Can I Be A Brewer?
To Brew or not to Brew.
In short… yes. That could be it, the end of this post, but I will dissemble a little.
Anyone can become a brewer. With just a little equipment, some simple ingredients, basic knowledge and time, you can brew a more than decent beer. The only question is how far do you want to go?
“Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”
What styles of beer do you like? Start there because that is what your pallet is used to, and you’ll be able to taste how good it is. You’ll also be able to tell where you might be able to improve, or what you would like to do to make it your own.
As I’ll point out in the upcoming Basic Equipment post, you don’t need a lot of gear to get started. But you can easily go deep down the rabbit hole. Single and three vessel systems, fermenters, chillers, and various tools – it doesn’t take long to add up if your a tech and toy nerd.
As for the rest, knowledge comes from reading, watching, listening and trying. I’ve made mistakes along the way, as has every brewer in the history of brewing. Soo long as we learn from our mistakes, we are improving ourselves and our craft.
In the following weeks I’ll be stripping brewing back to its bare bones and then building it back up in a way that’s easy to understand, follow, digest and repeat. If there is anything you would particularly like covered, drop me an email.
The current list of topics will include:
Basic Equipment
Equipment Cleaning – why and how
Extract Kits and Fresh Wort Kits
Brewing Terms
Beer Styles
Brew in a Bag
Hops – bittering, flavour and aroma
Fermentation – why we love yeast
Yeast and Supplements
Aeration
Cold crashing, conditioning and largering
Bottling and Kegging – pros and cons
Types of Fermenters
Open v Closed Fermentation
Wort Chillers and Hot Cubes – The Aussie ‘no chill’ method
Water Chemistry
Grain and Malting
Kegging different beers
Complex brewing processes
Brewing Largers
Fruits and Flavouring
Sour Beers
Acid and Alkaline Control
Re-iterated mashes and High Gravity Beers
Brew House Efficiency
Lautering and Sparging
Single Vessel Systems
Multi Vessel Systems
Using Brewfather and other software
Ciders and Ginger Beer
Mead