Beer from concentrate: 2 recipes at home + tips

Brewing beer from concentrate is the easiest way to feel like a real brewer at home. This approach will also minimize mistakes and make it more likely to get a more or less high-quality product.

Tips before you start

1. Add hops

   Despite the fact that beer concentrates are mostly already hopped, there are more and more brewers who find the hop bitterness and aroma not as strong as they would like.

   Hops can be chosen based on your preferences and added during the brewing process or during the fermentation process. Brewing hops will enhance the hop bitterness and flavor of the beer. And adding hops during fermentation will allow you to maximize the flavor of the beer.

2. Even more malt

   Malt extract is obtained from different types of malt. But it is also useful to additionally soak the ground grain in water before adding the concentrate. Depending on the malt you choose, you can add the necessary notes (chocolate, smoked meats, coffee) to the taste and aroma, as well as change the color of the beer.

   It is enough to soak the malt for 30 minutes at a temperature of 65-72 degrees. The most convenient way to do this is in a special bag, and if you don't have one, you should strain the resulting wort after soaking it.

3. Games with sugar

   The recipes of many manufacturers of malt extracts indicate the need to add a certain amount of sugar to the wort. As a rule, this is done to save money, but it does not always have a good effect on the taste of beer.

   It makes sense to add a larger amount of malt extract instead of sugar, which will make the taste of the drink richer and fuller. You can also add honey, jam or jam. This will allow you to create a beer with a unique and inimitable taste.

   The easiest and most inexpensive substitute for sugar is dextrose. In fact, it is the same sugar, but due to the fact that it does not contain impurities, but only fermentable sugars, it has a less negative effect on the taste. It is worth noting that in the preparation of some beers, the addition of sugar or glucose is on the contrary welcome, and therefore it is always necessary to take into account what we want to get in the end.

4. Replace the yeast

   Most often, standard ale yeast for all types of ales is included with the malt extract. They are not bad, but if you use them, all beer, regardless of the type, will be similar to each other.

   And even if the can with the extract says Lager, it will be an ale, because the yeast is ale. Also, for different ales, it is better to use different yeast that is most suitable for the chosen variety. Many people miss this point, but in vain. Yeast is perhaps the most important ingredient that has a very important impact on the taste and aroma of beer.

   Today's range of yeasts allows you to get special yeast for wheat beer, for different ales, for dark beers, for lagers and even for cider.

5. Don't be afraid to experiment

   Try to saturate your beer with the flavor of juniper cones, chestnuts, prunes, dates, coffee, wormwood, berries and fruits, spices and seasonings - all of this is real and works for beer.

   Of course, you will fail, but that's okay, the reward will cover all the failures at once!

Classic beer recipe from concentrate

You will need a barrel (30 liters), a water seal, a siphon for pouring alcohol into containers, an areometer if you want to measure the strength. Methyl alcohol is also suitable for disinfection. Instead of candy canes, you can use regular sugar, fructose or dextrose. This will reduce the final cost, but the product will ferment more strongly.

Ingredients

1. Concentrate - 1 jar

2. Beer sugar - 1 kg

3. Carbonization lollipops - 1 package

4. Wort - 2 tablespoons

5. Water - 23 liters

6. Yeast - added to the extract

Method of preparation

1. Sterilize the barrel by any available method.

2. Pour sugar, fill with water, mix. Add the concentrate, previously filled with hot water, to the liquid. Stir the mixture.

3. Add the remaining water.

4. Rehydrate the yeast. Heat two hundred ml of water so that it is lukewarm (30 °C), fill the jar with it. Pour in the yeast. Add two tablespoons of wort.

5. After ten minutes, a foamy head will appear. Add the mixture to the keg. Stir the wort.

6. Install a water seal on the lid. After a few hours, bubbles will appear in it, which means fermentation will start.

7. Leave the container in a warm place for a week, maybe a couple of days longer.

Go to the carbonization stage

1. Disinfect the bottling vessel .

2. Pour the lollipops into a dish for convenience. It will take 3 pieces per liter.

3. Connect a siphon to the beer container. Pour the drink into containers through it.

4. Distribute the lollipops.

5. Pour the beer into the container so that there is some space for gases, otherwise you risk losing the beer and the container after. This is usually the entire part from the beginning of the neck taper to the lid of the container.

6. Leave alone and warm for a week. Then move to the pantry.

7. The drink will acquire a complex taste and aroma in a month, but you can try it earlier.

Recipe without ready-made concentrate, we do everything ourselves

Suitable for beginners because it does not require the purchase of additional utensils. You will need a saucepan (6 liters), plastic bottles, a water seal. You can ask for the malt to be ground at the store of purchase. It is not expensive.

Ingredients

1. Crushed barley malt - 1.3 kg

2. Dry hops - 12 g

3. Brewer's yeast - according to the instructions for 5 liters of wort

4. Water - 10 liters

5. Sugar - 10 teaspoons

The method of preparation

1. Heat three liters of liquid in a saucepan to 67 °C.

2. Stirring continuously, gently add the malt. Turn off the gas. The temperature should drop by 5 °C.

3. A few minutes before the next step, bring another liter in the kettle to a boil.

4. Remove the container from the heat, wrap it in a blanket and leave it for forty minutes.

5. Return to the stove, raise the temperature to 73 °C with the kettle. Do not forget to stir. If this is not enough, turn on the fire.

6. Remove from the stove. Steep for half an hour. Pour back in, stirring continuously. The temperature should reach 78 °C. Steep for five minutes.

7. Remove and wrap in a blanket for as long.

8. During the temperature pause, heat a kettle with another 3 liters to 78 °C.

9. Take a stainless steel saucepan, put a colander in it. Put the crushed malt from the liquid in there. Return the wort that has drained from the colander to the main container.

10. Use a mug to scoop up the future beer and pour it into the middle of the colander over the pellet area. Filter it like this several times. The less wort remains, the more attention you pay to the middle.

11. Place the colander on the original saucepan. Drain the water evenly from the kettle.

12. Mix the contents of both containers. Flowing wort, the same. Cook on the stove for twenty minutes.

13. Add six grams of hops to give it aroma.

14. In a separate bowl, boil the cheesecloth for a few minutes.

15. Put the lid on the saucepan, put it in the sink to reduce the temperature to 50 °C under the tap. Pour into a container through a cheesecloth. Wrap with the lid.

16. Seal the opening in the sink to cool the bottle down to 25 °C in water. This will take about ten minutes. It is important to disinfect the thermometer.

17. Shake the bottle. Add the yeast. You do not have to stir. Attach a water seal to the lid.

18. Leave alone for a period of ten to twelve days.

19. Pour the drink into sanitized bottles, not reaching 2-3 cm to the neck. Add 10 teaspoons of sugar. Wrap up the lids.

20. Store at room temperature. After 5 days, refrigerate for a month.

Update: 26.04.2020

Category: Beer, Cider, Ale