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!

I have come to the conclusion that France and the Frenchman do not know what good beer really is; certainly, they do not make the heavier beers as we know them here. If they do, I have been unlucky for I have never found what I would myself call really good beer.

But I suppose if they wanted beers as we drink them they could make them easily enough. Beers in France are more like thin lager and I have a suspicion – probably false – that some of them are produced from remnants of the grape crops. This suspicion was strengthened last summer while drinking in the shadow of the Arc de ‘Triomphe, someone remarked that the beer was like thin aerated grape wine and pretty weak stuff at that. He even suggested the grapes might be the small green ones from a certain area. Knowing wines as I do, I suggested that perhaps batches of poor grapes might be used as a basic material or even that wine from a poor season might be diluted and then re-fermented with just enough malt and hops to make the beer that is quite popular over there.

All this set me thinking, and when I think something usually comes out of it – if only a headache. Anyway, I set out to make beers as I found them over there because I discovered that similar beers are now becoming popular here, especially with the ladies whom I am particularly anxious to please.

Following the continental seems the vogue, but I am not jumping on their wagon for the sake of fashion. I believe that if we can all gain from copying, or attempting to produce a product popular elsewhere, it is a good thing.

One practice I hope will not catch on over here is that of wiping the head off freshly poured beer with, above all things, a lolly stick. In Paris, Lyons, Dijon, Marseilles, Toulon – everywhere we went the barkeeper dutifully performed this deplorable act. My French being better than my Russian it needed only half an hour of gesticulating to make clear that the English do not like their beers guillotined.

Back to the idea. I did not get precisely what I was after, but I did get close to it. As any winemaker knows, four pounds of grapes makes a very poor wine, but four pounds of grapes added to a wort at the stage where the yeast is to be added makes a vast improvement to the lighter ales and lager type beers. Not everybody will like this, so experiment only with a small batch where, if you are not pleased with the result, it will not be a calamity. A friend, with whom I work in almost everything I do in this line, made an excellent lager type beer. I lb. of pale malt extract, I oz. hops, 1 lb. sugar, 2 lb. of small outdoor ripened green grapes, one gallon of water, yeast and nutrient was all he used. He reached the stage where the yeast is added using the same method as that described in the chapter calling for the use of malt extracts and added the crushed grapes. These he strained out after five days, and allowed fermentation to go on until the hydrometer recorded 1.005. He then bottled the lager and kept it for three months. Not being fond of lager of any sort, I was not a judge of the final product, but others were quite thrilled with it. No acid was added because the grapes added enough.

My own efforts have pleased others more than me – but only because I am not fond of lager types. ‘Vine makers are bound to ask, would concentrated grape juice be suitable for such an experiment? I have used a white concentrate – one pint to the four gallon batch of a light ale and lager recipe with some success. Oh, I can hear the die-hard wine lovers accusing me of trying to make winey beer or beery wine and wondering why I cannot stick to one or the other. But if the end product is a pleasure to a number of people the wrath of the few will lie lightly upon my shoulders. I like beer – very much. I also like wines – very much. Anything midway between the two would not, I am sure, be pleasant. These lager types made with a few added grapes are not midway between wine and beer; they are something quite unique.

If you try something of this sort, use only the juice of black grapes otherwise you will have a pink lager owing to the color coming from the grape skins. Pink Lager – well, why not? The die-hards will be at my throat for this one!

Other trials I carried out – readers of my various wine books will know I’m a devil for experimenting – was that of adding half a pound of ripe sloes to a two gallon brew. These were crushed and added just before the yeast was put in. Another was adding a little concentrated Vermouth flavoring.

All these ideas gave varied results; some people liked one while others liked another. Some people didn’t like any of them, but on the whole the results were quite popular. Whatever you do, do not tryout these ideas with your first efforts at beer making. Wait until you have a good deal of experience so that you are able to judge whether you would like the results of such experiments.

