Homemade

Guide to Homemade Wine, Beer, Cider & Mead

Alcoholic beverages; commonly beer and wines and made at home. Most often brews are made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. Cheap Draft features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and best practices needed to deliver the perfect batch!

• 4 lb. crystal malt
• 3 lb. demerara sugar
• 1 lb. flaked maize
• 5 oz. hops
• small level teaspoonful salt
• ¼ oz. citric acid dessert spoonful caramel

Bring seven quarts of water to 150°F, pour this into the polythene pail and add the malt and flaked maize at once. Put in the immersion heater, cover the vessel with polythene as directed and wrap the vessel in a blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on the heater and keep the mash at 145°-150°F for seven to eight hours. At this stage you may try to starch test if you want to.

Strain the mash into the boiler and add two ounces of hops, the salt and caramel (gravy browning), and boil rapidly for one minute. Then simmer gently for forty minutes. Then add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes.

Put the sugar and acid in the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it either through fine muslin or a nylon sieve. Stir well, making sure all sugar is dissolved, and then make up to four gallons with boiling water. Cover with sheet polythene and leave until cooled to 65°-70°F. Then add your yeast in whichever form you have it ready. Cover as already directed and leave in a warm place for seven-eight days. If top ferment yeast is used some skimming will be necessary. Cover again after skimming.

If using hydrometer, take readings until 1.005 is recorded and bottle as already directed. If draught beer is being made allow fermentation to finish and beer to go ‘fiat’, and then bottle. If priming is being carried out (adding sugar to re-start fermentation), now is the time to do it.

Keep for three weeks in bottles.

As will be seen, this chapter deals with a slightly more elaborate method of making beers than when malt extracts are being used. It is in using the following recipes that you will be following very closely the commercial brewer. Do not let this worry you. Just follow directions, but read first all I have had to say about commercial brewing; you will then understand why you are working in this fashion and why it is necessary to do so if good beers are to result.

Note. Do not forget to crack grain malts before use.

All the recipes in this chapter are designed to produce four gallons of beer -less the little that will inevitably be lost as deposit at various stages; so you should finish up with fifteen quart bottles of finished beer. The reason for working in four-gallon lots is that not only is the mash tun (polythene pail) most convenient in size, but also because the 50-watt heater recommended will keep this amount of mash at the required temperature at negligible power consumption. Later, when the mash is strained into the fermenting vessel and becomes wort and is made up to four gallons, the recommended fermenting vessel is also of ideal size.

However, there is nothing to prevent you making two-gallon lots as initial experiments if you want to. But because the heater might make half the amount of mash too hot, you will have to start off with two gallons instead of one. The procedure when making two gallons would be as follows: reduce all ingredients by half. Put as much of the two gallons of water (liquor) as you can into the vessel with the ingredients. Then when this is strained, for boiling, the total amount of liquor can be made up to two gallons.

If you alter the amounts of ingredients to suit a special whim of your own bear in mind that:

1. The more malt you use the more flavour and body you will obtain.
2. If more body is produced, more bitterness will be required to balance it to some extent.
3. Additional hops will produce this necessary bitterness.

Best made as draught beer and drunk by the half pint. Best kept for grumpy relatives to induce them to sleep soundly while the rest of the household enjoys itself.

• 3 lb. dark malt extract
• 2½ lb. demerara sugar
• 3 oz. hops
• small level teaspoonful salt
• ¼ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt in a quart of water for fifteen minutes. Take out bag and squeeze when cool enough. Pour strained hop-water into fermentation vessel and add sugar, malt and citric acid. Then make up to two gallons with boiling water. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F. And add yeast and nutrient.

Cover as directed and leave to ferment in warm place until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

• 1½ lb. dark malt extract
• 2 lb. brown sugar
• 1½ oz. hops
• ¼ oz. citric acid
• small level teaspoonful salt
• tablespoonful black treacle
• 2 liquorice sticks - yeast - nutrient

Note. Liquorice sticks add colour and desirable flavour and are available from most chemists at about 2d. each, otherwise obtain them from home brew supply firms.

