If you  asked a bunch of homebrewers what the main items they need for their hobby what do you think they would say?

I suppose the most popular responses would be a fermenter,the  ingredients including hops, yeast, malt syrup , and an item known as a hydrometer. So what precisely is a hydrometer anyway? Why ought you to have one and how would you use it?

After looking up my dictionary, I can tell you that a hydrometer is a tool for measuring a liquid’s specific gravity, generally consisting of a calibrated tube weighted so that it floats upright. Well, that does not actually clarify matters, so let’s explain it in more detail.

When you are creating homebrew beer, you’d would need to use a hydrometer to find out how heavy the brew in comparison to normal water (also called the “specific gravity”). The weight of the homebrew is related to what proportion of the sugar in the brew has been used up by the yeast (this is the fermenting process).

So Why do you need to know what your brew’s specific gravity of is? Well, the hydrometer is way of understanding when your brew is wholly fermented. Once this point has been reached, you can bottle your brew and  thereafter relish drinking what you’ve created.

So, just how would a homebrewer use a hydrometer? Well, the action is in fact  really easy, and learning the method does not require long . In the first place, fill  a straight sided jar two-thirds full of water at 60 degrees  F (room temperature) and then place the hydrometer in the water and allow it bob around for few seconds, and then stabilize. The reading ought to be  about 1.000 .  After you have checked this reading, remove the hydrometer from the jar and then dry it out.

The next step is take a different jar and  pour in your home brew until it is full. Then place your hydrometer into the liquid, and allow it to balance out, and make a new reading. If Fermentation is still happening the readingwill be over 1.015, but is 
near completion if the hydrometer reads from 1.010 to 1.008.

To assure fermentation has completed, take two readings during 24 hours.  When the readings are equal, your homebrew is ready and can be bottled. If your reading is not consistant, then the process of  fermentation is still going on.

Quick tips: Always ensure that  your jars, and hydrometer, are both clean & dry before you use them to make sure that a proper reading is taken. If your homebrew has any froth then pour the liquid into a glass, and then  into the jar again, until they have
subsided. Finally, always ensure that your hydrometer does not touch edges of your ar before taking readings.

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Mankind has been drinking wine for thousands of years. Have you ever wondered how wine is made? Do you know that wine can be made at home? In fact, wine used to be made at home until somebody came up with the fantastic idea of mass producing wine and selling it to others to enable them to enjoy great wine with minimum fuss.

We all know wine is made from grapes. How then is it different from grape juice? Is wine just glorified grape juice? Certainly not! The presence of alcohol in wine makes it totally different from grape juice.

So where does the alcohol come from? Is it added to the wine? When we talk about alcohol, we are not talking about whisky or beer. We are talking about the chemical spirit alcohol. Grape juice gets its alcohol content from fermentation.

Fermentation is the process of interaction of yeast, which is a single celled living organism, with the sugar in the grape juice. Alcohol and carbon dioxide are the by-products of this reaction. This reaction continues until the alcohol content becomes so high that the yeast dies off due to the alcohol it created. The yeast sinks to the bottom and is removed. What began as grape juice and yeast has now become wine. This wine must be filtered and stored before it can be consumed.

Had mankind not known what yeast was and what it could do, we would have been sipping grape juice instead of refreshing wine!

Yeast is also found naturally. In this form, it is called wild yeast. The wild yeast that sticks to the skin of the grapes gets mixed with grape juice to initiate fermentation. Hence, wine can be made even without manual addition of yeast. However, there is no certainty that the wine would be to your liking. Adding processed yeast specifically made for making wine helps you control the taste of wine. Relying on wild yeast is a bit of a gamble.

The manual addition of yeast is not a simple process. You can’t buy just any yeast and add it to the grapes. Many individuals who make wine at home opt for the yeast that is used in making bread as this yeast will lead to fermentation and alcohol production. However, using yeast strains that have been made specifically for wine is preferable as it offers the following advantages:

- You know how the yeast will behave. That is, you know how much alcohol it produces, how long it should be stored and the taste it creates. This is possible because the yeast is manufactured after repeated testing and experimentation.

- If you want wine with a high alcohol content, you can opt for those strains that are resistant to alcohol. Since yeast dies during the wine making process, a higher resistance will enable the yeast to survive for a long period of time. This will result in wine with a high alcohol content.

- If you do not intend to store the wine for a long period and if you wish to consume it quickly, you can opt for yeast that reacts with sugar. This yeast will produce a lot of alcohol fast.

Making wine at home is a fruitful exercise if you follow the correct process and have the right tools and materials. You can then proudly share your home made wine with friends and family.

Mark Pollack is a grape growing and wine making expert. You can find more info on wine making yeast at http://www.bestwinegrowingsecrets.com.

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The Many Paths to Great Home Made Beer

Before you really get oriented to what home brewing is all about, it’s easy to think it is a process that is set in stone and there is only one right way to do it.  And it is true that the brewing and fermenting process has some steps that must be followed with some discipline if you wish to enjoy a great home made beer.  But one of the reasons that home brewing is such a passion to many people who enjoy this way of making beer is that there as so many varieties of recipes and styles of making.

You can easily get a feel for what a huge variety there is in ways to brew beer and in recipes for ingredients when you visit your local beer supplies retailer, go to home brewing web sites or sit in at home brewing club meetings in town.  And the great thing about the social side of the home brewing culture is that you will come home with a notebook full of ideas of things you can try on upcoming batches of beer.  The odds are you will have months of ideas to try out and you may never run out of new approaches, blends and recipes to try to make your home made beer interesting and tasty for yourself, your family and your friends.

For that first time home brewing recruit, one of the best ways to help him have the fun of making beer at home without so much investment and mess that will come in due time is to go with a home brewing kit or machine.  Beer making machines literally take all of the thinking and planning and risk out of trying out home brewing to see if you want to make the investment in a full set up.  The machine comes with a full set of ingredients for one batch of beer and the equipment is automated so the novice home brewer can make the beer and move it through the fermentation and aging process and know the fun of having real home made beer a few weeks later.

Similarly kits simply the process of buying and using the equipment and ingredients to get started in home brewing.  Unlike the beer making machine which is used once and discarded, the beer maker’s kit gives you the basic equipment which will be the beginning of your collection of the tools of a beer maker to be used over and over many times.  But the kit provides the ingredients and the instructions to make the process of learning to make your own beer easy and fun to learn.

Even for seasoned home beer makers, there are variations on the home brewing method that will give you more flexibility and range of choices that will affect how unique your beer will be.  But each may have a greater investment of work and effort to use effectively so it’s worth getting familiar with them in advance so you know your investment of time and effort and what you might expect with a new brewing method.

Probably the most common brewing method most amateur brewer’s use and the one that is taught in most home brewing guides is the extract method.  And even though it is well known, because you are truly brewing beer yourself as opposed to using a kit or a machine, you can alter the consistencies and flavors of your beer and get a wonderful brew each time you use this approach.

You can settle on the extract method for a long time or perhaps use it exclusively for your brewing career and get great  beers with it every time.  But if you want a greater challenge and the possibility for even more unique beers as a result, you can explore the Mini-Mash method and the Full Mash Brew styles of home brewing.  Each is more complex and takes longer to finish the brewing process.  But they also give you a lot of flexibility and even more ability to make your own beer unique and distinctive.

It’s up to you where to start in your beer brewing hobby and the paths you take.  You can explore new approaches through networking with other brewers.  But you will never get bored brewing beer at home because the variety of methods and ingredients are virtually limitless.

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