|
Brewing: The Pastime of Lords |
|
A five bottle batch of the Late October Blend, vintage 2009. One of my earliest (and one might argue finest) fermentations. |
|
There is a strange and one could say saddening misconception that fermenting alcoholic beverages at home is somehow hard, complicated, or even nigh on impossible. More than one person has even claimed that it is illegal, despite the obvious and abundant evidence to the contrary. Indeed, it is perfectly legal to brew as much wine or beer as you care to according to the laws of the United Kingdom. It is however illegal to distil liquor without a license, so be careful if you have moonshine on your mind. Humans have been brewing their own alcohol since before written records began. It stands to reason then that it is a perfectly natural and acceptable activity that can offer great rewards to those who put in the effort. Being able to brew a full bodied and potent wine is a skill, make no mistake about that. Practice makes perfect as they say, and you’re almost certain to have a few bad batches as you learn the craft of brewing.
Yeast Yeasts are extremely useful micro-organisms that have long been used in both brewing and baking. These tiny little fellows devour sugars and produce carbon dioxide and ethanol as their primary waste products. The true irony is that they’re sealing their own fates as they hungrily brew our alcohol, as higher levels of ethanol will inevitably kill them. In short, they essentially drown in a toxic soup composed of their own excrement...DELICIOUS EXCREMENT! But I digress. The most common strain of yeast used in brewing is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s yeast for obvious reasons. A good strain of yeast is vital for your fermentations, else a wild strain from the air may attempt to begin the fermentation without your aid. Though this was how many ancient peoples brewed their alcohol, it can be a risky business. A wild yeast might produce a tasty beverage, or they might produce something that tastes like your neighbour’s sweaty gym socks. You decide if the risks are worth it, and I’ll meet you down the brew shop. The exact type of yeast depends on the beverage you intend to make. It’s hardly rocket science when you think about it. A red wine should be made with a red wine yeast, many of which are available. You might go with a general purpose red wine yeast, or settle on one which commercial brewers use to make Burgundy, Merlot, Shiraz et cetera. The same goes for white wines. Champagne yeast for a Champagne batch as it were. With regards to more specialised brews such as mead, I tend to use a white wine yeast generally intended for sweeter wines. Experimentation can pay off, so don’t be afraid to mess around a little. If brewing ale or lager, obvious select a yeast that suits the process. Ales tend to be made with ‘top fermenting’ yeasts, lagers with ‘bottom fermenting’ yeasts. All this means is that ale yeast will form a foam on the top of the fermenting vessel, lager yeast on the bottom. Foam you say? What foam? Oh you’ll find out soon enough...
Equipment Though it is technically possible to brew alcohol with incredibly basic equipment (e.g. Large empty milk containers, balloons et cetera) I really would suggest that you invest in some basic brewing equipment. If you’re just starting out I recommend the following:
I) Two glass demi-johns (one gallon fermentation vessels) II) A pair of simple airlocks with rubber bungs III) A siphoning hose with adjustable tap IV) A set of plastic funnels (for pouring liquids into your vessels) V) A cleaning brush VI) A plastic or glass measuring jug (I find a one litre or two litre jug to be ideal)
Of course you’ll also need a yeast of your choice, but the above equipment is essential. Some people would suggest a hydrometer as well, but I seldom use mine. Other people will tell you that you also need the following: pectolase, yeast nutrient, acid blend.
The Method By now you’ll have decided what you wish to brew. For the moment I’m going to assume (possibly incorrectly) that a brew of wine is in order. One of the simplest (those more “professional brewers” out there would say heretical...) methods of brewing wine is to get yourself four or five litres of fruit juice. Fruit juice you say? What about the fruit? What about the stamping on the grapes? Not necessary in this case. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some lovely wine using the older methods. I still have a bottle of blackberry wine downstairs, made with berries picked and crushed with my own hands, and the stuff is delicious. However it took months to mature to that level and is currently almost a full year old. It also has a kick like a mule. If you want a wine that’ll be decent and drinkable in a relatively short period of time, use grape juice. I’d advise you to use pure and not from concentrate juice with no added sugar. In more dignified circles the wine made from such a juice would be called “bum” or “hobo” wine. Yes, you can almost taste the classist bullshit can’t you? Leaving that aside, you must first ensure that your equipment is clean. Now many people advocate sterilising all the equipment used. I don’t. I use extremely hot water, close to boiling point in fact, and I rinse my demi-john several times until I’m absolutely certain that it’s clean. For the outside of the demi-john I do use a little disinfectant to make sure that there’s nothing nasty lurking. My airlock and bung get placed in a small pot on the stove and are then heated until the water simmers. DO NOT let the water boil, as it WILL melt your airlock. I’d recommend a pair of steel cooking tongs be used to remove the airlock and bung from the water, and then placed on a clean paper towel. Needless to say you should have already wiped all surfaces down with an anti-bacterial cleanser. It’s also a good idea to affix a paper towel (kitchen towel will do) around the mouth of your demi-john with an elastic band. This will stop anything unpleasant from getting in while you work with the juice. Now then, to add sugar or not? It all depends on what sort of strength you’re after. If you get four litres of grape juice with roughly 165g of sugar present in each litre and