Books about Beer

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You can download it here for nout and then decide whether you want next step in my opinion is the Dave Miller book Home Brewing Guide. Canada Beer Report [e-book: download: PDF] by Snapshots Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make. Download Free PDF View PDF. Handbook of food products manufacturing, 1st edn. Books Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide – by Dave Miller Storey Publishing.
 
 

 

(PDF) How To Brew – By John Palmer | Natboonthawat Pattanakitchotipat – replace.me

 

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Read more Read less. Customer reviews. How customer reviews and ratings work Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon.

Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from United Kingdom. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. Brilliant and really informative. The best book on homebrewing I have in my collection. Believe me this book wipes the floor with the more simplistic ‘lots of pictures’ books that are currently doing the rounds.

Covers all the usual areas but explains each area with a no nonsense, easy to read manner. If you want lots of bright colourful pictures then this is not for you, but a comic, this is a book for serious home brewers who enjoy reading about or checking something they may be a little doubtful about. Top notch five stars. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Good preparation is the most important step to assuring a successful batch. Good preparation prevents nasty surprises. You don’t want to be halfway through your brewing and realize that you don’t have any yeast. You don’t want to pour good wort into a fermentor that you forgot to clean. Cleaning and Sanitizing are part of your preparation but are the most important factors for assuring a successful batch of beer.

Lastly, there are two types of brewers- lucky and consistent. The lucky brewer will sometimes produce an outstanding batch of beer, but just as often one that is not. He brews from the seat-of-his-pants, innovating and experimenting with mixed results. The consistent brewer has more outstanding batches than poor ones. He may be an innovator and an experimenter, the difference is that he takes note of what he did and how much he did of it so that he can always learn from his results.

Good record keeping will make the difference between luck and skill. The crushed specialty grain is tied in a muslin grainbag, and the hops have been weighed and put in three separate bowls. Preparing your brewing equipment is principally a matter of cleaning and sanitizing, but organization is a part of the process too.

For each of the brewing processes, some preparation can be done to make the process work better. Consider what you are going to do: Check the Recipe – Make a shopping list of your ingredients and amounts. Plan ahead on how you are going to measure them.

Do you need extra bowls or measuring cups? Do you have good water out of the tap, or should you buy some? Equipment – Make a checklist of the equipment you will be using and note whether it needs to be sanitized or only cleaned.

Don’t try to clean something at the last minute just as you need it, you are inviting trouble. Use a checklist to organize your thoughts and see if you have overlooked anything. More instruction on cleaning is given later in this chapter. The yeast should be prepared at the beginning of the brewing session if not before so you can tell if it’s alive and ready to work beforehand. If you have spent time preparing the equipment and making the wort and then you have nothing to ferment it with, you will be very disappointed.

See Chapter 6 for detailed information on yeast preparation. The Boil – Weigh out your hop additions and place them in separate bowls for the different addition times during the boil. If you are going to steep crushed specialty grain see Chapter 12 , then weigh, package and steep it before adding your extract to the boiling pot.

Cooling After The Boil – If you plan to chill the wort using a water bath, i. A quick chill from boiling is necessary to help prevent infection and to generate the Cold Break in the wort. A good cold break precipitates proteins, polyphenols and beta glucans which are believed to contribute to beer instability during storage. A good cold break also reduces the amount of chill haze in the final beer. Sanitizing – Anything that touches the cooled wort must be sanitized.

This includes the fermentor, airlock, and any of the following, depending on your transfer methods: Funnel, strainer, stirring spoon and racking cane. Sanitizing techniques are discussed later in this chapter. By taking the time to prepare for your brewday, the brewing will go smoothly and you will be less likely to forget any steps. Cleaning and sanitizing your equipment beforehand will allow you to pay more attention to your task at hand and maybe prevent a messy boilover.

Preparing your yeast by either re-hydrating and proofing or making a Starter will ensure that the afternoon’s work will not have been in vain. Having your ingredients laid out and measured will prevent any mistakes in the recipe.

Finally, preparing for each stage of the brewing process by having the equipment ready and the process planned out will make the whole operation simple and keep it fun. Your beer will probably benefit too. As in all things, a little preparation goes a long way to improving the end result. Providing good growing conditions for the yeast in the beer also provides good growing conditions for other micro-organisms, especially wild yeast and bacteria.

