The Frost Farmers Brewing Company
..........................................................
The construction of the Russian Frost Farmers Brewery is well underway and the progress will be upddated here. The first bit of progress follows...
The beer making process.
So to get underway I’ve been doing some practice runs on the stove top. No point building this big beast and not knowing how to brew ay.
So to roughly synopsise it...
Beer is made out of barley, hops, yeast and water. Nothing else. This is of course what the Lion Nathan Fellahs miraculously discovered with their Steinlarger Pure revolutionising the beer drinking world... A few centuries after the Germans had already passed it as national law.
The barley contains the sugar that the yeast ferments. But before it can be accessed it has to be:
1. Malted, this involves germinating it then stopping the germination at a certain point by putting it into a kiln. The germination creates an enzyme in the grain.
2. Crushed, or milled to get at the starches (1)
3. Mashed, this converts the starches to sugars that the yeast can use. This is done with use of the enzyme that was produced during the germination. To mash the malted barley it needs to be mixed with water and held between 62 and 68 degrees for 2 hours. (2) in this environment the enzymes can perform their conversion.
So now the barley has been converted to sugar it is time for the hops.
First the mash has to be extracted from the used barley grits. This will be done with a false bottom filter and sparge eventually, but for now a bag, skewer, bucket and some tape will do. (3)(4)
I’ve started growing my own hops, (5) they seem easy to grow, though no flowers the first summer, maybe next...
But until they’re under way I have buy them, They come in many forms but pallets seem to be the most economical. (6)
The wort (what you have now) is then boiled with the hops for an hour at least. (7) This infuses the hop flavour, stops the enzymes continuing to break it down and reduces the wort stabilizing it and rounding it out.
Now you need a hydrometer. I was worried about these originally, but found out they are dirt cheap at a brew shop... it was going to be a tough road figuring out how to make one of these from scratch! (8) It basically measures the density of the liquid, thus telling you the sugar content and therefore how much there is in there for the yeast to live off and in turn excrete their alcoholic effluence for us to get all silly over... If the world was one big fermenter then we would be the yeast. Maybe the gods get drunk on CO2? Exhaust fumes wine?
Almost there, (This is at the point in the process where the coopers kits cut in.) Once the density (gravity) is measured you can add water to get it to where you want it; how strong you want your beer. (or sugar if you’re following the instructions in your coopers kit) and cool it down ready for the yeast.
Transfer it to an airtight barrel and pitch your yeast when its between 20 and 30 degrees, roughly – different yeasts different temps. Seal the barrel with an air lock and come back in 5 or so days.