If you decide to add fruits to a wort ready for the yeast, do sterilize the fruit first in the following manner. This is necessary because of the yeast and bacteria on the fruit. If these are not destroyed, the chances are that they will set up undesirable ferments as they do in wines made by old-fashioned methods. Sterilizing by boiling will give the wrong kind of flavor and will produce a cloudiness difficult to remove. The simplest method is to use Campden fruit preserving tablets. See the chapter on cider making for more information about these.

Crush the fruit to be added to the wort and judge roughly how much there is and to each half-gallon (there will probably be less than this amount), add half a crushed Campden tablet dissolved in about an egg-cupful of warm water. Stir this into the fruit and leave for about an hour. Then give a vigorous stirring and pour into the wort. Strain out the fruit after four or five days, and ferment on as you would if you had not used fruit at all.

I mention all these experiments to put ideas into your heads so that you will not be afraid to try almost anything once you have been making real and ordinary beers for some time.

Go ahead, experiment – it can be great fun.

As will be seen, this chapter deals with a slightly more elaborate method of making beers than when malt extracts are being used. It is in using the following recipes that you will be following very closely the commercial brewer. Do not let this worry you. Just follow directions, but read first all I have had to say about commercial brewing; you will then understand why you are working in this fashion and why it is necessary to do so if good beers are to result.

Note. Do not forget to crack grain malts before use.

All the recipes in this chapter are designed to produce four gallons of beer -less the little that will inevitably be lost as deposit at various stages; so you should finish up with fifteen quart bottles of finished beer. The reason for working in four-gallon lots is that not only is the mash tun (polythene pail) most convenient in size, but also because the 50-watt heater recommended will keep this amount of mash at the required temperature at negligible power consumption. Later, when the mash is strained into the fermenting vessel and becomes wort and is made up to four gallons, the recommended fermenting vessel is also of ideal size.

However, there is nothing to prevent you making two-gallon lots as initial experiments if you want to. But because the heater might make half the amount of mash too hot, you will have to start off with two gallons instead of one. The procedure when making two gallons would be as follows: reduce all ingredients by half. Put as much of the two gallons of water (liquor) as you can into the vessel with the ingredients. Then when this is strained, for boiling, the total amount of liquor can be made up to two gallons.

If you alter the amounts of ingredients to suit a special whim of your own bear in mind that:

1. The more malt you use the more flavour and body you will obtain.
2. If more body is produced, more bitterness will be required to balance it to some extent.
3. Additional hops will produce this necessary bitterness.

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.

This is far more important than most people imagine. Indeed, breweries are famous because of the water supply they have (or did have before pollution ruined it), and upon the type of water supplied to your district depends to some extent the quality of your beer.

You may be quite satisfied with the beers you make regardless of the type of water in your area. However, to harden soft water and to soften hard water is quite a simple matter. Hard water is best for pale and bitter beers while soft water is better for mild ales and stouts.

If you are doubtful about the sort of water you have coming through your tap your local water board office will tell you whether it is hard or soft. You may then alter it to suit whichever type of beer you propose to make. Hard water may be softened by boiling before starting the brewing. That it will be boiled again during the process should be disregarded. A water softener has its advantages, but also its expense. Home brewing supply firms supply ‘Burtonising’ salts for treating all types of water very cheaply indeed and these do make a vast difference to the finished product, for they bring out the full flavor of the malt and hops. All water in the commercial brewery is treated in this fashion – hence their use of the word ‘liquor’ – brewery liquor, instead of water. Use the salts as directed by the supplier.

Do not imagine that you will be adulterating your water supply, you will merely be making good deficiencies; and, in any case, following the commercial brewer as closely as you can.

A few years ago an argument started as to which sugar was best for making wines, and has gone on ever since; and I doubt whether it will ever be settled to the satisfaction of all concerned. Now that brewing strong beers has become legal the same argument will rear its head and fling the average operator into a quandary. He will feel that he simply must use the best possible sugar, or feel inadequate, or think that he is not going to make such good beers as can be made.

