Here is a list of tea brewing tips that can be used to add some additional flavor to your favorite cup of tea:

• The first thing you should do is purchase a high quality tea. You will receive far more pleasure by purchasing teas that have the quality ingredients that you love. Try to find a reputable supplier, one who preferably has many glowing reviews from other consumers.
• Also try to use a high quality water when making your tea. You can use fresh water if you have a good supply yourself, or even buy bottled water from a well-known company. You will also want to avoid boiling the water as this will expel oxygen and makes the water taste flat, believe it or not. It is recommended to steep your tea in water that is not quite to the boiling point.
Tip! The coffee brewing method is very simple. The pot is placed on a stove top which heats the water in the lower reservoir.
• Try to measure out the correct weight of tea leaves for the amount you are making. You can accomplish this by using a tea balance. Many say to use between 2.5 to 3 grams of leaves per 5-6 ounces of water.
• Use the correct steeping temperature for the type of tea you are steeping. This is best accomplished by using a thermometer to get the water just right. The following are some generally accepted steeping temperatures: Black and Herbal teas should actually use water at a full boil or around 212 degrees, Oolong tea should be steeped between 190 and 203 degrees, Green tea between 160 and 180 degrees, and White tea is brewed best in a cooler water with a range of 150 to 160 degrees.
Tip! One of the simplest of all Coffee Brewing Methods is the French Press or Plunger.
• Using the correct steeping time is another important consideration to brewing the perfect cup. Use the following recommendations for the type of tea you enjoy the most: Black tea should be steeped for 4-6 minutes, Puerh teas are known as hard teas and should be steeped for a minimum of 7-8 minutes, Oolong teas have a wider variety of steeping times from as little as 3-4 minutes to upwards of 6-8 minutes, Green teas are ready to go in a brief 2 to 3 minutes, and White teas are the most sensitive and should not be steeped for more than 2 minutes.
Tip! It is only in modern society that we see beer as having a perilous quality. There were no laws governing beer brewing and drinking.
• You should provide plenty of space during infusion and avoid cramping the tea leaves. Try to make sure that there is enough space in the infuser for the teas to fully expand. It is best to infuse tea in a kettle since the tealeaves can quickly expand to three times their starting size as they release the stored flavor and aroma.
• And lastly let’s not overlook storage. Your tea will lose its flavor if it is exposed to oxygen or light. To enjoy your tea completely make sure that you keep it in an airtight container. Any dark colored or tightly rolled teas can stay fresh for more than six months if stored this way.

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It is no secret that Americans now demand more quality from their beer than ever before. While the large beer brewers and distributors still hold a hefty percentage of the American beer market share, there has been a marked increase in the amount of microbrew and imported beer consumption in the last decade and a half. The early nineteen nineties saw a meteoric rise in the popularity of micro and home brewed beers and, while the growth has slackened somewhat, these custom brews still continue to gain in popularity as American consumers develop more sophisticated beer palates.

Those who are interested in trying their hand at brewing their own beer are often surprised to learn how easy and inexpensive it is to get started. An initial investment of a couple of hundred dollars is all that is required to purchase the necessary homebrew equipment along with the ingredients for the first batch. Many homebrew supply shops sell kits that contain all of the necessary supplies along with enough ingredients to get started.

Before talking about the process of brewing your own beer, it is necessary to introduce the basic equipment. While different kits will come with different supplies, a complete kit should feature at least the following crucial pieces of equipment. The most basic tool required for homebrewing is the brewing kettle. This is a large kettle that is typically constructed from stainless steel that serves to create the wort (the unfermented slurry that contains all of the ingredients except for the yeast). The brewing kettle should be large enough to accommodate both the water and other ingredients as well as to account for bubbling that can occur during the brewing process. A general rule of thumb is to purchase a brewing kettle that can hold at least double the amount of beer you are attempting to brew. Next, any beer kit should contain a fermenting container. This container will serve to hold the brew while the yeast does its job. It should be transparent or semi-transparent so that the brewer can monitor the fermentation process. The fermenting container should be accompanied by an airlock, which is a one-way flow device that lets gases escape the fermenting container without allowing impurities to enter. Another necessary device is a hydrometer. This is a small probe that measures the specific gravity of your wort during and after the fermentation process. Since the homebrew process involves both boiling and cooling steps, it is necessary to have a good liquid thermometer that can measure from approximately sixty degrees Fahrenheit to two hundred and twelve Fahrenheit (the boiling point of water). Many kits come with specialized cleansers that serve to sterilize all of the homebrew equipment. However, a mixture of water and bleach can do the job just as well if your kit does not provide such a cleanser. Finally, any complete homebrew kit should contain a racking cane, associated tubing, and a racking bucket–these devices serve to transfer the fermented beer into a temporary staging base just prior to bottling. Many kits do not include bottles, caps, and a capper, but you will need all of these devices to transfer your homebrew from the racking bucket to your bottles.

Now that you have an understanding of the basic equipment that is required to make your own homebrew, it is time to discuss the brewing process a bit. Please note that this article does not attempt to provide a complete homebrewing guide–rather, it serves to describe the technique at a high level to give you the basic knowledge necessary to start researching on your own.

