Due to the flood of new beers hitting the market, it is very important understand the importance of establishing a brand name.   The label and logo of a new beer is the cover by which it is judged.   Beer drinkers often associate their favorite beer with a symbol found on its label.

There are two routes to branding a new beer or brewing company.  The first would be to design the logo and label yourself.  While this is the cheapest route, it is not without faults.  Creating a logo and a label at home can be frustrating, especially if the graphics tools are unfamiliar.  Also, creating a layout that is not only easy to read but eye-catching as well can be very difficult.  (Remember…your label is what you’re beer will be judged by…initially!)

The second option would be to hire a free-lance graphic designer or design firm.  This option is more expensive, but your end results promise to be aesthetically pleasing.  As with any company, be sure to do your homework and view their portfolio.  Also, check if they have done beer logos/labels before.  There are a few design firms that specialize in graphics and marketing for the brewing world specifically.  As such, they know the lingo and what pulls buyers to beer labels.

It is hard to make it in any market, especially the beer market that saw a decline in sales in 2011. However, achieving success is possible.  It all starts with branding.  Doing marketing research, creating an attractive image and proper placement of advertisements will help build a foundation that will hopefully assist a brand to reach celebrity status.

Learning how to clean your home brewing equipment is the first, last, and most vital step in successfully making beer at home.  Improper cleaning and sanitation of that equipment to can lead to not only poor tasting but, unhealthy beer as well.  So, here are some tips that may help you to keep that equipment clean and well sanitized and make that beer your brew at home much better than any you will buy commercially.

Clean as You Go

The best way to help keep your brewing equipment and those beer bottles sanitized is to clean them as you go.  It’s much easier to clean out those bottles with a few swishes of cold or warm water than have to spend time soaking out beer sediment from the bottles because you put off rinsing them out immediately.  As with most equipment, the sooner you rinse it after use, the easier it will be to clean.

When cleaning the fermenter, never use conventional detergents. In most cases if you clean your fermenter immediately after use you will only need clean water and perhaps a scotch bright pad to get the wort scum off around the top.  Make sure you remove the tap and use a nipple brush or a tooth brush to completely clean the tap and the treads as this is the first place that unwanted bacteria begins to grow. Soak the tap itself in good hot water to remove any stuck on fermented beer and change the tap as often as you need to in order to keep your beer fresh and free of bacteria. Use clear water and cloth to clean the internal surfaces of your fermenter as well.

What To Sanitize

Many people who begin making beer at home aren’t sure what part of their beer equipment they really need to sanitize.  If your really want great home brew, then it is best to sanitize everything your brew is going to come in contact with. This includes not only the fermenter and beer bottles, but also stirring spoon, hoses, crown seals, air locks, everything.

If you are going to be a successful home brewer you need to make sure that the beer making process begins and ends with properly cleaned and sanitized equipment.

By Drew Brown

Home brewing has never been hotter and it’s not hard to see why. It offers a wonderful way to brew your own beautifully crafted beers in the comfort and solitude of your own home and costs you a mere fraction of what store-bought beers do. For true beer lovers and creative sorts, it can also be an amazing way to enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes along with bringing something uniquely your own into the world. Thanks to premium brewing starter kits — like the one’s produced by the legendary Cooper’s brand – brewing has never seemed easier or more appealing to beginners and curious beer enthusiasts… but are Cooper’s Home Brewing kits really capable of producing truly drinkable beers from a simple, affordable kit?

Cooper’s Home Brewing Is About Simplicity and Ease of Use

Cooper’s home brewing is about more than just quality. It’s about taking an otherwise complicated, difficult process and taking the guesswork out of it without sacrificing anything in regards to quality or taste. Today’s home brewers are busy folks on a budget who don’t necessarily have the time to oversee a long, intricate beer making process or the money to invest in hundreds of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Nevertheless, they have discerning palettes that know a great beer when they taste it and don’t want to settle for less than the best. Cooper’s home brewing kits not only offer consumers an affordable, all-in-one package to get their brewing adventures started on the right foot, but are capable of producing some of the best tasting home brew under the sun as well. They’re also amazingly user friendly. Many of the kits even come complete with instructional DVDs to ensure this.

