Home Sweet Homebrew

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Recommended: The beer brewing process

Believed discovered purely by accident, beer has played a huge role in the history of human civilization. In early civilizations, beer was used as a safe source of water and other nutrients and in later years consumed for reasons that are more social. Although the reasons for homebrewing beer have changed, the process has remained primarily the same.

The oldest documentary evidence of beer brewing comes from Uruk in Mesopotamia and dates to about 3500 B.C.E.; found on clay tablets that tell the story of Gilgamesh in Sumerian, written in cuneiform (see fig. 1). The tablets describe how beer was prepared, the different varieties of beer, and how it was consumed. At this time in Mesopotamia, barley was the most important cereal for both humans and animals. The grain was steeped into water and then either air-or oven-dried. After removal of the sprouts, the malt was milled for brewing beer. Then the malt and the beer-breads were mixed with water and heated, after which the vessel was removed from the oven to cool. Before fermentation, spices, herbs, and sweet plant extractives with effects that were believed to be medicinal were added; the augmented sugars and microorganisms from the herbs helped to induce fermentation (Sugar and Spice). Brewers often saved some of the wort from one fermentation to use it as a starter for the next brew. Water was added to the mixture then transferred into a fermentation vessel, which was long and narrow-necked to minimize the mixture of inside and outside air and decrease infection from outside. We do not know how long fermentation lasted, but probably most of the beer was quickly top-fermented into weak ale. (Beer: Origins and Ancient History).

For the ancient Egyptians also, beer was the preemine...

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...ined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

"Brewing In Colonial America - Part I." AMERICAN BREWERY HISTORY PAGE. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

"Five Reasons You Should Homebrew – Beeriety." Beeriety. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

"Homebrewing – Beeriety." Beeriety. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

Ogle, Maureen. Ambitious brew: the story of American beer. Orlando: Harcourt, 2006. Print.

"Sugar & Spice: An Intro to Beer Spices – Beeriety." Beeriety. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

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