Getting Set Up to Make Beer

The hobby of brewing your own beer at home is growing steadily as more people discover how much fun they can have making their beer at home and how great absolutely fresh beer can be.  There may be no more gratifying moment for a home brewer than to serve your own fresh beer to your guests iced down in your favorite beer mugs and hear the rave that your beer is as good as the store bought beer they like best or maybe even better!

Part of the reason for the huge popularity is that getting set up to make beer and finding good supplies and equipment is neither difficult nor overly expensive.  You can find or create the equipment fairly easily or get it discounted from others who have retired from the brewing business.  And right now there is probably a home brewing store in your town ready and able to provide you with the ingredients as well as instruction books and recipes for all kinds of wonderful tasting beers you can make right at home.  And with the explosion of web sites, ebooks and articles out there on the internet about home brewing, all the help you could ask for is at your fingertips to help you get started.

The reason different people get into home brewing vary.  Some love the social aspect as you join a large local and international community of brewers.  Another reason is that it is just great fun to assemble the equipment, learn the recipes and take a stab at making your own home grown batch of tasty beer.  Even if you "botch" a batch of beer, its all in the spirit of learning and it just drives you on to learn from your mistakes to make even better beer next time. 

A third great reason is you have so much more control over your beer when you brew it yourself.  Because you are not dealing with a beer that is mass produced and shipped from hundreds of miles away, you can control the taste, the consistency and even the level of alcohol to make your beer as strong or mild as you want it to be.  And you can make changes with each batch with virtually endless variations on the recipes that are available to the home brewing community.

The supplies you will need to get started are easy to find and not very expensive either.  Probably the best way to get a feel for what the best equipment is and who are the suppliers to favor would come from becoming a regular at home brewing clubs and gatherings and making some friends there.  If you make it well known that you are a "new recruit" and need some mentoring in how to get set up, you will be overwhelmed with offers for you to sit in on a brewing session or two to get a feel for the process.  If you take advantage of their zeal to help you get started, you will be way ahead on the game when you go shopping for the stuff you need to get set up to make your own beer at home.

The equipment you will need is pretty much only used for brewing beer so you will need to think of storage.  The pot for boiling your initial wort and the equipment to handle the beer, filter it and ferment it are all made in sizes and at prices to encourage the home brewing markets.  You can find them at retail prices at your home brewing retail outlet in town.  You can use the internet and shop second hand shops to get better prices.  But many like to patronize the home brewing store that helped them get their start just to make sure they stay in business to keep selling you great fresh ingredients.

That same retail outlet will be a good source for the grains, yeasts and hops you need for the actual production of beer.  Freshness is the key so communicate with the management of the store to learn of just how fresh those things are. As with the equipment, you can buy these things from the internet and that is fine.  But get to know your supplier whoever you use and make sure you are confident you are getting the highest quality materials to make your home made beer. It will make a big difference.

Dying to Drink an Awesome Beer? Go German!

The German people are renowned for a lot of things, one of which is brewing. Beer is a crucial piece of their legacy and civilization, with more than 1300 various breweries spread across the land. As far as per capita beer consumption, the German people are only behind the Czechs and the Irish. The history of German beer spans back to the origin of the country when monks began to experiment with brewing around 1000 A.D. The country's leaders eventually began to regulate the production of beer as brewing started to be more and more profitable.

Reinheitsge-what?

The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, or purity standard, came about in fifteen-sixteen and remains the most famous and influential aspect of German brewing.  The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot was ordered by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria to ensure that Bavarian beers were all of high quality. Hops, barley, and water were the only ingredients allowed in beer according to the regulation. The Reinheitsgebot is the oldest legislation placed on beverages in the world and has not been changed in nearly five-hundred years with the exception of adding yeast as one of the allowable ingredients.  Before that addition,
brewers had simply used the yeast found naturally in the air. Because of the stringent standard of quality followed by the purity requirement, Bavarian manufacturers were soon considered the best manufacturers of beer. Other breweries started to adhere to the proclamation as the prominence of the Bavarian breweries continued to rise.

German breweries have a long-standing reputation of producing quality brews made only from the purest ingredients as a result of the Reinheitsgebot. As time passed and Germany started to export beer, many cities became famous brewing spots. By fifteen-hundred, Scandinavia, Holland, England, and even India were getting beer imported from one of the 600 breweries in the city of Bremen. Two more famed brewing towns were Einbeck and Braunschweig.