Boil hops and salt in a quart of water for fifteen minutes, take out bag, squeeze when cool enough and pour hop water into fermenting vessel. Add malt, sugar, citric acid and black treacle and make up to two gallons all but a quart. While sugar and malt are dissolving, boil the liquorice sticks in the remaining quart of water and when dissolved add to the rest. Stir well to ensure malt and sugar are dissolved and allow wort to cool to 6So-7oof. Add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed and leave to ferment in warm place for seven-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until 1.00S is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not in use, allow beer to ferment on until it goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to restart fermentation, as already directed, and then bottle. This recipe ought to be made as a frothing beer, but if draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

• 6 lb. dried light malt extract
• 1 oz. hops
• ¼ lb. sugar
• tablespoonful gravy browning
• pinch salt - citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt for fifteen minutes in a quart of water. Take out bag, squeeze when cool enough and put hop-water into fermenting vessel. Add malt, sugar and citric acid. Make up to two gallons with boiling water, stirring to ensure malt and sugar are dissolved. Stir in gravy browning. Cover as directed and leave to cool to 65°-70°F. Add yeast and nutrient and ferment in warm place for five-six days. If using hydrometer take readings after five days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘fiat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation - and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘fiat’ and bottle.

• 2½ lb. pale dried malt extract
• 2½ oz. hops
• 1½ lb. sugar
• ¼ teaspoonful (level) citric acid
• ½ teaspoonful salt - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt for about fifteen minutes in a quart of water. Take out the bag, squeeze when cool enough and pour the hop-water into fermenting vessel. Add malt, sugar and citric acid and make up to two gallons with boiling water.

Stir well to ensure malt and sugar are dissolved and then allow to cool to 65°-70°F. Add yeast and nutrient, cover as directed and ferment in a warm place for five-six days. If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation and then bottle. If a draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘fiat’ and then bottle.

• 1½ lb. dried light malt extract
• 2 lb. caramelized dried malt extract
• 2 lb. demerara or other dark sugar
• 4 tablespoonfuls black treacle
• level teaspoonful salt
• level teaspoonful citric acid
• 3 oz. hops - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt for about fifteen minutes in a quart of water. Take out bag and squeeze when cool enough. Pour hop-water into fermentation vessel and add malts, sugar, treacle and citric acid. Make up to two gallons with boiling water.

Stir well to ensure malts, sugar and treacle are dissolved and then allow to cool to 65°F -70°F. Then add yeast and nutrient and leave to ferment in a warm place for seven-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle to produce sparkling beer. If hydrometer is not in use, allow fermentation to go on until beer becomes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation as already directed (p. 58) - and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is wanted, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer becomes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

• 1 lb. dried light malt extract
• 2½ lb. caramelized dried malt extract
• 2 lb. dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoonfuls black treacle
• level teaspoonful salt
• level teaspoonful citric acid
• 2 oz. hops - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt in about a quart of water for fifteen minutes. Take out bag, squeeze when cool enough and pour hop-water into fermenting vessel.

Add malts, citric acid, sugar and treacle and make up to two gallons with boiling water. Stir well to ensure sugar and malts are dissolved and allow to cool to 65°F -70°F. Add yeast, nutrient and cover as directed and leave to ferment in a warm place for six-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation as directed and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is needed, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

• 2½ lb. dried light malt extract - 4 oz. hops
• 2 lb. demerara or other brown sugar
• 2 pints strong freshly made tea
• level teaspoonful citric acid
• level teaspoonful salt – yeast - nutrient

Use four teaspoonfuls tea and allow to stand for five minutes.

