Simply, beer is a fermented combination of water, barley, yeast and hops. The major variation in any beer is the type of yeast used in the fermentation process.

Let’s look at the properties of this beverage.

Water is the main ingredient of beer. In the past, the purity of the water influenced the final result and was specific to the region of the earth from which it came. Today, water is filtered of these impurities, although pure water supplies are still ideally preferred by elite brewers.

Barley malt is an extremely important ingredient in beer as it is the main source of fermentable sugar. Many new breweries use barley malt extract, in either syrup or powder form, as this form ferments much quicker. It also contains many minerals and vitamins that help the yeast to grow.

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Hops are the flowers of the hop plant, a climbing vine plant that grows well in many differing climates. Hops contain acids which add bitterness to beer. Adding bitterness to beer helps to balance the sweetness, as well as acting as a natural preservative. Add more hops to the mixture and you will get a more bitter taste. This kind of beer is extremely popular in Britian and is simply referred to as “Bitter” (the original names are always the best!).

Variations of these ingredients create different tasting beers as well as having an affect on the alcoholic content.

When making your own beer many good resources are available which provide home brewing kits. It is important to read the ingredients of the packets in order to ascertain which has the best mixture according to your needs. One quick tip which many home brewers fail to adhere to is this: “Use fresh still water”!

Many have often sought information on how to make beer and the basic homebrewing equipment is not very expensive you can get what you need, for as little as $100.

In order to start making beer, you will need the following:
A brewpot: Primary fermenter: Airlock and stopper: Bottling bucket: Bottles: Bottle brush: Bottle capper: and a thermometer: In addition you can even use items from your kitchen to aid in the beer making. A breakdown of all the equipment is as follows:
Brewpot

A brewpot is made of stainless steel or enamel-coated metal which has at least 15 litre capacity, but it’s no good if it’s made of aluminum or if it’s a chipped enamelized pot, (these will make the beer taste funny). The brew pot is used to boil the ingredients thus begins the first stage of beer making.

Primary fermenter

The primary fermenter is where the beer begins to ferment and become that fabulous stuff that makes you so funny and charming. The primary fermenter must have a minimum capacity of 26 litres and an air tight seal it must also accommodate the airlock and rubber stopper. Make sure the one you buy is made of food-grade plastic, as it wont allow the bad stuff in or let the good stuff out.

Airlock and stopper

The airlock is a handy gadget which allows carbon dioxide to escape from your primary fermenter during fermentation, it is this process that keeps it from exploding, but it doesn’t allow any of the bad air from outside to enter. It fits into a rubber stopper, and is placed into the top of your primary fermenter. The stoppers are numbered according to size, so make sure you use the correct stopper for the correct hole

Plastic hose

This is a food grade plastic hose which measures approximately 5 feet in length. It is needed to transfer the beer from system to system, and it is imperitive that it is kept clean and free from damage or clogs

Bottling bucket

This is a large, food-grade plastic bucket with a tap for drawing water at the bottom, it needs to be as big as your primary fermenter, because you need the capacity to pour all the liquid from your primary fermenter into a bottling bucket prior to bottling up.

Bottles
After fermentation, you place the beer in bottles for secondary fermentation and storage. You need enough bottles to hold all the beer you’re going to make, the best kind of bottles are solid glass ones with smooth tops (not the twist-off kind) that will accept a cap from a bottle capper. You can use plastic ones with screw-on lids, but they arent as good for fermentation and dont look as well. Wheather you use glass or plastic bottles, make sure they are dark-colored. Light damages beer, i would recommend green or brown bottles.

Bottle brush

This is a thin, curvy brush which is used to clean bottles because of the the shape of the brush it makes it very affective at getting the bottle spotless. We haven’t even gotten into how clean everything has to be, but we will, and the bottle brush is a specialized bit of cleaning equipment that you will require in order to maintain your bottle kit.

Bottle capper

If you take buy glass bottles, you will need some sort of bottle capper and caps, of course, and you can buy them from any brewing supplies store. The best sort of bottle capper is one which can be affixed to a surface and worked with one hand while you hold the bottle with the other.

Thermometer

This is a thermometer which can be stuck to the side of your fermenter, they are just thin strips of plastic which are self adhesive, and can be found in any brewing supplies store, or from a pet shop or aquarium. Not everything costs money though even some household equipment can be used.

Household items

In addition to the above specialized equipment, you will need the following household items:
Small bowl:
Saucepan:
Rubber spatula:
Oven mitts/pot handlers:
Big mixing spoon:

So there you have the ingredients and the method to make your home brew, all you need now is to get yourself a beer making kit and your on the way to beer heaven.

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In Medieval Europe, brewing and baking went together. Thus women were the first European brewers and were often called ale wives.

1810: Munich establishes Oktoberfest as an official celebration.
King Frederick the Great once banned coffee to bolster sagging beer sales.
In Babylon over 4000 years ago, it was customary for the bride’s father to supply his new son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. As mead is a honey beer and their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the ‘honey month’ – or what we know today as the ‘honeymoon’. In fact, Babylonians believed if the groom drank mead for an entire month, it enhanced the chances of his wife bearing a male heir.
In Bavaria, beer is legally defined as a staple food.

After consuming buckets of aul (or ale), the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle, often without armour or even shirts. In fact, “berserk” means “bare shirt” in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
The first US lager was brewed in 1840 by John Wagner, who had a small brewery in the back of his house on St. John Street in Philadelphia. Wagner brought the first lager yeast to the United States from a brewery in Bavaria.
Historians report that during the Middle Ages, when monks were brewing their beer in their monasteries, each monk was allowed to drink 5 quarts of beer a day.

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In 1116 BC, Chinese imperial edict stated that heaven required people to drink beer.

