Homemade & Commercial

Wine, Beer, Spirits, Cider & Mead Guides

Alcoholic beverages; most commonly beer and wines made at home. Brews made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. The Beer Pirate features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and commercial productions information; and all the best practices needed to make that perfect batch!

Coloring

Usually, this is not needed unless darkening of darker beer is needed or pale beers appear to be turning out too pale. Demerara sugar and other brown sugars if used will impart some coloring, as will brown invert sugar. These will affect the flavor to some extent, but many operators enjoy a reputation for the flavor given into their beers by the sugar they use. Where there must be no flavoring from the sugar and where darkening must be practiced to satisfy a few operators’ fastidiousness, then gravy browning may be used, but go easy with it. Burnt sugar may also be used. But where dark malts and black malts are used, coloring should not be necessary.

Sweetening

Some operators will want to sweeten their beers – especially their stouts. Obviously sweetening with sugar is going to give rise to more fermentation and therefore more gas than the bottles can hold. If sweetening is necessary use lactose. As with all other requirements this is obtainable very cheaply from home brew supply firms. Lactose will not ferment.
The rate to add will depend on the extent of the sweetness required. Some operators need only two ounces while others need four ounces to the gallon. Start off with two ounces per gallon and add more if necessary, rather than adding four ounces at the start and find you have made it too sweet.