Make it, don't break it

Took a 1 day hiatus from blogging to rest up, and read on into the How to Brew book. I want to move into breaking this down the easiest way without actually you actually having to read the book. I left off explaining alpha acid unit calculations. This may seem like rocket science, but it's actually a pretty easy calculation. I'm going to go into the most basic brewing procedure for home brewers.

Brewing Procedure: Chapter 1 Continued

1. Prep Work - get your shit together
2. Boil Water - boil 1 gallon of water
3. Sanitize - clean all equipment
4. Making Work - usually 1.5 hours
5. Boil Brew Water
6. Rehydrate Dry Yeast
7. Add Malt Extract
8. Add Hops
9. Add finishing hops (optional)
10. Cool Wort

Fermentation

1. Cooled wort poured into fermentation bucket
2. Add water
3. pitch yeast
4. Store fermenter (2 weeks)

Chapter 2: Brew Prep

This chapter basically goes over brewing sanitizers. I won't beat this to death, but different sanitizers like detergent, bleach, and percarbonates are used for different situations. These sometimes come with the kit that you buy.

Chapter 3: Malt, Kits, Sugars

Malts - concentrated sugars extracted from malt barley
Malts come in syrup and dry form

Basically, there is more to this chapter, but for me to try to explain it in a blog would be pointless. We'll talk later.

Chapter 4: Water

Water is super important for brewing your own beer. Minerals, harness, and nastiness in water can fuck shit up for the beer. Basically there are a few methods for cleaning your dirty, nasty, mon valley water.

1. Boil it
2. Potassium metabisulfate tabs
3. activated charcoal AKA Brita
4. Water softeners

Well I'm tired and I think this is a good point to stop tonight. Enjoy what there is today because the next entry will go into the wonderful world of hops. When to add them, what to use, and techniques. ALL YOU CAN EAT HOPS!!!!!!!!!