Beer Brewing Made Easy Review

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Barry

Jake Evan’s Beer Brewing Made Easy is a digital programme that teaches you how to make your own beer with step-by-step instructional guides and videos.

Beer Brewing Made Easy packageBut it’s not written by any old Tom, Dick or Harry. What makes this programme different is that Jake was a brewing master at a commercial brewery for over 30 years. During that time, like any master craftsman, he kept a journal of all of the beer he made, meticulously recording details of every batch and recipe, what worked and what did not, and which recipes lead to great tasting beer, and which ones did not.

When home brewing became legal in the United State, Jake began brewing at home as well. Free from the constraints of a commercial brewery, he was free to experiment, and to perfect his recipes for the home brewer.

And now, he is making all of that knowledge available to any home brewer. Not only is he providing over 700 recipes in his package, but he explains every step of the process in simple to understand language. As an added feature, the package also includes videos of all of the steps involved, so you can see how easily it is to make your very own great tasting beer at home. No more trying to follow a text description that may or may not describe exactly what you see. Simply watch the video and see it done. It’s like being right next to Jake as he brews his secret formula beer.

If you are a complete beginner, don’t be intimidated. Jake explains all of the steps to getting your first batch of beer brewed simply and quickly, even if you’ve never made beer before. He explains how to use all of the equipment required, not that there’s a lot of it, and expertly covers the basics, like where to get the gear, how to make sure that it is properly sanitised ( it’s not as complex as it sounds ), and the importance of each of the different ingredients and the part that they play in the beer making process ( this is usually where beginners come unstuck – getting the ingredient balance wrong can be disastrous ).

If you are a seasoned brewer, dont worry that this is too simple for you. While some of the content may seem like revision, when a brewer with Jake’s experience talks, I listen. It’s worth reviewing all of the material at least once, there’s bound to be a tip or two that can be used to improve your current product. Not to mention the 700 recipes that Jake reveals. Surely there’s a few in there that tickle your taste buds. And in the unlikely event that there isn’t, Jake offers an unconditional 60 day 100% money back guarantee, so you really can’t lose.

As an added bonus, Jake also explains how to turn your hobby into a lucrative business. Wouldn’t that be great! I’m sure that everyone would love a little extra cash, and if you can get it by doing something that you enjoy, it’s not really even work! Whether you simply want to cover your costs, and thereby enjoy effectively free beer for the rest of your life ( and who wouldn’t like that ), or turn a substantial second income ( great for keeping the other half happy ), this bonus guide is a must have.

So, where do you get it? Jake Evan’s Beer Brewing Made Easy is offered through ClickBank, the largest and most trusted seller of electronic products on the Internet. So your satisfaction is guaranteed. Also, you are protected by Jake’s personal 60 day, 100% money back guarantee. If you are unhappy with the programme for any reason, you can simply drop Jake a note and your purchase price will be refunded, no questions asked. What could be safer? Just click here.

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How to make your own beer

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Barry

So you’ve decided to make the leap? Don’t worry, it’s more of a step than a leap. The plunge happens once you just can’t stop making your own wonderful homebrew creations! I’ll start out with the basics in this installment and work our way up from there. As Charlie Papazian says “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.”

In this article about how to make your own beer, I will be discussing the basics of extract brewing, the basic equipment needed, and the basic process involved.

What exactly is extract homebrewing and what is extract? Beer is made using the sugars from malted grains. Malt extract is exactly that, sugar extracted (taken) from malted grains. Malt extract can be purchased in either dry (DME) or liquid form (LME). In extract brewing the brewer utilizes this extract to maximize time and efficiency.

The life blood of your beer is the yeast. Yeast consumes sugar. Like any living creature, when yeast eats it then produces by-products, the major by-products being CO2 and alcohol. While yeast will work at “eating” most sugars, malt sugars are ideal for their chemical make-up.

What equipment do you need to take advantage of that magical little yeast? While you could piece everything together a la carte, you can usually get a discount when you buy a basic homebrewing kit. The basic equipment kit consists of:
6.5 Gallon Primary Fermenter with Drilled & Grommeted Lid
6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Bottling Spigot
Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser
Airlock
Siphon & Bottling Set-up
Home Beermaking Text
Hydrometer
Bottle Brush
Twin Lever Capper
Liquid Crystal Thermometer
Bucket Clip
Equipment Instructions
A 3-5 gallon stock pot and cooking thermometer are also need and are usually available as an add-on if you do not already have these at home.

So now you have the equipment, what do you do with it? On to brewing. Let’s take a look at a sample recipe.

Malt Base: 6 Lbs DME OR 7.2Lbs LME
Specialty Grains: 1 lb. Munich, 1/2 lb. Caramel 120L, 1/4 Lb Amber
Hops: 8 HBU Cluster (Boiling), 3.5 HBU Hallertau Select (Finishing)
Other: 2 Hop Sacks, 5 oz. Priming Sugar
Yeast: White Labs California / Wyeast 1056

Instructions for how to make your own beer:
1. Remove Crushed Grains from package and put in muslin bag. Tie bag at end to allow maximum circulation. Place in minimum 1 gallon cold water, slowly bring to approximately 160 degrees, hold temp for 10 minutes. Discard grain, add gypsum if water is soft.

2. Add Malt Extract, stir well to dissolve. Bring to a boil, add Cluster Hops, and continue boil for 55 min. Add Hallertau Select Hops and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Pour unfermented beer(wort) slowly into fermentation vessel containing enough cold water to total 5 gallons.

4. Let temperature drop to approximately 80 degrees. Take hydrometer reading, sprinkle or “pitch” yeast on top. Affix cover and airlock to fermenter and stabilize temperature at approximately 67–72 degrees.

