Is Home Brewing for You?

Yes, if you want a beer that meets your personal taste profile. You can make a beer that is natural and organic. You can brew a beer that can enhance the health benefits found in hops.

Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute has found that hops contain a flavonoid called “xanthohumol”. This compound is considered to help in preventing cancer. Thus, when you are drinking beer and eating pizza, you are fighting cancer with the flavnoids found in the beer.

Some people will do home brewing as a hobby, others want to produce a beer that they control and is unique. Some home brewers like to experiment and others like to impress their friends with a product they produced.

These are all good reasons to home brew; however, it is the cost savings that can be realized that is the reason for home brewing.

Non –Craft Brewers such as Miller have developed cost controls that allow them to sell their beer at fairly low prices. Home brewing will still provide you with cost savings, but not large ones. However, when compare the costs of imports or Regional Craft Beers, there are significant cost savings. A 6 pack of a good import or craft beer will range between $ 7-9.00 and $1.16 – $ 1.50 per bottle. Home brewing will give you a cost of $ .40 – $ .65 per bottle. That is a significant savings!

To get started, you will need to purchase a starter kit. These kits range in price from basic/beginners for $59.00 to a kit with a barrel for over $300.00. You can buy the kits and supplies on line. However, there are several stores in the Portland area that will sell you the kits, supplies, technology, and the procedures on how to make your own beer.

Once you make your first batch of beer, you can be as creative as you wish and develop unique beers that meet your personality and taste requirements. There is nothing better then to offer your guests your new brew of Organic, Blueberry, Honey, and Malt Beer that has little environmental impacts. Life is sweet!

Here are a few Maine suppliers;

Maine Brewing Supply
The Hop Shop
Kennebec Home Brew Supplies

Chocolate Pasta with Hazelnut Sauce!

I recently had the honor of being asked to provide my recipe for Chocolate Pasta with Hazelnut Sauce to a listener from the Morning Living Show on Martha Stewart Radio!

Naturally, I wanted to share this news and this recipe with everyone! So, Enjoy!

Chocolate Pasta

Serves 4 people

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/3 cups semolina flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon chocolate extract
3 large eggs beaten
Ice water if needed

DIRECTIONS:

Sift the flour and cocoa. Beat the eggs and mix in extract. Add flour mixture slowly to the eggs. Knead into a smooth ball adding small amounts of ice water if needed. Roll and cut dough as desired.

 

Hazelnut Pancetta Cream Sauce

Sauce for 4 Servings of Pasta

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup hazelnuts toasted
2 tablespoon butter
3/4 pound pancetta, diced
1 medium shallot, fine diced
6 medium garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chicken broth
3 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese shavings, for garnish
4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley and thyme, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Heat butter and render pancetta until browned
Add hazelnuts
Add shallot and garlic and cook until soft
Add salt and pepper and nutmeg
Add cream and chicken broth and let simmer to reduce to a sauce consistency
Serve with chocolate pasta
Garnish with parmesan and parsley and thyme

Please feel free to share a recipe of your own, or share your experience with this recipe!

And if you need a caterer, please view our website and contact me!

Home Brewing: Something Old – Something New

Home brewing is almost as old as civilized man. Alcohol has been brewed by individuals for over 7,000 years. You will find written notes about home brewing in ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq), Egypt, and China. This knowledge was passed on to the Greeks, then the Romans, and on to the Germans, Dutch, and the English.

In the 1700s with the industrial revolution, commercially produced products made their appearance. The use of thermometers and hydrometers allowed the beer producers to improve their efficiency to make commercially produced beer viable. Thank you Louis Pasteur, He showed the industry how the role of yeast in fermentation was important and helped developed strains suitable for producing beer.

In the United States, home consumption of beer was never an issue. It was something that many people brewed. In 1920 with leadership from people in Maine, the United States Government forbade the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

When prohibition was finally repealed, you could make wine at home, but not beer. In the law there was a clerical error made that omitted the words “and/or beer” from the law. Is this another example of poor staff work by members of Congress?

Congress moved quickly to correct this oversight. In 1978, 58 years later, the Congress passed a bill repealing the Federal restriction on home brewing, but placed restrictions on beer brewed for personal or family consumption that would be free from taxation.

States, however, were free to restrict and even prohibit the production of beer at home. The state of Maine statue presently has no provision, exception, exemption or license existing for home production of beer in Maine. Basically, most states allow 100 gallons of beer per person for persons over the age of 21 or up to a maximum of 200 gallons per house hold where there are two or more adults, except one – Alabama.  Alabama laws do not exempt home brewing from the law banning the production of illegal manufacture of alcoholic beverages. However, if you go to the “yellow pages” in Alabama, you will find several stores selling home brewing equipment. OK!

200 gallons of allowable home brewed beer figures out to be 2133 12 oz bottles annually or 29 six packs per month. That is a fair amount of beer to consume.

According to the Brewers Association, in 2009, the United States consumed 205,831,000 barrels of beer! Each barrel of beer is equal to 31 gallons. The total represents to decline in sales of 2.2%.Imported beer sales were down 9.8%.Of the total production of beer in 2009, 9,115,635 was produced by Craft Beer Companies(such as Shipyard) and represented a 7.2% increase in sales. The Craft Beer segment is made up by regional breweries, contract brewing, microbreweries, and brewpubs. Vermont tops the list of states for craft breweries on a per capita basis. Maine is ranked 4^th in the nation.

Statistics on Home Brewing are hard to come by. However, the number of stores selling supplies and equipment for home brewing are found in almost every major city.

Here are a few Maine suppliers;

Maine Brewing Supply
The Hop Shop
Kennebec Home Brew Supplies