You can thank Louis Pasteur for discovering the role of yeast in fermentation in the 1800s. Brewers would use sediments from previous batches (which unbeknownst to them contained the yeast), or they would let the beer sit out until wild yeast took over and did their thing. I won’t bog us down in the history of why such a law existed (has government ever met an industry it hasn’t wanted to regulate?), but you may have noticed it failed to mention the most important ingredient of all: yeast! That’s because in the 16th century, we didn’t know that yeast played a critical role in the fermentation of beer. Dating back to the 16th century, it declared that the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops. You may have heard about Germany’s famous Beer Purity Law, or Reinheitsgebot. To answer this, we can look to the Germans for inspiration. And we’ll have a point of reference to rely on as we improve our brewing skills. By doing so, the art of making beer will make a lot more sense. Before we can create our own biological masterpiece, however, we have to understand beer’s basic DNA.
Beer is a living and breathing piece of art (more on this when we cover fermentation in section 5. I know this probably sounds pretty basic, but to become craft brewers, we need to understand our craft in its most basic form. In this section we’re going to learn about the ingredients that make up our favourite nectar of the gods. Alright, let’s learn to brew beer at home without a kit!
SIMPLY PUT, USE THIS GUIDE TO BECOME A CRAFT BREWER IMMEDIATELY.
Together, we’ll cover the basics of what you need to know to get started, including tips and tricks to make your first brew day a breeze. If you want to get started brewing without having to read a 300-page book, you’ve come to the right spot. It’s for everyone who has put off learning to brew because it seemed intimidating. It’s for the foodie who wants to up their game with beer. It’s for the beer lover who wants to make his or her own beer. I want help you become a crafter brewer! Who Is This Guide For? If you’re interested in brewing and have been holding off, I want to change that. I’ve stripped the jargon so you can focus on learning everything you need to get brewing in your kitchen. Had I had a guide like this early on, I would have started brewing craft beer so much sooner. Once I got started, I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on all these years. I put off trying my hand at home brewing for years and years because I assumed it was tough and that I’d only ever produce bad beer. If you have never brewed a batch of beer-even if you have no clue how beer is made-this guide’s for you.