User:Superbeecat/homebrewing section draft

Brewing process

There are three main styles of homebrewing.

• All grain. All grain basically follows the same procedure as most commercial craft breweries.
• Partial mash. A small amount of specialty grain is mashed and combined with reconstituted malt extract, and then boiled.
• Extract. The mashing step is eliminated by using pre-made malt extract, which is then boiled.

Mash-In

Main article: Mashing

In brewing and distilling, mashing is the process of combining a mix of milled grain (typically malted barley with supplementary grains such as corn, sorghum, rye or wheat), known as the "grain bill", and water, known as "liquor", and heating this mixture. Mashing allows the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars, typically maltose to create a malty liquid called wort.[1] There are two main methods - infusion mashing, in which the grains are heated in one vessel; and decoction mashing, in which a proportion of the grains are boiled and then returned to the mash, raising the temperature.

Homebrew mash tuns come in varieties which can be heated (such as a repurposed stock pot) and insulated varieties which cannot (such as a cooler).

Lauter and Sparge

Lauter refers to separating the "spent grain" from the liquid after the mash is complete. This is usually accomplished with a perforated false bottom, upon which the grain sits. A tube sits beneath the falls bottom, and empties into another vessel (usually the boiling kettle) using a valve. While the liquid exits the mash tun, water is gently added to the top, keeping a constant level, in a process called sparging. Hot liquor is added from the hot liquor tank using a device called a sparge arm. A sparge arm may be a perforated pipe, a spinning assembly, or another configuration capable of keeping the water level above the grain bed, without disturbing the grain bed. Disturbing the grain bed with too much water pressure can cause "tunneling"; channels cut through the grain bed which contribute to an uneven sparge.

Packaging

Melomel mead being fermented.

Primary fermentation in homebrewing takes place in large glass or plastic carboys or food-grade plastic buckets, nearly always sealed. When sealed, the fermenter is stoppered with a fermentation lock which allows the carbon dioxide gas produced to vent, while preventing other gasses and particles from entering. During this time, temperatures should be kept at optimum temperature for the particular yeast strain being used. For ale this temperature is usually 18–24 °C (64–75 °F);

for lager it is usually much colder, around 10 °C (50 °F); wine will start fermenting around 20 °C (68 °F); cider between 15–18 °C (59–64 °F). A vigorous fermentation then takes place, usually starting within twelve hours and continuing over the next few days. During this stage, the fermentable sugars (maltose, glucose, and sucrose) are consumed by the yeast, while ethanol and carbon dioxide are produced as byproducts by the yeast. A layer of sediment, the lees or "trub", appears at the bottom of the fermenter, composed of heavy fats, proteins and inactive yeast. Often, the brew is moved to a second fermenting vessel after primary fermentation called a secondary fermenter. This secondary fermentation process is often utilized by more advanced home brewers to enhance flavor. While not required, it is generally practiced by home brewers who wish to age or clarify their beer by removing it from the sediment left behind by primary fermentation.

Upon conclusion of fermentation, the beer is carbonated before it is consumed. This is typically done in one of two ways; force carbonation in a keg using compressed carbon dioxide, or bottle carbonation with priming sugar. Any bottle that is able to withstand the pressure of carbonation can be used, such as used beer bottles, flip-top bottles with rubber stoppers such as Grolsch, or even plastic bottles such as soda bottles, provided they are properly sanitized. Priming briefly reactivates the yeast that remains in the bottle, carbonating the brew. Homebrewed beers and lagers are typically unfiltered (filtering improves visual appearance of the product, but reduces its shelf life and complicates carbonation.)

Beer

Main article: Brewing

The principles behind the process of homebrewing beer are similar to commercial brewing. A hopped wort is produced and yeast pitched into the wort to stimulate fermentation. The complexity of the process is mostly determined by the approach used to manufacture the wort; by far the simplest method is kit brewing.

Main article: Mashing

Homebrewing malt extracts: liquid in a can and spray dried

Whether the homebrewer chooses to mash his own grains or chooses to purchase malt extracts, the homebrewer will then need to boil the liquid and add hops. The length of time the wort boils with the hops varies depending on the style of beer being brewed.

A partial mash differs from an extract brew in that the extract remains enzymatically active. Unlike dead malts where some of the starch has been converted to sugar via the action of heat and the natural enzymes have been destroyed, wheat and unmalted extracts need the help of enzymes to convert their starches into sugars.

The next step up from extract brewing is to use a diastatically active malt extract to convert starches from other beer adjuncts such as flaked and torrified barleys, flaked wheat, and wheat flour into fermentable sugars. These extracts are currently only available in the canned form. Unmalted barleys and wheats can add extra "body" to a finished beer.

Advanced homebrewers make their own extract from crushed malted barley (or alternative grain adjuncts such as unmalted barley, wheat, oats, corn or rye) by mashing the grain in hot water. This requires an insulated vessel known as a mash tun and is often referred to as all grain brewing.

In one procedure popular with homebrewers called the "Infusion Mash", milled grains are combined in the tun and hot water is added. Before being combined with the grains, the water is heated to a temperature that is hotter than the desired temperature for enzymatic activity. The reason the liquor is heated is to compensate for the fact that the grains are cooler than the desired temperature.

The mash is then removed to a lauter tun and the grains washed with yet hotter water to obtain all the sugars from the tun in a process known as sparging. The sparging process will also stop any further enzymatic activity if much hotter water is used; conversely the mash may be heated to around 80 °C (176 °F) to end such activity prior to placing it in the lauter-tun, and to prevent cooler grain from lowering the sparge water temperature to a lower than desirable figure.

The resulting wort is then boiled for around sixty minutes, with longer boil times generally required for higher gravity worts. Hops are added at different times during the boil, depending on the desired result. Hops added at the beginning of the boil contribute bitterness, hops are generally added in the last thirty minutes contribue flavor. Hops added in the last few minutes or even after the end of the boil contribute hop aroma. These hop additions are generally referred to as bittering, flavor, and aroma, respectively. Irish Moss, a form of seaweed, is typically added in the final 15–30 minutes of the boil to help prevent haze in the resulting beer; this kind of addition is known as a copper fining. After primary fermentation, the beer may be moved to a secondary fermentation vessel and more fining agents may be added, such as gelatin, which will help to further clarify the beer. Additionally, the beer may be "dry hopped" by adding hops directly to the secondary fermentator at this time which will give the beer a stronger hop aroma.