Cleanliness must be maintained throughout every stage of the brewing process. Figure The yeast cells are the round things, the worms are bacteria. The terms clean, sanitize and sterilize are often used interchangeably, but should not be. Items may be clean but not sanitized or vice versa. Cleaning is the process of removing all the dirt and grime from a surface, thereby removing all the sites that can harbor bacteria. Cleaning is usually done with a detergent and elbow grease.

None of the sanitizing agents used by homebrewers are capable of eliminating all bacterial spores and viruses. The majority of chemical agents homebrewers use will clean and sanitize but not sterilize. However, sterilization is not necessary. Instead of worrying about sterilization, homebrewers can be satisfied if they consistently reduce these contaminants to negligible levels. All sanitizers are meant to be used on clean surfaces.

A sanitizer’s ability to kill microorganisms is reduced by the presence of dirt, grime or organic material. Organic deposits can harbor bacteria and shield the surface from being reached by the sanitizer. So it is up to you to make sure the surface of the item to be sanitized is as clean as possible. It is necessary because a dirty surface can never be a completely sanitized one. Grungy deposits can harbor bacteria that will ultimately contaminate your beer.

The ability of a sanitizing agent to kill bacteria is reduced by the presence of any extra organic matter, so prior cleaning is necessary to assure complete sanitization. Several cleaning products available to the homebrewer are discussed below.

Cleaning recommendations for the equipment you will be using follow. Detergents Dish and laundry detergents and cleansers should be used with caution when cleaning your brewing equipment. These products often contain perfumes that can be adsorbed onto plastic equipment and released back into the beer.

In addition, some detergents and cleansers do not rinse completely and often leave behind a film that can be tasted in the beer. Several rinses with hot water may be necessary to remove all traces of the detergent. Detergents containing phosphates generally rinse more easily than those without, but because phosphates are pollutants, they are slowly being phased out. A mild unscented dish washing detergent like Ivory is a good choice for most of your routine equipment cleaning needs.

Only stubborn stains or burnt-on deposits will require something stronger. Bleach Bleach is one of the most versatile cleaners available to the homebrewer. When dissolved in cold water, it forms a caustic solution that is good at breaking up organic deposits like food stains and brewing gunk. Bleach is an aqueous solution of chlorine, chlorides and hypochlorites.

These chemical agents all contribute to bleach’s bactericidal and cleaning powers, but are also corrosive to a number of metals used in brewing equipment. Bleach should not be used for cleaning brass and copper because it causes blackening and excessive corrosion.

Bleach can be used to clean stainless steel, but you need to be careful to prevent corrosion and pitting. There are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind when using bleach to clean stainless steel. Do not leave the metal in contact with chlorinated water for extended periods of time no more than an hour. Fill vessels completely so corrosion does not occur at the waterline. After the cleaning or sanitizing treatment, rinse the item with boiled water and dry the item completely.

Percarbonates Sodium percarbonate is sodium carbonate i. Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda reacted with hydrogen peroxide and it is a very effective cleaner for all types of brewing equipment. It rinses easily. Several products e. One-Step is labeled as a light cleaner and final rinse agent, and produces hydrogen peroxide in solution. Hydrogen peroxide will effectively sanitize surfaces and containers that are already clean. As with all sanitizers, the effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizing agent is comprimised by organic soil.

Use these cleaners according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but generally use one tablespoon per gallon 4 ml per liter and rinse after cleaning.

In my opinion, percarbonate-based cleaners are the best choice for equipment cleaning, and Straight-A from Logic Inc.

These products combine sodium metasilicate with the percarbonate in a stable form which increases its effectivity and prevents the corrosion of metals like copper and aluminum that strong alkaline solutions can cause.

Painters use it for washing walls because it can be rinsed away completely. The recommended usage is one tablespoon per gallon of hot water.

Solutions of TSP and CTSP should not be left to soak for more than an hour because a white mineral film can sometimes deposit on glass and metal which requires an acid vinegar solution to remove.

This is not usually a problem however. Drying additives work by putting a chemical film on the items that allows them to be fully wetted by the water so droplets don’t form; preventing spots. The wetting action destabilizes the proteins that form the bubbles. With the exceptions of spoons, measuring cups and wide mouth jars, it is probably best to only use automatic dishwashers for heat sanitizing, not cleaning. Heat sanitizing is discussed later in this chapter.

Oven Cleaner Commonly known as lye, sodium hydroxide NaOH is the caustic main ingredient of most heavy-duty cleaners like oven and drain cleaner. Potassium hydroxide KOH is also commonly used. Even in moderate concentrations, these chemicals are very hazardous to skin and should only be used when wearing rubber gloves and goggle-type eye protection.

