How does a mini brewery work at home. The best home breweries according to customer reviews. box, appearance, documents

A home brewery is a treasure for anyone who loves this delicious, quality natural alcoholic drink. Currently, it can be purchased in many online stores, but not many have come across such devices in reality. This is often due to the fact that this equipment is quite specific and inaccessible in small towns.

If you decide to brew beer at home, then the question will inevitably arise as to which brewery to choose.

A lot of nuances associated with the choice of equipment often baffle the lover of home beer. Therefore, you need to take very seriously the issue of selecting the optimal model that will fully or at least to a greater extent meet your individual requirements.

Home Brewery - Laboratory of Happiness

Did it seem to you that an independent brewer is like an alchemist who conjures over flasks and seething retorts in an attempt to obtain a super-substance from elementary components?

In fact, there is nothing more simple and logical than a home brewery.
In the equipment itself, you need to set the required parameters: temperature and time. The device for brewing beer itself will ensure the washing of the grain, its mixing and uniform heating of the wort with the same temperature in each part of the tank, according to the selected program.

In the process of wort fermentation, the researcher is given a wide field for experiments: depending on the type of yeast and their activity, the final taste of the product and the alcohol content in it vary.

1. The temperature and pressure in the tank also have a direct impact on the result. Industrial breweries often use special additives to speed up the fermentation process, but the amateur brewer does not need to hurry - the process should proceed naturally.
2. Factory pasteurization and filtration "emasculate" the product: prolonging the shelf life, at the same time depriving the beer of its individuality, bringing the drink to the boring standards set by the manufacturer.

But in order for the beer to turn out “with soul”, you just need not to lose interest in your favorite business, creatively approaching the process of creating a masterpiece.

One thing is certain about home brewing: it develops a love of innovation and enhances creative thinking, which is so necessary in any area of ​​human life.

How can one not recall the folk wisdom: “Drinking beer means living a long time.” Good health, dear brewers, and good luck with your experiments!

btest.ru

The home brewery is a compact device with which you can easily provide yourself with about 10 liters of fresh natural beer at home. At the same time, you can put a ready-made dry mix into the brewery, or you can choose individual ingredients yourself. By experimenting, you get the opportunity to prepare an amazing drink at home that will differ in taste from all types of beer on the shelves in the store. With the help of a home brewery, you can create your own unique beer at home and even patent it.

Experimentation is a very simple job. Just combine different kinds dry mixes and create a unique taste and aroma of your author's beer.

• The device, patented about 15 years ago by Canadian scientists, completely destroyed all the myths that it is impossible to make beer at home.
• On the contrary, given that the production technology is simple, you can safely drink your own brewed beer and know exactly what ingredients are present in it.
• You can brew a stronger beer, or, conversely, prepare a low-alcohol drink.

For a beginner who decides to purchase a home microbrewery, deciding which model to choose for the home is quite difficult. There are a fairly large number of them on the market, differing in size, materials of manufacture, consistency of the products put into it, equipment and, of course, price.

The dimensions of the device should be taken into account in the first place, given that you plan to use it at home. The production technology also plays an important role in the choice of model.

1. Some models of home breweries provide for the initial fermentation of the product at home with room temperature and the subsequent, final stage of the preparation of beer, which must take place in the refrigerator.
2. That is, the owners of such units should count on the fact that at home, in their refrigerator for several days there will be a brewery that takes up quite a lot of space.

If you do not have the opportunity to keep the brewery at home in the refrigerator, pay attention to models that have such manufacturing technologies, during which the beer is already fermented in bottles. That is, after passing the first stage of brewing, you pour the drink into bottles and already calmly store them on the shelves of the refrigerator.

Choose a package

A collapsible brewery is undoubtedly more compact and can be easily disassembled and hidden in a kitchen cabinet when you are not using it, but there are some pitfalls here.

Over time, under such conditions, the tightness of the microbrewery is broken. It may start to leak or the beer fermentation process will be disrupted in it, which, accordingly, will negatively affect the quality of the drink. Are we drawing conclusions? it is better to buy a monolithic, non-collapsible home brewery.

According to the consistency of the bookmark, it is undoubtedly better to choose a brewery with the possibility of using liquid wort. This technology is better because it makes it impossible to form lumps, unlike home brewing with dry wort.

• Its price directly depends on the configuration of a home brewery, but not the quality.
• You can purchase all watering cans, spoons, solutions and funnels separately from the device, over time, pick them up according to your taste and needs, without starting from the factory equipment.
• Completely individual needs and in the design of the mini-brewery. For some beer lovers, an ordinary plastic keg is perfect at home, the main thing is that the beer is tasty.
• Aesthetic brewers will much more like the original design solution of the mini-brewery, which allows, in addition to the main purpose? brewing beer, use it as an exclusive interior detail.

It is unequivocal to say which breweries are better at home, and which are worse. Many prefer more expensive models that allow you to use natural ingredients when making your own beer, rather than using ready-made dry mixes for brewing.

Summarizing what has already been said, let's summarize. Below are the main criteria by which the selection should be made.

Apparatus volume

The volume of the fermentation tank should be taken into account. If this is a 10-liter home brewery, then such a device can be placed in a large refrigerator, as well as placed on the table. It is compact and convenient. If you are buying a microbrewery, be sure to look at it appearance.

• The small 10-litre home breweries have an attractive and comfortable design, so that you can easily place the unit in the room and create a special pleasant atmosphere for relaxation during a celebration or a friendly get-together.
• There are also mini-breweries for 20 and 30 liters. Such volumes require, as you know, a large house and the availability of suitable conditions.

If you plan to brew beer often and in large quantities, then it is better to purchase a volumetric mini-brewery.

Different companies offer different equipment for their home breweries, which the richer, the more expensive. This can be a basic or advanced set, which includes containers for solutions, funnels, spoons, and more. Of course, an advanced mini-brewery will cost a pretty penny, but for a true beer lover this will not be an obstacle, because if you buy a home brewery, then you should take a good one.

Manufacturers

Before buying a unit for making beer, you should carefully study the range, and in particular the manufacturers. Each company, as we have already said, equips its products in different ways. The most popular are BeerMachine, InPinto, Beer Zavodik, as well as Mr.Beer and BrewDemon.

Other features

1. Choose a home brewer with the option to use liquid wort, which is higher quality and healthier. There is also less trouble with it, since dry wort often forms lumps, which spoil the properties of beer.
2. Another important thing is the design of the mini-brewery. It can be monolithic or prefabricated. The first one is certainly better, since the sealing here is 100% and during fermentation the process will not be disturbed and will not spoil alcoholic drink.
3. The national team may have problems with sealing if something is overlooked and missed, especially at home. There is a possibility that the beer will go bad, but it depends more on the care of the user.

Choosing the right mini-brewery you do not need any special knowledge. Choose a model in which you can add all the ingredients: barley, wort, water or ready-made extract, and effortlessly prepare beer.

Many owners of restaurants and bars, as well as ordinary people interested in live craft beer, are increasingly thinking about the question of where and how to choose a mini-brewery that would absolutely meet the requirements for it.

Let's say right away that mini breweries are amateur (for home use) and professional (for bars and restaurants). Of course, these are different units, and they differ not only in their size, performance, price, but also in a number of other indicators.

However, since all this equipment is designed for one purpose, the professional advice of experienced brewers who have tried more than one such device will be useful both for those who decide to treat themselves to excellent beer of their own production, and for owners of drinking establishments who rightly believe that live craft beer will attract him additional customers.

• The modern Russian market offers a huge variety of mini-breweries - as they say, for any request and volume of produced drink.
• As always, such an abundance for the buyer is both good and at the same time headache because it gives rise to many doubts and temptations.

Therefore, when choosing equipment for brewing, you should pay attention to the following points:

As we said, microbreweries vary greatly in price. And if when buying a “home version” you can meet several thousand rubles, then the professional one will pull for several hundred thousand.

• It is clear that a product that is too cheap should immediately alert the buyer, however, too expensive equipment is not always the best.
• In this case, it would be more correct to consult a specialist, and if you don’t have one, choose something in between.
• Be sure to search the Internet for relevant information and reviews - in a word, approach this matter thoroughly and slowly.

You will probably be surprised to know that, according to statistics, out of forty professional breweries launched with the goal of producing unique craft beer, only one survives. All the rest are closed during the year for one reason or another. But these are Western statistics, in Russia the picture is even more depressing.

If we talk about homebreweries, then the situation is even sadder with them. A rare person who decides to brew beer for himself endures the bitterness of the first failures, and then relentlessly improves his skills until he gets a delicious craft beer.

• Often such enthusiastic people create their own varieties, surprising friends and relatives with this.
• But, on the other hand, these craftsmen usually make mini-breweries with their own hands - according to their own technologies.
• Well, for those who are still thinking how to choose a mini brewery in the store - easy to maintain, reliable and at the same time not very expensive, we will name some of the best models of last year: BeerMachine 2000, InPinto Premium, Mr.Beer Deluxe Kit Beer Zavodik Mini 2014.
• Of course, in this case, one hundred percent success is not guaranteed to you.

But, as the manufacturers themselves strongly recommend, carefully read the instructions that are attached to the equipment. Also, do some research on the internet. Ideally, take an internship with an experienced brewer…

www.firstbeerclub.ru

How to brew beer at home, each master decides on his own. The first step in choosing an installation is to determine the purchase budget. It depends on the financial capabilities of each individual person. One of the main selection criteria is the installation size. When buying a home brewery, you need to consider such a factor as free space for installing equipment.

Equipment for mini-breweries with a capacity of up to 3,000 liters per day covers an area of ​​up to 40 square meters. meters.

The volume of production of the finished drink and the method of its preparation depend on the size of the installation and its design. The most convenient for home brewing are small mini breweries equipped with electric heaters.

• When purchasing equipment for brewing beer, you need to take into account the fact that its cost is influenced not only by quality, but also by the brand of the manufacturer.
• Promoted brands, with the same technical characteristics, will always cost 15-20% more than similar installations of unknown manufacturers.
• Before choosing a home brewery, you need to carefully study and compare the offers on the market. For the production of a hop drink only for its own consumption, a small installation is enough.
• The cost of such equipment starts from 3-5 thousand rubles. For the arrangement of beer bars, it is necessary to purchase professional equipment. It costs an order of magnitude more.

