are used, the age of the apples, and the yeast that is included.

North American cider producers utilize primarily heirloom apple varieties for cider production and have been preserving most of those orchards and/or varieties for several generations in order to preserve the heritage associated with cider making. France, as well, is also known for not only producing excellent Hard Cider, but for utilizing Cider in the production of a drink called Calvados, which is a twice-fermented drink that is then aged in French oak barrels. The original Cider used in Calvados production is generally made with a variety of apples not normally used for anything but Cider (and occasionally, baking).

Other Fermented Foods & Drinks

Of all the alcoholic fermentations that are available to those of legal drinking age, there are several other products worth mentioning. Cheese, sauerkraut, kombucha, and even pickles, for example, are all the result of fermentation.

Cheese, for example, is made by introducing the microbes and cultures already present in dairy, yogurt or buttermilk, and adding rennet and salt, which helps to preserve the curds of milk and form the cheese that you and I know today.

Sauerkraut is made by using salt water to bring out the moisture in crushed cabbage and exposing this mixture to wild airborne bacteria. After the cabbage is exposed to this bacteria for an appropriate length of time, the result is a healthy fermented food with no present alcohol and lots of healthy microbes that your gut will thank you for. The longer the cabbage is fermented, the tastier the Sauerkraut will be. Pickles are made in much the same way, but with cucumbers and spices instead of cabbage and salt water.

Finally, kombucha is a wonderful drink that has been around, by some accounts, since 212 BC. This ancient beverage was said to give Samurai warriors their long lives as well as abundant energy and focus. Kombucha is made by fermenting a mixture of tea, sugar and a culture of bacteria commonly referred to as a SCOBY, which is an acronym for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.” As the yeast in the SCOBY eats the sugar and produces alcohol, a bacteria present in the SCOBY eats the alcohol and the final result is a tea with little to no sugar, healthy bacteria, nearly no alcohol, and a wonderful tangy taste. Gaining popularity for its health benefits, Kombucha is an easy product to make at home and shares a lot of similarities to the processes involved with making your own beer.

Alcoholic Fermentation With Beer – Now It’s Your Turn!

Does the thought of making your own alcoholic drinks and sharing them with your friends, family members, co-workers and loved ones sound like a lot of fun! That’s because it is a lot of fun… and it’s easy to do as well. Now you can learn how to make beer with Dr. Homebrew’s How-To Beer Book – now available in both paperback and hardback copies. It makes a great gift – either for yourself or the beer lover in your life.

The post Alcoholic Fermentation: Beer, Wine, Mead & Other Drinks Made With Fermentation appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

Here’s Your Chance To Ask Dr. Homebrew A Question!

Use the form below to send a letter to Dr. Homebrew and ask him your biggest, most-pressing question about beer or beer making.

The post Here’s Your Chance To Ask Dr. Homebrew A Question! appeared first on Dr. Homebrew.

What is a Beer of the Month Club?

A beer of the month club is a monthly subscription program, in which you are sent a package of anywhere from 1 to 12 or more different beers each and every month. While “beer of the month club” is the most common name for these beer-lover subscriptions programs, you might also see such beer clubs referred to as:

Whatever you decide to call it, the concept is pretty much the same. You sign up for the club of your choice and then a new package of beer will be shipped to your specified mailing address each and every month.

Best Beer of the Month Clubs – U.S.A. / American Beers

There are dozens of beer of the month clubs to choose from. Below you will find the top 3 best beer of the month clubs providing American or USA-made beers, along with basic information about each beer club, how much the monthly subscription costs (the price shown here includes shipping), what kind of beer you get with your subscription and a whole host of additional information. Click the “Buy Now” to visit the official beer of the month club website, where you can learn more about that specific beer club and sign up for their monthly beer service.

The beer clubs listed above are clubs that specialize in mailing out American or US made beer. Most of the beers come from small microbreweries in and around the United States and/or Canada.

When picking a monthly beer club, be sure to pay attention to the additional cost of shipping and any bonus gifts that might come with your subscription. Also, pay attention to the time-span of your subscription. Some beer of the month clubs can be cancelled at any time, while others require that you purchase 3, 6 or 12 month subscriptions that can not be cancelled after the point of purchase.

Beer of the Month Club Reviews

With so many different beer clubs to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which beer of the month club is best for you. To help you further in your buying decision, here is some additional infomration on the world’s most popular beer of the month clubs:

Reasons to Join a Beer of the Month Club:

If you are a beer lover yourself, then the reasons you might wish to join a beer of the month club are obvious. New beers delivered to your doorstep… each and every month! Depending on the beer club you join, you might get a new batch of your favorite beer(s) delivered to your home each month… or you might get a batch of beers you’ve never had the chance to try before. And there’s nothing more fun than trying out a beer from a brewery on the other side of the planet!

Beer of the month clubs are great for…

Besides drinking and enjoying the taste of beer yourself, there are plenty of other reasons you might wish to sign up for a beer of the month club. One of the most common reasons to sign up for such a club is to give the monthly subscription as a unique and memorable gift to a friendly, family member, co-worker or loved one.

Take a moment and think about who in your life might enjoy belonging to a beer of the month club. Surely there is someone in your life that would enjoy receiving a new, fresh batch of beer, delivered to his or her home each and every month.

Best Beer of the Month Clubs – European / International Beers

Here are the top 3 European beer of the month clubs. These three clubs specialize in mailing our beers from the Europe and its surrounding territories. If you enjoy authentic European beers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and other beer-loving countries, then a European beer of the month club is for you!

The beer of the month clubs listed above specialize in mailing out European, International or difficult to find beers made in either the United States or elsewhere. Most of the beers, however, come from small microbreweries in and around Europe’s most famous beer-producing countries.

Other Monthly Clubs You Might Consider Joining

If joining a beer of the month club isn’t quite up your alley, there are a number of other monthly subscriptions programs you might consider joining or giving as a gift to a friend, family member, co-worker or loved one. For example, there are…

Frequently Asked Questions About Beer of the Month Clubs

Do you have a question or comment about beer of the month clubs that was not answered on this page? Leave a comment below and Dr. Homebrew will try and answer your question or respond to your comment just as soon as he possibly can!

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