Tag: Home brew

Episode 70 Homebrewing Part 1

James Burnette

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Tree Brewing
Tree Brewing

Homebrewing

This is the first part in our two part series on homebrewing. We cover the James quick, cheap and easy method of homebrewing. The method that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

In this part we cover how to make an Ale. For Ales you need any Ale yeast. Not talked about are lagers. I am not a big fan of lagers in  general. The difference between and ale and a lager is in how the yeast perform their job. Ale yeasts work in best in the 70°F range. Also Ale yeasts are top ferminting. Meaning they float on the top of the wort while digesting the sugars. Ales are faster usually finishing in a week or two.

Lagers are bottom fermenting at a temperature around 40°F and can take months to finish. Lagers end up not being worth it to me to make at home. The store shelves are filled with Lagers. Brew great ales, buy lagers.

 

We cover the materials and supplies you will need to become a home brewer. Enjoy and let me know how your brew adventures go.

 

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Brew Closet

Super Easy Hard Cider

James Burnette 26 Comments

I hate that I had to distinguish in this posts title that this was “Hard” cider.  Cider by it’s definition is “hard”, meaning it traditionally cider is a fermented apple juice drink. Here is the Etymology of the word.

 

cider (n.)Look up cider at Dictionary.com
late 13c., from O.Fr. cidre, cire (12c., Mod.Fr. cidre), variant of cisdre, from L.L. sicera, Vulgate rendition of Heb. shekhar, word used for any strong drink (translated in Old English as beor). Meaning gradually narrowed in English to mean exclusively “fermented drink made from apples,” though this sense also was in Old French.

 

Only in America and Parts of Canada does it mean an unfiltered non-alcoholic version. Basically the difference here in the US between Apple Juice and Apple Cider is that cider is unfiltered, sometimes un-pasteurized, making the drink a darker brownish color. To me cider tends to be a bit sweeter and less tangy and crisp than apple juice.  Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way when I refer to Cider I mean a fermented drink and juice is un-fermented. Now lets get onto how you can make this tasty drink at home and easy.

hard-cider-still-life-tom-mc-nemar
By Tom McNemar

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