Commercial Brewing Designed for Grain Malts
The lengthy discourse on commercial brewing is designed for those who will be using grain malts (so that they may see for themselves how closely they will be following the commercial brewer and to give them a clear understanding of the subject). Beginners using malt extracts need not bother to read this unless they want to from the interest point of view; for, strictly speaking, and because they are using the simplest methods, this does not concern them. It will, of course, when they decide they are ready to go in for making the very best of top-rate beers using grain malts.
This two-step method of learning is undoubtedly the best, for the experience gained in using malt extracts either in liquid or dried form readily obtainable from suppliers of home brewing equipment – Step One – allows them to go into using the slightly more elaborate methods involved in using grain malts – Step Two.
Step Three, if there really is one, is the stage when the operator, having used malt extracts and having advanced into using grain malts, decides to advance even further. Here he will use both grain malts and malt extracts in one brew, use his head in blending ingredients, evolve recipes of his own and perhaps methods as well; thus becoming an expert in his own right – and quite quickly. Such a man will make some extra super beers the like of which will not be obtainable elsewhere.
And when this stage is reached, there is no limit to the amount of blending of ingredients that can be carried out to obtain those special results that so often show a man up amongst his pals as someone exceptional. So, start with the simple methods and ingredients in chapter 3, and when you are ready, proceed to advanced aspects and you will be in for a lifetime’s pleasant drinking with an absorbing interest into the bargain.
Ales, beers, stouts, cider, mead, or any of the other alcoholic drinks detailed in this book are easy to make provided you understand not only why you are working in one particular way, but also why you must work in this way if you want the best results.
There are many methods for making every sort of alcoholic drink; some are good methods ensuring the top-most quality results, while others are so antiquated and slip-shod as to be quite comical. Others are half-way between the two. For far too long too many people have been following methods that can only result in disappointment. The methods here ensure success provided you know what you want before you begin. In saying this, I mean that you should have a good idea of what you want and then set out to make it as near to this as you can expect at first attempt.
In wine making we choose to make them sweet, medium or dry; light, medium or heavy. Naturally if the beginner winemaker dislikes dry wines and unwittingly makes them at first attempt, then it stands to reason that he will be disappointed. But if he had known what he was about he would have known he was making a dry wine and could have avoided what was to him a calamity because being a beginner he would not necessarily know how to rectify the fault when he had finished. It takes a little time and a few experiments before you can expect to turn out something exactly as you want it. And when you have done this, the experience gained, together with a bit of common sense, will show you how to improve your product so that it quickly becomes the main and favourite drink of yourself and your friends.
Too many people chuckle apologetically when offering ‘a little drop of something I made myself’. Heaven knows why, for it is those who feel they have something to apologize for who turn out the best stuff. Hundreds of times and all over the country I have had people offer me home-made wines, beers, ciders and meads as if they were offering me diluted strychnine and were apologizing for the suffering to come. Mostly they were top-rate wines and beers. It seems to me that someone thinks just because he made it it can’t be much good. This attitude has its good point because a man like that is clearly anxious to improve his product. But provided he is satisfied I can see no reason for striving to improve it beyond improving it to suit himself even more. After all, as experienced operators will agree, striving to improve can be overdone to such an extent that the end product bears no resemblance to the original. The ‘improved’ product, then, is no longer what it was and the operator is disappointed.
The aim should be to find in as few experiments as possible the recipe which gives the results nearest your special liking and then vary slightly the ingredients in future brews. This can be done quite simply by increasing slightly the amount of ‘this’ and perhaps reducing slightly the amount of ‘that’ until you produce precisely what you are after.
Altering the amounts of ingredients may not be necessary, for you might well hit the alcoholic nail on the head first time – and I hope you do. Either way, you will get a lot of pleasure for a comparatively small outlay, for if your first attempts are not all you hoped for you will realize at once that you are on to a good thing, because before long your own brew at sixpence or eightpence a pint will be as good as your favourite commercial product at three bob a pint. If you are a draught-beer man it’s easier and cheaper still.