Spray-on oven cleaner is the safest and most convenient way to use sodium hydroxide. Brewers often scorch the bottoms of their brewpots resulting in a black, burned wort area that is difficult to remove for fear of scouring a hole in the pot. The easiest solution is to apply oven cleaner and allow it to dissolve the stain. After the burned-on area has been removed, it is important to thoroughly rinse the area of any oven cleaner residue to prevent subsequent corrosion of the metal.

Sodium hydroxide is very corrosive to aluminum and brass. Copper and stainless steel are generally resistant. Pure sodium hydroxide should not be used to clean aluminum brewpots because the high pH causes the dissolution of the protective oxides, and a subsequent batch of beer might have a metallic taste. Oven cleaner should not affect aluminum adversely if it is used properly.

You will often hear the polypropylene referred to as “food grade plastic”, though all three of these plastics are. Polypropylene is used for utensils, fermenting buckets and fittings. Polycarbonate is used for racking canes and measuring cups.

The vinyl tubing is used for siphons and the like. The main thing to keep in mind when cleaning plastics is that they may adsorb odors and stains from the cleaning products you use.

Dish detergents are your best bet for general cleaning, but scented detergents should be avoided. Bleach is useful for heavy duty cleaning, but the odor can remain and bleach tends to cloud vinyl tubing. Percarbonate cleaners have the benefit of cleaning as well as bleach without the odor and clouding problems. Dishwashers are a convenient way to clean plastic items providing that the water can get inside. Also, the heat might warp polycarbonate items.

Cleaning Glass Glass has the advantage of being inert to everything you might use to clean it with. The only considerations are the danger of breakage and the potential for stubborn lime deposits when using bleach and TSP in hard water areas.

When it comes to cleaning your glass bottles and carboys, you will probably want to use bottle and carboy brushes so you can effectively clean the insides. Cleaning Copper For routine cleaning of copper and other metals, percarbonate-based cleaners like PBW are the best choice. For heavily oxidized conditions, acetic acid is very effective, especially when hot. It is important to use only white distilled vinegar as opposed to cider or wine vinegar because these other types may contain live acetobacteria cultures, which are the last thing you want in your beer.

Brewers who use immersion wort chillers are always surprised how bright and shiny the chiller is the first time it comes out of the wort. If the chiller wasn’t bright and shiny when it went into the wort, guess where the grime and oxides ended up? The oxides of copper are more readily dissolved by the mildly acidic wort than is the copper itself.

By cleaning copper tubing with acetic acid once before the first use and rinsing with water immediately after each use, the copper will remain clean with no oxide or wort deposits that could harbor bacteria. Cleaning copper with vinegar should only occasionally be necessary. The best sanitizer for counterflow wort chillers is Star San’. It is acidic and can be used to clean copper as well as sanitize. Star San can be left in the chiller overnight to soak-clean the inside.

Cleaning and sanitizing copper with bleach solutions is not recommended. The chlorine and hypochlorites in bleach cause oxidation and blackening of copper and brass. If the oxides come in contact with the mildly acidic wort, the oxides will quickly dissolve, possibly exposing yeast to unhealthy levels of copper during fermentation.

Cleaning Brass Some brewers use brass fittings in conjunction with their wort chillers or other brewing equipment and are concerned about the lead that is present in brass alloys.

The brass will turn a buttery yellow color as it is cleaned. If the solution starts to turn green, then the parts have been soaking too long and the copper in the brass is beginning to dissolve.

The solution has become contaminated and the part should be re-cleaned in a fresh solution. Cleaning Stainless Steel and Aluminum For general cleaning, mild detergents or percarbonate-based cleaners are best for steel and aluminum. Bleach should be avoided because the high pH of a bleach solution can cause corrosion of aluminum and to a lessor degree of stainless steel. Do not clean aluminum shiny bright or use bleach to clean an aluminum brewpot because this removes the protective oxides and can result in a metallic taste.

This detectable level of aluminum is not hazardous. There is more aluminum in a common antacid tablet than would be present in a batch of beer made in an aluminum pot. There are oxalic acid based cleansers available at the grocery store that are very effective for cleaning stubborn stains, deposits, and rust from stainless. They also work well for copper. Use according to the manufacturer’s directions and rinse thoroughly with water afterwards.