Boil hops and salt in about a quart of water for fifteen minutes. Take out bag, squeeze when cool enough and pour hop-water into fermenting vessel. Add strained tea, malt, sugar and citric acid and make up to two gallons with boiling water. Stir well to ensure malts and sugar are dissolved and allow to cool to 65°F -70°F. Then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed and leave to ferment in warm place for seven-eight days. If using hydrometer, take readings after six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not in use, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation as; directed - and then bottle. If draught beer of this, sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

• 2 lb. light dried malt extract
• ¼ lb. caramelized malt extract - 2 oz. hops
• 1½ lb. demerara sugar
• 1 level teaspoonful citric acid
• small level teaspoonful salt - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops and salt in about a quart of water for fifteen minutes. Take out the bag, squeeze when cool enough and pour hop-water into fermenting vessel. Add the malts, sugar and citric acid and make up to two gallons with boiling water - in two stages if your boiling utensil will not hold two gallons. Add nutrient, stir well to ensure malts and sugar are dissolved and then allow wort to cool to 65°F -70°F. Add yeast, cover as directed and leave in a warm place for seven-eight days. If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle to produce sparkling beer. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation - and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

Malt extracts are obtainable from almost any chemist, but these are rarely suitable for our purpose. Do go to a reliable firm dealing in home brewing equipment, for these firms cater especially for us. Their malts and hops are of the finest quality and specially selected for our purpose.

Those who have read the parts in this book relating to the need for a mashing period to extract the maltose from the grain will understand that this mashing period is not needed with the recipes in this chapter because the malt extract we shall be using is the maltose we obtain by the mashing period. It is dear then that, simply speaking, the mashing has been carried out by someone else and we have the benefit of using the readily prepared ingredient. Only those using grain malts will need to put the grain through a mashing period to extract the maltose.

It will be seen that all the recipes are designed for two gallons. The fermentation vessel should hold more than this amount in order to allow for the yeast head that will form.

No large boiler is required, as the boiling can easily be done in two stages as in the recipes. Before you begin using these simple recipes, do read the section detailing the causes of spoilage and take the necessary steps to avoid disappointment.

As in wine making, clarifying beer should not be necessary as, if everything has gone according to plan, the beer will clarify itself in no time at all. However, it sometimes happens that everything does not go according to plan; we then have to resort to clarifying our beers. But do not attempt this unless the beer refuses to clear within three weeks after fermentation has ceased in the case of draught beers. In the case of bottled beer, the yeast should settle soon after bottling so that, held up to the light, the beer will be - or should be - as clear as a bell. As already mentioned, brilliant clarity as we want it in wines is not essential in dark beer and is not absolutely essential in ales of the light type that ordinarily one expects to see quite brilliant.

Isinglass is undoubtedly the best clarifying medium for beers. In treating draught beers, in jars, the best plan is to take a little of the beer - about a pint - and warm it. Into this stir about a teaspoonful of isinglass with a fork until it is dissolved, keeping the beer warm until this is affected. Do not let the sample become cold, otherwise it might gel - turn to thin jelly. When all, or most, of the isinglass is dissolved, strain through fine muslin and pour into the bulk. Bung down again and in a day or so the beer will be brilliant.

Where gaseous bottled beers are to be treated a problem arises, for in opening the bottles the gas is lost. Therefore, in treating bottled gaseous beer you will have to return the lot to a large vessel and treat as for draught beers. Then, when it is brilliant, siphon the clear beer off the sediment into another large vessel and prime it again - add 2t oz. of sugar to the gallon and a speck of yeast (a very tiny amount). This will ensure that renewed fermentation goes on to give back to the beer the gas lost during treatment. After priming, the beer must be bottled as before and put away in the normal fashion.

Final Words Before You Begin

I find the best way to get the fullest value from the hops in these recipes is to boil them separately and in a small muslin bag with something such as a glass marble in the bag to submerge the hops at once. So bear this in mind when reading the direction, ‘boil the hops…’ Some loss of liquid will occur during boiling but this does not matter.

When straining the wort into the boiler and again when straining into the fermenting vessel, make sure the straining cloth is fine enough to hold back all solids. Coarse cloths of open texture should be folded several times before use.

1£ using the hydrometer to ascertain the gravity of the wort before fermentation so that you can arrive at the exact alcohol content of the beer when it has finished fermenting, take the reading when the wort has been made up to four gallons (or two gallons as the case may be) and when the sugar has dissolved. As the warmth of the wort will affect the volume and therefore the reading, it is better to let it cool and to take the reading immediately before adding the yeast.

