Do you dream of making beer at home in Colombia? Here at Flavors of Bogota, we never considered it until we visited a barley farm just outside of Bogota.
We never even thought there were barley farms just outside of the megacity. Early one morning we went out on a press trip to Tabio with the #ilovebeer project, and voilà, just 15 minutes from our office in the north of Bogota we were in the gorgeous rural area of Tabio. (That’s not sarcasm, it’s a truly gorgeous area).
There, in the midst of barley gently swaying in the breeze and green mountains in the background, we listened to Master Brewer Miguel Diazgranados talk about the process of making beer.
Learning from the expert
Miguel is the guy to listen to. As a chemical engineer, he never planned on working with beer. However, when he started working with Bavaria 11 years ago, he quickly became fascinated by the brewing process and is now a Master Brewer.
Since he works with Bavaria, his focus isn’t on brewing beer at home. However, his keen interest in helping us understand what goes into brewing beer sparked our curiosity – is making beer at home in Colombia a true possibility? Can you get the ingredients and equipment?
Why would we want to make beer at home (or in our case, at our office)? Well, precisely because we do live in Colombia. In spite of the impression you may get when you walk past a cervecería on a Friday night, Colombia’s yearly beer consumption is just 49 liters per capita. Yes, that’s quite low. While we don’t expect to beat out countries like the Czech Republic, with 137 liters per capita, or the United States at 74 liters, Colombia’s beer consumption is still lower than other Latin American countries.
That consumption level explains why you don’t see the variety of beers you can get in Europe, or the explosion of craft beers that you see in countries like the United States. And that’s why it can be hard to find just that beer you want. If you’ve been frustrated with your options, you may have toyed with the idea of making beer at home. Is making beer at home in Colombia a true option? In this article we’ll examine a few of the factors to keep in mind.
How beer is made – start with the malt
Miguel took us through the main beer-making considerations, including ingredients and processes, and helped us out with suggestions on where to buy the necessary ingredients and equipment here in Colombia. So to start, how is beer made?
There are four main ingredients used in beer: malt, hops, yeast and water. We’ve all heard of these. But what in the world are malt and hops?
Beer starts with malt. And malt is actually barley. Yeah, just lowly barley. Which is why we went to a barley field to talk about beer. Why barley, why not another grain? Beer is among the oldest drinks out there, and it began with barley, which was the basis of many diets. It’s not hard to imagine someone collecting some barley, mistakenly letting it get wet and fermenting with natural yeasts…and the resulting drink got people a bit tipsy.
However, these days barley for beer is different. The barley field I visited was six-row barley, which looks like barley on steroids – but it’s actually an ancient form of barley. This barley has to go through a few processes, so hold on while we explain that.
Barley has to be processed to become malt. The barley is sprouted, then dried. Along the way, the starch in the grain goes through a process that enables it to later convert into sugar.
This creates a base malt for beer making. During the brewing process, that sugar will ferment … and the result will be beer.
Additionally, there are a lot of ways to play around with the barley to change up the tastes. Roasting time and temperature, pH, sugars, and nitrogenous compounds will each add their own nuances to a malt. These specialty malts add exciting stuff to beer.
One way to process the malt is to roast the barley, and the type of roast also determines the color and flavors in the beer. Yes, that sounds like coffee roasting! Barley can be roasted pale or dark.
Caramelized malt is my favorite, with notes that remind me of some of my favorite coffees – sweet, caramel, cacao notes.
When using an all-grain approach, the malt then needs to be made into mash, which is converted into wort (the unfermented liquid that will become beer).
To make it easier, you can use a malt extract, which is from the malted barley and comes in both dried and syrup versions. That’s how most home brewers start.
Other ingredients
Hops. No, it’s not rabbit food, although it looks like it. And yes, it smells gross. Hops are actually from a flower, and they are used in beer making to add flavor, aroma, balance, and for preservation. Hops grow in temperate climates and need 16-18 hours of light in its growing season. Those long hours of sunlight aren’t available in Colombia, which is why hops are imported (in Spanish, lúpulo).
