Craft beer: when art is more important than profit. Affordable prices, quality goods for colleagues

Craft in English means "craft" beer. This type of foam product is understood to mean any kind of drink brewed in industrial scale. Their popularity is growing rapidly in all countries of the world. For home cooking great for all craft beer recipes. Modern industry produces various installations for self-produced foam product. The first of these began to appear in the trade more than 20 years ago, but many brewers still prefer to brew beer at home in pots. This greatly complicates the production process, but does not reduce the quality of the foam product.

1 What is craft beer?

• • 1.1 Cooking technology
• 2 simple recipes making craft beer at home
  • 2.1 Recipe #1
  • 2.2 Recipe #2 Oktoberfest

What is craft beer?

The growing popularity of the craft drink has led to the fact that various standards, definitions and classifications have been invented to define it. According to the American Brewers Association, an intoxicating drink can be called craft if it:

• Made in our own brewery.
• Traditional technologies were used in production.

In Europe, the criteria include a requirement for such a drink, excluding the commercial nature of production.

Craft beer is an author's product. This is a kind of improvisation. When preparing craft beer at home, each master adds to famous recipes his "chips", determines the optimal, in his opinion, parameters technological process. The main criterion for assessing the quality of such beer is the opinion of those who drink it.

Cooking technology

The most simple circuit The production of a craft drink is reduced to the use of ready-made wort in its preparation, which can be bought in specialized stores. It takes less time and eliminates several stages from its process traditional way cooking. The longest and most labor-intensive process starts with grinding the malt in a micromill.

Do not grind grain in a blender. This will cause serious damage to the grain shell. For the production of craft beer, it is better to use coarse malt.

The duration of cooking can be from 8 to 10 hours. P e before the start of production product used in the production process equipment and inventory must pass mandatory sterilization. It is their treatment with a special solution that can be bought in stores selling raw materials for brewing. After processing, all inventory and equipment are thoroughly washed with hot water.

Mashing

During this technological stage, the process of saccharification takes place grain composition product. It is carried out at t 61-720 C. This is the optimal temperature for fermentation.

Congestion

The process of brewing malt without boiling with constant stirring. For this stage, the main requirement is to maintain a uniform temperature of the wort throughout the entire time of the boil of the mash.

You can check the readiness of the wort with iodine. It is a readiness indicator. When introduced into the sample, it should not change the color of the product. To check enough 1 tbsp. spoons of wort and 1 drop alcohol solution iodine.

Indicator color to indicate poor quality must, may be blue or dark brown. Optimum temperature for the mash brewing process from 72 to 780 C, duration from 2 to 4 hours.

Filtration

The finished wort is filtered through double mesh filters. In order to simplify the process, initially malt is used during brewing, placed in special fabric bags.

Boiling

The duration of the process is 1.5 hours. The stage is dedicated to hopping the product and getting rid of the bacteria in it.

The amount of hops added to the product regulates the bitterness and strength of the drink.

Hops are added to the product 2 or 3 times. The first batch of raw materials is laid at the very beginning of boiling, the second 15 minutes and the third 3-5 minutes before the end of the process.

Re-filtration and cooling

The wort can be cooled down to t 16-240 C for 10-15 minutes. Options depend on
the selected type of drink to brew. You can cool the drink with an ice bath or chiller. Brewer's yeast is added to the chilled wort.

Fermentation, bottling, ripening, storage

The parameters of the fermentation process depend on what kind of beer is being prepared. It can be riding and bottom fermentation. The average duration of fermentation of top varieties is 2 weeks, grassroots - 21 days. The drink is bottled in a thin stream from a height of at least 20 cm. This is necessary to enrich the beer with oxygen. Shelf life home product in a cold place can reach 6 months.

Easy craft beer recipes at home

Can be used for crafting various recipes home cooking. When using them, special attention must be paid to the quality drinking water. It must undergo additional cleaning after the water supply.

Recipe #1

The composition of the ingredients includes 5 kg barley malt coarse grind. The recipe is not
provides for brewing mash. Malt is poured with 35 liters of water heated to t 700 C and infused for 20 minutes. After that, the wort is filtered and put on fire for boiling for 1 hour. At the 25th minute of this stage, 30 g of granulated malt is added to the wort, 5 minutes after that another 20 g of malt.

The finished wort is cooled for 10-15 minutes to t 20-220 C, filtered into a fermentation tank, after which 11 g of dry brewer's yeast diluted in warm water is added to it. The duration of the fermentation process is 14 days at room temperature.