It will be seen that there is more than one recipe for each type of beer: for example, there are two recipes for brown ale. Each recipe in this case and others makes for different sorts of brown ale, or bitter, or whatever it is.

And finally, do not expect to turn out at first attempt a beer exactly like the last one you tasted at your local - this would be expecting too much. Take your first shot at this as an initial experiment into finding the recipe which is going to prove the one to make the beer best suited to your personal taste. All tastes vary, therefore it is unlikely that the first recipe you use will be the one you will want to use next time. Bear this in mind and be prepared to experiment a little and I assure you it will be very soon that you make beer to surpass your expectations.

Note

In the recipes in the following chapters you will come across the reference: ‘ferment for five-six days’, or whatever it happens to be. This is a general purpose instruction meaning that under favourable conditions fermentation will have slowed down or be nearly complete so that hydrometer readings may be taken. They may be taken every day after the yeast has been added if this suits you. But it is at this five-six day stage that we must take note of the progress of fermentation so that we can work according to whichever type of beer we are making. If fermentation goes on longer than the days suggested, do not worry; it may go on for several days longer, even a week longer, depending on how even a temperature is maintained and whether this is in the 600 -70 Of. range, as is best.

You will also come across the reference ‘until the beer goes “flat” ‘. In using the word ‘flat’ I am describing the surface of the brew at the stage where fermentation has ceased. At this stage, when the yeast has been removed or where a bottom fermenting yeast is in use, the surface of the beer will indeed go flat; there will be no evidence of frothing or of bubbles breaking on the surface as we see the effect of drizzle-rain on a puddle. The beer does go flat in the sense that it is no longer lively - it does, in fact, become what it really is, draught beer. As already explained, this draught beer can be left as draught beer or primed to make it into a sparkling beer.

It is always best to siphon beer into jars or bottles since in this way the heavy yeast deposit may be left in the fermenting vessel. If a lot of yeast passes into the bottles, as would happen if the murky wort were poured into bottles, a very heavy yeast deposit would form in them and, as we have seen, we do not want this.

Arrange the bulk beer on a table and the bottles on a lower level - a stool or on the floor. Insert the siphoning tube into the beer to a depth of a couple of inches or so. Suck the other end until the beer flows, pinch this end tightly and lower it into the first bottle and let the beer flow. Fill the bottle to within one and a half to two inches from the top, pinch the tube again and insert it into the next bottle and so on. As the level of the beer in the fermenting vessel falls, the tube may be lowered into it. If the beer falls below the end of the tube the siphon will be broken and you will have to lower the tube into the beer and suck again as you did in the first place. If the beer is draught beer or if you have checked with a hydrometer to ascertain the amount of sugar left unfermented the bottles may be stoppered at once and in the case of draught beer (non-gaseous), the bottles may be stored in a cool place. In the case of beers that are to ferment on in the bottles, the bottles should be kept in a warm place - not hot - for a few days and then moved to a cool place.

If you are making draught beer and at bottling time are proposing to make it into a gaseous beer, now is the time to do it. If this is what you are doing, then do not bottle from the fermenting vessel, but siphon off exactly one gallon and dissolve two and a quarter, or two and a half ounces of sugar in as little boiling water as can be used - about half a cupful - and pour this into the gallon. Stir a little to ensure dispersal and then bottle. This amount will produce enough fermentation to produce the gas required but not enough to burst the bottles.

Users of the hydrometer should bear in mind that two and a quarter ounces of sugar will raise the reading by 50. So it will be seen that the amount of sugar mentioned above is just about the amount required without it being too much.

By treating the gallon we overcome the difficulty and riskiness of adding so much to each bottle - the amount having to be so small that it would be difficult to measure satisfactorily.

Don’t forget to sterilize the siphoning tube, using the metabisulphite solution. Use proper siphoning tubing obtained from a home brew firm and get about six feet of it - it’s very cheap.

