Beer ingredients
Beer Ingredients
Being a man of simple means (and generally a lazy man) I like to look for simple ways to do things. Luckily for me, most of the time, the simple way just happens to also be the lazy way. So when I look to brew beer and I need to gather together my beer ingredients the first thing I take note of is how much work is there going to be in the making of this beer. Are the beer ingredients going to cause me more work than I care to do? Are the beer ingredients going to be incredibly easy to use but end up tasting like garbage? You see there is a trade off between how easy the beer ingredients will be to use and how nice the beer ingredients will taste in their final form. Or is there!?
Simple to use Beer Ingredients
Luckily for lazy men (and women and children) everywhere someone noticed that simplifying the beer brewing process would make it more popular. And “which part did they simplify?” I hear you ask, yes the boring hard part of finding and rendering the beer ingredients! Thank you whoever you are. Now all we need to do when starting out brewing our own beer is pick up something known as a malt extract syrup. Believe me this is easier than the alternative.
So instead of having to pick up a truck load of barley, soak it, drain it upon germination, activate the enzymes to begin conversion of starch reserves and proteins into sugars and amino acids, crush the malted barley, reactivate it in hot water to reactivate and accelerate the enzyme activity and finally boil with hops so that it can be fermented by the yeast to make beer… we can just pick up a can of malt extract syrup and begin brewing immediately!
So what Beer Ingredients are there?
So what beer ingredients are there and what beers can we make? The list is large but satisfying. It is nice to know that I can make anything from a Honey Pilsner to a Cascadian Dark Ale, even if I don’t know what they are or what they taste like! At least we know we can make them at home. Here’s a quick breakdown of the kind of beers you can make and what malt extract beer ingredients you will need.
To start off we have the beer ingredients for the first malt extract beer I ever brewed, Cooper’s Australian Lager. The remainder of the list is made up of my favourites in the order that I first tried them.
1. Cooper’s Australian Lager
I used a quarter of a 1.7kg can and added about 100 grams of dextrose and brewed about 5 or 6 litres of beer. It was great.
2. Muntons Gold India Pale Ale
This Pale Ale was the original Special Brew made specifically to high alcohol levels to survive its journey across the ocean.
3. Coopers Canadian Blonde
A light refreshing lager, perfect for summer drinking. Best served well chilled and bottled.
4. Geordie Yorkshire Bitter
Geordie Yorkshire Bitter is light in colour and has the slightly sweet taste of the best traditional Yorkshire beers. Made from natural ingredients – malt, hops and barley – it has a creamy head and a full body.
5. Young’s Harvest Stout
This budget kit makes 30 pints of dark, highly hopped stout with ABV of 4.8%. 1 kg of additional sugar or Malt extract required.
6. Cooper’s Brewmaster Sparkling Ale
If you’re into sparkling ale, and who isn’t, this is a great choice. Makes up to 40 pints as well.
7. Beers of the World – Czech Pilsner
Czech Pilsners tend to have a ‘bigger’ flavour than their German counterparts. They have a rich golden colour and are often heavily hopped.
8. Caxton Traditional Lager
As the sun dips below the horizon on a warm summer’s evening, nothing beats a long refreshing glass of lager – and that’s just what you will get from this beer making kit. Caxton use only the finest malted barley, traditional hop varietis and yeast, so you can brew a light, lively and clean tasting lager.
9. Muntons Connoisseur’s Wheat Beer
Made from a careful balance of wheat and barley malt, this is a crisp refreshing, distinctive beer.
10. Caxton Traditional Dark Real Ale
When you feel like a glass or two of rich, warming and satisfying dark ale, pour yourself a pint of Dark Real Ale – for generations a fine partner to a roaring fire and good company.
11. Edme Superbrew Bitter
This traditional British real ale has a good creamy head & a golden amber colour. Its rich malt taste is supported by good background bitterness and a fully rounded hoppy flavour.
12. Geordie Lager
Geordie Lager is a light, refreshing beer with a tangy continental taste. Made from natural ingredients – malt, hops and barley – it’s sparkling and light gold in colour.
13. Coopers Ginger Beer
A traditionally flavoured Ginger Beer with a hint of spice and plenty of bite. This kit can be made alcoholic or non alcoholic. Approx 3.5% ABV if made to the alcoholic recipe.
14. Cooper’s Mexican Cerveza
Popular for those hot summer days add a wedge of lime to the list of your beer ingredients for this one.
15. Young’s Harvest Scottish Ale
This budget kit makes 40 pints of strong ale with a less hoppy taste than the bitters. ABV of 5.4%. 1 kg of additional sugar or Malt extract required.
So there’s a good list of beer ingredients for you to sink into your bellies. The method I use to brew these beers can be found in this post here. It’s very easy to follow and can be used quite effectively to produce good quality beer without any hard work at all.
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