The difference between conventional and professional equipment is not only in price and performance, but also in the operational resource. Simple equipment is not designed for continuous operation. With round-the-clock operation, it can very quickly become unusable.

The smallest brewery can take up as much space as a coffee machine or food processor needs.

The prepared beer is kept in a warm place for some time, and then placed in the refrigerator. There are units equipped with a "jacket" cooling. The finished product can be stored in such equipment.

The duration of the preparation of the drink is from 1.5 to 2 weeks. Even in the most spacious apartment, it is difficult to find a place to accommodate a large brewery and a container for fermenting a drink.

The simplest setup for home brewing is the vacuum vessel. An intoxicating drink is prepared in it on liquid wort, which can be bought at the store. There are prefabricated and solid structures. They are equipped with a system for trapping foam and relieving excess pressure.

Installations are divided into full-cycle and with a shortened period of production. The first type of equipment requires sufficiently large areas for placement, therefore it is used to equip mini breweries for the production of drinks in bars and pubs.

The set of equipment for a short cycle of beer production includes:

• digester and fermentation tank;
• filters for purification of drinking water and device for sterilization of liquid.

Very convenient to use for home cooking beverage compact breweries.

Advantages and disadvantages

Consider some of the most famous models.

The American Brewery has five variants. On it you can
brew about 50 beers. One drink production cycle lasts 12 days. The installation looks like a barrel. Dry ingredients are used to prepare the drink.

Advantages:

• Reliability in work and available base of spare parts.
• Ability to use ingredients from different manufacturers.
• Low cost of the finished product, the availability of natural and artificial carbonization and adjustment of the duration of the beverage preparation cycles.

Flaws:

• For the production of the drink, special cartridges with carbon dioxide are required, which is used to increase the pressure in the keg.
• After preparing the drink, the installation must be disassembled for washing.
• High installation cost.

Brewery of Czech manufacturers. Has five options. The drink production cycle takes 21 days. More than 50 types of beer can be brewed on the equipment. Liquid ingredients are used to brew beer.

Advantages:

• Ease of operation;
• Affordable price.

Flaws:

• High cost of the finished product;
• The impossibility of using any other mixtures for making a drink, except for the base one.

Mr Beer

American brewery with a 21-day cycle. The lineup consists of 4
types of installations. The beer prepared in this equipment can be stored up to 1 year.

Advantages:

• Possibility to prepare a large number of beers.
• Ease of operation.

Flaws:

• Before preparing a drink, the mixture for brewing beer must be boiled.
• The highest cost of the finished product of all breweries on the market.

TOP 5 models of popular mini-breweries for home

These 5 models were the most popular in 2016.

Pretty cute, inexpensive and simple home brewery from a company called will allow you to make excellent live beer without much effort. The design is the simplest and has a volume of 9 liters. Such a unit is easy to put in the refrigerator and bring the beer to perfection at the last stage.

The cooking time in this model ranges from 4 to 21 days. You can use the liquid extract with natural carbonation, that is, carbonation. The set includes: a spoon for stirring, a thermometer, a measuring container, glass bottles with corks for pouring, an AC-3 hydrometer and extracts for fast food beer.

Mini-brewery price - $130

The next mini brewery model called BeerMachine DeLuxe 2008 Exper t has a large package, which will simplify the creation of delicious live beer as much as possible. This includes a 10-liter container in which the spirit is prepared for 3-10 days.

The kit comes with a dry extract and a solid set of additional things, such as a thermometer, pressure gauge, stirring spoon, measuring container, ceramic beer bottles, a can of carbon dioxide and a beer bottling system.

Brewery price - $225

Beer Zavodik 2016 Premium

If you decide to purchase brewing equipment for your home, then a kit called Beer Zavodik 2016 Premium more than suitable. True, the tank capacity is 33 liters, which requires certain conditions and a large house.

• Such a beer factory is not suitable for an apartment, of course.
• The term of preparation of beer fluctuates up to 21 days.
• There is a large set of add-ons: a thermometer, a seamer, a measuring container and a spoon, as well as a filter tube and a hydrometer with a cylinder.
• There are also extracts, dextrose and disinfectant powders.

The price of the mini-brewery is unknown

A very simple and inexpensive home brewer with user reviews that speak very well of the device. The volume of the main tank for making beer is 8.5 liters.

An apparatus of this size is easy to place in the refrigerator and bring the beer to full readiness after pre-fermentation.

• The kit is not as rich as in previous models.
• This includes a thermometer, a stirring spoon and a set of one-litre plastic bottles.
• There is also a DVD with detailed video and a description of the preparation of beer.

Brewery price - $100

BrewDemon Signature

Next mini brewery BrewDemon Signature has a rather interesting convenient design with a small tank volume of 11 liters. The kit comes with everything you need to start brewing right away. This is a beer extract and a set of a thermometer, a spoon for stirring and bottles for pouring finished beer.

Everything is extremely simple - pour the extract into a container, cork it and in 7-14 days you will get excellent live beer. Also in the box you will find three branded mugs and a set of branded bottle stickers.

The price of the mini-brewery is unknown

gooosha.ru

Accessories for a home brewery require separate consideration. Additional equipment of the device is very diverse: bottles, glasses, spoons, funnels, etc. Many consider them unnecessary, because you can easily find all the necessary utensils at home, and the price with additional accessories is much higher.

Attention! Of the accessories, the apparatus for storing carbon dioxide, which is released as a result of fermentation, is especially distinguished.

Also included is a recipe book or a training CD with a video.
Advice. Experienced brewers recommend purchasing an additional pressure gauge and thermometer.

Minimum set of brewer

And here you can get acquainted with the minimum set for grain brewing.

So, let's talk about the minimum set of a brewer. What we need to make our first live beer (this kit is only suitable for extract brewing):

Fermenter (fermenter), fermenter

Fermenter - a container for fermenting beer wort, the volume of the container will depend on which extract you will use. There are fermenters on the market with a volume of 10 to 30 liters. In fact, you can use any tightly closed container in which you need to make two holes: for a water seal, which can also be replaced in the old fashioned way with a hose and a jar of water, and a faucet for bottling (optional, but very convenient).

Water seal

A water seal for a container is necessary for the release of carbon dioxide, while preventing bacteria from entering the tank, with the help of a water seal it is easy to monitor the fermentation process and establish the completion of this process, as I wrote, you can replace it with improvised means or make it yourself.

Thermometer

Thermometer - a thermometer is necessary in order to monitor the fermentation temperature and prevent negative temperatures for fermentation in a timely manner. You can use adhesive LCD or any other, I use LCD and submersible.

A hydrometer with a measuring cylinder or other special container - using a hydrometer, you can find out the density of the wort and subsequently the strength of the beer, as well as determine whether the beer is ripe, and is also useful for home experiments.

Bottling agents

Bottling medium - the process of filling beer for further carbonation is a very delicate process. This is due to the fact that bottling should be carried out with minimal contact of beer with the external environment.

It will be a big plus if the fermentation tank is equipped with a special faucet. You can also purchase a tube with a valve.

Disinfectants facilities

Disinfectant - Neodisher Cl is sold in all specialized stores, I highly recommend buying it. However, you can get by with substitutes, all specialized stores have substitutes, you can also buy ordinary bleach and induce a very weak solution, or get by with iodine.

Tare – after fermentation comes the stage of bottling beer and the process of carbonization, I recommend preparing in advance for the collection (purchase) of containers.

It is important that PET bottles that are not intended for non-carbonated drinks are not suitable for bottling, since it is in the container that the carbonization process will take place, which means that the container can simply be torn apart.

Now let's move on to the ingredients for making beer:

• Malt extract - can be both hopped and unhopped, for the second you still need hops;
• Yeast - usually comes with malt extracts;
• Sugar or dextrose in the amount necessary for fermentation and carbonation;

Optimal price

Based on the minimum set described above, you can calculate how much it will cost you. I will not give you the terms and addition formulas, but I will simply give you a specific amount: 2500-3500 "wooden", depending on the store.

The amount is small, but who doesn't want to save money?

You can save money by ordering not a set, but separate components: a fermenter with a water seal will cost 550 rubles, a thermometer 90 rubles, a hydrometer with a graduated cylinder 400 rubles, bottling products are free, Neodisher Cl is 70 rubles, containers are free, malt extract 750 rubles, sugar 60 rubles.

In total, we saved from 700 to 1700 rubles. Thus, the price of a mini brewery will be about 1800 rubles. Not bad, right?

www.vmazal.ru

Especially bold experimenters are engaged in the manufacture of a mini-brewery with their own hands at home. This is a very responsible and at the same time interesting process. Let's consider it step by step.

• First of all, in order for the brewing technology to be followed exactly, we need to make a tank for beer fermentation. We purchase a pot with a capacity of about 20 liters. It is best to choose a stainless steel container with fairly thick walls.
• In the building materials store, we purchase components: a brass shackle, 2 lock nuts, 2 silicone gaskets, 2 PTFE gaskets. Ball valve with internal thread, the diameter corresponding to the brass spur. Elbow fitting for hose, 3 copper tees (diameter 1.5 cm), 4 elbow copper tubes of the same diameter, 2 meters of unannealed copper tube.
• Do I put the pan on its side? we need to make a hole in it. We drill it as close to the bottom as possible.

• We apply gaskets to the hole, first we use silicone, then fluoroplastic.
• We solder together an American, a tee and a small piece of copper pipe. Please note that the solder should not contain lead, so as not to spoil the taste of beer in the future.
• We fasten the structure to the workpiece in the pan.
• In the copper tubes located at the bottom of the pan, using an ordinary hacksaw, we cut holes into which we insert the copper tube. These manipulations are needed to make a coil. It is desirable that the diameter of the tube is not less than 1 cm. We bend the tube, giving it the shape of a spiral spring. The diameter of the spring is equal to the diameter of the pan. We fix it with wire cross-sections. The ends of our coil come out on top of the pan.

That's all, the device is ready. It remains to buy a hydrometer, a container for the final fermentation of beer? it is sold in stores and is immediately equipped with a water seal, a temperature sensor and a drain valve.