Recipe #2 Oktoberfest

The foamy drink prepared according to this recipe has a pleasant bitter aftertaste and an attractive taste. amber. The mash is made on 7 liters of water heated to t 650 C. It is poured with 3 kg of Coopers light malt malt and 250 g of Crystal and Briess Victory malt, as well as 50 g of chocolate malt. The suspension prepared from this raw material is thoroughly mixed and brought to a boil, after which 1 teaspoon of Irish moss and 6% Hallertau hops are added to it in an amount of 42 g. All this is boiled again for 40 minutes, then another 28 grams of hops are added to the product. Three minutes later, the wort is removed from the fire, filtered and 20 liters are added to it. cold water, brewer's yeast and ¾ cup corn sugar. The optimal temperature for yeast introduction is 230 C. The duration of fermentation is 2-3 weeks at t 12-130 C.

Craft brewing is a very new phenomenon for Russia. In the United States, such enterprises spread as early as the end of the last century: then, craft breweries meant independent breweries that produced beer in small volumes, used both traditional and innovative ingredients and made real revolution in the mass perception of beer. It is not necessary for a craft brewer to have his own production facility - he can work under a contract with existing enterprises and rent equipment from them. It is on this principle that the St. Petersburg brewery AF Brew operates.

The history of AF Brew began two years ago with a small batch of beer brewed for myself and friends. Now the company produces up to three varieties per month, and you can find them in dozens of bars, cafes and beer boutiques in St. Petersburg and the Moscow GlavPivMag store. The Village spoke with the team about how to instill in bar patrons a love of unorthodox beer.

First grade

Classic American craft brewer start-up - brew beer, have a barbecue party and treat friends and neighbors. And only one person in a hundred goes further and, through perseverance, passion and 24-hour work, makes a great product. We have studied many such stories and four or five years ago we got sick of craft beer after tasting it at specialized festivals abroad. In America, craft breweries, of which there are about 2,700 in total, occupy 7% of the market. In Europe, this is no more than 1%, in Russia it is still slower.

All our adult lives we have been working in large brewing companies and big restaurants. Knowledge of production, logistics, raw materials and recipes at some point allowed us to go further. We spent a lot of time preparing the first sort of beer. Own production we, of course, did not have, besides, we had no idea how and to whom to sell the product. After weighing our options, we decided that, in which case, we would drink everything ourselves. The first grade was brewed with a volume of 500 liters. Based on 25 people - us and our closest friends - it turned out 20 liters each. Such a volume can be mastered in a month.

For us, AF Brew is our favorite, but nevertheless the second, and often literally night life, which has little to do with what we do from nine to six. At some point, we decided to use this dual situation to our advantage and depersonalized our project. Since then, our beer speaks exclusively for itself, and we are known everywhere only as the AF Brew team.

Search for a brewery

Build or buy own brewery not necessary: ​​it deprives you of flexibility and loads you with too serious obligations. There are a lot of small industries in St. Petersburg, they work with small volumes, they cook for restaurants or for sale in retail outlets. It was not difficult to negotiate with them: the main thing is to come with a meaningful proposal. During our existence, we went through five or six breweries in search of ideal option. They are all similar, but there are some nuances that affect the taste and durability: equipment manufacturer, brewhouse size, features fermentation tanks, sanitation and microbiology at work.

How to come up with a recipe

We make our own recipes. The beer we make is hard to confuse with something else. Judging by the most successful people in the craft brewing world, creating a recipe is not a mathematical calculation, but more of an intuition. Great craft brewers are people with phenomenal flair for the recipe. We cannot afford to brew 50 liters for a sample, so the end result is always unpredictable to a certain extent. Now we produce each sort of beer with a volume of two to four tons. This is not much - there are mini-breweries in the city, selling up to 600 tons per month. This is 1,200,000 mugs.

For pumpkin beer, we specially bought pumpkin in the USA
with delivery through a major importer of vegetables

We have many sources of inspiration. It can be a variety that struck us - when the beer is so complex and deep, or, conversely, so concise and elegant that one wants to understand how the author achieved such perfection. It may be a desire to mix two incompatible styles in one variety and see what happens. It may be a new variety of hops or a new strain of yeast that has come into our possession - then our feelings are akin to the feelings of a child who has found a new constructor under the tree. Often we come from a concept, a label design or a favorite movie.

The connection between craft beer and cinema is our favorite topic. A good movie that you keep at home and watch periodically is akin to a craft beer product. When we conceived the idea of ​​using specialty malts to make a blood red IPA, we almost immediately thought of the movie The Shining, and hence the recognizable concept of our most aggressive and sought-after variety, the Redrum IPA, was born. When we wanted to make a sunny California style beer, we used as many as five varieties of the most aromatic American hops in one drink, and the motive for the label of our Hoppy Surf was the movie "Point Break". And when we conjured over the first Belgian saison in our practice, we looked at special yeast in a microscope and weighed transparent crystalline sugar on the scales, without hesitation called this variety Breaking Bad, because then, like many, they were sick of this series.