Plague and Steins

Because of it's full-bodied flavor and right amount of head foam most modern Germans still prefer fabbier, or draft beer, over bottled beer. Used still today, German beer steins became popular around the time the purity standard came about in an effort to prevent the spread of the black plague.  Germany made a lot of regulations to stop its citizens from getting ill during the time of the black plague. People discovered that infected flies would fly in people's food and spread the disease.  Since Germans were not the type to let a little bit of plague get between them and their beer, this led to the stein, a beverage container with a closed lid that could be used with the thumb so drinkers could stop disease and still be able to drink with one hand. Beer drinking went up exponentially as people started to realize the plague spread in dirty conditions with brackish pools of water. Originally made of stoneware with pewter tops, steins grew in popularity. German beer steins started to be made entirely of pewter for nearly three-hundred years as the pewter guild grew. Still manufactured today, silver and porcelain German beer steins were eventually introduced.

Today

More than five-thousand types of beer are made today from over thirteen-hundred and fifty breweries within Germany's borders. The oldest brewery in the world that continues operation today is the Benedictine abbey Weihenstephan, that has been producing beer since one-thousand and forty. The most concentrated area in Germany for breweries is the Franconia region of Bavaria near the city Bamberg. German breweries manufacture a wide variety of tastes and kinds of beer with the majority of them able to be placed under ales or lagers. Most of these beers have an alcoholic content ranging from 4.7% to 5.4% but some kinds can be as high as 12%, making them more potent than a lot of wines.

Next time you're at your local bottle shop or purveyor of fine fermented libations, try perusing the German beer section and taste a thousand years of brewing history!

Beer And Fitness – Can You Drink Beer And Stay Fit?

This week I was asked an interesting question concerning drinking beer and exercising. It seems that a former Navy Radioman has developed quite a gut since retiring, and was curious about whether he should give up his beer to lose weight? Not only does the gentleman enjoy drinking about 2-4 beers daily, he also has quit exercising. Moderate beer consumption is actually healthy, so I set out to define “moderate” as well as educate on the basics of caloric intake and caloric expenditure. The radioman is not suffering from a beer belly but an INACTIVITY BELLY! Yes, you can still drink beer and be very fit.

Over 90 million Americans love drinking beer! Drinking in moderationhas been shownby many doctors, as well as the New England Journal of Medicine, to be a healthy component of longevity. In fact, moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, has been proven to reduce the effects of high cholesterol, heart disease, some forms of cancer and even impotence.

Anything done in excess is naturally unhealthy. “Moderation” is defined by most doctors as 1-2 beers a day. And NO, you cannot save up through the week and catch up on the weekend drinking 10-12 beers in an evening. That is NOT moderation. There is even a US Beer Drinking Team that links beer enthusiasts and promotes moderation, responsibility, and healthy living.

The average can of beer has over 100 calories. Drinking one beer is equivalent to eating a chocolate chip cookie. Drinking four is equal to eating a Big Mac Hamburger. In order to lose weight, you have to burn off these extra calories as well as the other calories that you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even the lightest of beers has the empty calories of alcohol, which is the cause of poor health if done in excess and without a regular exercise routine. Unfortunately, too many Americans live under one of the worst stereotypes placed on a human being – the BEER BELLY, or as I call it, the inactivity belly.

The “inactivity” belly is caused by excess calories in your diet AND lack of activity to burn the extra calories. The solution to lose your beer belly is as simple as calories in must be less than calories out (or expended through exercise).

Calories IN < Calories Out (burned) = Weight Loss

If you can add exercise into your schedule for 20-30 minutes a day, your daily consumption of alcohol (1-2 beers) will not have any additional impact on your gut. To lose your beer belly, you REALLY have to watch your food and beverage intake, drink 2-4 quarts of water a day, AND fit fitness into your world. THERE IS NO OTHER HEALTHY ANSWER! The exercise and workout ideas below can get you started on your calorie burning plan:

Workout #1: This is a great full body calorie burner:

Repeat 3-5 times

Walk, run or bike 5:00

Squats – 20

Pushups – 10-20

Situps or Crunches – 20

Workout #2: Swimming and elliptical gliding (cross country skiing) burn the most calories per hour (This workout can burn up to 1000 calories in one hour!)

