Someone please explain to me the seemingly fun concept of home brewing?

I’m in a brewing class right now and we’re currently making beer but the fermentation won’t be complete for 2 more months but so far it smells great. There are many different kits you can buy that are really easy to use. Also hundreds of different beer recipes. Brewing is actually very easy and fun. Just follow the directions and remember to always sanitize all your euipment because any unwanted bacteria could ruin the fermenation process and you’ll end up with sour wine or beer!

thank you qc, but i have one more question for you? have you ever tried mead, or even heard of it. yes or no answer will suffice

Ive never made it but mead is made from fermenting honey. It was one of the first things ever fermented. I don’t know what it tastes like but I assume it’s sweet.

okay qc, heres the thing. i tried making it, and your right, next to wine mead was one of the first alcoholic concepts, but i’m trying to carbonate it kinda like a beer, but i dont know how. Like wine it goes through the aging process before it tastes any good, so do i carbonate it first then age, or would that mess up the aging process, and in that case, would i age it first then carbonate. need advice

I’m not exactly sure on that, I might be able to look it up if I can find my notes around here. I don’t think mead is supposed to be carbonated but if you carbonate you should deffinately do that after the aging process because that could disrupt the activity of the yeast. Also, are you adding your own carbonation? The yeast produce carbon dioxide as it converts the sugars to alcohol so for example, the beer you wouldn’t need to add your own carbonation. Maybe the container that you aged it in wasn’t air tight? I’ll see if I can dig out some notes on the mead…

i just read somewhere that by adding sugar after siphonng a few times that the amount of sugar, depending on how much you make would restart the fermentation process while bottling, giving it a carbonated appeal, its just a small project but i would wanna do it right.

yeah also adding more sugar would cause the alcohol level to be higher

i know because the alcohol ius just fermented sugar, but the mead already has a low alcohol level, and its only 5 ounces of sugar a gallon, so would it realy hurt, as i said this is just an experiment that i am trying to successfully accomplish

No it wouldn’t hurt, just don’t add too much. i’m reading that if you add a small amount of sugar when you bottle, like you said restarts the fermentation process to produce carbonation…just don’t add too much. This site I’m reading says to add 4 ounces of sugar per 5 gallons. Are you going by instructions that came with a kit? But you could also make a ‘still’ mead which is non-carbonated and tastes more like wine than beer.

Thanks qc

I have made wine beer and mead. It is fun to do and fun to drink. On the carbonation issue you ferment first. Carbonation stops the fermentation process.

Home-brewing is the art of turning malt-water and hops into beer, but you could also include Wine-making and Mead-making as types of home-brewing. The best way to learn about zymurgy (using yeast to make alcoholic beverages) is to do it yourself and pay observe (and enjoy) the results.

I highly recommend visiting a local homebrew supply store and talking to the people there. They are very knowledgeable and excited about beer and wine. There is probably a homebrew club (if you live in a metro area) that meets monthly and shares beer (hey, free beer!) where you can meet others also.

For personal study, I also highly recommend John Palmer’s online book, “How to Brew”:
http://www.howtobrew.com/