Any of the recipes may be made as draught beers, although all are designed for bottled beers with the use of the hydrometer. The difference between draught and bottled beer is that draught beer is flat in character (but not in taste), and bottled beers are gaseous or ‘fizzy’. In making draught beers all we have to do is to allow fermentation to go on until the wort goes ‘fiat’ - that is, when there is no longer any signs of yeast activity, no more frothing. This stage is usually reached in about eight days from the time fermentation began. Many beer types are of draught variety but all except draught bitter have a head on them when drawn from the barrel and served over the bar. This head - although it usually goes off very quickly - is most important from the appearance point of view, and that view only. I say this because the head itself adds nothing except an inviting appearance. The beer tastes the same after the head has vanished. In making draught beers we rarely get a head on them because no fermentation has gone on after bottling to give gas into the beer; and it is this gas produced by the ferment in the bottle which produces the froth or head we want. So, in draught beers made at home, there will be no head worth mentioning and if you are prepared to accept this then your draught beers can be first rate - except for the head. Heading liquid is obtainable from suppliers of home brewing materials; use this as directed and you will certainly get a first-class head, but it will add nothing but an appearance to the beer.

Draught beers may be put into tap-hole jars of whichever size is most suitable. I recommend the gallon size, as when some beer has been drawn off air is admitted. As soon as this happens, the beer begins to deteriorate. I do not mean that it will go off in a day or so. But as less and less is left in the jar, so the little remaining loses its character. If a gallon of beer is used in say, three or four days, the last pint out should be as good as the first one. But after a week, there would be a noticeable loss of quality in the last couple of pints. Obviously, where little is going to be used, the smaller the container the better. By all means use a two- or a four-gallon jar where there is going to be a lot of drinking in a short time. Tap-hole jars are particularly good for beers, as the yeast settles below the level of the tap and, apart from the first half-pint, which might come over cloudy, the rest may be drawn off beautifully clear.

Making draught beers is clearly the simplest form of home brewing and if tap-hole jars are not available use beer bottles kept for the purpose. Making bottled beers - gaseous or ‘fizzy’ beers - is the same as making draught beers except that either some sugar is left unfermented so that a little fermentation goes on inside the bottles to charge the beer with gas, or a draught beer is produced and a little sugar added at bottling time to give the re-ferrnentation required to charge the beer with the all-important gas. There is no point in adding sugar with the intention of producing gaseous beer if that beer is to be put into jars because as soon as the first pint is drawn off the gas will be lost - or most of it. Therefore, gaseous beers must be bottled and the best bottles to use are quart beer bottles with screw-stoppers or similar cider flagons - provided they are not clear-glass. All bottles for beers must be of brown glass, otherwise the color and sometimes the quality of the beer will suffer. The directions in the recipes will produce gaseous beer, but if you want to make a draught beer into a gaseous beer you will have to add sugar and then put it into the type of bottles already mentioned. The rate to add the sugar is not more than three ounces to the gallon. This should be boiled in as little water as possible until dissolved and then mixed with the beer prior to bottling. Add this sugar when the beer has been siphoned off the yeast deposit; otherwise mixing it in will cloud the beer and a heavy deposit will form in each bottle. By using siphoned beer, there is much less yeast deposit, but still enough yeast in suspension in the clear beer to bring about the fermentation in the bottles.

Too much sugar added will give rise to too much fermentation so that the bottles, which can stand enormous pressure, will burst. If they do not when too much sugar has been added, the result will be an almighty geyser of foam and your precious beer will have to be licked off the ceiling.

Using the hydrometer reduces both risks; that of exploded bottles and accidental home decorating.

