| Home brewing is a big industry in Europe and | | | | ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. In fact, |
| elsewhere, but it seems that it is just in huge | | | | Germany had a so called purity law which the |
| demand in England. There people began to brew | | | | government had to scrap in order to align local |
| their own wine and beer pretty early on, until it | | | | laws with European laws, which generally allowed |
| turned into a boom in the early eighties. | | | | breweries to add chemical components to the |
| Everybody jumped on the bandwagon and | | | | beer, some for preservation, some for coloring. |
| England turned into a country full of specialist on | | | | It's not necessary to use some extra clean or |
| how to make your own alcoholic beverages at | | | | purified water to make beer, any tap water will |
| home. Everywhere stores went up that sold | | | | actually do as long as it doesn't have a high |
| equipment and kits for brewing your own beer. | | | | mineral content. |
| It doesn't really surprise when one takes into | | | | The next of the four ingredients is what is called |
| account the pub opening hours, which were very | | | | the 'heart of beer', the malt. It is the product of |
| much restricted until the mid - nineties. Back in the | | | | grains like wheat or rye germinating. In itself it is |
| days of the World War I, the House of Parliament | | | | the catalyst for the yeast, but more importantly |
| decided to do something about the high casualty | | | | in provides the flavor and the color for the beer. |
| rates on the home front. Too many people who | | | | In the south of England, particularly in Kent, there |
| worked in the armament industries blew | | | | are huge hop farms. Hops are bitter tasting |
| themselves and their colleagues up by accident, | | | | flowers that give the beer its herbal aroma. |
| not working with the required care when building | | | | Consider these small flowers as the seasoning for |
| hand grenades because they were either under | | | | the beer, as oregano might be the seasoning for |
| the influence of alcohol or suffering from a | | | | a spaghetti sauce. |
| hangover. The only thing the politicians could think | | | | People are obviously familiar with yeast, which is |
| of at the time was to limit severely the opening | | | | used in making bread. It is a single cell organism |
| hours of bars, clubs and restaurants. So if people | | | | that needs sugar in order to exist. Mixing it in with |
| wanted to have a drink after 11:00 p.m., they had | | | | the dough for bread for example, this organism |
| to be inventive. That's why it seemed that | | | | looks for and finds the sugar, eats it and multiplies |
| everybody had a barrel with some kind of | | | | in the process. As a by product there is alcohol |
| fermenting liquid at home, waiting patiently for the | | | | and carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise. |
| beer to be ready. | | | | In the beer brewing process it is the special kind |
| It requires very little money, not much time and a | | | | of yeast which each brand uses that gives it its |
| little space to make some superb beer at home. | | | | particular taste. |
| Most people start the process in their kitchens | | | | After having mixed all the ingredients together |
| and once they have mixed all the ingredients into | | | | comes the difficult part, the waiting. The brew has |
| the barrel they put it in some quiet corner to let it | | | | to go through its fermentation process and |
| ferment. | | | | before that is finished people are not supposed to |
| Beer is made, in its purest form, from only 4 | | | | drink it or else they get sick. |