DON’T add sugar, you’ll probably end up with a wine averaging 7.5% to 8.5% alcohol by volume. Too weak you say? Not a problem. For the ethanol thirsty a little added sugar will always help. See the table to the right for advice on how much sugar to add. As you can see, there’s plenty of scope for increasing the potential alcohol content, though you would be wise to note that most wine yeasts tend to die off at around the 14% - 16% mark, and some die before that. As such if you add an insane amount of sugar to your juice you could end up with some sickly sweet horror that can’t even be consumed. For best results I’d recommend you add enough sugar to top up each litre of juice to contain around 300g of sugar. That way if the yeast manage to go all the way and devour the bulk of the sugar you’ll end up with a wine of around 15% abv. After mixing your sugar with the juice (ensure that all sugar is dissolved by stirring well) make use of one of the plastic funnels to begin pouring the juice into the demi-john. Needless to say that the paper towel should come off at this point. When all the juice has been added to the vessel, prepare your airlock by securing pushing it into the bung and filling it around half full with clean water. Some people advise a saline solution instead, but this can bubble over and occasionally get into the demi-john itself. Not a big issue, but still. DO NOT place the cap on the airlock yet. Making use of one of the smaller funnels, add your yeast to the demi-john. Depending on the type of yeast used you may have had to re-hydrate it in warm water first, or it could just be added dry to the juice. Either way, pour it in now. Affix the airlock to the demijohn AND THEN cap it off. I advise this because the residual oxygen in the demi-john will almost always cause a very abrupt bubble to form in the airlock, which can cause it to leak. By leaving the cap off you allow the oxygen to escape first. In addition I often secure the cap in place with two small pieces of blue tac. This can be especially helpful in cases where the fermentation can become so aggressive as to ‘pop’ the top of the airlock off. In such case contamination can occur if the demi-john isn’t promptly attended to (e.g. In the middle of the night). Now many authorities will tell you not to use an airlock at all for primary fermentation. They’ll advise you to stick with the paper towel and only switch to the airlock for secondary fermentation. I ignore these people, however numerous they may be. Though I’m hardly an award winning professional, I’ve always brewed my wine with an airlock from the beginning, and my successes have outweighed my losses. After sealing your demi-john you should have a care to put it somewhere warm and dark. Lower temperatures will only stunt the progress of your fermentations, and extremely low temperatures can in fact kill the yeast. I generally aim for between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, though I have been known to brew at higher temperatures. If you try to brew at too high a temperature the yeast will also die. Stronger strains of yeast can take more unpleasant conditions, but it’s best to be safe. Now depending on how much sugar you put in the brew and on what kind of brew you’re making, you could be in for a long wait. My own mild red (brewed to around 10%) can be more or less fermented within two weeks, sometimes sooner. A batch of stronger wine will obviously take longer to brew. After a while it should become obvious to you that the yeast have mostly died out. There’ll be a thick layer of sediment on the bottom of your demi-john, and there’ll be few (if any) bubbles in your airlock. When you’re sure that the yeast have done their work, move on to the next step.
Clarification I’ll come straight out and admit it: I’m not entirely sure what the “professionals” mean when they say secondary fermentation. For me there are two main stages: the brewing of the alcohol and the clarifying of the alcohol. For all I know secondary fermentation and clarification are the same. I have a funny feeling that I may have missed a stage, but if you’re anything like me you shouldn’t worry, just press on. Now if you wish to use sulphites you should (ideally before brewing) buy some campden tablets. The rule of thumb is one campden tablet per gallon of wine. The tablet will need to be crushed into a powder and added to the FIRST demi-john BEFORE siphoning takes place. You should leave the campden to do its work for a half hour or so before returning to the brew. To aid in the clarification of your wine potassium sorbate can be a great help. Again it’s not necessary, but it’ll speed up the settling process remarkably. You can buy it in many different forms, but I use Youngs Home Brew Stabilising Powder. About half a teaspoon per gallon is needed, and should first be dissolved in warm water. Keep it handed in a jug for later. Using the siphoning hose, begin the process of transferring the liquid from one demi-john to the other. I tend to use the older method of sucking once on the hose to get the liquid flowing, but you may prefer to try something different. Try to keep the hose as close to the side of the demi-john as possible, and try to stop splashing from occurring. Allowing the wine to splash into the second vessel can aid in oxidation and spoilage, so care is advised. When all the wine has been transferred (try to avoid sucking up too much sediment from the first vessel) add the sorbate water you made earlier and swill it around in the wine. Then affix your pre-prepared airlock and put your demi-john to sit in the coolest, darkest cupboard you have. At this point direct sunlight and heat can destroy your wine, so caution is advised. In about a week or two you MIGHT be able to siphon it to bottles, but I’d advise you to wait at least three (unless of course you’re sure that the wine has completely freed itself of the dead yeast). Bottling the wine is a fairly obvious process, though I would advise you to clean the bottles beforehand with boiling water, and to clean the bottle caps in the same manner used to clean the airlocks. Whether brewing with or without sulphites one can never be too careful.
Copyright (C) The Varian Order 2011
|