Good yeasts stick well to the bottom of the bottles so that all but the last dregs may be poured off without clouding the beer in the glass. This is not so important with dark beers as any cloud will be masked by the color of the beer. It is with dark beers that the beginner should get his experience. Any yeast cloud will not impair the flavor of the beer; indeed, the heavy froth one sees on the top of most stouts and particularly Guinness - to which I am especially partial - is mostly yeast forced to the top of the glass by the gas rising. If you take a look at the bottom of an empty Guinness bottle you will almost always find some yeast lurking there. Certainly it does no harm; in fact, it is probably one of the most nourishing natural things next to mushrooms, which incidentally, are said to be the most nourishing thing known to man. Good yeasts do not impair the flavor, but baker’s yeast and some dried yeast will give a bake-house mustiness into the best of beers, and will in any case cloud the beer from top to bottom of the bottle simply because even if it does settle, the slightest disturbance will send it rising like smoke from a bonfire on a breezy evening. So use a good yeast that will stick to the bottom so that most of the beer may be poured off clear.

Trying to get a light ale or pale beer free of deposit can prove a problem. Firstly, if the beer is gaseous, there will inevitably be a deposit at the bottom of the bottle. This is because in allowing fermentation to go on in the bottles to produce the gas, yeast had to be present in the beer when it was bottled and this yeast reproducing itself produced more yeast. But as I have already mentioned, this yeast - provided it is a good one - will stick so that all but very little of the beer can be poured off without disturbing it. Pour carefully, inclining the bottle slowly, lowering the glass to meet it. If the quart bottles mentioned are used, the little beer left behind with the yeast, so that the yeast is not poured out as well, will not be missed. If only a pint of the quart is to be poured, far better to pour the quart into a jug so that the second pint may be drunk down in a little while. If one pint is poured and the bottle returned to upright, the yeast might stir up to cloud the whole of the remaining pint. A little practice and the application of a bit of common sense will soon show you how to get this problem settled to your satisfaction. But if you are as clumsy as some people cannot help being and simply do always disturb the yeast, serve your beer in a tankard or beer mug and you’ll not know whether there is a yeast cloud in it or not.

How does the trade get the yeast out of dear ales?

The fact is that they let them ferment right out, and then siphon the still beer (without gas) into bottles, or other containers and then charge them with gas. The word used is ‘carbonated’. Maybe one day there will be a means by which any home operator will be able to do this; until then, the commercial brewer has the advantage over us.

All bottles and stoppers must be thoroughly washed in warm water. If, when bottles are held to light, evidence is seen of yeast stuck to the bottom or sides, they should be soaked in a medium-strength solution of water and domestic bleach, such as Brobat, for an hour or so. They should then be rinsed free of this with repeated doses of water. All bottles must in any case be treated with sulphur dioxide solution made up as follows. This is cheap, effective and ensures that any wild yeast or bacteria lurking in the bottles waiting to ruin your finished beer are destroyed.

Get 2 oz. of sodium metabisulphite, or potassium metabisulphite (there being two forms) from any chemist for about nine-pence and dissolve this in half a gallon of warm water. Try to use a glass-stoppered bottle for this as it keeps better than in one with a cork. This is sulphur dioxide gas in solution. When bottle time comes along, half fill the first bottle, shake it up while stopping the neck with the thumb and then, using a funnel, pour into the next and then the next and so on. This half pint or pint will do a dozen bottles; afterwards, it may have lost its strength so throw it away. There is plenty left in the half-gallon jar to do several more dozen bottles. The stoppers should be soaked in enough to cover them for ten minutes or so.

Having sterilized the bottles they should be rinsed with boiled water that has cooled enough not to break them. Some writers on wine making assert that boiled water at this stage is not necessary, but it is, because water quite often contains wild yeasts which boiling destroys. The stoppers may be shaken free of the solution - no need to rinse them unless you want to. When bottling, I merely fill each bottle, take a stopper from the solution, give it one flick from the wrist and then screw it home.

This is an elementary precaution almost anyone would take. But it is surprising how many would overlook the necessity. The mash tun (polythene pail), should be covered with a sheet of strong polythene with no holes in it. This should be tied down with strong string or, better still, a strong elastic band or several linked together and joined by a small wire clip or hook. This will hold the covering in place tightly so that air and airborne diseases cannot gain access.

