Homebrewing, or the art of making small amounts of artisan alcoholic drinks by fermentation with yeast, is a satisfying hobby. You can make those types of beverages you enjoy the most, and experiment with ingredient combinations that optimize the qualities you desire. You can change the ingredients in a multitude of ways to make a customized beverage. This site gives you the essentials for learning how to make beer through featured videos and special sections regarding different topics. Related links are provided to direct you to various expert pages, suppliers and Mahalo pages that will help you make the best beer possible. If you prefer to make wine instead of beer, there is also a Mahalo page specifically devoted to wine making.

Modern homebrewing uses commercially supplied yeasts, whereas in pre-scientific times, such as in the Elizabethan age, yeasts from successful ales were traded among different brewers. Today there are a large variety of yeasts that can be used to perfectly craft a beer that have a specific style and taste profile. Instead of using prepared malts and extracts, whole grains were malted (allowed to partially sprout to help break down the starches with naturally occurring enzymes), roasted and then put through a mashing process called double infusion mashing. Modern devices like the thermometer and the hydrometer were not used. Instead of fermentation locks, a blow-off vessel consisting of a bung left open in a barrel was used that allowed foaming over to blow off carbon dioxide and surface crud. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pwp/tofi/liz_brewing.html

Hops are a common ingredient in beers for adding bitterness and/or aroma. They also help preserve the beer for longer term storage. The part used of this climbing plant is the flower. There are numerous different hop varieties that lend different characteristics to beers. http://www.uvm.edu/~pass/perry/hopvars.html

There are two general categories of hops.

1. Bittering hops - the bitterness comes from the alpha acids in the lupulins. When boiled, a reaction occurs that creates bitterness and adds a natural preservative to the beer.
2. Aroma hops - have a lower alpha acid content and are used primarily for their fragrance.
   
   

Hops come in different forms from suppliers:

1. Pellet Hops - hop flowers are shredded and compressed at harvest. Compression helps prevent oxidation and it releases the flavoring from the lupulin glands.
2. Hop Plugs - flowers pressed into ½ oz. plugs, generally used as aroma hops and for adding to the secondary fermentor.
3. Whole Flower Hops - used for hop bouquet in special recipes.