Swim 20-30 minutes non-stop

Elliptical Glide 20-30 minutes

There is no reason why you cannot have “six pack abs” and still drink a six pack a week. Once again, excessive beer drinking is not recommended by anyone in the health industry. If you simply enjoy drinking beer and are serious about your health, moderation in drinking alcohol and eating foods high in calories, combined with habitual daily exercise is your ticket to reaching your goals. I now have a series of Workout plans that cater to all levels of fitness and can help you with developing a healthy diet with proper food choices – the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced 45 Day plans sold on StewSmith.com Store. For those who are into strength training, I have recently writtena weight training plan called “Beer and Barbells” that allows you to use the additional calories of beer, or milk shakes if you are under 21, to gain mass and strength.

Adding exercise daily and observing the dietary recommendations in these eBooks will enable you to be the person you were yesterday without changing who you are today.

A Hoppy Marriage: Gourmet Cheese & Beer Pairing Guide

By Sara Kahn

Is there really a season for beer? I certainly enjoy beer year round but find myself opting for a cold brew more often during warmer weather. This time of year seems to call for lighter and more refreshing beverages but did you know beer just may be the better beverage choice to enjoy with gourmet cheese?

Beer, like wine, has something in common with cheese. All of these products are pastoral and crafted using traditional methods that date back centuries. Wine, beer and cheese speak of a particular culture, a place and a time. The connection between beer and cheese is particularly strong since the animals milked for cheese ate the grains used for brewing beer. It’s possible that your nose and palate may pick up similar flavor profiles. Putting aside their natural affinity, perhaps the most important reason to pair beer with cheese is that the carbonation and brisk qualities of beer refresh the mouth and wash away the tongue-coating richness of the cheese. Simply put, they taste good together.

With the wide variety of domestic, imported, and craft beers now available, selecting the right one can be just as overwhelming as choosing an appropriate wine. Fortunately, we have teamed up with Peter Estaniel, founder of Better Beer Blog (www.betterbeerblog.com) to give us an assist. Take a look at our Gourmet Cheese and Beer Pairing Guide for Peter’s recommendations for your next gourmet cheese and BEER tasting.

Cheese Type: Fresh

Fresh cheeses are not aged and usually are white and light in flavor, smooth and sometimes tangy. Try chevre (goat cheese), buffalo mozzarella or feta.

Peter’s Picks: The light citrus character of White Beers (Unibroue Blanche de Chambly, Wittekerke) and Wheat Beers (Erdinger Weissbier, Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier) marries well with the lactic tang of fresh cheeses.

Cheese Type: Bloomy

Encased in a whitish, edible rind, bloomy cheeses are often velvety, gooey with a mild flavor. Add Brie, Camembert or Pierre-Robert to the cheese board for a decadent treat.

Peter’s Picks: Pilsner, with its balanced flavor and mildly bitter finish, washes the palate of creamy, bloomy cheeses. Try Trumer Pils, Spaten Pils.

Cheese Type: Washed Rind

AKA “Stinky Cheeses”. During the aging process, washed-rind cheeses are usually bathed in a brine or washed with liquor such as wine, beer or a spirits. It’s this brining process that gives the cheese an aromatic quality. Almost all have orange or reddish hued rinds. Not mild and not sharp, washed rind cheeses are full-flavored. Give Taleggio or Epoisses a taste.

Peter’s Picks: India Pale Ale (Blind Pig IPA, Stone IPA) and Belgian-style Dark Strong ales (Chimay Grande Reserve, Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor) have enough gusto to stand up to the power of these cheeses.

Cheese Type: Aged, Hard Cheeses

As cheeses matures, it hardens and concentrates in flavor. Try our 3 Year Old Cheddar, Aged Gouda and Piave.

Peter’s Picks: A pint of English ale (Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, Newcastle Brown Ale) is the traditional beverage of choice for Cheddar. The nutty and caramelized flavors of aged Gouda and Piave match well with brown ales, as well.

Cheese Type: Blue

The bluish-green veins give blue cheese its punch. Listed from strong to strongest in pungency are creamy Gorgonzola, nutty Stilton and salty Roquefort.

Peter’s Picks: Intense cheeses like blues can be tamed with sweet, fruity beers. For a unique treat, try a raspberry flavored beer like Belgian Lambic (Lindemans Framboise) with blue cheese for dessert.

About The Author Even though her passion for gourmet cheese was undying, Sara Kahn found shopping for it to be overwhelming, time consuming and confusing. She established www.thecheeseambassador.com to offer a simple way to select and serve the world’s finest cheeses either for home entertaining or as a unique cheese gift. By providing the perfect combination of fine cheese along with a comprehensive cheese course guide, enjoying gourmet cheese is now a deliciously enriching experience. The author invites you to visit: http://www.thecheeseambassador.com