The fermenting vessel must be covered in a similar fashion. The covering on this will billow up like a balloon under pressure from the gas generated. The gas will find an outlet for itself, keeping up a constant out-going stream to prevent diseases entering.

Winemakers will be familiar with the causes of spoiled wine and while we are not likely to encounter them in making beers, cider, meads and other alcoholic drinks, it is as well to know about them. We are then able to understand why precautions against them are so necessary.

Spoilage in meads and ciders, etc., is covered in their respective chapters. Here I am concerned only with spoilage in beers and how to prevent it. In beer making, risk of spoilage is quite remote. This is because any wild yeasts or bacteria on the ingredients are destroyed during the boiling of the wort.

Risks of contamination of the wort by yeasts and bacteria floating about in the air is also remote. This is because covering vessels as directed prevents them reaching the wort. If the vessels are not covered as directed, wild yeast and bacteria may reach the wort to turn it insipid and Hat, oily or vinegary. Leave a bottle of beer or one with a drop left in the bottom opened for a few days and then smell it and the chances are that it will smell of vinegar. This is evidence that the vinegar bacteria has been at work on the alcohol and turned it to acetic acid - otherwise, vinegar. If this bacteria, or others or many of the wild yeasts in the air are allowed to come into contact with the beer, then calamity is in the offing.

It will be seen in the recipes that we must keep the wort at a certain temperature for a certain period. This is because during this period starches that would cloud the beer are converted by enzyme action into sugar which is later fermented out. It sometimes happens, no matter how careful we are, that not all the starch is converted during the time stipulated and it is not always possible by looking at the wort to decide whether or not the changes are complete. If conversion is not complete boiling will ‘fix’ the starch and removal later on will become a problem.

There is a simple test we can carry out to ascertain whether the changes have taken place or not at the end of the time given in the recipes. If changes are not complete the wort may be left for half an hour or an hour at the stipulated temperature until the changes are complete. Do not carry out this simple test until the end of the time given in the recipe, unless you feel sure that the changes have taken place earlier than expected.

Take about a tablespoonful of the wort into a glass or white cup or basin; to this add a few drops of medicinal iodine which has been diluted with an equal quantity of water. If the sample turns blue, starch is still present. If it does not, then the changes are complete. Do not worry if first tests show the presence of starch - just maintain the temperature for a little longer as already suggested and all will be well. A second test may be carried out if doubt still remains after extending the period in the mash tun.

Do not return tested sample to the bulk - throw it away.

Little need be said about the action of enzymes, except that if temperatures during the mash tun and fermentation stages are not reasonably constant, enzyme action will not take place. Enzymes are biological catalysts; they bring about chemical changes essential in the production of good beers. Starches and other matter are converted to sugars, and flavor is produced; indeed, without their action we would not be able to make beers at all.

The temperature in the mash tun stage ensures that enzyme action takes place and a warm atmosphere during fermentation ensures that the yeast is happy. If too hot the yeast will be destroyed if too cold it will go dormant. Always allow the boiled wort to cool well - to about 70°f. if you have a thermometer - before adding the yeast and try to keep the fermenting beer at between 60° and 70°f. This will ensure a good ferment which is essential if good beers are to result.

Beer usually ferments well without much bother; indeed, a good vigorous ferment is assured if we proceed as advised. However, the yeast must have certain conditions if it is to make the alcohol we want without undue waste of time. The first essential to good fermentation is a temperature of about 65 of. and if this can be maintained, fermentation should be all over and done with in five to eight days. But sometimes we encounter a sluggish ferment and this is not a good thing if good beers are to result. Therefore, to ensure that the yeast will make good beers, give a little nutrient as used by home winemakers. This is merely a blend of chemicals essential to speedy yeast growth, they have no effect upon the taste of the finished beers.

Nutrient tablets used by winemakers are quite suitable for our purpose and should be used as directed by the supplier. This means, usually, merely crushing the tablet and dissolving the powder in a few drops of the wort and then stirring it into the rest.

A pinch of salt boiled with the hops, and a few crystals of citric acid per gallon will also assist fermentation. None of these additives will give their flavor into the finished beer.