If you are not planning to buy ready mixes for brewing, you will need to purchase a quality malt grinder. The last piece you need is an outdoor thermometer to monitor the temperature. That's all, you can start brewing homemade beer.

tonnasamogona.ru

A beginner amateur brewer will always need advice from professionals. So, 10 main rules that you need to follow if you want to get a tasty and high-quality foamy drink.

Advice. Store ingredients as directed. Liquid yeast should be kept in the refrigerator, hops in the freezer, and malt in a cool but dry place.

1. Equipment must always be perfectly clean. It must be completely disinfected before use. Otherwise, the bacteria will take over the components of the beer before the fermentation process begins.
2. Cool the wort as quickly as possible. You can buy a chiller.
3. Boiling the wort should last from 1 to 1.5 hours. If you want to get light beer, then boiling should last at least 90 minutes.

For a quality drink, you need only natural ingredients.

• Constantly control the fermentation process (the temperature should vary between 19 and 20 degrees).
• Use only quality water. The taste and quality of the finished foamy drink depends on it.

Advice. Do not use tap water to brew beer. It contains many impurities and components. Particularly chlorine.

Proper brewing tactics

1. For fermentation, use glass tanks. They are not only easier to wash after use, but also more effective to apply. This is explained by the fact that glass is a 100% barrier to oxygen.
2. Make a yeast starter. This will improve the yeast fermentation process.
3. It is better to purchase components for several batches in advance (in bulk). So you can save a decent amount of money.
4. Constantly experiment with varieties and flavors of beer. Light or dark, it's not a problem with a homebrew! You can make absolutely any beer. The recipe book included will help you with this. And on the Internet you can find tips, reviews and recipes from consumers. This is where the real expanse for beer lovers.

Attention! Drinking too much beer is bad for your health. Limit children's access to the home brewery and the finished product. Beer is not recommended for children, pregnant women and persons with mental and chronic illnesses.

A home brewery is a real find for connoisseurs of a foamy drink. It will not only help to prepare natural and high-quality beer without harmful additives and unknown components, but will also provide an opportunity to experiment with different tastes.

After all, everyone knows that beer should contain several main components: malt, hops, yeast and water. The rest is added according to the recipe or as desired.

Strictly follow the technology and rules for making beer, you will definitely succeed.

Enjoy your favorite drink, but in moderation!

viborprost.ru

Why do we need "pedigreed" yeast?

The final (expected) result of our creative process depends on the quantity and proportion of the ingredients of the original substance, as well as the breed of yeast and the characteristics of their population, which implies the proportions of yeast cells with different age data and a set of stored enzymes.

Why is it better to use ready-made (factory) wort? In practice, industry offers individual producers containers with a volume of at least 50 liters, which is generally unacceptable for a standard city kitchen, and the cost of such a vat for fermenting raw materials varies in the price range from 150 to 350 thousand rubles.

• Therefore, the following option seems quite logical: to buy ready-made concentrated wort, prepared with detailed observance of technologies (which is not at all difficult to do in the factory), and to it - the right amount of yeast.
• Such a semi-finished product is a viscous dark mass or a dry powder.
• From the same must by changing technological process and the use of various additives, yeasts and extracts, you can prepare several drinks that are different in taste and appearance.

Brewery at a price of 5000 rubles. greatly facilitate these laborious processes. The reconstituted wort is almost identical to the original. So, add water in the right proportion to the finished wort concentrate and stir - the base for beer is ready.

At the very beginning of fermentation, yeast grows rapidly and multiplies in a favorable nutrient medium at room temperature, consuming easily digestible sugars from the wort and forming carbon dioxide and alcohol. Then various proteins get into the yeast diet - now the yeast forms the very bouquet of taste and aroma of beer, which is typical for the selected variety.

In addition, ripening takes place at a lower (2-8 * C) temperature, and in an environment saturated with carbon dioxide. That is, the semi-finished product becomes carbonated.

Experienced brewers bleed (release outside) excess carbon dioxide formed in the fermentation wort tank, or divide the fermentation process into two stages: primary and secondary with maturation.

To implement the second method, you will need a tightly closed container and a set of plastic bottles. At the same time, the main fermentation is carried out in a container that is closed, but not airtight: since the yeast actively emits carbon dioxide, air from outside (and with it bacteria and wild yeast) does not get inside.

And when the main fermentation is over and there are almost no sugars left, you need to pour the young ("green") beer into sealed containers - plastic bottles with screw caps are useful for this.

For the gassing of beer, it is required to add to each bottle sugar syrup- so that the yeast releases the required amount of carbon dioxide, but just enough so that the plastic container does not explode. When the sugars ferment to the required condition, the bottles are put in the cold and the beer begins to slowly mature.

What you need to know!

Any brewer can avoid mistakes when buying equipment if he listens to the advice of more experienced colleagues. What you need to know:

1. For brewing beer at home, boilers with a capacity of 30 liters are optimal for themselves.
2. During the cooking process, the product is boiled down, so most recipes for 1 bookmark of raw materials contain 25-30 liters of drinking water.
3. To avoid the microflora harmful to beer getting into the drink when preparing it at home, the equipment is equipped with a chiller. This is the cooling system that is inside the digester.

When brewing beer in a saucepan, the drink is cooled with ice. It has to be poured from one container to another, which can lead to the ingress of bacteria into the product that can change the course of the fermentation of the drink and its taste.

Never skimp on a filtration system. It is better when a home brewery is equipped with an automatic siphon. Such a filter is a telescopic system with "auto-suction". This improves the quality of the product and saves the effort and time required to carry out the filtration process.

When buying a brewery, you need to pay attention to whether it has a wort aeration system or not. After cooking the product, there is very little oxygen left in it, which is necessary for yeast cells to activate the process of sugar fermentation.

If the design of the brewery does not provide for the installation of such a device, then an additional air compressor can be purchased, similar to that used in aquariums.

samogonpil.ru

Home brewery - which one to choose

In this article, I will try to understand the feasibility of acquiring a home brewery. Perhaps after reading, you will no longer have a question about how to choose a home brewery.

The price of mini-breweries can range from several thousand rubles to several thousand dollars. Of course, inexpensive breweries are the most widespread.

The main selection criteria when buying microbreweries are:

• Brewery cost- I think that this is the main criterion, since not everyone can afford to purchase a device that costs 120 thousand rubles.

• Device size- as a rule, the size of the brewery directly indicates how much beer it can brew in one cycle.
• Device weight- directly depends on its size, as well as the materials used. Metal microbreweries will definitely be heavier than their plastic counterparts.

Appearance plays an important role when choosing. Most inexpensive breweries have the look and feel of a plastic bucket, and those who care about aesthetics will have to opt for more expensive stylized options.

Understanding the issue of acquiring a home mini-brewery, I decided to select and compare the most inexpensive device and the brewery of the top price positions, choosing devices of approximately the same volume.

The most inexpensive brewery that I found by monitoring the Internet in Krasnoyarsk is called " Pivovarnya.ru Basic". Its price is 3190 rubles, while on the official website the cost of this brewery is higher - 4490 rubles. Apparently, the manufacturer raised prices, but they have not had time to rise in the local market yet. When buying from officials, you must also take into account the delivery, the price of which is 690 rubles (when buying up to 5,000 rubles). However, since I am writing from Krasnoyarsk, we take the same 3,190 rubles as a basis.

What do we get for this money:

• Plastic barrel with a volume of 30 liters;
• Water seal and plug for it;
• plastic faucet;
• Thermometer with LCD screen;
• Black Rock Malt Concentrate - two cans;
• Box with instructions;

Further, the data on the official website and the distributor differ, although it may be that the Krasnoyarsk seller was too lazy to post all the information on the page. In addition to the above, only an alcohol meter is listed in its configuration, while it is completely absent on the official website, but there are the following units:

• Dry yeast;
• Destroza;
• Measuring cylinder;
• Hydrometer ac-3;
• plastic spoon;
• Cleanser.

One cycle brewery capable of brewing 23 liters of beer.

Now, for comparison, consider a high end home brewery. One of the most popular models of such microbreweries is Braumeister 20. The cost of the device from the official representative of the company in Russia is 124,000 rubles (one hundred and twenty-four thousand rubles). In this case, delivery can increase the cost of the device by 5%.

Set

The brewery set includes:

• Brewery Braumeister with a volume of 20 liters;
• Wort cooler made of stainless steel;
• Thirty-liter plastic barrel for fermentation with a tap and a water seal;
• Malt crusher "Brightmil";
• Bucket for loading malt;
• Hydrometer and measuring cylinder;
• The device itself looks very impressive, it is made of stainless steel and weighs 15 kilograms.

The main difference between these two breweries is that in the first case you will be able to make a drink using only ready-made malt extract. The Braumeister home brewery allows you to brew beer with the ingredients you want, without limiting yourself.

However, let's consider the expediency of purchasing a brewery for the first and second cases.

brewing

In order to brew beer in the first case, we need:

Malt concentrate. Such a concentrate already contains the required amount of hops, in addition, a bag of yeast is included in the kit. The official manufacturer recommends Black Rock extracts, so we will focus on the cost of such concentrates. average price such wort is 1,200 rubles on the Brewery.ru website, excluding delivery costs. One can of concentrate is just enough to produce 23 liters of beer.

To prepare a drink, you will need sugar or, as the manufacturer recommends, destrose, which is included in the kit, but in the future you will have to buy it for 160 rubles per package. Also, after each cooking, you will definitely need a disinfectant, the cost of which is 160 rubles. The water used to make the drink will also have to be purchased, as tap water is not suitable. The cost of a five-liter bottle of water is about forty rubles. Let's say that we need four such bottles, which means that we will need to spend 160 rubles on water.

In addition, do not forget about the beer bottling containers, which will also have to be purchased. As well as many other accessories that will come in handy sooner or later. We will allocate 2000 rubles for this, although, most likely, you will get more.

Thus, the cost of the first brew beer (where we took into account the minimum cost of a home brewery and a set of containers for bottling) will cost you at least 232 rubles per liter. All subsequent brews will cost you from 73 rubles per liter.

