Beer Making Ingredients
Beer making is not that difficult once you know the required ingredients. Beer is a fermented beverage made out of barley and hops. There are many variations you can use to create custom-flavored beers as well. Variations are also made by using different kinds of yeast. If you are making your own beer, try different ingredient combinations. Does this Spark an idea?
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Water
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The main ingredient in beer is water; which makes up about 90 percent of the final product. It is best to use the purest possible water. You can use tap water as long as it is not too hard and you boil it thoroughly. Using tap water will affect the taste of your final product--whether negatively or positively depends on the water where you live.
Barley
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Barley is a grain not easily used to make flour or for baking. It is, however, an excellent ingredient for making beer. Barley grows in three ways, differentiated by the number of seeds on the top of the stalk. The seeds will grow in rows of two, four or six. American brewers tend to favor the two-row type and European brewers the six-row kind.
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Hops
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Hops are a flowering vine. They are mainly used as a preservative in beer though they do add aroma as well as flavor through their essential oils.
Yeast
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Yeasts are essential ingredients in baking and beer. Yeasts are actually a type of fungi that covert sugars into alcohol after the malting process.
Malt
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Malting is a process that coverts barley into maltose, or sugar, which is in turn converted by yeast into alcohol. Malting also ultimately affects the color of the beer as well as its taste.
Fruits
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In addition to the basic ingredients, many people add fruits to their beer recipes. Each fruit or fruit peel will give the beer a distinct flavor. People use all kinds of fruits, including grapes, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, olives, kiwi, and so on. You can get very creative with the experimentation of flavors. Some people even use rinds or peels, such as orange and lemon.
Spices
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Another optional ingredient which can add flavor and originality to your beer is spice. People use all kinds of spices or spice/fruit combinations when making beer. Some examples are: cloves, coriander, cinnamon, and licorice. There is no limit to what you can try. Home brewers often say that if you think of an ingredient to try in your recipe-it has already been done. People have flavored their beer with potato, mint, and even garlic.
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