ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

If your thirst for a good brew and to have some fun creating the right drop. One of the more enjoyable aspects of home do-it-yourself beermaking is the ability to try different styles of beer. Creative beermaking is an old fashioned activity without chemicals, using tastebuds, common sense and creativity. Once you lose the pressure to compete with all those producing chemcial beers, your self confidence will grow and you will create real beer.

Often people fail with their own beer and are discouraged either by seeing fog in the glass, heavy froth directly after opening the bottle, little yeast pieces rising after a few seconds or through the special smile of their visitors sampling the home brew.

Be creative and try a pleasant taste of tarragon, rosemary, sage, horehound, estragon and gumleaves. By adding one leaf in each delicious tasting bottle.

2 kg of malt extract, harvest a handful of horehound leaves, adding some gumleaves + three tablespoons molasses, and cook the wort for one hour. Then dissolve 1.5 kg of local honey in water and add enough good water to fill a five gallon drum right to the top.That's a tasty drop!

If you love yur homebrewed beer, you certainly love your little helpers (the yeast bacteria).

Brewing is a creative process involving living organisms - the yeast bacteria do the work for you.

They enjoy their most creative life between 25 and 35 degrees. A suitable place to keep warm would have to be the hot water storage tank from the woodstove or solar hot water panel.

Leave the beer for at least seven days to settle down before bottling. Do not use any chemicals to clena the bottles or the bin. Clean boiling water sterilises everything in contact with the beer. It is a bit of work, but worthwhile - you can lose bottles thorugh infections and impurities.

Experiment with all kinds of herbs, with fruits, substituting chicory roots instead of barley, ideas willl flourish and tastebuds will keep you creative, looking for the best recipe.

Horehound stout, the perfect elixer when you feel a cold coming on - it is bitter but it helps.

Rosemary beer and the tastiest gumleaf beer. Lavender beer is very calming, mango beer is like champagne.

'Normal beer' could become something special, made from a kit + some leaves from a herb or plant that you like. Add the leaf during the first fermentation. Or: 2 kg malt extract + half a handful (20g) of horehound leaves + 1 kg organic sugar + 5 gallons water (10 gumleaves) and yeast.

For beer champagne, the first fermentation is as above. Add one leaf of your liking to each bottle, keep them warm for 14 days, then store for at least two weeks in a cold place and drink with friends on birthdays and other special events.

Cheers, Chin, chin.