Now let's calculate the cost of a liter of beer with the Braumeister brewery. It makes no sense to calculate the cost of the first brew, since the price of one liter will turn out to be prohibitive. We assume that by purchasing this model, you are investing in your own future. I will also not take into account the cost of containers and other accessories, let's assume that you already have all this and calculate the price of one liter of home-brewed beer brewed at this brewery.

To prepare 20 liters of beer, we need about four kilograms of malt. The cost of such an amount of ingredient will be about 400 rubles. You will also definitely need hops. For beer of medium bitterness, for 20 liters it needs no more than 50 grams, which in monetary terms will be close to one hundred rubles. Next in line is brewing yeast, the cost of which for one brew of 20 liters of beer will average 150 rubles. Add disinfectant and water to the common pile, in the end we get about 50 rubles per liter of beer, if you do not take into account additional costs, including the cost of electricity.

It should be understood that in one case or another, you will not necessarily get a wonderful drink. There is a possibility that you will simply throw money away on food and equipment.. In addition, brewing even in such volumes takes a very long time.

The best way to store homemade beer is in the refrigerator. and 20 liters, packaged in bottles, will occupy a significant part of it. It may well be that you need an additional refrigerator specifically for storing your branded product.

Also consider the shelf life of beer, which, most likely, will not exceed even a month. Accordingly, you alone or with partners, in any case, will have to master these twenty liters or send them to the toilet.

To better understand the viability of homebrewing, let's look at statistics. Data on beer consumption per inhabitant of Russia varies. So, from the point of view of the Baltic, the average Russian in 2013 drank 59 liters of beer per year. According to Wikipedia, we drink more - 74.1 liters per year, but the Ministry of Health believes that this value is exaggerated and today, beer consumption per person is 43 liters per year. If we take the average value, then we get just the results of the Baltic. It is clear that the statistics display averaged data, because someone drinks a lot of beer, and someone does not drink it at all. In your specific case, you need to calculate everything yourself, but we will take the average citizen of the Russian Federation.

Since we are talking about homemade beer, it would be more objective to compare it with draft beers. The cost of good varieties of domestic production starts from 80 rubles per liter, the price of 100 rubles will serve as the basis for calculations. Imported varieties are much more expensive, on sale you can find varieties with a price of 200 rubles per liter, let's take 250 rubles as a basis.

Thus, if you are a resident of Russia who consumes an average amount of beer per year, it will be objective for you that you will spend 5,900 rubles on the purchase of domestic beer, and 14,750 rubles on the purchase of imported beer.

• Savings when using a home brewery in the first case will be 1,770 rubles, in the second, 10,620 rubles a year.
• Savings when using an expensive mini-brewery will be 2,950 rubles in the first case, and 11,800 rubles a year in the second.

Of course, if you drink exclusively imported beer, the payback will be much higher. However, you need to be aware that, most likely, your domestic beer will not match the organoleptic properties of even average domestic beer. Again, I am not talking about those units that are masters in this craft.

Is it necessary to say that the expensive microbrewery described above will most likely never pay for itself. In addition, you will spend a lot of time preparing beer, and after it is ready, you will think about where to store the brewed beer.

I think if you are considering a mini brewery as a source of income and want to start a home brewing business, you will not have significant income. Besides, it's not legal.

The conclusion of this article is that, in my opinion, the choice and purchase of a home mini-brewery is completely inappropriate. You should buy such a device only if brewing is your profession or you cannot live without this hobby, because the process itself inspires you.

https://kraspivo.ru/priobretenie-domashney-pivovarni/

Using a home brew

A brewery for personal use is able to fit perfectly into any interior without taking up too much kitchen space. The compact dimensions of such equipment make it easy to place it in the refrigerator, which is required by some brewing recipes. The choice of a good mini-brewery gives everyone the opportunity, even without special skills, to prepare such products on their own: you just need to place everything necessary ingredients into the fermenter and close it - the device will do the rest on its own. The equipment for brewing beer at home does not require any special care - you only need to rinse and disinfect the device before and after use. There is a special cleaner for this purpose.

Criterias of choice

When choosing and buying a mini brewery for home use, it is important to immediately pay attention to the main parameters of the device, including:

• device cost.

  This parameter is the most important, since not every consumer can afford to make a purchase for several hundred thousand rubles - this is how much a professional home brewery costs these days.

• the next important feature that consumers pay attention to when choosing is the size of this household appliance. This parameter directly affects the amount of drink that can be prepared at a time.
• brewery weight. This indicator depends on the previous one, as well as on the materials that were used in the manufacturing process of the equipment. Metal models will be much heavier than plastic counterparts, but at the same time more reliable.
• The appearance of the device also plays an important role. A significant part of budget models look like an ordinary plastic bucket. Those consumers who are fans of aesthetics can choose more stylized and expensive models.

What to pay attention to

The modern range of mini breweries is quite wide, so everyone can choose the right model. First of all, all offers on the market are divided into two large categories: home breweries and professional ones for a restaurant. What is the best model to choose for personal use, so that it has a wonderful combination of price and quality and does not disappoint for a long time of use? Everything is very simple: you just need to follow the important advice for choosing a reliable mini brewery - first of all, you need to pay attention to the main parameters of the device. Let's consider them.

Product design

Product design. Depending on this, there are two types of hull - prefabricated and one-piece. The latter is more convenient in the process of brewing beer, since the possibility of accidental depressurization is completely excluded. The first option is easier to maintain, since it is much easier to disinfect and clean the device. In addition, before choosing a mini brewery, it should be borne in mind that some modern models can be additionally equipped with a pressure gauge, thermometer, carbonization unit and some other components that make using the device more comfortable and convenient.

The quality of the device for making beer at home can vary, most models are made of plastic. To choose a quality appliance, you should consider an important tip for choosing a reliable microbrewery - you need to pay close attention to the density of the material. The cost and ease of use of the device depends on its configuration. To save money, you should pay attention to models that do not include bottles, glasses and other similar components, without which, in principle, it is quite possible to do.

Dimensions and production technology used There are quite a few models on the market that use the following technology for preparing the product: beer ferments in the device for several days at normal room temperature, after which the entire brewery with the prepared drink will need to be put in the refrigerator for a certain time. This is a rather important nuance of choice, since not every family has enough free space in the refrigerator, which causes certain inconveniences. Therefore, owners of small refrigerators should pay attention to small models in which beer can be poured into bottles and put in the refrigerator, which is more convenient. At the same time, the brewery can be used to prepare the next portion of the foamy drink. Thus, compact models are more convenient to use. If it is possible to allocate a separate refrigerator for the brewery, then it is better to opt for larger devices: in this case, it will be possible to prepare a large amount of beer at a time.

Rating of the best microbreweries for home

So we have reached the most interesting rating of the best models of mini-breweries, of course there are not so many of them, but our Top will simplify the choice of a home brewery. After you decide on the model, carefully study the instructions for brewing beer so that it turns out to be very tasty and you did not spend your money in vain.

The best microbrewery for home

Beer Machine 2000

Mr Beer Deluxe Kit

Beer Zavodik Mini 2014

Conclusion

Thus, buying a mini brewery for home use is a good opportunity to brew beer on your own right at home, enjoying the quality healthy drink. But for this, one should approach the choice with all seriousness, carefully inspect the chosen model and familiarize yourself with its parameters. It also needs to take into account one more useful advice on the topic - how to choose a reliable mini brewery: quite a lot useful information You can find out from the rating of the most popular models, as well as from the reviews of those who already use this technique.

https://hi-tech-pro.ru/vibor/krupnaya-bitovaya-tehnika/vybiraem-mini-pivovarnyu.html

Why homemade beer is better than store bought

Home breweries have already gained popularity among those who really understand the types and taste of beer.

Brewing production at large enterprises, although controlled by special services, does not always boast quality product. Under the guise of expensive varieties, they produce an ordinary drink of the middle price category with a large number of dyes and flavors. Small beer companies that specialize in the production and sale of high-quality and rare types of beer belong to a price segment that is not accessible to everyone.

Homemade beer will have a number of advantages:

• low cost;
• having only natural ingredients in the composition, without preservatives and dyes;
• the ability to cook the desired variety according to the correct recipe.

Brewing beer at home is the right decision. If the factories produce only 3 main varieties (light, dark and wheat), then you can independently prepare a drink according to any of the recipes. Different types of ale, filtered and unfiltered lager, beer with additives - they all differ in taste and brewing technology. The most important advantage of home brewing is that all drinks will be created from natural healthy ingredients.

How to start a beer business

There is not enough equipment for home brewing to be able to freely trade their products. By law, cook alcoholic drinks for home use is possible without restrictions. However, a number of conditions are necessary to brew beer for commercial purposes:

• company registration;
• availability of suitable premises;
• license to trade in low-alcohol drinks;
• permission from the sanitary and epidemiological station, fire inspection and energy supervision.

There are two main types of home breweries:

• microbreweries - produce 50-500 liters of beer per day;
• microbreweries - produce from 500 to 15,000 liters of drink per day.

Do-it-yourself devices are not suitable for doing business. For commercial purposes, you need to purchase equipment. The main condition is that all equipment must have documentation that will be available during the test. To save money, you can pick up used equipment, but you need to buy it with documents.

DIY home brewery

You can find different instructions on how to build a home brewery with your own hands. To do this, you need simple parts and a large container for making a drink. You can brew a drink from whole malt or concentrate. The second option is simpler - this substance is sold in stores along with brewery equipment and is a natural product after evaporation.

How to make your own home brew:

• take a large pot or other metal container for 10, 20, 50 liters or more;
• drill two holes for a tap and a thermometer with a drill;
• install a tap and a thermometer using adapters;
• mount the filtration system according to the drawing;
• install a chiller - a device for cooling the tank.

Equipment for the production of beer at home is sold in specialized stores. Here you can also buy ingredients and accessories for brewing. Such devices are guaranteed and function correctly. However, a homemade microbrewery will also last a long time and will brew a quality drink if assembled according to the instructions.

Factory equipment for the production of beer

Mini breweries can be prefabricated or solid, designed for different volumes of the drink, varying in shape and design. In the process of making home-brewed beer, you can use both concentrate and organic products in different proportions. The equipment will ensure uniform heating and mixing of raw materials, as well as its high-quality washing. The taste of the finished drink will depend on the concentration of ingredients, the type and quality of yeast, as well as on the temperature and duration of brewing beer.

