My Food and Drink Blog

Archive for the ‘Beer’ Category

Making home brew has been a very satisfying pastime for many a beer drinker for many years. In recent years it has become easier and easier to make beer in the comfort of your own home. Home brew starter kits and ingredients are now available online, in specialist stores and even in some high street supermarkets.

People who are attempting home brew for the first time should probably look towards an inexpensive starter kit, some of which can be found for around 20. There are various starter kits on the market each with different equipment that comes with them.

When purchasing a starter kit for making your home brew, you should ensure that it has at least the following items: a fermentation bucket, something to extract the beer from the fermentation bucket i.e. a syphoning tube and of course the key ingredients of the brew: yeast and malt extract. Sometimes you will get sugar provided but the cheaper the kit, the more you’ll have to buy. You will of course need some receptacle to store it in.

To prepare your brew, it is first necessary to mix your ingredients in the fermentation bucket: malt extract mixed with hot water and the sugar. Then you will need to add up to another 19 litres of cold water and to allow the mixture to come to somewhere near room temperature before adding the yeast. Add your yeast and then it will take up to 6 days to transform the sugar to alcohol.

Upon completion of the first 6 days, the mixture will need to be transferred to bottles (preferably glass) or to a pressurised barrel. Each bottle will need to be “primed” with half a teaspoon of sugar per half litre of liquid. The remaining small quantities of yeast in the mixture will then carbonate your beer whilst it is under pressure. Wait a further 2 weeks under these conditions and your brew should be ready.

Find out more about purchasing home brew supplies online!

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Home brewing is something that has been performed by people for centuries and isn’t getting old. The ability to create both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in your household is something that no man can sustain, because this is a perfect possibility to create high quality drinks for less money. Home brewed drinks also offer you to taste the real flavor of the drink you have prepared.

Home brewing can be learned in many ways. In many families and mainly in Germany, different beer home brewing recipes are transferred by one family member to another so that the recipe will never be lost. There are also special private lessons with experienced home brewers which will explain you the technique of preparing different drinks and how everything works in the home brewing business.

Of course all of these classes are paid and as we know not all of us want to pay to learn something. This is why there is another option for people who don’t like to give money for such things – learning home brewing online. This is a quite new thing and isn’t so effective and fast as real-life lessons, but still can show the general techniques in home brewing.

Except the ordinary free learning home brewing online lessons, there are also many such tutorials which are paid. However, the paid ones are usually with a much higher quality than the free ones. The paid ones come with different video and audio material which thoroughly covers all the aspects of home brewing.

Learning home brewing online is something that can easily be performed by anyone who has a connection to the internet. All you have to do is use a search engine and find the correct website which offers good recipes and tutorials on how to start home brewing. However, if you want to learn faster and properly, you might want to pay a little bit of money and get access to private online tutorials which will make you a master home brewer.

Of course, despite the websites, there is also a big number of various forums that discuss home brewing. In these forums you can easily find other people like you, which are trying or have already mastered the art of home brewing. There you will be able to receive guidance and help in order to become one of the best home brewers.

When learning home brewing online it is recommended to spend some more time searching for good tutorials, because it is possible to find some tutorials which are free, but yet provide you with audio and video footage and this footage can significantly help you with the home brewing and greatly improve your chances of creating a high quality beverage.

There is much that can be said about learning home brewing online and it would take many pages to say it all. If you are interested in more you can always search for some forums which are related with home brewing. You are bound to find some good tutorials there, however, the best way to learning home brewing is by receiving real-life demonstrations and lessons, because this way you will be able to much more easily understand the entire process.

Learn more today about brewing your own beer at home, check out BrewingKB.coms’ brewing forum for information on brewing and a great selection of homebrew recipes to try. Don’t miss the home brewing forums.

categories: beer,brewing,brew,homebrew,alcohol,wine,spirits,cooking,drinks

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Although there are many ancient arts practiced on Earth, we won’t be exaggerating if we say that home brewing is probably the one with the oldest traditions. And exactly these traditions are the reason why home brewing is still a popular art today. Although home brewing may seem odd to many people, it is actually quite simple. Home brewing is practically the art of making various alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages in your own home.

Although it may seem easy, don’t expect to be taught home brewing from the first wannabe home brewer you see on the streets. This is a very old art and isn’t easy to master at all. It is almost impossible to learn all of the various techniques, secrets and home brewing recipes, because there aren’t many living home brewers who have collected such information. However if you really want to get started in the home brewing business, then you have two choices. Either search for real-life lessons from a brewer around you or find the hundreds of websites and forums which will gladly teach you to create proper home brewed beverages.