Now the beer needs to ferment. That’s where yeast comes in. It takes the fermentable sugars in your mash and creates alcohol. This is a complicated process that involves a lot of science, and it’s where cleanliness is especially important.
Water is the overlooked ingredient in beer. However, it’s what mainly makes up your brew, so pay attention to the quality. Whatever water is used – well water or river water – it needs to be purified so it doesn’t impart unwanted flavors to the beer. The hardness, alkalinity, and pH of the water are also important, so remember that if you’re tempted to use tap water in Bogota.
To sum it up, the type of malt, the type of hops, when they’re added, the type of yeast, and the style of beer you want to create all determine the recipe you’ll use.
Learn more about brewing beer at home with helpful tips from the American Home Brewers Association.
What equipment will you need to brew beer at home?
You’re going to need seven basic pieces of equipment to get started.
A fermenter is simply the place you’ll store the wort (unfermented beer) while it ferments. This can be as simple as a type of bucket. However, you’ll need an airlock to go onto the top of the fermenter so that carbon dioxide can escape without letting contaminants from the environment in. Don’t skip this piece of equipment – it’s small but will make sure your beer fermenter doesn’t explode.
You’ll need a brew pot (a big soup pot). That’s where you’ll boil the ingredients. The size will depend on the batch you’ll be making. You’ll need to heat that pot, so you’ll need a heat source. If you’re doing small batches, your kitchen stove should be just fine. In Colombia, it’s easy to find someone who makes tons of sancocho for big parties, so it shouldn’t be hard to find someone who will lend you an oversized pot and heating elements.
A siphon makes it easier to move your hot wort without having to lift and pour it out. However, you don’t have to invest in this in the beginning. After it’s all over you’ll need to clean up, so you might want to consider getting a cleaner just for home brewing. However, you can also use any unscented dish cleaner. Then you’ll want to sanitize your equipment to get rid of pesky microorganisms. You can buy a brewing sanitizer, but you can also just use a bleach solution (1 oz. bleach per gallon of water) and rinse it off thoroughly afterward.
There are tons of other tools and gadgets to use, but those are the basics. And as you can see, you probably have most of them at home.
How long does it take to brew beer at home?
- If you decide to make your beer with grains, the time in the brew house or brew pot (where the grain is prepared) is about 6-8 hours.
- Then fermentation is going to take about 9 days.
- After fermentation, you’ll need to wait anywhere from 1-4 weeks for maturation to take place. This is where the flavors fully develop.
- Filtration is the quickest process, taking just a couple of hours.
Craft or industrial?
What kind of beer is better – industrial or artisan?
Either can be good – or bad. The good thing about the small batches related with craft beers is they can play around with new recipes and the loss isn’t huge – unlike huge industrial batches. In general, the two complement each other, and each side of the industry imparts something the other can’t.
This SAB Miller video shows the industry side of making beer – something quite different than what you may choose to do at home.
Making beer at home in Bogota
A few years ago it was nearly impossible to make beer at home in Colombia because it was too hard to get the ingredients. However, in the last couple of years the amount of equipment and ingredients available to hobby beer makers has increased dramatically, and now you can count on three or four large providers.
Insumos Cerveza offers courses on brewing at home, but also all the major ingredients in small quantities and equipment for the home brewer. Distrines also has malt, hops, yeast, and equipment.
Miguel suggests starting out with a simple beer, such as a single malt ale, with only one or two hops. That way you can get experience with the equipment, time, processes – and will have more success starting out. For absolute beginners, Miguel suggests buying a brewing kit on Amazon.
And to prove to yourself that you can brew beer on a budget – and produce something you’re proud of – check out this brewing article on The Brewsite.
Have you considered brewing beer at home in Colombia? Tell us about your project!