Microbreweries for home have several modes. To start the process, you need to set the desired values:

• the temperature at which the raw material will be processed;
• brewing time.

Automatic home brewers are simple pieces of equipment that anyone can handle. Thanks to automation, such a device independently ensures uniform processing of components. Microbreweries can provide the owner with up to 10 liters of fresh quality drink per day - this amount is enough for home consumption.

How to choose a home brewery

Specialty stores offer a wide range of home microbreweries. These are products of various manufacturers aimed at making beer for home use or commercial purposes. There are several criteria that you should pay attention to when buying a beer brewing device:

• pricing policy - the cost of equipment should be paid off by business income or not greatly affect the family budget;
• the size of the brewery - in order to understand which model to choose, it is worth deciding in advance where it will be located in the house;
• design, availability of additional functions.

All varieties of breweries are divided into 2 types. The first of them provides that the initial fermentation of beer takes place in a container, and then the drink must be infused in the refrigerator. If there is no free space for it or the dimensions of the refrigerator do not allow storing beer in it, it is worth stopping at the second option. Here, after the first stage of fermentation, the drink can be immediately poured and stored in bottles.

The best brewery is the one that best meets the needs of the buyer. It makes no sense to purchase expensive large-scale equipment in order to brew several liters of beer per month. Insufficiently experienced brewers should also take simpler equipment with few functions and concentrated raw materials.

Top Models

Microbreweries, breweries and other equipment are sold in specialized stores. They are also available for home use. To choose the most suitable model in terms of price, quality and functions, you should contact a consultant.

Models that provide beer brewing from natural ingredients instead of concentrate belong to a higher price category. Of the available options, 2 varieties can also be distinguished. The first of them can work only with dry concentrated raw materials, the second - including with liquid wort. Such models are popular because they brew the drink without the formation of lumps, as with dry concentrate.

When choosing a model, it is worth remembering several factors:

• pricing does not depend on the quality of the car, but on its configuration and brand awareness;
• all parts can be purchased separately;
• design is a matter of personal preference.

Among the most popular manufacturers of home breweries are BeerMachine, Mr. Beer and others. Regardless of the model and its cost, it is worth buying equipment in stores where it is possible to obtain a guarantee of its quality. Buying used devices without documents is always a risk of malfunction.

Making beer is a separate art that can be mastered, including at home. The drink is brewed from natural ingredients, without the use of dyes, preservatives and other chemicals to speed up the process and extend the shelf life of the finished product. The most tangible advantage is the quality of home-brewed beer. In addition, there is the opportunity to experiment, add new ingredients or try rare recipes. Unlike purchased bottled beer, such a product will be really fresh, tasty and natural.

https://alconation.ru/pivo/pivovarnya-doma

Until recently, making beer at home was considered an incredibly difficult and unpredictable undertaking, which was undertaken only by people who were brave and somewhat obsessed with the craft. Since then, a lot of water has flowed, and even more beer has flowed. If earlier beer enthusiasts had to deal with the manufacture of equipment and the search for raw materials from brewery suppliers, today all this can be bought in the form of ready-made kits for making beer at home, which are commonly called home breweries. There are a lot of such sets and choosing the first one becomes a real test for a beginner. Let's try to help him!

We understand the basic concepts: extract or malt

First you need to understand that beer can be brewed using two fundamentally different, so to speak, technologies: from malt extract or from malt and hops (a pure grain type of brewing, also known as all-grain). Before you start choosing your first microbrewery, and later you will realize that this is not so much about one piece of equipment, but about a combination of different tools and ingredients, you should decide on the degree of your involvement in the process and the level of skill. But let's go in order.

Beer from malt extract

Hopped extracts can be immediately diluted with water, added to the resulting wort with brewer's yeast and fermented. All beginners, without exception, are advised to brew at least a couple of batches of hopped malt extract beer to delve into the process and decide for themselves whether they like a new hobby or not. Later, you can move on to unhopped extracts, which need to be brewed with hops. And only after this experience you can try your hand at all-grain brewing. However, even experienced brewers stay forever with unhopped extracts and make drinks that easily take prizes in various beer masters competitions.

The main disadvantage of extract brewing is that the beer recipe has already been chosen for you and it is almost impossible to influence the result, especially when it comes to hopped malt extracts.

Beer made from malt and hops

In 1516, the Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Law) was passed in Germany, according to which beer must be brewed exclusively from barley malt, hops and water. This law was adopted more for economic reasons (there was a famine and a severe shortage of wheat in the country) and to a lesser extent to create a reference drink in terms of quality. There are fewer and fewer purists (adamant fans of the Reinheitsgebot) left, because the main value of all-grain brewing lies in its flexibility and the opportunity to express yourself. Along with barley malt, it is actively used, less often, etc., unmalted grains, fruits, berries, herbs and even mushrooms are added to the wort. Brewing has become a creative process.

The philosophy of all-grain implies saccharification of malt at home (what is done for extracts in production). This is a very time-consuming process that requires full dedication. The malt is ground, then mixed with water (mashing) at a certain temperature and in a certain proportion, after which well-defined temperature pauses are maintained, due to which the malt enzymes pass into the water and convert the starch into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. This is followed by a painful for many stage of filtering the liquid fraction from the grains, and only after that the boiling of the wort with hopping follows. All this requires good theoretical training and, of course, good equipment.

Selecting an extract brewery

Beervingem Breweries

Extract minibrewery designed for beginners and small volume. Available in two versions: with a plastic barrel complete with extract and glass jar complete with malt, hops and yeast for grain brewing, which can easily be done at home in a small pot.

The most important difference from other breweries lies in the configuration and low price, thanks to which you can try the extract or grain method of making beer.

pros: low price, simplicity, depending on the configuration, try to brew beer in two different ways.

Minuses: not too rich equipment, lack of containers for secondary fermentation.

Breweries Grainfather

A completely different type and class of all-in-one grain breweries. is a brewing system for making all-grain beer, which is a 30-liter stainless steel tank with built-in heating elements (for 2000 and 500 W), a magnetic drive pump, a malt basket with a load of up to 9 kg, a recirculation pipe to maintain the temperature of the mash , a transparent tempered glass cover and, of course, automation, which can be controlled via Bluetooth via an application on a smartphone. This type of brewery will be a strong assistant to the experienced brewer who is used to comfort, brews beer often and loves to experiment.

pros: a full cycle of preparation of beer wort from malt and hops in one container, serious equipment of the wort boiler.

Minuses: price.

From all of the above, you should draw a very simple and obvious conclusion for yourself: anyone who is at least a little interested in the quality of this drink can start brewing beer in modern realities. Still in doubt? Start with a simple home extract brewery like Beer Zavodik, BrewDemon or Coopers. For a reasonable price, you will get almost everything you need to master the art of beer with malt extracts, and later you will be able to adapt the purchased equipment for brewing pure grain beer. If you know for sure that this craft was created just for you, feel free to buy MirBeer or FastFerment budget grain breweries and start the thorny path to your first perfect beer. The main thing to remember is that brewing is a creative process!

Thus, the fermentation process occurs naturally without the addition of other strains of yeast, and therefore the production of lambic takes quite a long time and requires a lot of patience.

For at least a year, the beer matures in oak fuders (huge barrels) or in special stainless steel tanks, in which oak chips are added. During the first six to seven months of fermentation, sugars are converted into alcohol and other substances that give lambic its unique taste and aroma.

Pure lambic tastes like cider with hints of sherry. This beer is truly created for gourmets. In addition, lambics serve as the basis for the production of other types of beer: gyoza, oude gyoza, kriek, oude krika, faro and fruity varieties of lambic.

After bottling the beer, yeast and unfermented sugars start the process of its secondary fermentation. For the production of oude cries, a rare variety of Morello sour cherries is added to the beer, in the presence of which the fermentation process takes place for six months, after which the beer is bottled, where it undergoes a secondary fermentation.

Fruit beers are based on young lambic with the addition of fresh fruit or fruit syrup. The finished blend undergoes the processes of maceration and re-fermentation.

Brewers

The history of the Lindemans family is an excellent example of the growth and development of an agricultural enterprise. At first it was a farm with its own brewery, but over time, brewing has become its main activity, and farming has faded into the background.

From the founding father of the family business, Jos Frans Lindemans, the management of the farm passed to Jos Frans "Duke" Lindemans (nicknames were used to distinguish people with the same first and last names, and they were not always euphonious).

In 1869, by order of Duke, new farm buildings were erected, which have survived to this day, including the main production building of the brewery. At that time, the farm area included 75 hectares of land and meadows.

The brewery exclusively produced classic lambic and faro; and only many years later, fruit lambics will appear in its assortment. It was Duke's son, Theophilus Martin, who completely moved away from farming, concentrating all his attention on brewing.

A few generations later, in 1961, René (who had received his professional training as a brewing engineer in Ghent) and Nestor Lindemans brewed traditional way your first cry. At the time, gueuze and kriek were extremely niche products in the beer industry.

The main activity of the brewery was the production of lambics for small entrepreneurs (usually farmers) and drinking establishments who brewed their own gueuze from various varieties of lambic.

The brothers themselves were also involved in blending for gyoza, but on a very modest level. The Lindemans soon became pioneers in the production of kriek with the addition of the pulp and juice of a special variety of cherries.

Excursions

Guided tours of the brewery are held on weekdays from 08:00 to 18:00. They last one hour, during which visitors are told about the region, the history of the brewery and the peculiarities of the production of lambics, and at the end of each mini-tour there is a tasting. During the visit, guests make a kind of excursion into history.

In the walls of the old mill, you can see how wheat and malt are ground, which are then transported to the production hall.

Nearby is the building of the old brewery, built back in 1869, as well as a younger production building, built in 1909. The modern brewery was equipped in 1992; today it produces up to 18,000 liters of wort in one cycle.

On the ground floor there are agitators, pumps and valves, which are indispensable attributes of the brewing industry, providing, among other things, the transportation of beer to the storage. On the second floor there are four rather impressive copper tanks: the mash mixing tun, the mash tun, the mash filtration vat and the brew tun.

