Brewing Beer-A hobby for all times

As you no doubt already know, hobbies such as candle making and soap making are immensely popular, but if you ask me, I would say let's leave those hobbies to the women and kids, while us men focus our thoughts on home beer brewing instead. Now, I'm certainly not saying that women cannot become involved in this ancient art, but let's face it; men are more likely to get caught up in the thrill of brewing their own beer, and fortunately for us, brew kits which are available nowadays make the process unbelievably easy.

Of course, you've more than likely heard about brew kits, but if you're anything like me, then you're probably feeling a little skeptical about the whole idea. In fact, you're probably wondering why people even bother with brew kits, considering you can go down to your local store and buy as much beer as you want. Sure, you can purchase beer at the store, but you certainly can't buy it for the same price as homemade beer. It's also understandable that you may be a bit skeptical, but you can be rest assured that once you've given it a try, you'll never look back. Don't for a minute think that the beer you buy in a store is any better than that which you can make at home using brewing kits.

After all, people were brewing their own beer long before factories came into existence, and you may even be surprised to know that home beer brewing started as far back as 10,000 BC. The great thing about using brew kits to make your own beer is that it doesn't really take up much of your time, and of course you also have the opportunity to try and develop your own unique recipe. One common misconception is that brew kits are something only raging alcoholics would buy, but the truth is there are millions of men around the world who make their own beer, even though they very rarely drink. What this tells us is that home beer brewing must certainly be a very enjoyable hobby. It's also great to be able to invite your friends around for a barbecue, and then to offer them some of your special homemade brews.

Contrary to what you may believe, making your own beer at home also doesn't need to cost you an arm and a leg, in that they are several different beer brewing kits available at extremely reasonable prices, and this also explains why they've become so popular as gifts, particularly on father's day. A close friend of mine was so impressed with one of his own recipes that he now prints out his own labels, which he then sticks on the bottles. Maybe it's silly I know, but he just loves the idea of have his very own signature beer, and I'll tell you what, none of his friends are complaining because not only is it free, but it also tastes damn good.

If you love drinking beer, but you still don't fancy the idea of having to make your own, then just find a supplier who sells brew kits and buy one for your Dad, or for a friend. That's what I did. I bought one for my Dad (a non-drinker) and he's been supplying me with free beer ever since, probably because of all the compliments he gets from me, and also from my mates. Yes, you can find everything you need, but I can assure you that brew kits make the process so much easier. Now, with all this talk of beer, I'm off to open my fridge.

http://winebeerlife.blogspot.com for a comprehensive guide to home brewing. http://www.essentials4life.co.uk Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Stentiford

I am a craft brewer-brilliant video

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Home beer brewing

Importance of Ingredients in Home Brew Beer

Think of home brew beer like making a fine meal for the family. When you are trying to impress everyone with your prowess in the kitchen you would not use ingredients of lesser quality. For this very same reason it is important not to use lesser ingredients in your home brew beer. By making sure that your ingredients are all first rate you will find that you will produce a brew to be proud of.

Fortunately, looking for the proper ingredients for use in your home brew beer is not nearly as hard as you might think. The internet is a great resource to start looking for other brewers across the globe. You will find hundreds of online beer websites that sell everything from the basic required ingredients all the way up to the most exotic. Also be sure to make a habit of looking at message boards and blogs to see what other brewers think of the ingredients you want to use. These people have nothing to gain by steering you in the wrong direction and so their advice is almost always top notch.

When talking with other brewers you will run across new recipes that you probably have never thought of. This sharing of information is one of the most fun things about producing home brew beer. Being able to take advantage of everyone else's experiences is a great help in making your home beer brewing experience all that much better.

For example, when I was looking for a specific ingredient I ran across a recipe for a Brown Ale posted by another home brewer that only took three weeks to be ready. Although my preference is to let my beer sit or 4-5 weeks, depending on the recipe, I tried his recipe and it worked beautifully. Now I have another "favorite" recipe to savor.

I am quite sure that you will be able to find your ingredient with very little difficulty at all. But finding the time to make and enjoy all the wonderful brewing recipes out there is another question entirely!

Instead of searching the online beer sites for information about how to correctly home brew beer, download the eBook Home Beer Brewing Secrets found at Brew Beer Today.com.

Home Beer Brewing Secrets is inexpensive, has a money back guarantee, and offers a great deal of information on how to best enjoy your home brewing experience. You can even sign up for a FREE mini course on home brewing!

The real reason to home brew beer.

