Brewing is an Art and a Science!…It requires a broad and free-minded palette, creativity, ingenuity, great attention to detail, and most important love for beer itself! There are endless varieties of beers and unlimited possibilities which is why it is so appealing to me. In my trials I have found Charlie Papazian’s ideals to be the most rewarding “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a Homebrew!” and of course my personal favorite, ” …the best beer in the world is the one you brewed.” When brewing I think of these as clear indications of what my thesis implicates. My beer is the best because I made it and no other is like it. My latest brew was an Imperial Pale Ale, an extreme beer with 10.5% alcohol, not an easy feat to accomplish! The following images illustrate some of the steps I followed through this enlightening journey. First, I gather recipes of a certain beer style I want to brew then I devise my own, in this case Imperial Pale Ale with my own twist. Second, I created the pre-boil tea which is an essential part of the wort [beer without alcohol]. This tea gathers all the nutritious flavor and color of the mashed grains [barley]. After the tea is prepared, I start the standard 60 min. boil which involves the malt extracts, hops, and other key ingredients for creating the wort. For the Imperial Pale Ale, I had 4 hop additions [Chinok or Centennial hops for bitterness, Cascade hops for flavoring then aroma, and finally a final hopping of Cascade for the dry hopping]. All these hop additions help create a strong and flavorful beer. Then I start the fermentation with a strong yeast for the production of alcohol, this usually takes about a week [depends of the type of beer]. Once the fermentation is complete, I prepare the beer for aging in a glass carboy with the addition of the dry hopping which gives the beer the last touch of hop flavor, aroma, and bitterness. Finally, after about two weeks of aging, I bottle the beer and prepare the logos. The beer is finally ready in about a month!…Again, here is where Papazian’s quote comes to mind, “Relax. Don’t worry. Have a Homebrew!”
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