In our country, people are becoming increasingly familiar with the culture of alcohol consumption. And the requirements of beer lovers for products that can be seen on the shelves of most stores are increasing. A great alternative is home breweries. What is their highlight and how to choose the best option - we will talk about this now.
A few words about beer
At the very beginning, it is necessary to recall that beer is a low-alcoholic drink that can be obtained as a result of alcoholic fermentation of malt wort. The very process of fermentation is facilitated by brewer's yeast. And for completeness of taste and as a natural preservative, hops are added to beer.
A bit of history
It should also be said that the brewing culture itself was known to the ancient Babylonians. At that time, this drink was prepared exclusively by women, and barley and spelled (cereal, which is the precursor of wheat) were included in the product formulation. The following fact will be interesting to many: it is beer that we should be grateful for now that we have the opportunity to eat bread. After all, the Egyptians have always grown wheat and barley exclusively for beer, the appearance of bread is a pleasant and very useful accident. Over time, this drink began to gain some popularity, spreading around the world. Over the centuries, the recipe for its preparation underwent changes, and only in the Middle Ages hops began to be added to beer, which gives such a pleasant bitterness (we can naturally conclude that before this beer was a pretty sweet drink). However, if at that distant time it was a drink of the poor, today beer is loved and preferred by all segments of the population, including presidents, and even kings.
About breweries
It is also worth mentioning that today in our country beer is produced mainly by large factories. And there is one huge minus: this drink is pasteurized in this case, i.e. canned, which, of course, affects the taste of this product. Well, and, of course, significantly reduces its usefulness. It will be sad that home breweries (beermachine - that is, machines for making beer) are not widespread in our country, while in other countries even a small cafe prefers to please its customers with a “live” drink of its own production. However, today in Russia this situation is gradually changing.
Benefits
So what makes home breweries so good? Customer reviews first of all pay attention to the fact that this product is useful for the human body (unlike beer bought in a store in a closed bottle). The next important point for many: such units take up quite a bit of space, they are small-sized. The average size of the beer machines is only 30 x 30 x 30 cm (they can easily be placed on any shelf, including in the refrigerator). As for volumes, at least 10 liters of beer can be prepared at a time, and this is a lot! It will also take relatively little time. In addition, having bought a home brewery, you can easily vary all recipes at your discretion, creating new and interesting tastes of this drink.
Equipment
What parts do Russian home breweries consist of? First of all, it must be said that their case is most often made of high-quality plastic, which, without causing damage, can come into contact with food. The shape of such a device is a barrel. Other components:
- A lid with a special valve that tightly closes the keg to prevent foam from leaking (it will form during the preparation of beer).
- A carbonization block, or simply a “siphon”. It is needed in order to be able to saturate beer with carbon dioxide (in the process it will be carbonated naturally, but sometimes this is not enough, moreover, this drink can simply “run out of steam”). In this case, the situation can be corrected with the click of a button that will start the siphon.
- Crane.
That's all the equipment. You can see that it is quite simple, so there should not be any problems with the assembly of the structure. It is worth remembering that the unit is sealed by nature. And before its first launch, everything needs to be thoroughly disinfected (how to do this - the accompanying documents that are attached to the brewery will tell you).
Preparation
So, how much does a home brewery make a drink? This occurs within 10 days. After collecting the brewery and disinfecting it, you can proceed to the very brewing.
- Stage 1. Yeast and beer extract are poured into the container. Everything is filled with water (it is worth remembering that the taste of beer will depend on the quality of the water).
- Step 2. The safety valve closes.
- Stage 3. The beer is expected to be ready (after all, as was said, the process takes about 10 days).
Cooking process
What else makes home breweries so good? Customer reviews suggest that the entire cooking process (in which the person participates) is completely cost-free, neither in time nor in human resources. Everything about everything will take no more than half an hour (assemble and set up the unit, fill in the ingredients). So what is the brewing sequence?
- The first five days, the drink should "wander." For this, special conditions are not needed, a normal room temperature in the range of 18-25 degrees is sufficient.
- For the next five days, the brewery should be placed in a cold place, where the temperature is from about 0 ° C to +3 ° C. A fridge is great for this. The brewery itself, having a rather small size, fits there without any problems. This is the period of clarification and final preparation of this drink.
That's the whole cooking process. After extracting from the refrigerator, the brewery needs to give time to settle down a bit and get used to the surrounding temperature. No more than 10 minutes. And only now you can enjoy a tasty and also healthy drink without any problems.
About independence
It is worth mentioning that such home appliances for making beer were invented by Canadian scientists back in the early 90s of the last century. However, if you wish, you can create your own home breweries yourself. Knowing what parts they consist of, you can easily make something like that. However, there is a catch: you must take care of the tightness of the structure, only in this case, brewing will be successful, and the product will be tasty and healthy.
About the choice
So, the home brewery. How to choose a suitable model? It is worth saying that all manufacturers existing on the Russian market guarantee quality. However, the American company Mr. Beer, a mini-brewery, is especially popular. As for the indicators, the price of these units will vary depending on the amount of one-time preparation of beer. You can spend about 4 thousand rubles and buy a brewery that will prepare 8 liters per week, or you can fork out 14 thousand, while receiving 20 liters at a time. However, small home breweries will be the best choice. Customer reviews are in agreement: it’s just that you can often consume fresh tasty beer (it is worth remembering that the shelf life of a “live” drink in the refrigerator is small).
Recipes
If you have a home brewery, recipes for making a drink in it - this is also worth taking care of. So, I must say that the usual recipe is quite simple: you will need water, which is poured with malt extract, mixed with brewer's yeast. However, in what size do all these products need?
- The amount of water depends on the volume of the unit itself (i.e., it needs as much as the brewery itself is designed).
- The strength of the drink depends on the amount of malt: the more it is, the stronger the product.
- If you want to get a persistent caramel flavor of beer, you need to give preference to roasted barley. If you want regular light beer, you need to stock up with either corn or wheat malt.
Key customer questions
Having figured out why home breweries are so good (reviews are an excellent confirmation), it is also worth explaining some pretty important nuances:
- Buying all the ingredients is no problem today. Shops that sell breweries often also sell all the ingredients they need.
- In the brewery itself, the drink can be stored for about 1 month.
- The density of beer is from 10 to 12%.
- The percentage of alcohol in beer ranges from 3.5 to 5.5%.
- The drink can be prepared on the most ordinary tap water. But it’s better to take either spring water or store water (the taste of the resulting drink depends on this).
- The required temperature for the second stage of beer preparation is from zero to 3 ° C above zero. The maximum permissible mark of a thermometer: +7 ° .