The homebrewing process can be broken down into four basic steps. The first step is sanitization. Indeed, sanitization is a necessary step before any of the other phases of the brewing process can begin and the overall brewing process will contain a sanitization step before any new container or device is introduced. Since many microorganisms thrive on the ingredients that are in the wort, it is necessary to sanitize all equipment to ensure that only the yeast makes its way into the brew. While these other microorganisms are not harmful to your health, their presence can destroy your beer. Many kits come with sanitizers, but a solution of hot water and bleach works just as well. It is important to thoroughly rinse the sanitized device before use since the sanitizing agents are also harmful to yeast. The next step is the brewing process itself–this involves mixing your malt extracts, hops, and other ingredients with water in your brewing kettle and bringing the solution to a boil. This step requires continuous oversight since the wort has a tendency to boil over. The next step is to add the wort to the fermenting container along with more water and the yeast. It is now time to let the yeast do their job, so simply store the fermenting container in a cool, dark place for a week to ten days. After that time, the homebrew is ready to be bottled. After a period of aging (typically around one month) your homebrew will be ready to enjoy!

Homebrewing is a great hobby for the true beer aficionado. Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of enjoying and sharing your own homebrew. Homebrewing is quite popular, so there are many places, both online and in the real world, that you can go to seek advice and share experiences.

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This wonderful libation has been quenching the masses for centuries and yet most of us admit to knowing very little about the brewing process. Well if a visit to a brewery is not in your near future this article will at least get your on your way to knowing more about one of the worlds favorite alcoholic beverages.

There are two main families of Beer: Ales and Lagers.

Ales are top fermented and require much less conditioning time than lager. Ales are generally brewed at higher temperatures (between 15 - 24C or 60 - 75F) at these temperatures the yeast will produce a significant amount of esters and aromatic flavors in the ale. This will tend to give Ales “fruity” or floral compounds. Ales tend to be slightly sweeter than Lagers. Some Styles of Ales include but are not limited to, Stout, Barley Wine, Best Bitter and Albier.

Lagers are Bottom fermented and require much more conditioning time than Ales. Lagers are the most commonly consumed of the two families. Lager undergoes a primary fermentation at 7 - 12C or 45 - 55F then it will undergo a secondary phase or the “lagering” phase at 0 - 4 C or 30 - 40 F. This secondary fermentation will clarify and mellow the brew. The cooler temperatures will inhibit some the byproducts associated with brewing to give lagers a crisper taste than Ales. Some familiar styles of Lager are Pilsners and Bock.

Of course to start the brewing process we need to have a few vital ingredients:

Hops

Hops are derived from the cone of the Humulus Lupulus plant. Hops were originally added to beer as a preservative. It is now mainly used for its bitterness and aroma. The bitterness of the hops will generally balance the sweetness of the malt. The bitterness of commercially brewed hops is measured on the international bitterness unit scale and other than beer production, there is very little in the way of commercial uses for Hops themselves.

Barley

Barley is a cultivated cereal and is major food and animal feed crop. It is heartier than wheat and will thrive in cold temperatures. It was used by the ancient Egyptians for bread and of course beer. The Barley that is used for today’s beer production is malted barley. A process where the cereal grains are forced to germinate and are then quickly dried before the plant develops. This malting process allows the enzymes to convert the cereal grains starches to sugars, most notably of course in Barley.

Water

Water is the primary ingredient to beer and when heated becomes known as the brewing liquid. Different water from different regions will affect the beers taste due to mineralization. Hard water is generally used for production of darker beers such as Stouts and Ales while soft water is better suited for Light beer production such as pilsners or lagers.

Yeast

Yeast is a microorganism responsible for fermentation. It interacts with the Starches and sugars of Malt barley to create alcohol and carbon dioxide. Before 1876 and Louis Pasteur’s discovery of the single yeast cell, the fermentation process with yeast was a natural occurrence, hence the localized flavors of different regions being affected by the different naturally born yeasts. Now that Science has controlled the formation of yeast it can be broken into 2 main strains. Ale yeast (top Fermenting) or Lager Yeast (bottom Fermenting)

Brewing 101

Brewing beer has become a scientific process of late with several variations, filtering characteristics and flavorings but the process itself is a simple five step constant of Mashing, Sparging, Boiling, Fermentation and Packaging.

Mashing is the first process in brewing. The barley grains are crushed and soaked in warm water creating a malt extract. This extract is kept at a constant temperature to allow the enzymes to convert the starches of the grain into sugars.

Sparging is where water is filtered through the mash to dissolve the sugars inside. The result is a dark, sugar heavy liquid called Wort.

During the boiling process, the wort is boiled along with other ingredients, excluding yeast, to kill any microorganisms and release excess water from the brew. Hops are added at some point in this process.

Fermentation then takes place. The Yeast, either Ale or Lager yeast is added to the mix and the beer is then allowed to settle. This is called the primary fermentation process. There can be a second fermentation process but many breweries may simply filter off the yeast at this point.

Packaging the beer is the next step. Beer at this point will have alcohol but very little in the way of Carbon Dioxide. Many large scale breweries will infuse CO2 into the beer through the keg or bottling process. Smaller breweries or craft breweries may add residual sugars or small amounts of yeast to the bottles or kegs to produce a natural carbonization process. This is called Cask or Bottle fermented beer. No matter what process the brewery takes, all beer eventually ends up in steel kegs, bottles, cans and sometimes casks.

Although you now know the beer brewing process inside-out, the proper packaging of this libation has created much debate over whether beer is fresher when bottled or left in a keg.

The answer: A KEG.

The keg captures beer directly from the brewery and is kept refrigerated during transportation to your local pub!

Bottles on the other hand are transported by unrefrigerated trucks and left on shelves where the beer is exposed to enough light that will inevitably have an affect on taste!

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