Brewing in the Times of Covid

-

2020 has been an interesting and challenging year...to put it mildly. Here in BC, along with most other places the number of covid cases continue to rise, and it seems that we are now fully in the second wave of the virus. We've just watched the US people vote to change their government, and in doing so voted for a change, and a different vision for the country. I know that many people, myself included, will be watching to see what that vision looks like. Couple those things with increasing evidence of climate change, the opioid overdose crisis, the shortage of affordable housing, the myriad of other challenges in our lives these days, and sometimes it almost gets too much to take. 

One of the things that I do to make myself feel good is brew beer. I find that the now familiar and well defined process of taking raw materials, and using them to create a tasty beverage very satisfying, and in my humble opinion I've managed create quite a few that turned out to be excellent beers. To date in 2020 I've brewed the following beers:

  • Dad's Pale Ale - Feb
  • Vanilla Oatmeal Stout - May
  • Hippie Farm Clone (Saison) - July
  • Christmas Dark Amber - November

Not as many as I'd usually brew which is ironic since I've spent so much time at home over the last several months. I am committing to do more brewing this year, and aim to increase my output in 2021. Something that I'd like to do with this blog also. Although I've said that before.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Beginning

-
I'd asked for the beer brewing starter kit for Christmas in 2007 and after almost 3 years of it sitting and gathering dust I finally decided that it was time to brew my first batch of beer. What made me suddenly decide that the time was right? I think that it was the "are you ever going to make beer with that kit I got you for Christmas?" questions from my loving partner, and the need to get off my ass and finally do it! After all it was something that I'd asked for. So I looked at what I had...and it was an interesting array of beer making paraphernalia. The basic kit that I had came with the following items: closed primary fermenter (white plastic 30 litre food grade bucket with a 3 cm hole drilled in the lid) 23 litre glass carboy hydrometer - used to test the alcohol content of the beer test jar syphon rod hose and clamp airlock and bung sanitizing powder big spoon instructions Along with these things I also got a basic 23 litre canned beer kit...in this case it w...
Read more

Just a Few Beer Brewing Basics

-
So to make beer there are four essential ingredients: water, fermentable sugars (traditionally malted barley), hops and yeast. These ingredients are processed and combined according to a recipe. Given the right conditions the yeast will convert the fermentable sugars to alcohol, CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), and the taste that we know as beer. The beer is then bottled and, depending on the type of beer being made, aged from a week to three months. There are three standard methods to making beer and they are ranked in order of complexity: Basic- Malt extract - a "canned" beer kit. Basically a can of pre-hopped malt extract where you add water and stir. Intermediate - Malt extract/Grain - Made with unhopped malt extract, hops, grains and yeast. The grains are steeped in warm water and this water, plus the malt extract is added to the wort which is then boiled for an hour. For most recipes both boiling and finishing hops are added. A little more work but results in a much better beer. A...
Read more