Brewing 101
Now that you have decided to make your first batch of beer, and have all of your equipment. You must now decided what type of beer you are going to make. There are a lot of beer types in the world now day, and knowing what they are can be quite a difficulty. Ok, first off there are two main types of beers, lagers and ales. Now the only thing that distinguishes lagers from ales are the way that they ferment. Now let me break it down.
Lagers:
First off let me start by saying that lagers have a very type specific yeast. This yeast will only produce lagers, and cannot produce ales. Which causes the major differences in beers. So now by saying that, I will describe why the yeast is so type specific. Lager yeast as opposed to ale yeast prefers a cooler temperature to grow. Now that does not mean that it will not grow at the same temp as ales, just that it preferes cooler temps. A lager is normally brewed at a temperature of around 40-55 F, where is an ale likes a range of around 60-75 F. If you decided to make a lager, note that you may need an extra refrigerator to keep you beer at that optimal tempature range. Though you may be able to keep it in your normal refrigerator, more than likley it will begin to take up too much space. Lagers also may vary because of the way that they ferment. Lagers will normaly only ferment on the bottom of the carboy, meaning different fermentation times and reaction.
Some of the more common lagers would be like your local domestic beer, Coors, Budweiser, Miller, etc.. Though there is a lot more out there then just this one type. Explore and find a lager that you like best, then try to reproduce it, that is the fun part of homebrewing
Ales
Ales are the more common beers in homebrewing today, for a lot of reason. First is that they are very hearty and prefer to grown in more of a room tempature. Which people prefer because they can just set their carboy out in a corner and do not have to buy any other equipment to keep thier brew cool. There are a lot of ale beers to be had, though most people do not relies that a good percent of all un-American beers are ales. Most, but not all of your German, Belgian, and English beers are ales. A few examples are: a hefeweisen, a lambic, English pale ale, IPA, etc.. So keep in mind when choosing a recipe and a beer to drink that there is a lot out there.
On another note, like lager, ales too have a set place of fermentation. Lagers prefer to ferment on the bottem of the carboys, ales prefer the to ferment on the top of the carboy.
Misc. yeast and bacteria
Sometime you will run across a recipe that calls for a mixed strain or odd yeast type. Don't fret about it, most of these yeast grow somewhere in a happy medium between ales and lager. Though there are some recipes that will call for you to add a specific bacteria into your homebrew, usually a couple of days after you have pitched your yeast and have started fermenting. Remember that like bactera, yeast too is a microorganism, that has living functions and can altered by a foreign invader. These will not hurt you though, because by the time that fermentation is over, most all of the yeast and all of the bacteria of removed.
Common brewing ingredients
Some of the more common brewing ingredients include: (for malt and partial grain brewing)
Malt
hops
speciality grains
Yeast (discussed above)
Water
Malt
Malt that wonderful sugar that is created from barley. Malt is made from barley that has been left in water to be germinated, when that barley has just about fully germinated they take it out and dry it. The resulting product is called Malt. Malt in your beer is the suger substance that the yeast feeds on to make alcohol, as well as gives you the flavor or your wonderful brew. You can either buy malt as a grain or after it has been processed (liquid/powder malt). There are many different types of malt though the only thing that makes them different from one another is the way that it is roasted or dried. i.e. A crystal malt would be a lot lighter then a chocolate malt. Know what your recipe calls for, or the desired flavor of the beer. Because like the grain malt, the liquid malt comes many different ways.
Hops
For anybody that has ever smelled hops they know the smell quite well, for those who have not, all that I can say is that it reminds me of alfalfa. Though the smell all the same is quite nice. Hops are a flowing green that when ripe produce a buds that are used in homebrewing. There are many reasons to use hops in your homebrew, the main reason is for bitterness. The higher the amount of hops the more bitter your beer will be. Though some hops tend to be "more" bitter than others. Hops also like most things in hombrewing come in many different forms for hombrewing. The main thing is pick one that you like best to use. There are whole hops, pellets, plugs and hop extract. Personally I use the pellets, I think that they are the easiest to use. Also I would recommend that people, unless they have a lot of experience in homebrewing, should stay away from extracts. Things can go to shit fast when using extract!
Specialty Grains
Specialty grain are one of the most important aspects to a homebrewer. Theses grains are what gives a beer color and flavor. These grains are much like the liquid malt that you will use, though the main difference is the time that they are add to the beer, and the tempature that they need to be kept at. These grains also come in a varity of kinds and levels. Some examples would be Crystal, Chocholate, Roasted, etc.. The main thing is try to learn what grain will do what for you.
Water
Try to remember that your beer that you make is nothing more than 98% water, so the type of water that you use is very important. Now any type of water can be used in homebrewing, though there may be reasons that you would not want to. Here are the specific types.
Home tap water
Home tap water can be used though there are some things to consider when doing so. What is the level of minerals, what is the pH of the water. Too many minerals can add nasty flavors to your homebrew, to even possibly ruining it. Also with that if you have a pH that is too acidic or too alkaline these factors can be disastrous to your homebrew. A good pH for hombrewing is around 7 or neutral to as low as 6.5. So consider very wisely when using tap water.
Spring and distilled water
Spring water is usually fairly good to use because all levels must be contolled when they bottle it. Also Distilled water is good to use because the pH is around 7 and all minerals are not present. But even that can be a problem, sometimes you have to add some minerals back in. Personally I use distilled in the boil and spring in the filler water.
