Home Brewing
If you're a fan of handcrafted beers, making your own fine microbrew is a logical step for many. If you've never brewed your own, go for it! If you have basic cooking skills, the ability to follow a recipe, and a fair amount of patience, you can produce high quality beer in your own home. Everything you need to get started is readily available from your local home brew store, and relatively inexpensive. If you don't have a home brew store convenient to your home, there are many online sources for all the beer brewing supplies you'll need.
If you want to learn how to brew in a quick and easy way, rather than reading a 400 page how-to book, there is a step-by-step video training series available. The videos were created by an experienced home brewer and will provide you a quick and easy way to start brewing. To learn more about the video series, or to buy a copy for yourself, click here.
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin
American Pale Ale Recipe
This is a good recipe for brewing an American Pale Ale style of beer. The beer should finish a nice copper color with a medium body and decent hop aromas. This beer is both easy to brew, and easy to drink. Give it a try. We think you'll enjoy it.
Ingredients:
Grains:
1/4 lb Carapils Malt
3/4 lb Crystal Malt 40-L
3/4 lb Crystal Malt 60-L
1 tsp Brew Salts
1 tsp Irish Moss
Malt Extract:
8.5 lb Pale Malt Extract Syrup
Hops:
1.5 oz Chinook Hops
1.5 oz Cascade Hops
(note: Feel free to substitute a different type of hops that you prefer, or may be more readily available to you.)
Yeast:
American Ale
Brewing Instructions:
The first thing you need to do is activate the yeast pack according to the directions on the package, and then put your grains into a grain bag. Heat 2 gallons of filtered (or bottled) water along with brew salt to 160° F. Turn off the heat and add the grain bag to the water. Steep the grains for 20 minutes, gently stirring the grain bag from time to time. After the 20 minutes, remove the grain bag and it let drain into a brew pot. With the heat off, add the malt extract and stir. Next, turn the heat back on, and bring the mixture to a boil, while stirring. Boil for 15 minutes and then add the Chinook hops. Boil gently for another 45 minutes, and then add 1/2 of the Cascade hops (.75oz) along with the Irish moss. Boil another 10 minutes, and then add the remaining Cascade hops. Turn off heat and gently stir for five minutes. Cool the wort and add it to the fermenter on top of 2 gallons of very cold water. (Note: You can substitute 8 Lbs of ice made from filtered or bottled water for 1 gallon of water.) Top off with more water as necessary to make 5 gallons. After the temperature cools to 80° or cooler, pour the yeast contents on top of the wort. Ferment for 7 to 10 days at 68° to 72° F. (You can also move it from your primary to a secondary after 4 to 5 days and then leave in the secondary for 7 days.) The final specific gravity should be 1.010 - 1.012. Store your beer at room temperature for 7 to 10 more days, and then enjoy your home brew.
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How to Make Dog Treats Using Spent Brewing Grains
If you've just brewed a new batch of your favorite beer, don't throw out the spent grains or add them to your garden. Make a special treat for man's best friend! This is really easy to do, and your dog will love you for it.
This recipe is easily reduced or expanded depending upon how much spent grains you have. Since I seem to average about 4 cups of grains per batch, I'll base the recipe around that, and you can adjust for your needs.
Ingredients:
4 cups Spent Grains
4 cups Flour
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 Egg
Preparation:
Mix equal parts of spent grains and flour in a large mixing bowl. It's not necessary to dry the grains first, and the type of flour you use is up to you. Add in the peanut butter, and egg (it's good to beat the egg before adding). Work the mixture together until all of the dry ingredients are damp. You don't want it any wetter than necessary to make the flour damp, so if it's too wet, add some more flour. If it's too dry, add a little water.
Press or roll the mixture into a lightly greased cookie pan. Ideally, it should be about 1/2" thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 15 minutes into the baking, pull the cookie sheet out of the oven. and score the dough to the size and shape you want to make the treats. If you want to get fancy, you could also make shapes using a cooking cutter. When the 30 minutes baking time is up, turn off the oven, but leave the treats in the oven with the door closed.
Allow the treats to sit in the oven for 8-10 hours, or overnight. You want to make sure the treats have completely dried out. Other wise, they might mold. Once they've dried completely, break the treats along the scoring you made, and let Fido try one. You can store the treats in a zip lock bag in the pantry. There's no need to refrigerate them.**Note: Hops are bad for dogs! DO NOT allow hops into your treats!**
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