Can I settle the argument once and for all? No, I am afraid I cannot. The reason for this is simply that various sugars give slightly varying results. Each operator using a different sugar swears by that sugar; so, to him, that sugar is the best to use.

I have used all kinds of sugar, syrups and molasses in wine making. Let me say that sugars are different, though basically the same. For example, ordinary household sugar is two kinds of sugar in one, while invert sugar is the two sugars in household sugar separated from each other yet together in one mass when purchased.

Now, it is argued that invert sugar is the best for home brewing and that this should always be used. Yet when we add household sugar to the wort, the first action of the yeast is to invert the ‘one’ of household sugar to the two sugars of invert sugar – thus giving you invert sugar. The main argument is that if the yeast has to invert the sugar before it can use it for reproduction purposes, surely it would be better to give it invert sugar right away. But I cannot see the point in this – though I will admit that when invert sugar is added to the wort the vigor of fermentation is greater in less time than when household sugar is used. However, I find the difference in the end product – the finished beer – not nearly so great as many people would like to have me believe. A difference there is, but this is not likely to be noticed by the beginner who will not have experience to guide him. Therefore, beginners are advised to use household sugar for a time, at least, and then when they have sufficient experience to enable them to detect the differences in flavor the various sugars impart to their beers, they will be able to decide which sugar gives the flavor to their liking.

White invert sugar gives the same flavor as household sugar – otherwise no discernable flavor at all. Demerara does give flavor as well as some color, dark brown invert sugars give a good deal of color to beer and some strong and pleasing ‘nutty’ flavors. These flavors please some people, but not everybody likes them. Syrups – golden syrups, black treacle or green treacle may be used with other sugars to give special flavors, but experience is needed before you dabble with them – especially the strong-flavored treacles. My mother used to make a treacle beer my father raved over – either in praise or because he drank too much of it; I never did find out. So it will be seen that using a little strongly flavored treacle to impart a special flavor is worth trying out. However, as mentioned, you should use household sugar to start with and then when you feel like it use other sugar in place of it and then perhaps add a little strongly-flavored syrup according to your own special tastes or wishes. It will be seen that some of the recipes include the use of sugars other than household sugar and that others include the use of syrups and treacles. You can, of course, go right ahead and use these if you want to, ignoring my advice above, and I doubt very much whether you will regret it. My advice is to use household sugar and to leave syrups alone for the time being is for those who feel that they would rather start off with a recipe that will produce a beer they are likely to be able to compare with their favorite at their ‘local’. Beers made with other than household sugar or with the addition of syrups and treacles are, of course, first-class beers, but they are not, strictly speaking, near-identical to beers from public houses – at least, not from public houses in the area in which I live.

The chances are, of course, that when you have made beers with demerara sugar or other brown sugar with a little black treacle or golden syrup added, you will plump for these all the time and think it strange that I ever advised you to start off with household sugar and to leave the syrups alone.

These are readily obtainable from the many home wine and home brew supply firms listed at the end of this book. Convenient sizes of all containers make purchase and measure easy and inexpensive. Indeed, whether you have a gallon or a hundred gallons on your mind, you are catered for.

Malt extract is malt extracted from the grain. Hops extract is an extract of hops. Dried hops are dried hops, while malt is malt in the grain, or grain malt. This has to be cracked before infusion – before it is put into the brewery liquor in the mash tun. Such ready-to-use ingredients makes for trouble-free and easy brewing, and no one will blame you if you stick to using the readily prepared stuff. However there will always be those who will like to malt their own barley and perhaps roast it to obtain some special result. My grandfather used to do this and he produced results he swore could not be matched. He was a blacksmith in the spreading chestnut tree style with an immense capacity for homebrewed beer. In his day, home brewing was a laborious undertaking, but even with commercial beer at a penny a pint it was still economical to make it for oneself.