BREWING BASICS

THE BASICS OF BREWING BEER

The Beer Brewing Basics page is designed to give you some tips on Home brewing prior to your first in-person lesson.

Many have tried and failed when brewing their first batch of home brewed beer.

Why? Because they thought they knew better or they were impatient to pop the first bottle. Resulting in terrible tasting or infected beer.

The brewing process itself seems simple enough and yet can be confusing.

• Malted barley is mashed (soaked) in hot water.
• The barley releases malt sugars.
• The malt sugar is boiled and hops are introduced for style and taste creating a 'wort'.
• The wort is cooled and yeast is introduced which ferments the sugars.
• Fermentation occurs resulting in the sugars converted to CO2 and ethyl alcohol.
• When fermentation is complete the beer is bottled and additional sugar added for carbonation.
• Aging the beer in the bottle results in a tasty drop.

What's more simple than that? You'll soon discover in your journey of brewing beer that the above steps can involve an incredible amount of knowledge and education. This doesn't mean you can't be successful from the get go. Learn as you go. THE WIZ can help you avoid making mistakes.

You might say 'Who cares? I just want to make it and drink it'. I understand. My job is to get you going with the end result of being able to drink that beer and save money. But, I'll tell you now that the more you brew the more you'll want to learn. The more you learn the better the quality of your beer.

THREE IMPORTANT SECRETS

• SECRET #1 - Don't be creative - follow the basic steps and don't add extras until you've achieved several simple brews. With each brew you're going to learn new things about the process, successfully brewing batch after batch of delicious beer.
• SECRET #2 - Be Patient - it is not uncommon to want to pop that first bottle a week after carbonating the wort and bottling. While I know you'll be unable to resist and you, like the rest of us, will open that first bottle of beer I can guarantee that you'll be disappointed with the under aged results.
• SECRET #3 - Keep everything clean - At every stage of brewing you can infect your beer and the results won't be pretty or tasty. You'll learn from THE WIZ that all your equipment must be kept clean before, during and after brewing. So keep your equipment clean. Let me write it one more time ... So keep your equipment clean.

Are you ready to begin your first brew? Do you want to be successful? Then invest in your knowledge and work with THE WIZ to learn the basic steps of home brewing beer. Learning how to correctly brew beer will save you countless hours of wasted time as well as dollars down the drain. There are many issues you'll be faced with if you do not follow the basic steps in brewing beer.

To begin your journey and prior to your first lesson we'll need to cover the basics such as the difference between Kit / Extract Brewing to Basic Brewing styles to the fermentation equipment you'll require to get started.