Every week we arrange something like a planning meeting, where we discuss all issues from accounting to creativity - recipes, names and labels, what we write, what we cook, what and where we sell. Sometimes late in the evening we call suppliers and at the last moment we order some unusual raw materials. They are also interested in what will come of it, so they usually meet us halfway. For pumpkin beer, for example, we specially purchased pumpkin from the USA with delivery through a major vegetable importer. Then I had to rent a restaurant to bake it, clean it by hand, pour it into a restaurant mixer. When all this fell into the cauldron with the future beer, our hearts sank too.

Personal relationships with raw material suppliers, equipment owners and logistics companies play an important role. It is a matter of desire, search, diligence and experience.

Way to bars

The peculiarity of our beer is that it needs to be sold with the language, that is, actively interact with a new consumer or client at the time of sale or consumption. We quite by chance agreed with the restaurant, which offered to bring beer with us and tell about it. They loaded a 50-liter barrel into their personal car, took their grandmother's cart and a portable bottling plant with them. Thus began touring the bars of the city and did so for several more months. We played some kind of craft evangelists.

The first bar that started working with us on an ongoing basis was . They immediately bribed us with a non-standard beer line, and we saw how their bartenders work with visitors. Recognition did not come immediately, but after some time there was a situation when a keg of our new beer was sold in three hours. After that, they even put a separate tap specifically for craft beer.

We still choose bars that are close and understandable to us, including ideologically. It shouldn't be a money making machine by selling Guinness and Jameson. The people who work with our beer are not doing it for free glasses, ashtrays or quarterly bonuses. Our costs are much more than any industrial production, due to small volumes and equipment rental. There is also an image component. A beer like ours cannot be cheap, because too much labor and difficult raw materials have been invested in it. We have determined a price niche for ourselves - significantly more expensive than most Russian varieties, more expensive than inexpensive imports, but cheaper than expensive imports.

On a permanent basis, except for St. Petersburg, our beer is sold in Moscow. At some point, a critical situation arose there, and out of the chaotic nothingness a man emerged who opened the GlavPivMag craft beer shop. He collected everything craft and similar to craft beer from all over Russia. He works with one day off a month and almost every day he has a line.

We do not disdain any relationship and are ready to bring at least two bottles of beer to a private buyer, if we are on the way. Very often, such trips end well after midnight.

The saddest thing about dealing with our customers and consumers is the reluctance of some to leave cozy world own ideas and stereotypes and try something new and incomprehensible. When they try to prove to you from above that natural beer should not be stored for more than a week, that real beer is only in the Czech Republic, and Americans do not understand anything about beer, or that we add to beer grapefruit juice and deceive people by saying that citrus aroma and bitterness are caused by special varieties of hops - this is both sad and funny at the same time. But we never lose heart about it, because such people are becoming rarer and rarer in our movement.

About plans

We consider it our merit that craft beer in St. Petersburg has become something relatively understandable from a sectarian subculture. You can try it not only in "Masonic lodges" with entries in closed groups, but also in understandable, progressive establishments within walking distance. In addition, several more craft beer producers have appeared throughout the city, literally following us on our heels.

We still have a very low level of income in our country, confusing and contradictory legislation, and besides, craft beer will not be able to become mass-produced, if only because of the lack of ingredients. But it is possible and necessary to do quality things here, although many do not believe it. There was a story when they wanted to pass off our beer as foreign: they wrote that it was made in the USA, and set the price at 300 rubles per half liter. Once our beer was treated in a blind tasting to representatives of a respected brewing company from Europe, and they never believed they were drinking local and not imported. We are sensible about the topic of local production, although we will still never be able to use local ingredients, and yet the Born in St. Petersburg on one of our strains makes us proud.

A couple of years ago, in addition to the standard lager and stout, in pubs you could try a maximum of cherry varieties. On this range of "originals" was exhausted. What is happening today is what American and European brewers loudly call a renaissance, there is no exaggeration in their words. situation on beer market comparable to the industrial revolution. But in order to speak more specifically about the subject, it is necessary to define the term.

Craft beer- this is any beer brewed not on an industrial scale, but in a small beer production, often according to own recipes for personal use and creative self-realization. Many famous craft brewers today started out with their own kitchens or barns with equipment installed there. Often people do not even open private breweries, but rent ready-made workshops, where they brew beer according to original recipes and traditional technologies.

There is no official translation into Russian of this phenomenon yet. In different sources, you can find both direct transliteration (“craft” beer) and various correspondences (starting from “craft” and ending with “homemade”). In America, there are clear signs of craft production, introduced by the American Brewers Association:

1. A small brewery producing no more than 6 million barrels (703 million liters) of beer per year. Obviously, the larger the production, the higher the risks of experimentation - if the new variety is not to the taste of the consumer, the losses will be very large during mass production. One of the basic principles of crafting is the introduction of new recipes and original flavors, so this requirement is dictated by pure logic and common sense.