Home brewing is easy in the starting periods, but tends to get more difficult with the more you learn. Later you will have to find and learn many techniques and not all of them are so simple. Of course in the beginning you will find out that home brewing is quite easy. The ingredients will be simple to find and the process of brewing won’t be complex at all.

Although you won’t have any trouble at the beginning, you will quickly learn that the more you know about home brewing, the harder it will be to practice it. The ingredients will need to be only high quality and won’t be easy to find and the techniques of the preparation won’t be simple at all. But this is something perfectly normal and there isn’t a living being who can master home brewing without practicing for quite a long time.

Home brewing is easy due to one, but very important fact – except the fact that you can easily find most of the ingredients anywhere, there are also many various supermarkets and local stores that offer home brewing kits. These home brewing kits come with the instructions and ingredients needed to create a beverage in your household.

However, pre-made kits are only used in the beginning and after some time you will have to move on and start learning how to create beverages of a higher quality. Then you will need to spend quite a lot of time in research for different recipes and techniques and not only that, but then you will have to manually find the ingredients.

Most of the home brewers start their career online and this isn’t bad at all. But the use of online tutorials and recipes is strictly meant for beginners only. If you are planning to become a good brewer, then you should visit a master brewer to teach you the arts of the home brewing art.

And with this we have showed you the basics of home brewing and proved to you that home brewing is easy. Of course, although it is easy, you will have to spend a good amount of time in research for various techniques and recipes.

Brewing your own homebrew beer is esier then you may think. Visit our website BrewingKB.coms’ home brewing forum to learn more about beer brewing, check out the homebrew recipes. Don’t miss the homebrewing forum!

categories: beer,brewing,brew,homebrew,alcohol,wine,spirits,cooking,drinks

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Swans is not only a Victoria BC hotel; it is also a Victoria brewery, Victoria brewpub, and Victoria restaurant. Swans is known for its beautiful boutique-style accommodations. Its 29 suites each have a unique decor with their own collection of original artwork. The downtown location also makes Swans restaurant a popular dining destination, and the brewpub offers evening entertainment and fun with live music and dancing.

While Swans’ stellar accommodations and eateries are common knowledge, what you may not know is that Swans also offers catering and provides a venue for everything from meetings to special events such as weddings. Swans facilities are versatile spaces that can accommodate gatherings large and small, be they intimate wedding receptions or corporate conferences. The rooms can be moulded to your requirements.

One room option, The Collard Room, is great for meetings, small gatherings, or celebrations, holding up to 35 people. Alternately, The Marquee Room accommodates up to 200 people, and comes fully equipped with professional sound and lighting, a DJ booth, and large dancefloor. It is well-suited to wedding receptions or big celebrations. Also, The Legacy Gallery is a stylish option for cocktail parties, as you are surrounded by beautiful art. It is great for a guest list of up to 100 people.

Lastly, Swans gorgeous Penthouse and rooftop terrace provide a breath-taking view of the coastal scenery of the Inner Harbour. The room’s distinctive art pieces include a Roy Henry Vickers Totem Pole. The space covers 3,000 square feet, spread over 3 levels, with such features as 6 balconies, a separate dining room, a living room with a wood-burning fireplace, a loft-syle bedroom, and luxurious washroom with a soaker tub and glass shower for two and an overhead skylight. The Penthouse is perfect for celebrations of almost any kind, wedding receptions, honey moons, or romantic getaways.

For any events, Swans offers professional catering. You will have a selection of menus from which to choose, or you can customize your own.

If you’re looking for overnight accommodations in a beautiful Victoria BC hotel, a Victoria restaurant, or a local venue and catering for your event, take a look at this article on the multi-faceted services that Swans provides.

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For some households it has become a tradition to brew their alcoholic and not alcoholic beverages at their home. And this is not a new tradition; in fact it is rather old and dates from the past centuries. With this taken in mind we can conclude that homemade drinks are an inevitable part of every society. However different countries have written different laws regarding home brewing of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. And although those laws may restrict some alcohol brewing none of them restrict the home brewing of beer. This is why mane households brew beer at their home and this allows them to create a beer that best fits their taste. During the past years more and more stores offer home brewing kits for beer which usually contain hops, yeasts, malt extract and different ingredients and herbs which change the color, aroma and taste of the beer.