If you want to learn all the secrets of the production of lambics, contact the De Lambiek tourist information center located in the neighboring town of Alsemberg - and you will plunge into the wondrous world of tastes, aromas, sounds and magic called "lambic". The center is also the starting point for all those who wish to travel to the homeland of lambics (Lambiekland) - the Pajottenland region and the Senna Valley.

Many tourists take the opportunity to visit the nearby medieval castles of Bersel and Gaasbeek, as well as the ancient Herisem paper factory.

Gaasbeek Castle and environs. Photo: Wouter Hagens

Location

The Pajottenland region is a luxurious green oasis nestled in the hills southwest of Brussels. In the small town of Bercel, which is next to the Belgian capital, there is a majestic castle of the 15th century, surrounded by a moat. Gaasbeek Castle with its extensive grounds is all that remains of the Gaasbeek family estate, built by the Duke of Brabant in 1236.

In the 17th century, a French park was laid out on the territory of the castle complex, as well as a baroque gazebo and a chapel. From time to time, interesting art exhibitions are held within the walls of the castle.

In the valley of the river Pedebek, idyllic landscapes await you, as if descended from Brueghel's paintings. If after visiting the brewery you want to stay a little longer in the region, head to Brussels. Follow the Ninoofsesteenweg highway, which will take you to the city of Ninove, and from there to the Belgian capital.

This route takes you through the stunning landscapes of Pajottenland, with old lambic breweries and beer blending geoseries on your way. Lambic varieties such as gueuze, kriek and faro are typical Brussels drinks that can be enjoyed in the many cafes, beer bars, eateries and local pubs (staminees). Lambics can also be ordered in many restaurants in the Belgian capital, and serving some regional dishes simply cannot do without them.

Brussels has a lot to see and do. Stroll through the historic center of the city with its legendary Grand Place and Gothic-style town hall, Place Royale, Varande Park, Place Grande Sablon and the magnificent Palais de Justice, located near the Place Jeu-de-Bal, where a flea market takes place every morning. market.

This part of the city is full of antique shops and shops, where you can find many rarities and collectibles, and the information center will give you all the information you need about the many museums and sights of Brussels and the cultural events taking place in it.

Many of you are already familiar with my reviews. Quite often I write about how to brew beer, where to get equipment or how to make it yourself. In this review, I will talk about a finished brewery - a clone of the Speidel Braumeister brewery with a 50-liter boiler and a 30-liter finished beer output, they called it the Bavaria 30L brewery, by the way, in some resources it is called "Bavaria 50L".
Attention!!! The review is very detailed, and with a huge number of photos and videos, as well as. I don't like spoilers, there will only be one...

Background or how I got to this brewery

I have been brewing beer for quite a long time, I started this hobby in January 2013 with concentrates, and after about six months I completely switched to grain, because. grain beer is not just tastier, but most importantly it is a very interesting activity!

At one fine moment, more precisely at a very unstable time for me, when there was no work at all at work (sorry for the tautology), the director of the company GELIKON LLC wrote to me and offered to work in his organization, to make control units. Our he me on one of the reviews, there I just wrote how to make automation for a brewery on Arduino. Naturally, I agreed and after 1-2 months I made the first working version of the controller.

And at the moment I'm leading a small group of 3 people, we assemble the control boxes and install all the electrics, and it's all done by hand.

This brewery is an almost complete clone of the Speidel Braumeister, which now costs over 100,000 rubles, but will it differ in functionality from the original? What shall we see...

The cost of the brewery for me was lower than the retail one, but the equipment was the same as for a wholesale order, i.e. there are no gifts, namely:

• Chiller for cooling beer
• Chiller Hoses
• Malt scoop
• Malt bag

Basically, I don't need it. I already have all this. So let's get started...

box, appearance, documents

As expected, the brewery was handed to me in a box with all the documents and accessories. It comes in a large plywood box, which is very well assembled on self-tapping screws:


To remove the cover, I had to use a screwdriver, remove the cover and see a large amount of paper:


We rummage and find the very brewery, instructions, recipe, invoice and warranty card:


I recommend getting the brewery out carefully, because. sharp self-tapping screws are exposed from inside the box:


The brewery is quite weighty, but stands very well on the box:


Literature (manual, manual, recipes and warranty card) of very excellent quality:

Equipment

- Brewery with 50 liter kettle
- The mash tank - the brewers simply call it the hopper, so I will indicate it in the review.
- 3 sieves (thin, medium and thick)
- 2 brackets for extracting the hopper
- Vortex pump
- Controller (control unit)
- Drain valve made of stainless steel
- Cover, lambs, holders, etc. small things
- Literature

Appearance

The appearance is quite interesting, the boiler is made of mirror food stainless steel, legs are welded to it, the seams are very pretty:




But unfortunately, not in all places, namely under the boiler itself, they are not at all beautiful:


As my father used to say, when I was learning to solder, the seam seemed to be “we ... ano” “shit”. In principle, there is nothing terrible in this, because. under the brewery will have to look only when it is washed.
Brewery logo sticker, looks nice:


The crane is beautiful, also mirrored, but I don’t like it, because. do not connect a pipe for bottling beer after fermentation to it:


But the brewery control unit is very nice, I would say, it is more interesting than the first version of the “braumaster” (now the version with wifi looks much better, of course):


The front panel is glossy, on the one hand it looks beautiful, but on the other hand, it is again too easily soiled, although it does not particularly leave fingerprints:


Elastic bands are glued on the legs, which exclude scratches on the desktop when brewing beer:


On one of the legs of the brewery there is some kind of “pimple”, apparently it happened by accident during welding. The legs are glued to silicone, so they will not last long, in the future I will glue them on liquid nails.
The power cable at the brewery is 2 meters, the plug has an eyelet, which is very convenient when unplugged:


As many have probably already noticed, the lid and other parts are fastened with plastic clamps during transportation:


We remove the extra clamps and open the lid and see the bunker, brackets, the central pin with the lamb, it looks nice, I like it:


Removing the bunker:


Inside the tank there is the hopper itself, 3 sieves, 2 brackets, a pipe for pressing down the mesh during mashing and a lamb for attaching the hopper:

Bunker

The bunker is also made of mirror stainless food steel, on which 4 studs are welded:


Of course, you can find fault with the seams of the bunker, not quite ideal like legs))
The notch on the outside of the bunker is, accordingly, a side from the inside to hold the bottom grid:


As you can already see, a sealing silicone rubber is put on from the bottom of the bunker, which will not be put on the first time, but still it is put on simply if you get used to it:


Also, if necessary, it can be easily removed:


It is made of silicone and should last a long time:


The elastic does not fit very well from the inside, but when removing the hopper from hot wort, it has never flown off for me:


It's hard to see in the photo...
The thinnest sieve has a very small cross-section of holes, to be honest, I don’t understand why it is needed, without it I will cook:


The next sieve is 1 mm thick, it is placed at the very bottom of the hopper and you need to put the thinnest sieve on it (I won’t do this):


The openings of this sieve are 2 mm.
The third sieve is two millimeters with a hole diameter of 1 mm:


In the last two photos, you can see “rust”, as they explained at the factory, this is either a flux or something else, in principle, it is not difficult and easy to wash off and does not appear again.
Staples are needed to remove the hopper with hot malt and drain the wort from it:


A tube with a hole is used to press down the bunker and thick mesh with a lamb:

The insides of the brewery

Inside the brewery there is a 2.5 kW heating element, a stud for attaching the hopper, a temperature sensor sleeve, and a pump inlet.
The temperature sensor is hidden in a stainless steel sleeve, it does not stick out much, which is very convenient to wash:


Inside the tank, everything is connected by fluoroplastic gaskets, they are reliable, non-toxic, withstand high temperatures, are durable and do not burst like silicone:


I also forgot to write about the drain valve, which is connected through a silicone (most likely) gasket:


Each boiler handle is held by rivets:

Let's turn the brewery over and see what's underneath...

Beneath the brewery...

And under the brewery there are legs welded to the boiler, outlets for the heating element, a pump, a control unit, mountings for the control unit, an outlet for a temperature sensor and a variety of electrics:


Immediately striking is the red warranty seal on the control unit with a "formidable" inscription:


In the next photo we see a temperature sensor and a nut that secures the control unit:


On the tank, as expected, there is a stud for connecting the "ground":


Also in the photo above you can see a wire for connecting to a heating element with heat shrink.
Next, the stud for the hopper and the leads for the pump:


And again the “terrible” leg welding:


The rubber bands under the legs feel like they will soon disappear))


Mounting the control unit seems to me not very successful. All power connectors on the control unit look solid and reliable:


A big minus, of course, is that on the control unit itself there is no inscription what to connect for what, although you can’t make a mistake, because. all connectors are different.
The pump in the brewery is used German - "Vortex":


And here is the sticker


On the one hand, the control unit, as I wrote above, is fastened with a nut, on the other hand, with a lamb:


And so that the power cable does not hang out, it is pulled together with a clamp:


Under the bracket holding the control unit, there is a paranitic gasket, and a rubber one on top:


The first serves so that the block does not heat up so much from the hot boiler, the second, so that it is pressed tightly and does not fall out.

Let's move on to the control unit ...

Control block

The control unit is attached to the brewery using a stainless steel bracket:


The front panel, as I wrote above, is glossy, and, as I wrote above, it leaves almost no fingerprints.
There are 2 built-in LEDs on the panel - one indicates heating (red), the second pump operation (green):


And 4 buttons:


The print quality is just perfect!
To remove the control unit, I had to first unscrew the nut with pliers, and then the lamb. The sides of the control unit are empty, only one side has a warranty seal. At the back of the unit there is a radiator, an inlet connector, a connector for a heating element, a connector for a temperature sensor, a connector for a pump and a fuse holder:


Let's take a look inside the control box...
The warranty seal does not scare us, we begin to rip it off and it turns out that removing it is not a problem:


Let's try to stick it back, isn't it noticeable?


But no, the inscription “OPEN” appeared, which accordingly deprives us of the guarantee ...
Loosen 4 screws:


We open it ... And we see, it seems like it’s even pretty:


And here is the "brain" of the brewery on the atmega644 chip:


The soldering is done by hand and not bad enough. The board also has the logo of the brewery and the inscription "Made in Russia". Flux washed perfectly:


If you wish, you can flash the controller with your firmware, but is it necessary?
The second board is the power board. It is controlled by a control board and connected via a loop. The board is nothing more than a double solid-state relay for a heating element and a pump, which consists of two optocouplers and two triacs for 16 and 40A:


Triacs are screwed to the radiator through thermal paste:


And between the body and the radiator, a paranitic gasket is laid.
The power supply is used pulsed at 5 volts and is attached with a foam pad:


Well, we assemble the control unit back and try to turn it on ...

