Originally Posted by urge2kill
I only helped somebody else brew.
They were adjusting the water's mineral levels by adding ionic compounds (salts). They needed to acheive a specific molarity for each substance. Molarity is moles per liter. A mole is 6.022 × 1023 molecules. The difficulty was that each ionic compound consisted of two or more molecules that would dissolve (separate) in the water. The molecules are rarely present in a 1:1 ratio within the ionic compound. Furthermore, the weight of an individual molecule, and hence the weight of one mole of that substance, varies with its elemental composition. Furthermore, some of the ionic compounds were hydrates, ionic compounds that contain a (usually unspecified) amount of H2O molecules (water weight).
I just used some bottled water that I liked it's taste. Why would you want to achieve a specific molarity? What would change?
Originally Posted by jpr95
What you used is known as Hopped Malt Extract, something many entry-level homebrewers use their first few times.
The brewing I do is a combination of grains and Liquid Malt Extract, then hop pellets added at certain points in the boil. The next step for me is to go to all-grain brewing, which would eliminate the cans of LME, but would also require some more equipment to sparge the grains.
As for what kinds of beer I like, well, I like beer. I tend for darker or hoppier beers, but I'll drink many different styles. I generally don't care for sweet or too fruity.
Yep, Cooper's brand to be exact.
That's what I also want to do. But I cant find any bulk 2-row malt to buy from around here so I would probably have to order on-line. There is this shop in Belgium that sells pretty much everything, from ingredients to equipment. Not just for beer but for wine and cheese too:
http://www.brouwland.com/en/
Hmmm, hop pellets. I was thinking of using whole ones according to the recipe. Grinding the grains should not be such a big problem. I saw a video once where they ground the grains using a DIY grader that was powered by a handheld drill. But you could probably just grind them in a standard mixer or something.
A problem that I have is with carbonation. In order to make the beer fizzy, I add half a teaspoon of sugar into each bottle before closing them. Then some more fermentation takes place but without a valve (the bottles are allready sealed) the gas gets trapped in the beer and makes it fizzy. At one week after sealing the bottles the beer is a bit -too- fizzy but after a month it's fine and the foam is more compacted.
But since I am using sugar and not finely ground malt (the white dust one) I think that might damage the taste as sugar does not ferment completely. Maybe I will use some caramelized sugar drops next time but I think that finely ground malt is probably best. But I kinda doubt that it has enough sugars to produce alot of gas in the beer. I am not planning to use a keg carbonator so... Plus the second fermentation seems kinda cool...
Another problem is pasteurizing. Apparently this home-brews only last for a few months... Maybe a bit more if you add a bit of extra hops which are natural preservatives like lemon juice etc. But since the most difficult part is waiting for the beer to brew it makes sense to make lots of it in one go... But then if do it might go bad...
How long can you store home - brews safely? You use alot of hops, lemon juice, other preservatives or pasteurize it?