However you may choose to home brew your beer the old fashion style. Instead of buying complete kits from the store you can manually harvest and choose the ingredients. By doing this you will select the highest quality ingredients thus allowing you to create an amazing innovative beer style which will have an astonishing color, taste and aroma. Of course if you plan to do so you should be ready to spend a bit more money and time on selecting the products, because it won’t be as easy as buying a ready for use kit from the local store.

Home brewing is a simple process about which you can easily find information on the internet. Home brewing is mainly used for fund saving, because it is quite cheaper to create your own beer than to buy it from stores. Of course money aren’t the only reason for home brewing some people may want to create special tastes that aren’t available for wide usage and they can achieve that by adding custom ingredients to the beer during the creation process. Another good reason is the creation of beer which has less calories than usual.

However the most interesting use of home brewed beer is for entering amateur home brewing competitions in which judges and visitors can taste your creation and rate it depending on taste, clarity, aroma, palate and others. Of course the most important characteristics are the taste, aroma and palate. Palate basically means the feeling that the beer creates in you when you drink it. Does it “dry” your mouth, does it hit you too hard and the overall feeling you get from drinking the beer.

Summing all that up we can reach to the conclusion that home brewed beer can be much better than the commercial beer sold on stores. You can set home brewed beer to your taste or needs by adding extra ingredients or just changing the way you create it. And the most important part is that you don’t need many special instruments to create home brewed beer, you can just go to the local store get a home brewing beer kit and then find a guide for home brewing. Other than that you just need items that can be easily found around the house to create the system for home brewing.

Learn more today about brewing your own beer at home, check out BrewingKB.com for information on brewing and a great selection of homebrew recipes. Don’t miss the forums either.

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Collecting glass bottles is another popular hobby that is being pursued fervently by ardent collectors and can fetch you a fine sum. The antique varieties convey its historical past and they are invaluable as they were manufactured by hand and no two are same. Some medicine bottles have the names of chemicals and warnings in the design unlike the present ones which have labels. The other antique ones that you can collect are ink wells, mineral water, vinegar, whisky, cosmetic, beer and torpedo. Syrup bottles for making sodas that were used by druggists are also a rarity and are worth a lot.

Why are Glass Bottles in Demand?

The reason why people collect them is because of their odd shapes and colors, their designs which makes them uncommon and in demand. You might find egg shaped bottles which were the trademark of Hamilton’s bottles or those shaped like log cabins, women’s figures, ears of corn or a pig as in the case of poisonous bottles that are no longer produced. You might also find sealed wine bottles, stoneware containers, cream pots, ointment pots, pot lids, clay pipes and heads of china dolls which all come under the classification of bottle collecting. Even unique colored flasks which are scarce are considered antique glass bottles.

How to Collect Glass Bottles?

You can find these uncommon items at flea markets, old dumps and houses, ghost towns and the campsites that were used by the earlier pioneers. You can also find them in car boot sales, antique fairs and auctions and bottle shows as well.

How to Recognize Genuine Antique Glass Bottles

You need to closely examine the lip for if they are antique pieces then they will have crude lips when tools were not used to create smooth rings around the lip and neck of the bottles. You can also distinguish the antique by its greenish color which was the preferred color of the earlier bottle makers. The bottom of the bottle should give you some hints also when bottles had bumpy and round circles You can get good prices for your collection of glass bottles. Those that have pictures as trademarks and those that have embossing done are in great demand as well.

Care Required for your Glass Bottles

You should be extremely particular in preserving these uncommon antiquities and keeping in mind their fragile nature you should build a case with arrangements to hold the bottles intact. Any kind of collision can result in destruction and loss of your priceless treasure. Always keep the glass bottles clean and away from direct sunlight.

Accumulation of dirt can discolor your collection thus modifying the value as well. You need to check various guides that can give you tips on the types of bottles that you need to collect, how to find out the value of your bottles and how to detect the spurious ones.

The author has written more about leather whiskey flask and whiskey flask on his site, check them out: http://www.whiskeyflask.org/ and leather whiskey flask.