Setting and operation of the control unit

After turning on the control unit, you can see the main menu of the brewery with a choice of programs (manual or automatic brewing), settings and the current temperature:


Let's go to start manual mode.
1. We will be asked "Water added?" and if you press “no”, then the program will return back to the main menu, if you press “yes”, “manual mode” will be performed
2. In manual mode, the current temperature is displayed - left and the temperature we need to get - on right. The arrows can be used to change and set the desired temperature.
3. And since “manual mode” is selected, in order to turn on the pump and the heating element, you need to press the corresponding button, select “Heating”, the red LED lights up and the heating process starts
4. Press "Pump" and oddly enough, the pump will work))


The mode is sometimes necessary if something cannot be configured in automatic mode, although this should not be. I usually use it to check the operation of the pump and heating element.
To exit this mode (and indeed from any), you need to hold down both arrows.

Next, let's switch to Settings:
The first thing that we are offered to configure is P.I.D. parameters


pid is enough difficult process settings about which it is better to read on or other sites. The PID parameters have already been set quite accurately on this controller, so we will not touch them, but if something needs to be adjusted, we can always do it.
1. Parameter P - 100
2. Parameter I - 0
3. Parameter B - 25
4.Windowset - 3000
5. PWM - 100 is the heating power, the lower it is, the more often the heating element will be turned off
6. Calibration - 0.00 is temperature sensor calibration


The next setting item is System Settings


1. Units of measurement - here you can set either the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit
2. Our temperature sensor is located inside the tank, and not inside the control unit, so we leave “Ext.”
3. Next comes the boiling point, I actively boil already at 98 degrees, so I set this value
4. The next item is the pump cycle, now set to 15 minutes
5. Immediately set the pump rest mode, set to 1 minute
6. We do not need a pump during boiling, because it is not designed for boiling water, so turn it off
7. Here the temperature parameter is set at which the pump will not work, I leave 80, because. there is no sense above, mashing goes up to 80 degrees
8. Next, PID settings are turned on or off, I do not recommend turning them off
9. And the last - iodine test. Here you can put 0 minutes in general, then we will not do the iodine test at all, but I leave 20 minutes, so that there is enough time, if the iodine test was checked earlier, then 20 minutes. the controller will not wait, you can just choose to continue and the brewery will continue to do its job))


The next option in settings is Automatic process settings:

I will adjust the beer according to my recipe:
Named the beer "Yin-yang"

Ingredients:

Malt
1. Base Belarusian malt - 5.5 kg.
2. Efremov caramel malt - 0.4 kg.
3. Ephraim carred malt - 0.3 kg.

Unsalted
Oatmeal (hercules) - 0.8 kg.

Hop
1. Polaris @20.8 - 15 gr.
2. Fantasy @5.1 - 27 gr.
3. Melon @5.1 - 15 gr.
4. Early Moscow @3.6 - 10 gr.

Yeast
BVG-003

Water
35 liters + 5 liters flush

Pauses:
Backfill - 50 gr.
1. Protein - 54 gr. - 5 minutes.
2. Saccharification - 64 gr. - 20 minutes.
3. Saccharification - 73 gr. - 40 min.
4. Mash-out - 78 gr. - 10 min.

Cooking 90 minutes:
1 hop - 90 min.
2 hops - 15 min.
3 and 4 hops - 3 min.

We set pauses in the controller:
1. I will fall asleep at 50 degrees
2. The first pause - protein, will take place at a temperature of 54 degrees
3. The first pause will last - 5 minutes
4. Proteinase skip (choose "Next")
5. B-amylase is also skipped
6. The first saccharification will take place at a temperature of 64 degrees
7. Duration - 20 minutes
8. Second saccharification at a temperature of 73 degrees
9. Duration - 40 minutes
10. Mash out - at 78 degrees
11. Duration - 10 minutes
12. The amount of hops I use is 3
13. Cooking time - 90 min.
14. The first hops will be cast immediately after boiling, it will boil - 90 minutes
15. I will drop the second hop 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
16. Third hop 3 minutes before end of boil


As you can see, the parameters are set according to my recipe.

And the last parameter in the settings - Working with recipes


This menu allows you to work with your recipes, they can be stored up to 10 pieces. They are stored in non-volatile memory.
1. Load recipe - load saved recipe
2. Save recipe - save the configured recipe (parameters are taken from the automatic mode settings)
3. Delete recipe - manually delete the recipe
4. Initialization - this menu must be selected before saving recipes for the first time, otherwise the control unit will give an error - "Memory full". Also, this option completely removes all recipes.


Recipe names can only be written in Latin characters and/or with numbers:


This completes the setting of the control unit, let's finally move on to cooking!

COOKING

Before starting the first brew, I recommend washing the brewery, bunker, all sieves and staples, which I did:


Let's fill in some water and check the manual mode:


The pump works, the heating element heats up, fill in 35 liters of water (I use filtered water) and start automatic brewing:


The control unit will ask if we need a start delay, select "No":


Then he asks "Do you want to continue the previous brew?" (a convenient feature, I’ll talk about it a little later), select “No”:


The next question is: "Water added?" we have already added it, select "Yes":


The process of automatic brewing has begun and the first thing you can see is “Pumping the pump”, then the pump turns on / off for a short time, I believe, in order to remove excess air from the system:


And the heating mode and pump operation are turned on:


As well as in manual mode, the first temperature shows the current temperature in the tank, the second - to which you need to increase.
Icons on the display "H" - heating, "R" - operation of the heating element
I do not recommend installing the bunker before raising the temperature "Zyp":


But for the sake of interest, I just put it to admire the pouring of water through the bunker:

The main thing is not to forget to put on the sealing gum on the bunker ...
I removed the hopper from the brewery and started grinding 3 types of malt:
1. Karared


2. Caramel


3. Basic


All malts can be mixed…
I will grind on a two-roller mill, which I have already talked about in previous reviews:


It turned out something like this:


While preparing the malt, the temperature rose to 50 degrees and the controller notified us about this with a short beep, which continues until you press "Yes"


Until we press “Yes”, the pump will work all the time, and the heating element will maintain the set temperature, then we are asked to add malt, and the heating element and the pump stop working:


Installing the bunker


And a sieve, I will put only a 1 mm sieve, I will not put the second thinnest sieve, because. and without it, the grain is not badly overwritten:


We load the malt into the hopper to begin with, then the non-malt (oatmeal) to the very top:


We install a thick (2 mm) sieve and fix it with a tube:


That's all, now we will go through a process called mashing malt.

Mashing malt

When the malt is added and all the sieves are installed, select "Yes" in the controller:


And ... the mashing process has begun ... Now the temperature rises to 54 degrees and will be kept at this temperature for 5 minutes:


Look at how cloudy our wort is at the beginning, but by the end of the mashing it will be perfectly transparent:

When the first pause is over, the controller will inform us about this and the controller will raise the temperature to 2 pauses:

If you remember, we configured the cycle and rest of the pump, which only work during pauses, i.e. if we have a cycle of 15 minutes, and a mashing pause of 5 minutes, the pump will work constantly, and if the pause is more than 15 minutes, then the pump will go into rest mode, which happened with us on the second pause:


And let's see it in the video:

When the pump is resting, the controller will squeak to us about it, it will also tell us when the pump turns back on ... Meanwhile, the wort is already becoming more and more “caramel” and more transparent ...
Also, when automatic mode is selected, you can easily adjust the temperature, for example, reduce or add with arrows:


It also happens that the electricity is gone (the light blinked, the machine was turned off, etc.), and at that time we had the last pause, then the “Continue previous brewing” function in “Automatic mode” will help us and our brewery will continue from that place where the process stopped.

While we are having the last pause, I have prepared 5 liters of wash water. We need it to wash the grain, because. there is a lot of sugar left in it after mashing. Of course, this is not necessary, but I did it and prepared the water by heating it to 80 degrees:


In the photo above, the temperature has not yet risen to the desired value.

After the end of the last pause of saccharification (B-amylase 2):


The controller will ask you to make an iodine sample:


If within 20 minutes (in the settings we have 20 minutes) you do not press "OK", the controller will automatically go to the last pause "Mash-out". And while we are making a sample, for this you need to take just a spoonful of wort and pour it into a white plate:


And drop there just 1 drop of iodine:


If the iodine turns blue, then you need to switch the brewery to manual mode and withstand the last pause of saccharification for 20-40 minutes and try again. In our case, iodine has not changed color, which means that there is no starch in our wort and we can continue:


The last pause - “mash-out” serves to stop the process of saccharification (splitting of malt starch into sugars), the main thing is not to exceed it above 82 degrees and after this pause the controller will inform us that we need to remove the malt:

We will obey him and extract the malt, and 2 brackets will help us with this:
The first longest one is placed on top of the brewery, the second one we will lift our malt hopper and install on the first bracket, it should look something like this:


Now you can add a little flush water (if any) and click "Continue":


The color of the wort we got is approximately the following color:

Cooking

While we are draining the wort from the hopper and heating up to the boiling temperature (we set it to 98 degrees), we will prepare the hops:


I will use 4 different hops (according to my recipe):
1. We will go for bitterness - Polaris @ 20.8 - 15 gr and it will cook for 90 minutes:


2. Will go for taste - Fantasia @5.1 - 27 gr, it will cook for only 15 minutes


3 and 4. For flavor - Melon @5.1 - 15 gr. + Early Moscow @3.6 - 10 gr., We will cook them for 3 minutes:


The wort has completely merged from the hopper into the brew tank, we no longer need the malt, I will throw it away, although if anyone has cattle, you can feed it)) In order to carefully pour everything out, I put a 60-liter garbage bag on the hopper and pour out:


And everything is clean, and the used malt (grain) is in the bag:


It remains only to wash the hopper and nets and you can relax a little while cooking is in progress:


So, the wort boiled, the controller asked us to add the first hops, so let's do it:


And the countdown went to the end of cooking:


Let's see how we are actively boiling:

During cooking, about 5 liters of water boil away, and this has a very negative effect on wallpaper and walls, especially in small rooms:


Everything is damp))) Therefore, it is better to cook in a large room with good ventilation.

