Beer is the oldest alcoholic beverage, the first evidence dates back about 4,000 years ago, in ancient Mesopotamia. In ancient Egypt, beer was considered a divine drink, and legend says that “barley wine” was created by the god Osiris who forgot in the sun barley mixed with sacred water from the Nile.
Beer making for commercial purposes began somewhere around 1200, where now lies Germany. At that time beer was beloved in England, where it seems to have been established the first beer quality standards: in 1482, the London Brewers Guild adopted a set of regulations meant to ensure the quality of the beer. The same regulation states that beer had to be checked for quality purposes by the leader of the guild before being offered for sale. Another quality standard appeared in 1516 in Germany, titled “The German Law Purity” which established rules for the preparation of beer, so the process of beer making had to fallow certain amount in ingredients. Beer bottling began in 1605. The first beer cans made of aluminum appeared in 1935.
Since man is very resourceful and passionate about beer, all around the world, people started making their own beer, using basic ingredients and adding other ones to enhance taste or simply replicate a certain taste. If you’re thinking about starting your own brewery in the comfort of your own home, here are ten beer recipes you should try.
Photo via CNBC
1. Ginger Lemon Beer
The first recipe combines ginger and lemon in a drink that is delicious and it does not require a very complicated process of fermentation.
The ingredients you need 1.5 liters are:
- A thick ginger root thick (about 10 cm)
- Half a teaspoon of ginger powder
- Two lemons
- 1.25 liters of boiling water
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon dry yeast
The process will go as follows: ad grated ginger, with or without bark, at your choice, add lemon peel, sugar and ginger powder. Pour boiling water over the composition and stir well to dissolve the sugar and to even ginger and lemon peel.
The composition must be allowed to cool, then you can add the yeast, stirring until it becomes a homogeneous mixture, then cover bowl with a plastic food wrap and a cotton cloth and let it ferment overnight. The next day add in the lemon juice. Pour the entire mixture into a bottle and put it in a fridge for about a week, making sure to turn it once a day upside down in order to have acid and better mix the ingredients.
Photo via All People’s Talk
2. Willambroux Belgian Blonde
A simple, Belgian Blonde Ale recipe made with Willamette Hops. Here’s what you need:
- 3.5 lbs of Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
- 3.5 lbs of Light Dry Maly Extract
- 1 lb of Carafoam (also called Carapils)
- 4 oz. of Willamette Hops
- 1 lb of Belgian Clear Candy Sugar
- 1 vial of White Labs WLP530 Yeast
Let’s get to the simple preparation process. Boil three gallons of water and add the Carafoam while the water is heating. When the temperature reaches 169 degrees, pull it out. Add the Extra Light Dry Malt Extract, the Light Dry Maly Extract and the Candy Sugar.
Hops: 1 oz at 60 minutes, 1 oz at 30 minutes, 2 oz. at flameout. Cool the mixture, ad water until you have 5 gallons total, pitch the yeast, bottle and enjoy.
Photo via Societe Perrier
3. Simple Homemade Beer
Ingredients:
- 30 Liters of water
- 1 kilo barley
- 2 hand-full of corn
- 2 hand-full flower hops
- 800g sugar
- A small piece of yeast
Take barley and clean it from impurities and then fry in an aluminum pot until golden brown. Fried barley, hops and corn are placed in a small closed online slots canvas bag and boiled in all the water for 3 hours. After boiling, remove from heat and add sugar. When the mixture has cooled, but is still warm (approximately 30 degrees) add the yeast. Mix well and, while is still as warm, place the mixture in bottles. You can drink it after three days.
Photo via The Roosevelts
4. Oatmeal Stout
Another easy recipe for beer making is the Oatmeal Stout. Here are the ingredients:
- 6.5 lbs. pale malt
- 1 lb. roasted barley
- 1 lb. flaked oats
- 1 lb. flaked barley
- 0.5 lb. dark crystal malt, 80° Lovibond
- 2 oz. chocolate malt
- 1/3 lb. light crystal malt, 20° Lovibond
- 2 oz. Kent Golding hops (5.4% alpha acid) for 90 min.
- Wyeast 1318 (London ale III)
- 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming
Boil the grains at 150 degrees for 60 minutes with 3.25 gallon water at 150° F for Sparge to collect 5.5 gallon worth. Total boil time is 90 min. Add hops at the beginning of boil. After 90 min. boil, cool to 68° F and pitch yeast. The mixture has to ferment at 68° F for 10 days, cool to 40° F for and ferment for five more days. Bottle your beer and enjoy it.
