To introduce you to a hobby of mine, making beer. This is not like your normal home brew that just stinks and tastes of yeast; but a good beer made similarly to commercial brewing methods!
Firstly, instead of using a condensed syrup that you water down to make the brew, I buy the wort (pronounced wert) as its made by the brewers straight from the boiling kettle. With this method you don't need to heat it, or artificially add your own dextrose (sugar).
The wort is the stage in beer making right before the yeast is introduced. What I am making here is a Celtic Red, which is like Irish kilkenny. Its a red stout, that pours like a guinness.
That silver packet in front of the wort bottle is the yeast. Yeast is actually living organisms that consume sugar and excrete alcohol as a waste product.
The wort is emptied into the brewing drum (the black container) then the yeast is added. I dislike the valve systems that brewing drums use, and so I use a shower cap (seriously!).
Another waste product of yeast is carbon dioxide and as its heavier then the normal atmospheric air and thus sits on the brew (leeching out under the shower cap) and thus protects the brew from contaminants (like stray yeasts).
After 3 to 4 days, the yeast has stopped feeding and has died in its own waste >.< The beer settles in the drum for a further 4 days. Any more and it will spoil. This is where I really differ from the normal home brewer. At this point, they put the beer into the bottles and add a bit more sugar for the second stage fermentation.
Instead, mine goes into a clearing cube that is kept in the fridge for 2 weeks. The beer ages quicker in the fridge, and as I don't add more sugar, I put the yeast to sleep instead of awaking it, and I'm not adding any more sediment to the brew.
This next step is where I get really professional! After the 2 weeks, I then siphon the brew into a pressurized cannister. If I'm doing a fine ale or cider I'll run my beer through a 0.5 micron open weave filter that removes all sediment and a fair bit of the yeast too. As this is a stout though, I won't filter it. But note that all of the sediment has already been lost from the two siphoning steps.
That grey gas bottle on my tumble dryer there is attached to the cannister and I use it to charge the brew with bubbles (which is a lot safer then trying to split the beer atom).
After it is charged the cannister is put in the fridge (yes, a fridge just for beer!) and a tube is attached that goes to the beer tap that is mounted on the fridge door. The pressure in the gas bottle is used to drive the beer out the tap once opened. (Note the orange bung in the side of the fridge with the air tube going in.)
Then all one does is get ones favorite beer glass, place under the tap and viola!
(Dodgy photo: very hard to quickly turn the tap on, take a photo unsighted and close the tap before beer goes everywhere!)
As this pours like a guinness, it takes 2 goes to fill a glass!
And yet only one to empty it
Show-and-tell is now over *smacks lips*
KR supports the designated driver program, and the moderate consumption of alcohol.
Seriously though, any posts along the lines of unhealthy inebriation, and manly boasting etc etc won't be tolerated and deleted immediately.
Firstly, instead of using a condensed syrup that you water down to make the brew, I buy the wort (pronounced wert) as its made by the brewers straight from the boiling kettle. With this method you don't need to heat it, or artificially add your own dextrose (sugar).
The wort is the stage in beer making right before the yeast is introduced. What I am making here is a Celtic Red, which is like Irish kilkenny. Its a red stout, that pours like a guinness.
That silver packet in front of the wort bottle is the yeast. Yeast is actually living organisms that consume sugar and excrete alcohol as a waste product.
The wort is emptied into the brewing drum (the black container) then the yeast is added. I dislike the valve systems that brewing drums use, and so I use a shower cap (seriously!).
Another waste product of yeast is carbon dioxide and as its heavier then the normal atmospheric air and thus sits on the brew (leeching out under the shower cap) and thus protects the brew from contaminants (like stray yeasts).
After 3 to 4 days, the yeast has stopped feeding and has died in its own waste >.< The beer settles in the drum for a further 4 days. Any more and it will spoil. This is where I really differ from the normal home brewer. At this point, they put the beer into the bottles and add a bit more sugar for the second stage fermentation.
Instead, mine goes into a clearing cube that is kept in the fridge for 2 weeks. The beer ages quicker in the fridge, and as I don't add more sugar, I put the yeast to sleep instead of awaking it, and I'm not adding any more sediment to the brew.
This next step is where I get really professional! After the 2 weeks, I then siphon the brew into a pressurized cannister. If I'm doing a fine ale or cider I'll run my beer through a 0.5 micron open weave filter that removes all sediment and a fair bit of the yeast too. As this is a stout though, I won't filter it. But note that all of the sediment has already been lost from the two siphoning steps.
That grey gas bottle on my tumble dryer there is attached to the cannister and I use it to charge the brew with bubbles (which is a lot safer then trying to split the beer atom).
After it is charged the cannister is put in the fridge (yes, a fridge just for beer!) and a tube is attached that goes to the beer tap that is mounted on the fridge door. The pressure in the gas bottle is used to drive the beer out the tap once opened. (Note the orange bung in the side of the fridge with the air tube going in.)
Then all one does is get ones favorite beer glass, place under the tap and viola!
(Dodgy photo: very hard to quickly turn the tap on, take a photo unsighted and close the tap before beer goes everywhere!)
As this pours like a guinness, it takes 2 goes to fill a glass!
And yet only one to empty it
Show-and-tell is now over *smacks lips*
KR supports the designated driver program, and the moderate consumption of alcohol.
Seriously though, any posts along the lines of unhealthy inebriation, and manly boasting etc etc won't be tolerated and deleted immediately.
