The key to throwing a brew tasting party is inviting the right people. People who will provide interesting brews, beers, ales, meads, and wines to sample, and people who will truly appreciate such brews! Having different levels of beverages to taste on hand is a good idea, as well as acquiring a small keg of quality ale as a back line. Probably amongst the best of ideas is to invite home brewers to your beer tasting party! Any home brewer is likely to bring some of their one-of-a-kind home brew to spice things up.
As the world of home brew grows ever larger, the need for software for homebrewers is increasing. It can be difficult for the modern home brewer to keep track of all the recipes, methods of brewing, and tricks that one has used for the craft. With modern technology and new software for homebrewers, your beer recipe can be kept on-hand – or even on-line - quite easily. Already the American Association of Homebrewers has an extensive website, and new websites are popping up daily with advice on your home made beer recipe, mashing methods, and even concerning distillation techniques. Homebrew applications are becoming more and more common as the world of brewers emerges as a definitive presence on the internet.
Home brewing beer is a traditional art that has recently undergone a huge resurgence. Hobby minded people from coast to coast are now making beer at home and re-discovering the tricks and treats of making their own beer, wine, and mead for a fraction of the cost of store bought alcohol. In fact, of the many types of libations that one can produce with a simple knowledge of the process of fermentation are rare, if one can find them in stores at all. Some of the tips that I discuss in this article will help any home brewer achieve these rare and wonderful flavors by brewing at home.
The world of beer is vast and multi faceted. There are hundreds of different varieties of beer made around the world, and many variations on the production of each. I will discuss here some of the different techniques used to produce differing flavors, body, alcohol levels, and color in your home brewed beer.
In most major cities in the United States there is a community of homebrew aficionados. We usually congregate in groups, as friends, talk about and brew beer. There are even larger clubs that host beer club contests – an national beer leagues that authenticate such contests and even send experienced judges out to help to define the flavors and characteristics of differing types of beer (such as the American Association of Homebrewers). It is fun and exciting, and also helpful to attend meetings of your local homebrew club. If no such club exists in your area, or even if it does, it can be fun to join or start your own beer club!
There are many tricks of the trade in the world of beer. Secondary fermentation is one. This is the process of siphoning off your beer after the initial rush of fermentation that happens. This leaves behind much of the yeasty sediment which comes out of your beer and sinks to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. This sediment contains dead yeast, and gluten from the barley, malt and other grains used in the making of the beer. This sediment can also be used as the yeast for your next batch of beer, if you brew quickly! Utilizing the process of secondary fermentation has many benefits.
The great and glorious mystery of fermentation has only become widely answered in the last 200 years. In the history of beer production, for seven centuries before, the act of fermentation has thought to have been the result of many differing gods, angels, saints, prayers, and rituals. The Vikings of the Netherlands would even shout insults at their beer to awaken its spirit! Since the discovery of yeast by Louis Pasteur in 1857, the art of brewing has advanced, with techniques of yeast culturing, to the point where, currently, there are hundreds of different strains of yeast that are maintained in the brewing world.
