Blog : Means Cork and Cap

Homebrewing Basics Part 3: What is the Brewing Process?

Homebrewing Basics Part 3: What is the Brewing Process?

Brew Day! You have all the equipment you need and have chosen a recipe you want to brew, but how do you do it? In this part, I’m going to discuss the brewing process, focusing on malt extract brewing! Boiling Setup Brew dogs are highly recommended! To brew beer, you need to be able to have a consistent, rolling boil over at least sixty minutes. You can brew on your kitchen stove, but be aware that boil-overs are something that can happen when adding malt and hop additions. Also, you definitely want to be able to see [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2022-05-12T16:55:20-04:00May 12th, 2022|Brewing Kits, Latest Articles|

Homebrewing Basics Part 2: What’s in Beer?

Homebrewing Basics Part 2: What’s in Beer?

What's in Beer? Beer is made with four base ingredients, water, malt/grains, hops and yeast. Other ingredients can also be added, such as fruit, juice, honey, and spices. Water Use clean water, whatever you feel comfortable drinking. Some people do a whole water chemistry, and change the pH and hardness of their water to better suit the style of beer they are brewing, but to get started tap or spring water is fine. Do not use distilled water because beer and yeast benefit from the minerals present in water. I do add gypsum to my brewing water, it lowers [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2022-01-05T12:41:44-05:00December 17th, 2021|Latest Articles|

Homebrewing Basics Part 1: Where to Begin?

Homebrewing Basics Part 1: Where to Begin?

Where to Begin? Are you interested in starting to brew your own beer, but don’t know where to begin? In this multi-part guide, I will discuss the basics of homebrewing and share my tips and tricks for brewing beer at home. Equipment One of the most important parts of brewing, or fermenting anything, is equipment. You need a fermenter, siphoning equipment, boiling pot, bottles, cappers, and caps. There are equipment kits available, but you can always buy your equipment separately, and just get the essential pieces for brewing. Fermenters Most beginner ingredient kits make one gallon or five gallons [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-12-10T17:57:58-05:00November 1st, 2021|Latest Articles|

Fruit Wine Without the Mess!

Fruit Wine Without the Mess!

Vintner's Best Fruit Wine Bases Have you wanted to try making wine out of fruit or grapes that aren't readily available to you, or you don’t want the mess or expense of buying and preparing fruit for a wine? Vintner’s Best Wine Bases may be what you are looking for! Easy to Make These wine bases make five gallons of wine, though you can split it up and make smaller batches; using the 1:4 ratio, it’s one gallon of the base to four gallons of water. These bases are pH balanced and pre-sweetened to ferment to 10% alcohol, [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-08-28T11:16:10-04:00August 28th, 2021|Latest Articles, Wine Kits|

New Chat Option!

New Chat Option!

Get Answers Right Away! If you have visited our website recently, you may have noticed a chat (Facebook Messenger) icon or message pop-up in the bottom right corner of the page; we recently added the option to chat to us directly via Facebook Messenger! This makes it so you don't have to wait for business hours to call, or for us to answer your emails. Of course, you can still message us via our Facebook page, but this is a nice shortcut if you are on our website and have a question and don't want to navigate to Facebook, [...]

By Means Cork & Cap|2021-06-23T15:16:51-04:00May 8th, 2021|Latest Articles|