Craft beer brewing - Water, malt, hops yeast

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

simon04

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
146
Reaction score
5
Location
Swindon
So I've been busy writing some articles about home brewing. Though I normally write about food, recipes and chilli growing.

This time, the article is about craft beer brewing at home. Hope you enjoy and find it useful.
http://justsimon.co.uk/home-brewing-craft-beer-brewing/


8f363e016c136ab6c7eb58715969048e.jpg
 
Pleased you like it. It's all aimed at people like me, whose hobbies tend to overlap.
 
Are you sure about some of that advice, my tap water clean and safe too but would make **** beer. Testing and altering alkalinity is easy and cheap and if your going to spend time and money on AG it should be an essential part of a brewing regime. Yeast is the most important ingredient we use. To advocate using "cheap powder" is just wrong. New brewers should be encouraged to make the best beer they can not just the easiest. If they want easy beer there are plenty of decent kits around.
 
Are you sure about some of that advice, my tap water clean and safe too but would make **** beer. Testing and altering alkalinity is easy and cheap and if your going to spend time and money on AG it should be an essential part of a brewing regime. Yeast is the most important ingredient we use. To advocate using "cheap powder" is just wrong. New brewers should be encouraged to make the best beer they can not just the easiest. If they want easy beer there are plenty of decent kits around.

I disagree. The move to all grain has to start somewhere. An AG brew made with tap water and dried yeast will still be better than most kits and it gets people going on a path that will EVENTUALLY lead to cultivating yeast and treatment of water, but getting a feel for the different elements first is more important. I think it's arrogant to say "brew amazing beer from day one, or don't bother even trying".
 
I disagree. The move to all grain has to start somewhere. An AG brew made with tap water and dried yeast will still be better than most kits and it gets people going on a path that will EVENTUALLY lead to cultivating yeast and treatment of water, but getting a feel for the different elements first is more important. I think it's arrogant to say "brew amazing beer from day one, or don't bother even trying".

I certainly did not say brew amazing beers from day one. But if someone is giving advice to people at least try be informed. This piece seems to me to have been cut and pasted without any great knowledge and anyone could obtain better information by asking a question or two on any decent forum.
There are decent dried yeast around so why tell people to go for the cheapest, a few pence more will make better beers.
 
I certainly did not say brew amazing beers from day one. But if someone is giving advice to people at least try be informed. This piece seems to me to have been cut and pasted without any great knowledge and anyone could obtain better information by asking a question or two on any decent forum.
There are decent dried yeast around so why tell people to go for the cheapest, a few pence more will make better beers.

To be fair, the guy hasn't mentioned using the 'cheapest' yeast. He mentions he tends to use 'cheaper' sachet yeast, so he doesn't feel the need to harvest yeast from brews.

Lots of people use dried yeast successfully and they are relatively cheap, compared with liquid.
 
Are you sure about some of that advice, my tap water clean and safe too but would make **** beer. Testing and altering alkalinity is easy and cheap and if your going to spend time and money on AG it should be an essential part of a brewing regime. Yeast is the most important ingredient we use. To advocate using "cheap powder" is just wrong. New brewers should be encouraged to make the best beer they can not just the easiest. If they want easy beer there are plenty of decent kits around.
I often have people ask me questions about basic brewing, as they know it's one of my many interests..

I was actually raising the point that there ARE ways of altering the water, and that it DOES make a difference to the brew. Really to be aware of it, and that further investigation/reading might be required.

Though I also did point out that I personally don't play with the water - just expressing my own preference.

I also pointed out that yeast DOES affect the drink and that there are lots of different ones you can buy - for that same reason.

Again, I pointed out that I now have my own preferred yeast, which happens to be cheap, but gives me the results I want. Again, just expressing my personal preference.

As experienced brewers will know, there are lots of factors to take into consideration - the article is really about highlighting some of these factors.

Really, I'm just giving my input, but I don't charge anything to readers, so I don't need to give a moneyback guarantee 😀
 
I often have people ask me questions about basic brewing, as they know it's one of my many interests..

I was actually raising the point that there ARE ways of altering the water, and that it DOES make a difference to the brew. Really to be aware of it, and that further investigation/reading might be required.

Though I also did point out that I personally don't play with the water - just expressing my own preference.

I also pointed out that yeast DOES affect the drink and that there are lots of different ones you can buy - for that same reason.

Again, I pointed out that I now have my own preferred yeast, which happens to be cheap, but gives me the results I want. Again, just expressing my personal preference.

As experienced brewers will know, there are lots of factors to take into consideration - the article is really about highlighting some of these factors.

Really, I'm just giving my input, but I don't charge anything to readers, so I don't need to give a moneyback guarantee 😀
 
Personally I think if I was reading this part as a novice I would take it if it's safe and clean it's OK to brew. If you are going to try to teach someone you should at least tell them how to find out what they should at least do as a minimum to test their water.


I actually don’t bother getting involved with this. Basically, I feel it’s just another complication to think about. Plus, I’m happy that my tap water is safe and clean to drink, so I’m prepared to have it in my beer too!
 
Point taken.

In all honesty, the article came out much longer than I had aimed for.... but once I had started writing....

I mentioned about water companies sometimes providing a report as to the chemical make-up of the water.

Strangely, some people round this way claim the hard water is perfect for stout, but awful for lager. Nowadays, I only brew pales, but I've had good kölsch too.
 
So I've been busy writing some articles about home brewing. Though I normally write about food, recipes and chilli growing.

This time, the article is about craft beer brewing at home. Hope you enjoy and find it useful.
http://justsimon.co.uk/home-brewing-craft-beer-brewing/


8f363e016c136ab6c7eb58715969048e.jpg

Just read this...I've never looked at the member blog section of the forum before.

It's a really good article and would be perfect for someone starting out.
 
Just read this...I've never looked at the member blog section of the forum before.

It's a really good article and would be perfect for someone starting out.
Thanks.

It's really an article for the type of people who ask me about brewing, without writing a whole 'how to' book.

I guess just an overview.
 
Just read this...I've never looked at the member blog section of the forum before.

It's a really good article and would be perfect for someone starting out.
Thanks.

It's really an article for the type of people who ask me about brewing, without writing a whole 'how to' book.

I guess just an overview.

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks.

It's really an article for the type of people who ask me about brewing, without writing a whole 'how to' book.

I guess just an overview.

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top