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Homemade beer made easy

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Homemade beer made easy

With the craft beer industry expanding the way that it has been in the last couple of years, you might be tempted to attempt to brew beer at home. It’s a reasonable thing to want to do, and something that people have been doing for hundreds of years. Not only will you have the ability to make some very tasty beer, but you’ll also come to understand what goes into the brewing process.

Doubtless when you tell people that you’re thinking about getting a home brew setup, you’re going to hear horror stories. People are quick to point out that you might go blind (you won’t) or that your entire house might end up smelling like a brewery (it might).

When I took up home brewing a couple of years ago, Dad was quick to tell me a story about a friend of his from college who brewed a beer with a chicken in it as a result of a Victorian recipe he had found. Thankfully, this is a trend that never caught on, and I consider myself lucky for never having had to use the phrase ‘cartilaginous, with a distinctive aroma of poultry’ in a beer review.

Brewing at home can be daunting. There’s technical information and jargon that you’re going to need to learn if you want to be really good at it. The truth is, though, if you can read, you can brew beer. All you really need is a guide to brewing that will explain the process slowly and carefully. The Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Book, released earlier this month, is an excellent guide for beginners.

For one thing, it’s not highly technical. If authors Erica Shea and Stephen Valand tell you that you’re going to need a piece of equipment to accomplish a certain task, they’re going to provide you with an illustration demonstrating exactly what needs to happen. This is made considerably easier by the fact that the batch size they suggest is for a one gallon recipe, meaning if you’ve ever made pasta, you have most of the equipment you’re going to need. That said, each recipe comes with a scaled up five gallon version for home brewers who already have the equipment, or for the ambitious newbie.

The recipes themselves reflect the origin of the Brooklyn Brew Shop, which set up at the Brooklyn Flea just over two years ago. They were able to take advantage of local green markets and seasonal ingredients in order to design beers. It’s a DIY wonderland for beer drinkers, and while you might not end up liking all of the recipes included, you certainly can’t fault them for their variety.

The creatively named recipes range from fairly standard fare (Everyday IPA, World’s Greatest Dad Brown, Coffee Donut Stout) to seasonal specialties (Gingerbread Ale, Apple Crisp Ale, Lady Lavender). There are some eccentric choices as well, including a Citrus Gose and a spicy Jalapeno Saison. I feel I should note that they do a fine service for the gluten intolerant by providing recipes that include root vegetables and which actually seem palatable.

If there’s one thing the book accomplishes, it’s stripping away any apprehension you might have about the brewing process by removing much of the difficulty from the process. The batches are small, the recipes are flavourful and Erica and Stephen have created a book that allows you to get caught up in the romance and adventure of brewing without leaving your kitchen.

That said, I would probably recommend skipping the Lobster Saison. That could lead squarely to Victorian chicken beer.

Jordan St.John writes about beer in all of its many guises on his blog Saintjohnswort.ca.

 

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