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More and more people try to homebrew alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages in their own homes. And as in the commercial market, the beer is the most bought alcohol so in the household brewing, beer is the most brewed beverage. Of course this is due to the fact that many people choose to create a unique beer style which best fits their taste. Different beers have different beer styles and beer styles differ on the producing method and ingredients used. And from different producing methods and ingredients each beer receives a unique aroma, taste, palate and other characteristics that a good beer possesses. Palate however is the most appreciated characteristic. It basically means the feeling you get from drinking the beer, how hard it hits you and other such indications.

However there are also other characteristics which should be taken in mind. Sweetness, strength, bitterness and appearance are also characteristics of the high quality beer. Bitterness is achieved by changing the herbs used and the proportions between different ingredients thus giving you the opportunity to increase or decrease it. Sweetness depends on the amount of sugar while strength is determined by the level of fermentation of the yeasts and fermentation temperatures. However appearance is the most valued characteristic of the beer, because it is the first thing that a man or woman sees in the beverage. Under appearance we mean the clarity, aroma, matte and color of the beer.

There are two main beer styles – Ale and Lager. Ale beer is made by using only high quality fermented yeasts which are fermented at temperatures higher than those at which the lager beer is fermented. At those temperatures the yeasts will produce many other flavors and aromas allowing the brewer to customize the beer to the desired taste. However ale beer is more expensive than lager beer to the quality of the ingredients used and the more complex brewing process.

While ale beer is considered for a more elite beverage the lager beer is one of the most commonly used and their origin comes from Central Europe. The lager beer begins fermentation at lower temperatures than the ale beer and then is stored at even lower. During the second stage of storing the beer clears and mellows. The cold temperatures stimulate the production of byproducts in the beer which lead to a softer and enjoyable taste in the end. Modern lager beer is highly carbonated and has a very light color and its alcohol content usually varies between three to six percent. However depending on the producer the alcohol level may be higher or lower. Various fruits and herbs can be added to the lager beer to change its color and taste allowing the producing of different lager styles.

An important thing that most beer producers follow, are the traditions of their ancestors. A good beer tradition results in a unique beer style and taste which makes the experience of drinking the beer even more enjoyable to the customer. Of course if you want to experiment and create a flavor for your taste, you can always try to homebrew beer. And it is your choice if you will use an already establishes beer style or try to create a new one.

Brewing your own home brew beer is esier then you think. Check out BrewingKB.com to learn more about home brewing and don’t miss the large collection of home brew recipes.

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On top of offering stellar accommodations, the Victoria BC hotel, Swans, also boasts an on-site Victoria brewery in which award-winning beers are expertly brewed. Since 1989, the Victoria brewery has been producing British-style ales as well as Canadian and German beers all with “old world care.” The brews are served at 45F to showcase the fullness of their flavours.

The Victoria brewery gives special care and attention to all elements of the brewing process, which ensures the highest quality brews. For instance, Swans uses 100% grain mashes (only wheat and barley malts as well as oatmeal in one stout), and they import a unique strain of yeast and their specialty malts from the UK. Swans uses the same discretion concerning which processes and standard practices to avoid–e.g., they do not use filtration (because it can also remove the good stuff along with the haze); instead, they allow their naturally carbonated ales to settle at cold temperatures. They also never use syrups, sugars, or “adjunct.”

Buckerfields selection of beers include such notables as Riley’s Scotch Ale, an Old Towne Bavarian Lager, Swans Oatmeal Stout, Buckerfields Bitter, and a Raspberry Ale. The Victoria Brewery has won many national-level awards for its beers–yes, they’re THAT good! Visitors can also tour the brewery or sample the distinctive, house-made libations in Swans Victoria brewpub or Victoria restaurant. The wares are also sold in Swans Wine & Beer Shoppe. The unique 650 ml bottles of beer make prized souvenirs (and are certainly more enjoyable than a “lousy t-shirt”!)

In addition, as would be expected from the name, Swans Wine & Beer Shoppe sells many vintages of red and white wines, with over 400 varieties from which to choose. The selections come from all over the globe, but the shoppe specializes in British Columbian and Australian wines, as well as Chilean, French, and Italian bottles. Moreover, you can purchase champagne (including Dom Perignon for the distinguishing palate) and sparkling wine to help you celebrate special occasions.

The store also carries a whopping 150 options when it comes to spirits! The shoppe is known for its vodka in particular, with 30 varieties, and the store also prides itself on a fine collection of single malt scotches. Lastly, if a buzz isn’t enough for you, and delerium is more your style, the store offers Green Tree Absinthe also called Le Fee Verte (“The Green Fairy”), which, rest assured, is legal in Canada–though not in the US!