Only items that will contact the wort after the boil need to be sanitized, namely: fermentor, lid, airlock, rubber stopper, yeast starter jar, thermometer, funnel, and siphon.

Your bottles will need to be sanitized also, but that can wait until bottling day. There are two very convenient ways to sanitize your equipment: chemical and heat. When using chemical sanitizers, the solution can usually be prepared in the fermentor bucket and all the equipment can be soaked in there.

Heat sanitizing methods depend on the type of material being sanitized. Chemical Bleach The cheapest and most readily available sanitizing solution is made by adding 1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 gallon of water 4 ml per liter. Let the items soak for 20 minutes, and then drain.

Rinsing is supposedly not necessary at this concentration, but many brewers, myself included, rinse with some boiled water anyway to be sure of no off-flavors from the chlorine. Star San Star San is an acidic sanitizer from the makers of PBW and was developed especially for sanitizing brewing equipment.

It requires only 30 seconds of contact time and does not require rinsing. Unlike other no-rinse sanitizers, Star San will not contribute off-flavors at higher than recommended concentrations. The recommended usage is one fluid ounce per 5 gallons of water. The solution can be put in a spray bottle and used as a spray-on sanitizer for glassware or other items that are needed in a hurry.

The foam is just as effective as immersion in the solution. Also, the surfactant used in Star San will not affect the head retention of beer like those used in detergents. Star San is my preferred sanitizer for all usages except those that I can conveniently do in the dishwasher.

A solution of Star San has a long usage life and an open bucket of it will remain active for several days. Keeping a solution of Star San in a closed container will increase its shelf life.

The viability of the solution can be judged by its clarity; it turns cloudy as the viability diminishes. One last note on this product: Because it is listed as a sanitizer and bactricide by the FDA and EPA, the container must list disposal warnings that are suitable for pesticides. Do not be alarmed, it is less hazardous to your skin than bleach. Iodophor Iodophor is a solution of iodine complexed with a polymer carrier that is very convenient to use. One tablespoon in 5 gallons of water 15ml in 19 l is all that is needed to sanitize equipment with a two minute soak time.

This produces a concentration of Soaking equipment longer, for 10 minutes, at the same concentration will disinfect surfaces to hospital standards. At If the solution loses its color, it no longer contains enough free iodine to work. There is no advantage to using more than the specified amount of iodophor. In addition to wasting the product, you risk exposing yourself and your beer to excessive amounts of iodine. Iodophor will stain plastic with long exposures, but that is only a cosmetic problem.

The Even though the recommended concentration is well below the taste threshold, I rinse everything with a little bit of cooled boiled water to avoid any chance of off-flavors, but that’s me. Heat Heat is one of the few means by which the homebrewer can actually sterilize an item. Why would you need to sterilize an item? Homebrewers that grow and maintain their own yeast cultures want to sterilize their growth media to assure against contamination. When a microorganism is heated at a high enough temperature for a long enough time it is killed.

Both dry heat oven and steam autoclave, pressure cooker or dishwasher can be used for sanitizing. Oven Dry heat is less effective than steam for sanitizing and sterilizing, but many brewers use it. The best place to do dry heat sterilization is in your oven.

To sterilize an item, refer to the following table for temperatures and times required. Although the durations seem long, remember this process kills all microorganisms, not just most as in sanitizing. To be sterilized, items need to be heat-proof at the given temperatures. Glass and metal items are prime candidates for heat sterilization. Some homebrewers bake their bottles using this method and thus always have a supply of clean sterile bottles.

The opening of the bottle can be covered with a piece of aluminum foil prior to heating to prevent contamination after cooling and during storage. They will remain sterile indefinitely if kept wrapped. You can assume all beer bottles are made of soda lime glass and that any glassware that says Pyrex or Kimax is made of borosilicate. Autoclaves, Pressure Cookers and Dishwashers Typically when we talk about using steam we are referring to the use of an autoclave or pressure cooker.

These devices use steam under pressure to sterilize items. Because steam conducts heat more efficiently, the cycle time for such devices is much shorter than when using dry heat. Dishwashers can be used to sanitize, as opposed to sterilize, most of your brewing equipment, you just need to be careful that you don’t warp any plastic items. The steam from the drying cycle will effectively sanitize all surfaces.

Bottles and other equipment with narrow openings should be pre-cleaned. Run the equipment through the full wash cycle without using any detergent or rinse agent. Dishwasher Rinse Agents will destroy the head retention on your glassware. If you pour a beer with carbonation and no head, this might be the cause. Cleaning and Sanitizing Bottles Dishwashers are great for cleaning the outside of bottles and heat sanitizing, but will not clean the insides effectively.

