How To Replicate Your Favourite Foreign Brews At Home
Are you a homebrewer who is fascinated by the fermentation and distilling techniques that go into making some of your most favoured liquors? A lot of times, you may sip on a delicious Irish whisky or a classic merlot, and wonder how the drink was crafted and whether it is possible to brew this delicious spirit in your kitchen. Of the different international liquors you might enjoy sipping on, from a stout pint of ale to a glass of bitter and sweet rosé, there are a few which can really be replicated at home using brewing techniques that extract a deliciously fermented drink from grains, sugar, malt, hops and bitters.
Beer is one such beverage consumed across the world which can be made at home using a few handy brewing techniques. For the home brewing enthusiast who enjoys American pale ale, a German altbier or an English brown ale, recreating these recipes at home promises to be an exciting exercise and if done right, the results can just be lip smacking, frothy goodness. There are specific steps involved for crafting scotch ale or a German hefeweizen too, which use simple boiling and fermenting techniques to achieve light colours, a stellar froth and a stout taste characteristic of excellent ale.
The same goes for making a sound country wine or a French variant like a sauvignon or cabernet. If you are able to source the right kind of grapes and have apparatus like a demijohn, corks and tubes at hand, you can actually engage in some earnest winemaking processes and recreate to near perfection the taste and texture of a delicious noble grape you might have enjoyed in the French countryside.
Sourcing Ingredients And Apparatus
A key to excellent home brews is being able to source quality ingredients for your brewing endeavours. This means you have to go looking for a good variety of grapes for winemaking as well as aromatic herbs and florals to create a spirit using these infusions. While sourcing yeast and yeast nutrients too, make sure you buy sachets of the bacteria exclusively packaged for winemaking needs. Quality ingredients will ensure that you can extract the maximum flavour out of the fruits, herbs and other botanicals required to produce a decadent spirit.
While making a pale, light coloured American ale, you would need malt extract, priming sugar and brewers yeast along with American-variety hops that will give your beer the required texture and bitterness associated with this variety. Source from legitimate vendors specialising in home brewing kits those ingredients required to make beers, wines and single malts at home.
As for the apparatus, you would need large pots for boiling, a good thermometer to monitor the temperatures and while crafting beer, a steeping to create a mixture of grain and water. For making wine you can simply use a bucket with an airtight light. This ensures that the fermentation process goes on uninterrupted when you have sieved the final liquid inside and stored it away for as long as two months to let the yeast do its work.
Maturation And Packaging
One of the most essential hacks involved in replicating foreign brews at home is the maturation technique, which requires utmost patience from the home brewer. Once beer has been boiled, the hops added and the mashing process complete, it will have to be stored at the prescribed temperature for fermentation. You will also need to monitor if the drink is ageing properly without disturbing the elements in the casks, barrels or bucket to ascertain that the right flavours are being birthed using a trusted recipe. Once the maturation is complete, engage in a delightful step-by-step method of bottling the wines or beer into recyclable bottles so they can be stored or packaged later on as gifts.
Replicating a foreign brew that you have absolutely adored is about following the recipe to the last detail and sourcing ingredients as close to the original as possible to arrive at the exact characteristics of the wine or ale variety. Lastly, make sure you take a close look at the home brewing regulations in your province so you avoid doing anything that might lead to a visit from Johnny Law!
