People have been drinking alcohol since before recorded history, and the bottles are still full today. However, there are a few tricks you can use to make your drinks taste better or to avoid imbibing anything too terrible.
One of the most common complaints is that beer tastes like nothing but watery hops. If this is happening to you, try adding more malt syrup to it! It’s a common addition in European countries and will help give your beer a fuller flavor without changing its alcohol content too significantly. You can also try adding things like spices or fruits (Fresh orange zest? Sounds good!) depending on what flavor profile you’re going for.
If your beer is too watered down, there are a few tricks that you can use to fix this. You can add more hops or sugars. You can also add citric acid, although this will change the color and taste of the beer quite a bit. If you’re worried about the color, you can use darker grains in your beer like barley or roasted barley, which will give it a reddish brown color rather than the pale yellow most American beers have. Finally, you can simmer it down to get it just right.
So what is too watered down? The best way to know for sure is with a hydrometer (like: http://www.brewedaily.com/). You add a few drops of the mixture to the hydrometer and it will tell you, by weight, how much sugar is left in the solution.
How do you do this? Well, beer is made from barley that has enzymes in it that break down starches into sugars. As these enzymes work, some of them leave behind maltose (also called dextrin or treacle). Once all of the enzymes have finished working, there will be little starch left and lots of maltose. If water is added to your beer too soon after fermentation then there won’t be enough carbonation to keep the things dissolved in solution from going back into solution (watering your beer down!). If you wait too much longer then the beer will get too bitter from all of the maltose and acids that have been produced by the yeasts working there. The trick is to add your water at just the right time.
A good rule of thumb is to take your hydrometer reading when there is about 3 or 4 points left (Shout out to Mitch Steele for this). If you’re not quite sure then go ahead and taste your beer. If it tastes alright then that’s good enough for me!
Most people hate drinking warm beer, but what if you don’t have room in your fridge to chill it? Well, one easy way is to put ice in with it. You can add it in a pitcher or glass with ice cubes, and just let it sit for a few minutes so that the ice melts and cools down the beer.
Another way is to do something called lagering . This is when you take your beer and put it into a fermentation chamber or a closet for several months at temperatures below freezing. You can get some pretty great results from this if you have the space!
For those who want to make more than just beer, this will come in handy. At home I make cider, hard cider, and wine using apple juice and yeast (which comes in handy!). This will be useful for those who want to try making their own alcohol.
I hope that this helps you improve your quality of life. Remember, try new things and have fun while you’re at it! Cheers!
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Title: 6 Reasons Why So Many People Drink Soda [ARTICLE START] *******************
In the United States, 1 in 10 adults consume sugary beverages daily. Just 9% drink soda exclusively (1). If you believe that soda is a "health food" or that "it's good for you", then I probably don't need to tell you why so many people drink soda.