Cooper’s Home Brewing Is About Variety

Some home brewing companies drop the ball when it comes to available choices, assuming that consumers are happy with just one or two choices in regards to their ready-to-go brew mixes. Cooper’s, on the other hand, is all about taking home beer makers by the hand and leading them on a journey through the entire world of beer with their wide variety of different beer mixes. Cooper’s home brewing means getting to enjoy ease and convenience while creating everything from premium lagers, to stouts, to micro brews from around the world. They’re made especially for use with Cooper’s premium micro brew kits and produce results that simply have to be experienced to be believed.

Cooper’s Home Brewing Is a Great Way to Get to Know Homemade Beer

Cooper’s is the top name in the home beer making business for a good reason. They’re known for their attention to detail, traditional values, and quality in regards to their products, so it’s not surprising that they were exactly the people responsible for producing high quality home beer making kits that are not only inexpensive, but effective and enjoyable to use. Experts all over the world recommend Cooper’s when it comes to brewing kits and products you can really trust, but don’t take their word for it. Give it a try for yourself and find out how fulfilling (and easy!) making your own beers can really be!

Hops have been in brewing since the 1400′s, when they first appeared as an ingredient possible for gruit beer. They originated in western Europe, and over hundreds of years, they made their way into every country in Europe. Because of their excellent preservative qualities, hops became standard in beers across Europe. Today, hops are optional in beers, but are still a standard because of their high quality of bittering sweet malts and contain natural preservative qualities. Also, contemporary hops have several varieties that brewers use like chefs. Even in Italy, fine beers are crafted with local hops that are specific to the beers they make and the foods they serve.

Hops are vine type plants that grow over 16 feet tall. What is harvested by the farmers are the small flowers, about 1.5 inches long, that look like yellow-green pine cones. They are very soft and pliable. For the home brewer, hops should always have this appearance. If the hops you bring home to brew beer vary towards yellow or brown, the hops are not fresh and will impart a strange flavor into the wort. Because malts are so sweet, hops are used to bitter beer and are added at different stages of brewing. When hops are added is dependent upon what type of ale or lager is being brewed.

Hops are a medicinal plant as well as an herb. Hops for ages have been known for their abilities to calm the nervous system, help digestion, improve appetite and promote sleep. Though I often consider hops a beer component, infusions and teas are still as if they were made before hops and beer were ever married.

Hops are grown in some places of western America, but most hops are grown in Europe, predominantly. Hops are perennial plants and grow over 16 feet tall on trellis’. Yellow-green flowers hang like ripe grapes at harvest. To harvest, farmers cut the vine near the base. Flowers are collected and sent to storage. Hops brokers hold the different varieties of hops in coolers. Breweries purchase these hops to make the beers we enjoy. In storage, hops can last up to six months. To insure you are getting good hops, look for green color with no yellowing or browning of the petals.

In brewing beer, hops are added at different stages of making beer. This applies to both the large brewer and the home brewer. Hops are added to preserve and to bitter beer. IPA’s are very bitter, high alcohol content beers that originated from Britain preserving their beers with heavy hops. These beers were sent to India. Thus, India Pale Ale. IPA. Worts are best boiled for a time. Hops are added to be boiled five to twenty minutes. The time of boil depends on the type of beer, the brewer, the type of hops, and the stage of cooking that they are used.

Not every hop is made the same. Farmers grow about 33 common types of hops. Hops are categorized by how much bitterness they impart. Oils, tannins, and acids make up the bittering agent of hops. Each variety imparts a different level of each. As a brewer, the difference in hops becomes much like a chef in gauging the potency of chile peppers. Each tastes differently and each has a different heat and sweetness. As a brewer, decisions need to be made as to which hop at what time for this malt. Thankfully there are other brewers who came before us. Recipes for American Lagers, Nut Brown Ales, and more are easy to find.

BY: Paul Weese

To start, home brew beer is not brewed to improve over time. Most of the beers will spoil within in a few months to a year in my opinion. There are very few special beers that will last for years.

There are some things you can do to keep your brew the longest time. Once you have opened the bottle you should drink it and if you should not finish it, you can put it back in the fridge but only for less that 2 hours at most. If it is in there more than 2 hours no matter how tight you sealed the bottle, it will be no good. Yes you can still drink it after that but, it will not taste the same.