If your bottles are dirty or moldy, soak them in a mild bleach solution or sodium percarbonate type cleaners ex. PBW for a day or two to soften the residue. You’ll still need to scrub them thoroughly with a bottle brush to remove any stuck residue.

To eliminate the need to scrub bottles in the future, rinse them thoroughly after each use. Table 4 – Cleaning and Sanitizing Summary Table Product Amount Comments Cleaners Detergents squirt It is important to use unscented detergents that won’t leave any perfumey odors behind.

Be sure to rinse well. Sodium 1 tablespoon per Effective cleaner for grungy brewing Percarbonate gallon. Will not harm metals. Bleach 1 – 4 tablespoons per Good cleaner for grungy brewing deposits.

Do not allow bleach to contact metals for more than an hour. Corrosion may occur. May often be found in paint and hardware stores. Prolonged exposure times may cause mineral deposits.

Dishwasher Normal amount of Recommended for utensils and glassware. Oven Cleaner Follow product Often the only way to dissolve burned-on instructions. White Distilled Full Strength as Useful for cleaning copper wort chillers. Vinegar necessary. Most Cleansers made for Stainless Steel and effective when hot. Copper pots and pans are also useful. Vinegar and volume ratio Use for removing surface lead and Hydrogen of vinegar to peroxide cleaning brass. Will gallons sanitize clean surfaces in 30 seconds.

Allow to drain before use; does not need to be rinsed. Iodophor Bleach 1 tablespoon per Bleach will sanitize equipment in 20 minutes. It gallon. Dishwasher Full wash and Heat Bottles must be clean before being put in Dry cycle without dishwasher for sanitizing.

Place upside down on detergent. Allow bottles to cool slowly to prevent thermal shock and cracking. Clean all equipment as soon after use as possible. This means rinsing out the fermentor, tubing, etc.

It is very easy to get distracted and come back to find that the syrup or yeast has dried hard as a rock and the equipment is stained. If you are pressed for time, keep a large container of water handy and just toss things in to soak until you can clean them later. You can use different methods of cleaning and sanitizing for different types of equipment. You will need to decide which methods work best for you in your brewery. Good preparation will make each of the brewing processes easier and more successful.

There are several brewing spreadsheets and software programs available over the Internet that can be a big help. A brewer needs to be able to repeat good batches and learn from poor ones. If you have a bad batch and want to ask another brewer for their opinion, they are going to want to know all the brewing details. They will want to know your ingredients and amounts, how long you boiled, how you cooled, the type of yeast, how long it fermented, what the fermentation looked, what the temperature was, etc.

There are so many possible causes for “it tastes funny”, that you really need to keep track of everything that you did so you can figure where it might of gone wrong and fix it the next time.

Chapter 21 – Is My Beer Ruined? Write up a recipe form that will allow you to be consistent. See the example on the next page. Northwestern Amber malt extract dry 2. Cooper’s Pale malt extract liquid 3. Perle 6. Returned to boiling. Added first hop addition. Boiled 30 minutes and added Cascade and Willamette hops. Boiled another 15 minutes and added final addition of Cascade.

Added the 2. Aerated by shaking fermentor for five minutes. Pitched yeast. Bubbled furiously for 36 hours then slowed. After 4 days, bubbles had stopped completely. It remained in the fermentor for two weeks total. Bottles were allowed to condition for two weeks. Results: Beer is Good! Strong hop taste and aroma. Perhaps a little too bitter. Tone down the bittering hops next time or add more amber malt extract to better balance the beer. References Liddil, J. Palmer, J. Talley, C.

Beer is brewed from malted barley. More precisely, beer is made by fermenting the sugars extracted from malted barley mostly maltose. Malt is a general term used as an abbreviation for several things associated with maltose and malted barley. In those cases, malt refers to the use of maltose – the sugar. The malts that brewers talk about are the specific types of malted barley that are processed to yield a wide range of fermentable maltose sugars. But what is malted barley?

Malting is the process in which barley is soaked and drained to initiate the germination of the plant from the seed. When the seed germinates, it activates enzymes which start converting its starch reserves and proteins into sugars and amino acids that the growing plant can use. The purpose of malting a grain is to release these enzymes for use by the brewer.