The Egyptian pyramids were built on beer. Stonecutters, slaves and public officials were paid in a type of beer called ‘kash’ – which is where the word ‘cash’ originated.

In English pubs, unruly customers were told to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down – and so began the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s”. (Another explanation is customers were being warned about the potency of the beer. At ‘freehouses’ where people could make and sell their own beer, there was less control on the alcohol content.)

The familiar Scandinavian toast sköl derives from scole, the drinking bowl shaped like the upper half of a human skull. Originally, these bowls were fashioned from the actual skulls of enemy killed in battle.

Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold and the yeast wouldn’t grow; too hot and the yeast would die. This ancient practice is where we get the phrase ‘rule of thumb’.

Saint Arnold, a bishop born in 580, is considered the patron saint of beer. He encouraged people to drink beer instead of water during the Plague. Indeed, the Plague suddenly disappeared once his word spread (though some suggest because beer was boiled in the brewing process, it would have been safer than water, which had previously spread the infection.) When Saint Arnold died in 640, the citizens of his hometown carried his body from Remiremont to Metz for reburial in their church. On this journey, another miracle occurred – when the weary porters stopped to share their only mug of beer, they discovered the mug never ran dry.

The most expensive beer in the world? It’s called “Tutankhamen” and is prepared according to the recipe recovered by a group of University of Cambridge archaeologists in Queen Nefertiti’s Temple of the Sun in Egypt. It costs US $52 a bottle, and is produced in limited and numbered edition.
The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer. Although they planned to continue down the east coast, the Mayflower’s log explains the passengers “were hasted ashore and made to drink water that the seamen might have the more beer”. On their arrival, the pilgrims immediately built a common house, which included a brewery.

In ancient times, monks who fasted or abstained from solid food subsisted on beer.

The music for “The Star Spangled Banner” was derived from a British drinking song called “Anacreon”.

Carlos V: This emperor was the first beer importer, and one of its most illustrious drinkers and aficionados. It’s said that even in his retirement in Yuste, he kept a Flemish brewer in his reduced entourage.
Assyrian tablets from 2000 BC stated that Noah was carrying beer aboard the ark.

The United States two-dollar bill features three brewers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams. In fact, George Washington installed a brewhouse on his grounds at Mount Vernon.
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice.
Beer wasn’t sold in bottles until 1850. Beer lovers would visit their local tavern with a special bucket, have it filled and then begin the merry journey home.
Ale was brewed for centuries without hops. Before the 1400s, ale was flavoured with herbs such as rosemary and thyme. Yet the antiseptic quality of hops helped to preserve ale from spoiling and later became a vital part of its flavour.

In the Czech Republic, beer is cheaper than Coke. A half litre at the local pub costs just 30 cents (10.50 CZK) while a half litre of Coke costs 85 cents (30 CZK). Beer is a little more expensive than club soda (which costs 29 cents, or 10 CZK, for a half litre).

A labeorphilist is a collector of beer bottles.

Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass
A tegestologist is a collector of beer mats.

A flood of beer swept through the streets of St. Giles, England, on 17 October 1814. Caused by a rupture in a brewery tank containing 3500 barrels of beer, the tidal wave killed nine people and demolished two houses.

Universities in Europe and America from the 1300s through the 1700s had in-house breweries to provide beer to the students. Harvard had its own brew house in 1674 and five beer halls, each burned down by rioting divinity students.

The first six-pack of beer was produced by the Pabst Brewery in the 1940s. The brewery conducted numerous studies, which found six cans were the ideal weight for the average housewife to carry home from the store.
Ancient Egyptians brewed beer in just three days, due to the hot climate. Served as a still fermenting cereal mash, they would drink it through straws from a communal bowl.

In eleventh-century England, a bride would distribute ale to her wedding guests in exchange for donations to the newlyweds. This brew, known as Bride Ale, is the origin of the word ‘bridal’.

One method of checking a beer’s quality is the way in which the foam adheres to the side of the glass after each sip. Beer connoisseurs call this “Brussels lace.”

By 3000 BC, the Egyptians were brewing at least six different types of beer.
1888: Citizens of Munich took to the streets and rioted after a beer price increase was announced.

In 1740, Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy’s rum. The unhappy sailors nicknamed the Admiral ‘Old Grog’, after his wool grogram coats. The term ‘grog’ soon began to mean the watered down drink itself.

Czechs drink the most beer in the world per capita – an average of 160 litres a year per person.

In olde England, town inns paid a government tax known as a ‘scot’ for serving beer. Beer lovers who left town to drink at rural pubs were said to be drinking ‘scot free’.

Root Beer was origionally called Root Tea, however the name was changed to Root Beer to get more people to take interest in it.

Beer recipes have been found on Babylonian clay tablets from over 6000 years ago.

Guinness sells an average of 7 million glasses a day.

The British Army supplied its men with a cash allowance for beer, considered a vital nutritional staple on long overseas missions. With this allowance of one penny, soldiers enjoyed six pints of ale every day.

1587: The first beer is brewed in the New World at Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony in Virginia, but the colonists send requests to England for better beer
A beer a day… Beer was used to treat over 100 illnesses in Egypt, 1600 BC.
In the 13th century, King Wenceslas convinced the Pope to revoke an order banning the brewing of beer in Czech territories (no wonder he was known as ‘Good King Wenceslas).

In Egypt, two containers of beer were the minimum wage for a day’s labour.
American beer is predominately made from rice. That is why it tastes so light compared to foriegn beers. This is purely an American invention to increase profits as they hoped a lighter beer would also draw women to purchase.
Beer was often served for breakfast in medieval England.
It was customary in the 13th century to baptize children with beer.