A Closer Look At The Brewing Process: Beer At The Boiling Point

The beer brewing kit makes it possible for anyone to brew their own great tasting beer right in their own kitchen. While you can make beer easily enough without being an expert on the brewing process, it’s entertaining (and enlightening) to know a little more about just what exactly is happening as your malt, hops, yeast and water become the miraculous beverage known as beer.

The Purpose of Boiling

One of the key steps of brewing your own beer is boiling. Boiling has a few different functions. For starters, it’s the point in the process where you’ll add your hops, extracting their refreshingly bitter flavor into your brew. It’s also a natural sterilization process which denatures the proteins and enzymes which can make your beer taste off and appear cloudy – and eliminates any stray microorganisms which may have found their way in and could spoil the batch. It may seem like nothing more than boiling, but this is an important part of the process which can make all the difference to the flavor of your finished beer.

Dissolving Malt Extracts

If you’re just getting started making your own beer with a home beer brewing kit, then the chances are that you’re using one of the pre-made malt extracts rather than malting and roasting your own barley. These extracts are easy to work with, but it does take a little extra care during the boiling process to make sure that your beer turns out the way you intended. The malt extracts which often come along with a beer brewing kit have a relatively high sugar content; this is a good thing of course, since this sugar is what will serve as a food source for your yeast, enabling them to create the alcohol and natural effervescence of beer. However, their sugar content also means that you’ll have to stir your extract in very well – and keep stirring to make sure that it dissolves completely in the mixture and doesn’t end up at the bottom of the pot where it can burn. Scorched malt means burnt tasting beer, which isn’t probably what you envisioned when you excitedly brought home your new beer brewing kit, so take the time to boil properly during the brewing process and enjoy your delicious beer beverage when you’re done.