If you are planning a tripto the west coast of Canada and looking for opportunities to enjoy the locally crafted adult beverages, check out this article on a unique Victoria BC hotel, Swans, connected to an on-site Victoria Brewery.

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Many of us are partial to a big night out and the large majority of us are decent enough not to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking, but how cautious are we about driving the next day? Many people would chose to go on a night out and stay at a friend’s house before driving home or to work in the morning but this can be just as dangerous as driving the night before.

The legal limit for driving is around 50 – 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood depending on the country you are in. This amount is easy to reach with just a couple of units of alcohol in one night so imagine much of an impact 10 – 20 units would have even after a nights sleep. Obviously the tolerance to alcohol depends on an individual but the general rule of thumb is that one unit remains in the bloodstream for one hour.

The build up of alcohol can often take more than 12 hours to process through the body and it can still have an effect up to a day later. Many people will often stay up to the early hours of the morning on a night out or at a party meaning they don’t get a full nights sleep, especially if they are getting up at their usual waking hour. They assume that after sleeping the effects of the alcohol will have worn off but this is not the case.

A surprising number of people drive in the morning after drinking the night before, most do not realise that they are over the limit but some are not so innocent, they assume that even though they might still be breaking the law there is a much lower chance of being caught in the morning than at night when the police are waiting.

Police are wise to occasions when people drink heavily such as weekends and holidays and will plan accordingly. The morning after Christmas, New Year’s Day and other holidays are times when forces perform random stops and road blocks. This is primarily a deterrent but they also aim to crack down on offenders.

It’s not just residual alcohol that can impair your ability to drive; a hangover is caused by the brain being dehydrated which means you will find it difficult to concentrate. A bad hangover will mean you are less alert, lethargic and have impaired vision, not to mention a sore head. Combined with residual alcohol levels this makes for a deadly combination that can catch unsuspecting victims with devastating consequences. The simple answer is to wait at least 12 hours and if you feel hung over, don’t drive.

Getting caught over the limit in the morning can still land you with a drink driving ban and many people end up hiring a driving offence lawyer to get them off the hook.

categories: driving, cars,drinking,alcohol, offence,beer, licence,motoring, law, solicitor, lawyer, crime, fast, ban

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Do you know how to sparge your mash?? When you are learning home brewing processes you will learn to sparge. It is the second stage of brewing..Filtering water through the mash dissolves the sugars in it. That process is called sparging.. A cool new word for crosswords or Scrabble games!. The heavy sugar liquid that results from sparging is dark and that is called the wort. There is another new word for you..

Getting into a hobby like craft brewing does call for learning some new words and processes, but it is so much fun it feels like you are in a different world. Home brewing is becoming more popular during the economic downturn. It is a way to save money and have fun with a new hobby right at home.

Craft brewing has a long history, supported by archeological evidence . The same basic processes were used in ancient Egypt Some descriptions of different beer recipes are in Sumerian writings, some of the oldest writings known.

Although the process of brewing is complex and varies greatly, some stages are common and essential. Like sparging does not happen until you have mash. Mashing is the first stage. You crush the malted grains and soak in warm water to create an extract of the malt. Then to convert the starches in it to fermentable sugars you keep the mash at a constant temperature just long enough for the enzymes to do their work. After that you sparge. And then you boil the wort and any remaining ingredients so you can remove excess water and kill any microorganisms that might remain. The boiling stage is also time for you to put in the hops. It is okay to use either an extract or whole hops.

The fourth stage is fermentation. Now you add the yeast. Cover and leave the home craft brew and let it ferment. Sometimes you might choose to ferment it again to allow the yeast to settle even more. What remains is how to package your home brew

In the final stage you will have home crafted brew containing alcohol but not a lot of carbon dioxide There are several ways you can increase the carbon dioxide level. The most common method is to add carbonation right into the keg or bottle with force.

After it has been brewed, the beer is normally a finished product. At this point, the beer is kegged, casked, bottled, or canned. Any unfiltered beer that is unfiltered may be stored for further fermentation.

Some home brewing enthusiasts prefer a long conditioning period for various strong beers for instance barley and wines. It depends on what the brewmaster enjoys drinking. You are the brewmaster whenever you are making your own home brew. Have fun with your craft brewing. Enjoy your new hobby of home brewing.

Get some great tips for people who want to get started with home brewing .

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