Brewing beer has been around for many centuries. Its concept has been around since mankind discovered the making of bread and to this day is still practiced on a small scale as well as largely mass-produced manufacturing. The process may not be quite as convenient as just being able to purchase from a wide selection of brands from a local store, but once the whole aspect of production is understood, the benefits of home brewing can certainly be more rewarding in due time.

Many people in recent times have embraced the whole home brewing process. As a pastime it offers perhaps a stress free environment which at a relaxed pace can often be described as therapeutic. The easy access to brewing equipment and ready-made ingredients can give even the novice brewer a head start with such a wide variety of home brewing starter kits available on the market. From specialized beer recipes to any number of flavored wines, the possibilities of brewing from home a unique beverage to suit an individual's taste are endless.

Although home brewing may not exactly have instant results, as a money saving alternative for the beer connoisseur without a doubt it offers positive financial benefits. From home production, there are no imposed government taxes or duties to incur, and the increased retail mark-up price due to shipping and packaging costs are comfortably avoided. Not only that, home brewing is also environmentally friendly with regards to packaging in the form of reusable bottles, and eliminating fuel consumption through transportation.

Home brewing of beer is regarded legal in most countries around the world. Providing the brewer remains within the given boundaries of volume production allowed within the annual quantity limit, and uses the product for own consumption and not for profitable selling, then the home brewer will not be penalized by the authorities. It is however possible for a home brewer to sell their product once they regard the recipe to be perfected, but application for the appropriate license must obviously be adhered to.

As a simple process to understand, the brewing of beer may actually take some time to perfect. For a brewer to achieve the correct recipe, much understanding and knowledge may have to be learned by the unfortunate task of elimination. It is a slow learning process which may take require a lot of patience, but once mastered can be an extremely productive hobby when applied with a good brewing system.

Home brewed beers often come with the stigma attached that they never taste as good as off-the-shelf brands. The ability to recreate popular mass-produced beers may be found to be difficult, but with trial and error it is feasible that they can be bettered to suit a person's palate. The flavor and texture possibilities are endless when used in conjunction with the right knowledge of beer fermentation, addition of ingredients, and sense of adventure. The potential of having a brew constantly on tap and suited directly towards the brewer's fancies may seem like a paradise within reach for the avid aficionado of fine ale.

With reduced overheads, only a small amount of manual work and the convenience of being stored within arms reach, home brewing certainly does have its good points. The results can be gratifying even of a competitive nature with entries to nationwide and local home brew competitions a possibility. Making friends has never been so easy by having a regular personal stash of brew, and although the shelf life might not last as long as the popular processed beers, that's very little concern when there's plenty of appetites to be whetted.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jorge_Zarate

Home beer brewing

Beer enthusiasts enjoy the aroma created during their home brewing process. However, some members of your household may not enjoy the scents of malted barley and hops simmering to perfection. So why not take your hobby outside. Any excuse to spend time in your outdoor kitchen is a great excuse, but this hobby has an obvious reward at the end. You will soon discover that it is easy to recruit friends to spend time in your outdoor kitchen to serve as brewing assistants. Helping the brew master is a sure fire tactic to earn an invite when the beer is ready to be served. Of course, all of your guests will enjoy spending time in your outdoor living area enjoying the finished product.

If your outdoor kitchen is equipped with a side burner, and you have some extra counter space, you are well on your way to having your own home brewery. Home brewed beer can be bottled, but many experienced home brewers will agree the bottling process is the most time consuming and least enjoyable part of home brewing. If your outdoor kitchen is equipped with a kegerator, you can skip the bottling process and significantly reduce the amount of time it takes for your beer to be ready to be served.

You will not find home brewing equipment at outdoor kitchen stores. With a quick search of the internet or yellow pages you will definitely find countless online stores, and you will likely find a brick and mortar store close to your home.

To get started, you will first need home brewing equipment. A basic home brew kit will cost about one hundred dollars. As with any hobby, you can buy more expensive equipment, but getting started for the least amount of money is recommended. Basic home brewing kits consist of a six gallon glass fermenter (or carboy), a six gallon bottling bucket with spigot, and a variety of cleaning supplies, bottling equipment, and instructions. The large fermenter and bottling bucket can be stored in your outdoor kitchen cabinets when not in use.

Next, you will need a recipe and ingredients. For your first attempt, look for a complete kit with ingredients and instructions. Recipes get more complex as you gain experience and expertise in home brewing, but start with something simple. These kits cost between $30 and $50 and produce 5 gallons of beer. The usable yield will vary, but that is approximately 50 twelve-ounce servings.