Air is the enemy of your brew so stopper well. What is surprising is that normal air is about 79% nitrogen. Nitrogen is used in the kegs and some bottles to give the beer its foamy head. Carbonation drops are used in home brewing for that head of foam. It is the oxygen in air that does the damage with the beer and organisms in the air.

Store your bottles upright so if you should have any remaining yeast it will migrate to the bottom. Otherwise any yeast will accumulate near the bottle neck. Also keep the beer in the dark or in a low light room because ultraviolet light can cause spoilage called skunked. Keeping the brew cool like all food products is best for longer storage and an appetizing ale. The temperature you are looking for is around 50°F to 60°F ideally.

If you do not have special refrigerator for the ale or the idea spot to keep it out of the light you’ll just need to give in to the temptation to drink it sooner.

Micro brewed beer is often used to refer to beer that is brewed in the comforts of one’s home or in small pubs. The term started in the 70s in the UK to describe single units that make their own beer or traditional cask ale.

Before, the term micro brew was only used to characterize output volume and brewery size. In the US, it used to refer to breweries that produces less than 15,000 beer barrels in a year. But, now, it is fast becoming known as a next generation approach to beer brewing and experimentation, as well as customized service.

Beer aficionados will tell you that some of the world’s best brews are the ones done in microbreweries. Because makers of micro brew beer have the liberty to create their own concoctions and make experiments with flavor, a number of microbreweries gave starting banking on this popularity and sprouting all over the world.

If you ask micro brew fans what makes this kind of beer so great, they will most definitely tell you it’s the distinct flavor. You see, microbrewed beer usually tastes richer and darker than its commercially and mass-produced counterparts. And because each pub or home microbrewery is likely to have its own distinct twist to beer making, you can be assured of a variety of flavors you are bound to taste.

Micro brew is not just for pubs, as said earlier. Some people prefer to brew their own beer at home, for personal pleasure. Home brews are perfect for private parties. In fact, some beer makers even use a home microbrewery as an excuse to invite people over.

However, it is important to note that not all states have legalized microbrewing. To know more information about this, as well as how to start your own micro brew setup at home, you might want to check out the American Homebrewers Association. They have a list of restrictions and how-tos on their Web site, which can help you get started or keep you in control.

You can also join a local micro brew club if there is on in your area. If you’re a bit antisocial, this might be the best place to start with because you deal with a fewer number of people. You can exchange notes and compare micro brew flavors with them, and even do joint projects on new tastes. To find out if there’s one in your vicinity, check the local directory.

Making your own beer or tasting one that’s customized makes a whole lot of difference to the beer drinking experience. If you previously thought the beers you buy from the supermarket are all there is, then you missed so much.

However, it’s not too late to start introducing yourself to the wonder that is micro brew. Who knows, you might actually learn to love it more than the commercial fare — just like any other person who has made the switch before you. Enjoy!

People say that beer making can be a burden but I beg to differ. As long as you have the right beer brewing supplies and as long as you have the interest, you could do it easily. Well, perhaps not SO easily but still you could do it, and do it well.

Beer production depends on three important things: beer brewing supplies, beer brewing equipment and LOVE. Naturally, you need to exert love and effort into preparing and making your beer because without them even the most advanced beer making supplies won’t help the flavor of your concoction. Similarly, no matter how much sweat you invest in your creation, you won’t get beer unless you have the basic supplies and equipment needed for such endeavor.

If you are a beginner, you may want to use a beer starter kit. Starter kits contain equipments that would enable someone to create around five gallons of beer. They usually include a fermenting bucket with an airlock, a bottling bucket, some priming sugar, a siphon unit, a thermometer, a few beer bottles and bottle caps, a sanitizer and a bottle brush and an instructional material on making homemade beer.

The fermenting bucket is what you will use to ferment your unfermented beer, which is otherwise known as the wort. Naturally, the airlock serves as the bucket’s seal – keeping bacteria and oxygen at bay while letting carbon dioxide escape from the inside of the bucket. In addition, the thermometer is used to check the temperature of the beer while it ferments.