Once the seeds start to sprout, the grain is dried in a kiln to stop the enzymes until the brewer is ready to use the grain. The brewer crushes the malted barley and soaks it in hot water to reactivate and accelerate the enzyme activity, converting the barley’s starch reserves into sugars in a short period of time.

The resulting sugar is boiled with hops and fermented by the yeast to make beer. When making malt extract, the sugar solution is drawn off, pasteurized, and run into vacuum chambers for dehydration. By boiling off the water under a partial vacuum, the wort sugars are not caramelized by the heat of full boiling and a lighter tasting extract is produced.

To make a hopped extract, Iso-Alpha Acid extracts of hops are added along with hop oils to give a complete hop character to the final wort extract. These hop extracts are added at the end of the process to prevent loss during dehydration.

Malt extract takes a lot of the work out of brewing. Malt extract is sold in both liquid syrup and powdered forms. DME is produced by heating the liquid extract and spraying it from an atomizer in a heated chamber. Strong air currents keep the droplets suspended until they dry and settle to the floor. DME is not hopped because hop compounds would be lost during the final dehydration. Usually these kits are composed of an attractively labeled can of hopped extract, a packet of yeast, and easy instructions – Just Add Sugar and Water.

And if you follow those instructions you will be disappointed with the results. My first beer kit was a bitter disappointment due to the lame instructions on the can.

The instructions said something like, “Add 2 pounds of corn sugar or table sugar; Boil if you want to; ferment for 1 week at room temperature; and bottle after that. Sparkling pond water. You don’t need a kit to make your first batch. And for heaven’s sake, don’t buy one of those of beer-in-a-bag-type kits. Brewing beer is not mysterious, it’s very straightforward. And despite the many different names and packaging, many kits taste the same.

The reason is the yeast and the instructions provided in the kit. A study was carried out several years ago which discovered that many malt extract manufacturers were adulterating their extracts with corn sugar or other simple sugars. Everything is good in moderation, but when the kit starts out as half sugar and then instructs the brewer to add a couple pounds more, the resulting beer will not measure up.

In the time since that study was published however, homebrewing has grown greatly in popularity and has become much more aware of the necessity for high quality ingredients. Malt extract producers have responded to the new awareness in the marketplace with renewed pride in their products. There are a lot of good extracts and beer style kits to choose from these days. Beer Kit Rules 1. Don’t follow the instructions on the can to add cane or corn sugar.

Don’t use the yeast that came with the can Unless it is a name brand and has a use-by date code. The reason is that the yeast that is supplied with the can may be more than a year old and has most likely experienced harsh shipping conditions. It may have been poor quality yeast to begin with. It is better to buy a name brand yeast that is more reliable.

For more information on yeast, see Chapter 6. Beer brewed with extract syrup more than a year old will often have a blunt, stale, even soapy flavor to it. This is caused by the oxidation of the fatty acid compounds in the malt. Dry malt extract has a better shelf life than the liquid because the extra de- hydration slows the pertinent chemical reactions.

Another quality of an extract that can have a particularly strong affect on the quality of the final beer is Free Amino Nitrogen FAN. FAN is a measure of the amount of amino acid nitrogen that is available to the yeast for nutrition during fermentation. Without sufficient FAN, the yeast are less efficient and produce more fermentation byproducts which result in off-flavors in the final beer.

This is why it is important to not follow most canned kit instructions to add sugar to the wort. Corn, rice, and cane sugar contain little, if any, FAN. Adding large percentages of these sugars to the wort dilutes what little FAN there is and deprives the yeast of the nutrients they need to grow and function.

FAN can be added to the wort in the form of yeast nutrient. See Chapter 7 – Yeast for more information. Malt Extract is available as either Hopped or Unhopped. Hopped extracts are boiled with hops prior to dehydration and usually contain a mild to moderate level of bitterness. Read the ingredient list to avoid refined sugar. Malt extract is commonly available in Pale, Amber, and Dark varieties, and can be mixed depending on the style of beer desired.

Wheat malt extract is also available and new extracts tailored to specific beer styles are arriving all the time. The quality of extracts and beer kits has improved greatly in the last 5 years. An all- extract brewer will be quite satisfied brewing entirely from beer kits as long as they ignore the instructions on the can and follow the guidelines in this book. With the variety of extract now available, there are few beer styles that cannot be brewed using extract alone.

For more information on which kinds of extracts to use to make different styles of beer, see Section 4 – Formulating Recipes. If your supply store does not offer this type of kit, you can assemble your own. The following is a basic ale beer and quite tasty.

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