Photo via Home Brewing Summer Beers
5. Arizona Pale Ale
Ingredients:
- 6-7 pounds, pale malt extract
- 1 package Wyeast American Ale Liquid yeast (#1059)
- 2 tsp. gypsum
- 1 pound Crystal malt, 1/2 pound toasted malted barley
- 2 ounces Northern Brewer hops (boiling): 10HBU
- 1 ounce Cascade hops (finishing)
- 1 tsp Irish Moss
- 2 cups steamed (sanatized) American Oak Chips (secondary)
- 3/4 cups corn sugar (bottling)
Bake the grains in a preheated oven, at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. In a pot, add all the grains and 1 gallon water. Boil the mixture at 150 degrees for 30 minutes. In another pot, heat 1 gallon of water for sparging and boil for 1 hour. Add the Cascade hops and Irish Moss after the boil and for 5-10 minutes. After aging you beer for four weeks in bottle, you can actually call it beer.
Photo via Heath Land
6. Blackberry Porter
Ingredients:
- 6.6 lbs Dry malt extract
- 3 cups Crystal Malt 40 L
- 3 cups Special B
- 1/2 cup Chocolate Malt
- 1 in. Brewers Licorice
- 2 tbls. Gypsum
- 8 oz. Malto Dextrin
- 2 oz Liberty Hops ( 3.5 AAU)
- 5 lbs. Frozen Thawed Blackberries ( added to the secondary)
- 2 pkgs. Muton/Fison yeast
In a 2.5 gallon of water with gypsum add grains in a hop sack. Boil to 160 degrees for 15 minutes. Sparge grains and remove, bring the mixture to a boil, add D.M.E and licorice and boil for 1 hour. In the last 15 minutes of boil, add Malto-Dextrin and Liberty Hops. Rehydrate yeast, cool the mix and add to enough water to ferment for 5 days, then rack to secondary which has within it the thawed frozen fruit. Leave it to ferment again for 15-20 days.
Photo via Money
7. Casual Dunkelweizen
Ingredients:
- 3.3 pounds, Northwestern weizen extract
- 3.3 pounds, Northwestern amber extract
- 1/2 pound, crystal malt (crushed)
- 1/2 cup, black patent malt (lightly crushed)
- 1 teaspoon, gypsum
- 1/2 teaspoon, Irish moss
- 2 ounces, Mt. Hood hops (8.6 AAU)
- Wyeast Bavarian Wheat liquid yeast
The grains are steeped and strained out. Add extract and all of the hops, then boil 60 minutes. Add to cold water in fermenter and pitch yeast.
Photo via LA Times
8. Cider
- 5 Gallons Apple Juice (no Na-Benzoate)
- 2 Lbs Brown Sugar
- 1 Lb Honey
- 1 Cup Sucrose (didn”t quite have enough brown sugar)
- Dry EDME Ale Yeast (1 packet)
Boil all the ingredients for 15 minutes, ferment the mixture for 4 weeks.
Photo via Chicago Map
9. Belgian Wheat Ale
- 1 teaspoon gypsum in mash water
- 6 pounds pale malt
- 3 pounds wheat malt
- 1/4 pound crystal malt (light)
- 2/3 ounce Bramling Hops (boil 50 min.)
- 1/3 ounce Bramling Hops (boil 10 min.)
- 1/4 ounce Centennial Hops (boil 1 min., then steep for 15 min.)
- Wyeast Belgian Ale yeast
This procedure needs a two-stage mash: 50 deg C. for 30 min., then 66 deg C. for 45 min. ferment at room temperature (around 16 deg C.) and that’s it.
Photo via Draft Mag
10. Scotch Ale
For our last easy recipe for beer making, you need:
- 9 pounds, pale ale malt
- 1 pound, crystal malt
- 1 pound, Munich malt
- 1/2 pound, chocolate malt
- 1/2 ounce, Bullion (60 minutes – 9% alpha)
- 2 ounces, Fuggles (30 minutes – 4.5% alpha)
- 3/4 ounce, Golding (10 minutes – 4.9% alpha)
- 1 teaspoon, Irish moss (30 minutes)
- Whitbread or Wyeast 1007 (“German Ale”)
Boil water to 140 degrees F and heat 14 quarts of your ingredients. Mash in, starch conversion 1 hour at 154 degrees F. Sparge the mix with 5 gallons at 168 degrees F, boil for another hour, add hops and Irish moss.
Have you ever thought about making homemade beer? Do you have any other easy beer making recipes?