Once the beer has been fermented, it is transferred into the bottling bucket using the siphon unit. Prior to siphoning the beer to the bottling bucket, the priming sugar is added in the bucket so that it could mix with the beer later on.

Most bottling buckets have spigots attached to them. The spigots make it easier to fill the bottles with beer once the bottling process is completed.

The beer making ensemble also has a brush and sanitizer which are used for cleaning the bottles and the rest of the equipments so that they could be utilized over and over again. After all, it is very expensive to throw your beer brewing supplies and purchase new ones whenever you feel like brewing your own beer.

Of course, the most important beer brewing supply is perhaps the How-To book on homemade beer. It is a must – particularly if you are a novice in the field. I mean, how exactly you would be able to concoct your product if you don’t even know the first step to making it? Without the intention of blasphemy, I can say that such step-by-step instructional material is the beer brewer’s bible, without which, beer brewing supplies would not be able to achieve the purpose for which they have been made in the first place.

Now that you know the basics on beer brewing supplies, why don’t you get started? It’s fun and easy!

BY Luke D. Porter

Ingredients:

• 8 lbs. Great Western domestic 2-row malt
• 3/4 lb. 50L crystal malt
• 1/2 lb. CaraPils malt
• 1 oz. 8.3 AAU whole Perle hops (75 min. boil)
• 1/2 oz. 6.0 AAU whole Cascade hops (15 min. boil) (Total IBU is about 33)
• 1 oz. whole Cascade hops (steep while cooling)
• 1 pint starter, Wyeast #1056 (Chico)

Procedure:

1 1/2 tsp gypsum (my water is rather soft) in mash. Lactic acid added to sparge water for pH 5.7.

122 degree protein rest for 30 min (I know I could have skipped this, but I have never used this malt before), 155 degree saccharification rest for 60 min., mash out at 168 degrees for 10 min. Sparge, boil, pitch, etc.etc. My pre-boil yield is about .033 pts/gal/lb, but since I whirlpool and settle the wort after chilling, then rack off from the trub, my yield drops to about .027 due to the amount of wort left behind in the kettle.

Brewing beer at home has now become a very easy task. There are many home brewing kits available in the market today. Seasonal beers are generally available at the pubs and not at local stores. Also buying the special beer bottles from the supermarket is expensive affair; therefore, many beer lovers have started brewing beer at home. If you are a newbie and still want to learn how to brew beer of your own choice, then there are many good beer-brewing kits that can be quite handy to brew a quality beer at home. Despite of you not having adequate skills, you can still get started.

If you are beginner, start with brewing simple and easy beers. Many people advise the beginners to stay away from lagers and sour beers as they can be fussier and require more equipment compared to brewing other beers. Pick a style that can be done with extract, hops and yeasts, as they are easy to brew, taste better, and condition quickly. Simple beers have bitter component and take less time than those, which have flavoring and aroma hops. Start with something with an OG of 1.070 or less as having a high gravity will make the whole process easier for the beginners. Use dry yeast and do a malt extract beer with some grains. Do not start with a mini mash or all grains.

Let us take a look at the various types of beer and also some beginner beers to brew at home.

First in the list of good beers is Ales

The best part of ales is that when it is brewed it does not convert much of the sugars into alcohol, which gives it a sweeter and fruitier taste. For beginners brewing True Brew Pale Ale and Brewers Best Ale are recommended, as they are much easier to brew compared to other lines of Ales beer. You can add different flavors to it such as mint, citrus etc. This is a very cheap beer to brew.

The second choice can be Lagers

Most of the lagers have a crisp taste and can range from very light to very dark as per the brewing process. This beer goes well with spicy, Indian and Mexican foods.

The stouts are third in place

Stouts are very dark full-bodied type of beer and have a flavor very similar to the coffee. They can be brewed in other flavors like sweet, bitter, milk, and even oatmeal. Chocolate Stout is a safe beer to brew by the beginners. It is very smooth, chocolaty and taste very good among the other beers in the same category.

Fourth in the list are porters

These are very strong and delicious type of beer. This beer is dark, strong and has bitter hops flavor with a hint of chocolate.

The fifth beer in sequence is Pilsners

This beer has a golden color and is clear. This does not have a thick body and is soft and easy to drink. Having hoppy full flavors they are generally more preferred than general lagers.