With about 20 minutes remaining in the boil, I begin to disinfect all equipment that will come into contact with the wort to avoid contamination. For disinfection, for 2.5 years I have been using ordinary medical iodine (10 ml), which I dilute in 15 liters of water and wash everything and everything:


I will cool with a countercurrent (a review of it was earlier in the reviews), it naturally also needs to be disinfected:


Do not be alarmed if white is stained from iodine - this is normal, iodine tends to evaporate and there will be no harm to the dishes:


We added all the hops, the brew was over and the brewery beeped us and said we did it!!!

Let's start to cool down:


After passing the wort through the countercurrent, the wort has a temperature of 28 degrees, I immediately pour it into the fermenter and through a sieve so that particles of hops and bruh (the protein left from the malt) do not fall into the tank:


There is quite a lot of "nasty things" after draining:


I usually rinse the brewery with iodine after cooling and pour the chilled wort back and pour it through the tap into the fermenter to saturate the wort with oxygen:


The foam is great:


The initial gravity of the wort I got was about 14 brix:

Sorry for the photo, I had to shoot with a "calculator", because "Mirror" is difficult to catch the sharpness.

This time I will use liquid yeast, which I propagated in advance on a magnetic stirrer:


I poured them into the fermenter, closed the tank with a lid, installed a water trap in it, and a day later the water trap began to “briskly” gurgle:

So we will ferment beer for 14 days, and then according to the standard scheme, which I already wrote about in my reviews.
This completes the cooking, in time it took me about 6 hours.

To summarize what I did not like about this brewery:
- The seams under the brewery are not pretty
- Mounting the control unit is not very successful, it is difficult to remove it, I will not mount it at all
- The seams in the bunker are also not ideal
- Elastic bands on the legs at the brewery most likely will not last long, it is necessary to glue
- Beautiful, but not very comfortable faucet
To be honest, I don’t even know what to complain about, let there be another minus that there is too much steam during cooking))
And here's what I liked:
+ The price is much lower than the "browmaster"
+ Excellent packaging in which the brewery is delivered
+ The seams on the legs in visible places are ideal
+ The brewery itself looks great from the outside
+ Controllers are completely assembled in Russia and manually, like breweries
+ Automation does its job perfectly, the main thing is to set up
+ And most importantly, you can easily get into the desired style when brewing beer, as well as repeat your favorite recipe

Conclusions: as you can see, the brewery is working, of course, it has its “jambs”, although most likely the “braumaster” also has them. This brewery can brew beer fairly easily and is much less messy. If you are still brewing beer in pots and constantly stirring the wort and you are already tired of it, then this brewery will be a great helper in this pleasant hobby ...
I think that it is worth the money, but we must not forget that in addition to the brewery, some other equipment is needed, and these are:

• crusher
• hydrometer/refractometer
• chiller (if not included)
• fermentation tank
• water seal
• and of course raw materials

PS. If you missed something, please ask. I don't answer stupid questions.

The product was provided for writing a review by the store. The review is published in accordance with clause 18 of the Site Rules.

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I first met the owner and founder of Cloudwater Brew Co. Paul Jones in November 2014. I have studied the vast bar and restaurant culture of Manchester. Sitting in the North Quarter, right in the middle of modern Manchester gastronomy, I spent my time thinking, pissing on twitter when I realized what I had to do. That's when I got a tweet from Jones offering to take me to my next destination. Aside from following each other on twitter, we barely knew each other, but he did take me to a couple of suburban bars that I wanted to see, spent the rest of the day with me and a couple of friends, and even made sure I made it to my train.

Jones told us about the brewery he was about to open. Shortly after our first meeting, he outlined the immediate prospects to his future clients: another floor was added to the warehouse that Jones had recently acquired, pipes, boilers, chrome fermentation tanks were installed.

Cloudwater had significant upfront investments, which made them different from the homebrews we're used to. This semi-small brewery model, which is fairly common in the US, is virtually unknown in the UK.

“People who are familiar with our beer and our social media accounts need something substantial that explains who we are and what we do.” Jones says. He is in his early thirties, tall and broad-shouldered, smartly dressed, with a thick, red beard—he looks like a typical New Wave brewery owner.

Chasing the clouds

The name Cloudwater comes from the Japanese word unsui, which translates as "cloud" or "water".

“This is a term for a student who has been trained Jones explains. - We are not so young and not too inexperienced, but, as the Buddhist preacher Shunryu Suzuki once said: “The beginner has many opportunities, and the expert has few.”.

Jones chuckles before laughing, realizing that his speech may seem rather pretentious. From the outside, Jones can seem a little cheeky, but when you get to know him personally, you will realize that this is a rather funny guy. He is well dressed, confident and speaks with conviction in well prepared plans for his business. There is a boyish enthusiasm in his voice, which makes it clear how sincere his efforts are. He has experience in the music industry, which clearly influenced his activities in a new field. Jones seems to run a brewery the way a producer runs a record. His vision is crystal clear and he has assembled an experienced staff to bring his vision to fruition.

Encoats is a small area of ​​Manchester, about a ten minute walk from the city centre. The local Cloudwater site is partly reminiscent of a brewery, partly a Buddhist temple. Bright light reflects off white walls and steel tanks. Electronic music purrs from loudspeakers mounted on the walls.

Half of the building is occupied by the brewery itself, and in the other half there is a small taproom that opens on Saturdays. You can't just come here and enjoy the beer - you'll have to order well in advance to notify the brewery staff, including Jones himself, who will also be participating in the tasting. The remaining space in the building is used to store beer.

Bitter truth

Manchester is closely associated with the history of British brewing culture. Two famous British traditional brewers live here: Joseph Holt and J. W. Lees. It also used to be home to the Boddingtons Brewery, which, though now in decline, once exported its brews to more than 40 countries.

In their best years Boddingtons were famous for their pale-straw and at the same time bitter beers, which is typical for the beer of the north-west of Britain. Boddingtons was eventually acquired in 1989 by the Whitbread Brewery, and Whitbread was acquired in 2000 by the company now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. Over time, Boddingtons gradually darkened, and its strong bitterness almost disappeared, replaced by an empty, sugary sweetness.

There are now more than 70 breweries in Manchester, and most of them have opened in the last three years. Marble Brewery opened in 1997 and revitalized the region's pale, hoppy style of Manchester Bitter, leading to the resurgence of Manchester as one of Britain's great brewing centers.

However, Jones does not care about following the traditions of the Manchester brewers literally.

“Traditionalists offer us a completely different business model he says. - I think they are more concerned as landlords than as owners of breweries and thousands of taps in the region's 600+ pubs. Smaller, independent breweries battling for taps are very different from big companies that want to keep their traditional pubs and hotels as a source of pride for their place in the local community. They are against every other brewery in the world that wants to have their beer on tap in the UK at a reasonable price.".

While Jones respects the local scene, the scope of his goals is commensurate with the scope of his ideas.

“We are not limited to loyalty to Manchester, and we are not going to stop once we create the best beer in the city, we are not limited to the desire to match or surpass beer from London or other places in the UK”, explains the brewer.

Bet on seasonality

Cloudwater released its first beer in March 2015. Some varieties, such as Weissbier hopped with American hops, were well received, others not so much. Jones admits that some of Cloudwater's early beers were anything but what he would like, and even now he admits that his best beers reach "90% of the intended quality level."

A glass of Cloudwater's Autumn Range Red Ale I'm tasting suggests otherwise. The beer is clean, with clear aromas of pine needles and orange peel, paired with notes of cracker sweetness that strikes a balance with a dry, bitter finish. It's hard for me to say exactly which 10% of this beer does not meet the requirements.

A key aspect of Cloudwater's philosophy is seasonality in beer styles, and Jones draws inspiration from contemporary British cuisine. “We are interested in seasonality, even if it makes our production schedule more challenging”.

Breweries producing seasonal beers are not new, but they tend to act as additions to the main line. This is not the case with Cloudwater, where there is no core beer - an entirely new line of beers is released every three months.

Each new release features new artwork created by different independent artists. “Studying seasonality, ingredients, fruit flavors, seasonal beer styles like our IPA for every season gives us a lot more than we lose by not having a core line.” Jones explains.

He admits that the brewery produces cask pale ale on a regular basis, and thanks to his success, Hopfen-Weisse was recreated, albeit each time with different varieties hops. In late 2015, they also released an amazing double IPA. But for me, Cloudwater's calling card is still their lagers, from simple German or Bohemian-style varieties to beers with the addition of Ethiopian Gouji Sidamo coffee.

As we finish our tour of the brewery and head to the North Quarter for lunch, I ask Jones about the backlash from some about the scale of the investment that has been made in his brewery.

“I think it’s because the UK doesn’t yet realize that many experienced brewers are changing jobs or starting new companies, as they do in the US. he says. - I don't think new US breweries like Ecliptic or the Crux Fermentation Project are being asked why they didn't take the risk of starting with less money.".

Where to go next

“We are working on our barrel maturing cellar, we have room for 400 barrels and we can deal with sour and aged varieties, natural wines and other fermented products.”, says Jones of Cloudwater's future.

He pauses for a moment before laughing again in his typically sincere manner.

“As for our long-term plans, we are open to new ideas he continues. - We have big ambitions. We want to be not just a great brewery, but also a great employer. We will do everything to help us achieve our goals.”.

It is symbolic that we are sitting in the Common bar, which, together with Port Street Beer House, helped revive Manchester's interest in great beer. To me, Common is a great example of the positive evolution in urban food and drink culture that breweries like Cloudwater will continue.

Jones broods as he reflects on the first months of his business.

“We are young, still developing and looking for our limits, so we don’t know where we will be in a few months, he concludes. - But we hope to do our best inside and outside the brewery to make Manchester one of the most remarkable cities in the UK for modern beer.".

Manchester will be important to Cloudwater's future development despite Jones' relative ambivalence about the city and its goals, and his continued desire to achieve something more will be important to Manchester as well.