5. Airlock should be active within 24 hours. With fermentation slowing down by the end of day 7, the clearing stage is beginning. Siphon beer into clean carboy, affix airlock, and cover to keep light out and let clear for approximately 7 more days.

6. When ready to bottle, boil priming sugar in approximately 1 cup water for 1 minute, add to bottom of bottling bucket, then siphon beer into the same bucket(take final hydrometer reading while siphoning into bucket). Fill bottles to 1“ from top of bottle and cap.

7. Store beer at 67–70 degrees for 7–10 days minimum.

As you can see, homebrewing is a simple process. Steep some specialty grains for flavor and color. This is essentially making a grain tea. Add your malt sugars. Boil your sugars into solution. Boil your hops. Hops have essential oils and must be boiled to extract them. Cool your solution(wort). Add to fermenter and add your yeast. In 7-14 days the yeast will convert the sugars into alcohol. Then bottle your beer.

We covered the basics in this article about how to make your own beer. However there are many ways to brew beer, this is just the beginning. In future installments I’ll discuss other aspects of the homebrewing process. Things like how to read a hydrometer, secondary fermentation, and fermentation temperature and why the cold causes us so many problems.

Until then, happy brewing!

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Common pitfalls when homebrewing beer

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Barry

Some common pitfalls to avoid when brewing your own beer:

  1. Maintain excellent sanitation. Excellent sanitation is paramount to making good homebrew beer. Sanitizer can be found at your homebrew retailer. Sanitize everything that comes into contact with your wort after it has cooled down, including racking tubing and cane and vessels, fermentation vessels, airlocks, bottles, lids, and the instrument you use to pull samples for gravity readings. Bad sanitation can make a great batch of homebrew turn into vinegar! I can’t stress proper sanitation enough!
  2. Do not use chlorinated water. Your finished beer can have high levels of chlorophenols which are an off-flavor/flaw and are rather nasty.
  3. Remove your brewpot from the heat source when adding malt extract, otherwise you may burn/scorch it and it will stick to the bottom. Make sure to stir when mixing in your extract as well and do not let it hit the bottom of a hot brewpot.
  4. Make sure your malt, hops, yeast and malt extract are fresh. Fresh ingredients are key to a great tasting homebrew. Make sure your yeast is not outdated, that your hops were stored refrigerated, and use dried malt extract (DME) as it is more shelf-stable than liquid malt extract. Make sure your malt crunches if bitten into, and doesn’t have any “stale” characteristics.
  5. Leave some room in your brewpot when boiling, or else you risk a messy boil-over! Also, make sure to always keep your eye on your brewpot when boiling wort, if it seems it is going to boil over, remove it from the heat quickly and safely.
  6. Try to perform full wort boils when making homebrew. Excellent beer can be made doing partial boils, and some brewers have no choice. If brewing with a full wort boil, you’ll need to brew outside using a burner and tank. However you will get better hop utilization and less caramelization (resulting in a lighter color and less caramel flavor). Very light, straw colored beers can be tough to do with extracts and a partial boil, however it can be done by shortening the boil time to 45 minutes, upping the hopping rate to compensate, and using Extra Light dried malt extract.
  7. Try not to splash when racking or bottling your beer, siphon as gently as possible. Otherwise, your beer will oxidize or stale from the introduction of oxygen.
  8. Make sure to aerate your wort by using a whisk or aeration stone before pitching yeast to ensure a healthy fermentation. Oxygen just prior to pitching yeast=good. Oxygen after beer is fermented=bad.
  9. Use dried malt extract in your recipes (DME). It has a better shelf life than liquid malt extract (LME), and it can result in a lighter beer that is more appropriate to the style if that’s what your shooting for (such as a Wit or Blond Ale).
  10. Buy some type of auto-siphon , they are inexpensive, easy to use, and makes siphoning/racking a snap
  11. Using hops bags will be faster and easier, but your hop utilization may suffer up to 10%, so there is a trade-off.
  12. Purchase and use a brewing software to formulate recipes. It is cheap and very helpful and will cut down the time spent figuring out gravities, alcohol % etc.
    Formulate your recipes for an extra 5% or so, as some will be lost to trub, racking/spilling etc.
  13. If steeping grains, be sure to not let the temperature get over 170F, or undesirable tannins can be leached from the grain husks. Try to steep at 150F for a half-hour or so.
  14. Keep a record of all homebrew recipes, including detailed ingredient information and detailed processes used. Record the results – did you like the beer, why and why not? They will come in handy for referencing later.
  15. Use the proper yeast for the proper style of beer you are brewing. Wyeast and White Labs have detailed charts on their websites suggesting beer style by yeast.
  16. Be sure to ferment at appropriate and reasonable temperatures, check out the Wyeast and White Labs pages for suggested fermentation temperatures pertaining to yeast strain. Lagers are usually best fermented at 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit, and ales are generally fermented from 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit.
  17. Do not use distilled water as the full water base for your batch of homebrew. Use spring water or well water, but not city (chlorinated) water or distilled water. Distilled water lacks minerals and nutrients for proper yeast fermentation to take place.
  18. Cool your wort as quickly as possible to avoid off-flavors or infection. Try to get your homebrew cooled within 15-20 minutes with either a wort chiller or an ice water bath. You may have to change the ice after 5-10 minutes. Do not add ice directly to the wort however!
  19. Always make a yeast starter when using liquid yeast, regardless of whether it is labeled “pitchable” or not. Making a yeast starter will ensure that a healthy and happy amount of yeast is pitched. When using dry yeast, always rehydrate the yeast before you pitch!
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