The actual process of brewing your beer begins using your outdoor kitchen side burner and a large stainless steel brewing pot. Your recipe may vary, but you will be cooking ingredients in the brewing pot for approximately one hour. Along with the flavoring, the malted barley in this step becomes the sugar that is fermented into alcohol. The mixture is cooled by adding more water, yeast is added, and the beer then rests in the fermenter for about a week. Next, the beer is bottled and combined with priming sugar that produces carbonation. After about two weeks, the beer is carbonated and ready to enjoy. If you are transferring your beer to a kegerator, there is no need for priming sugar and the two week wait is reduced to about two days before your beer is ready.

Home brewing is completely legal, and nothing like distilling spirits which is highly illegal and very dangerous. You cannot accidentally make a dangerous beer. Worst case scenario, you might not like the taste of the beer you select, but it will be safe to drink and enjoy. If that happens, just start again with a different recipe, and enjoy spending more time in your outdoor kitchen!

Werever Products Inc ( http://www.werever.com ) manufactures weatherproof cabinetry for the outdoors. Werever has provided outdoor cabinetry for resorts, schools, zoos, hotels, and thousands of outdoor kitchen projects nationwide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Boettger

The importance of beer!

One of the smartest men in American History, Ben Franklin lived an extraordinary life. Ben Franklin was a writer, inventor, and politician. Ben was also a partier and loved the "good life". He was quoted as saying; "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." I couldn't agree with Ben more. Beer is great and makes us feel good. Now of course there is caution to be added to this sentiment, abuse of any substance can lead to bad things and a beer belly. But, for the sake of my idea, I want to talk about the fun and shared moments that beer brings into our life.

I was impressed when Obama, said he wanted to squash a debate between a police man and the professor who was arrested for breaking into his own home. Obama said they could sit down over a few beers and discuss it. That is awesome to all the men in the world who have done this same thing. Some of my deepest conversations, and even important business meetings have taken place over some beers. I have seen people settle differences or create arguments while drinking beers. I have seen couples decide to get back together or decide to break up while having beers. The moment was created nonetheless, and barriers were broken down. People got real, and let it all out, good or bad the honesty flowed and that is what beer is all about.

When I first started drinking beer with my friends, I did not like the taste of beer. Of course we were drinking cheap beers. Then there was a time during college when I experimented with Malt Liquor, due to my obsession with what rappers like Ice Cube and Eazy-E were drinking. As I began to become a man, I learned to really savor the taste of beer and would find great beers to drink. One of my UNLV college professors (Lucciani Valentino) who recently passed away, taught me about the importance of drinking high quality beers. He had such a passion for beers and spirits, and I learned that it was a good thing to be a connoisseur.

One of the best places that I used to visit in Las Vegas when I lived there was the Holy Cow brewery and Casino. It was a small casino that had awesome wheat and amber beers that were freshly brewed. The wings were to die for and the beers tasted like heaven. Then it was sold to Ivana Trump's company and closed down to make way for a proposed high rise condo, which by the way was never built. The day that the Holy Cow closed down, angels cried and beer lovers like me lost a part of their souls.

Beer is best shared in company with friends and even better on your travels.

• I remember drinking ice cold beer and eating wood fired pizza while looking at the Pacific Ocean from a Newport Beach bar. I was talking with my friend about life.
• I remember having some pints with my wife in a London Pub and talking with some wealthy kids from India, we were breaking culture barriers.
• I remember discussing the meaning of success with another Vegas friend of mine, while drinking from 16 oz mugs.
• I remember a taxi driver taking my brother-in-law and me from place to place in El Paso, Texas while we bar hopped every place possible drinking Mexican beers, and eating the hottest wings known to man.

Do you know how we felt better the next day? We had beers in a cantina in Juarez, Mexico. We ate and drank and paid the Trio to play us sad tunes. The point is, that I remember these moments and many more because of the people I shared the moments with. Beer was a great factor, but the people made it all possible.

Now that I am getting to my mid-30's, I try to not drink beer as much as I use to. I used to drink one or two beers with my meals. This lifestyle can keep you from accomplishing your goals and besides, I am much more interested in looking and feeling good. There is such thing as a beer belly, and I proved it. I try to restrict my beer drinking to visiting friends, watching a good movie or other special occasions, but my enjoyment of beer has not simmered. I still love the taste of the malted hops and barely in a frosty glass. We are now in the moment, and enjoying the greatness of beer and life.

Donn Kirst- Is a writer, speaker, and trainer. To contact Donn: donnkirst@yahoo.com http://www.donnkirst.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donn_Kirst