2. Independence from external investors and (or) shareholders. At least 75% of the brewery's capital should be at its unconditional disposal, if outside influences exceed 25%, the company's management can no longer approach the beer brewing process creatively, because it is forced to focus on financial criteria. For craft production, this is unacceptable.

3. Following the traditions of brewing. The base of author's beer should be malt, in addition, brewers are obliged to work on complicating the taste, and not reducing the cost and cost of the drink.

History of craft beer

In order to understand where the “legs” of the phenomenon itself “grow from,” you need to go back to the distant past. The first mention of beer is found in written sources dating back to the 20th century BC, and no one knows how many centuries it was brewed before that. It is clear that over the past millennia, mankind has reached unprecedented heights in the art of brewing, and would like to enjoy the fruits of the labors of their ancestors.

However, the economic crisis at the beginning of the 20th century (the “Great Depression”) forced us to reconsider our approach to consumer culture. It became more profitable for the state mass production. With the help of advertising and other means of persuasion, public taste was led to some average value, small breweries closed, and large ones began to produce some kind of abstract lager, without features and specifications. You could come to a bar, just ask for “beer” and get something plus or minus what you expected in terms of color, taste and texture, there was no variety on the market.

The first moves to change the situation began to take place in the 1960s. It was then that Fritz Maytag opened a small brewery, Anchor Brewing, where he began to produce beer according to old recipes that were in use even before the introduction of Prohibition in the United States. In 1976, the New Albion Brewery, owned by Jack McAuliffe, entered the market. This tiny "garage" facility produced both classic European beers and original drinks according to the author's recipe.

In 1978, some US states legalized home brewing(this process was finally completed only in 2013), and microbreweries began to grow by leaps and bounds.

In 1980, there were only 8 private breweries in America, after 14 years there were already 537, by 2010 there were about 1600, and now the total number has exceeded 2000 and it is even believed that any American can find a "home" beer production no more than 10 miles from your home.

Features of craft brewing

As already mentioned, the main idea of ​​"craft beer" is creative self-realization, and not commercial gain. In Europe and Russia, in fact, this is the only condition for beer to be included in the craft category, therefore, unlike America with its strict definition, here the boundaries between exclusive and consumer goods are rather blurred.

Despite the absence of regulations, European craft brewers try to follow several fundamental principles of work:

1. Creativity and innovation. It is very important to always look for new flavors and experiment with bases and additives. There are known cases of watermelon beer, a drink on birch buds, varieties using various herbs and other most incredible combinations. As soon as the brewer stabilizes and starts working in one segment, he moves into the category of mass consumption, which contradicts the craft principle.

2. Building a community. Microbreweries, like movie stars, are very dependent on their fans. In the face of fierce competition, the winner is the one who has the best word of mouth. Of course, craft brewers are not looking for enrichment, but they like to produce delicious product for connoisseurs and earn money on it - at least for improving equipment and developing new varieties.

3. Bright personality. The Age of the Impersonal light beer is gradually becoming a thing of the past, now people want rich flavors And unusual recipes. Craft brewing is about creative self-expression, no worse than painting or poetry.

Problems and pitfalls

Due to the vagueness of the definition of craft beer, it is tempting to include anything that falls outside the scope of this category. standard set(lager and stout). Many manufacturers, catching market trends and sensing the opportunity to earn money, began to produce original varieties on an industrial scale. There is also a large proportion of "live" varieties and other varieties, which in the English-speaking environment are called "crafty" - "crafty", that is, having external signs author's beer, but not suitable either for the ideology or for the more fundamental requirements of the genre.

There is also such a phenomenon as Trappist beer - it is produced in small European breweries located in monasteries. Some theorists include Trappists as a craft, others do not. In any case, this beer is often different excellent taste And original recipe, and certainly does not dishonor the name of the manufacturer.

Due to the craze for this simple, tasty and healthy hobby, many varieties appear on the market that are significantly inferior to the good old Budweiser or other "store" drinks, so the term "craft" is somewhat discredited. Beer sommeliers believe that there is nothing terrible here - in a few years the excitement will subside, amateurs and outright scammers will leave the market, after which everything will fall into place.

There are a lot of craft breweries, in fact, each one is unique and good in some way. Among the recognized world stars are Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head Brewery), Mikkel Bjorg Byonso (Mikkeller), James Watt and Martin Dickey (Brew Dog).

Craft beer in Russia

Craft beer came to us quite recently - literally in 2012, so at the state level they have not yet figured out what to do with this phenomenon. As a result, brewers have to contend with a host of rules and restrictions. For example, if even the slightest change is made to the basic recipe - say, a spoonful of honey is added - by law it is already necessary to register a new variety, and this is associated not only with paperwork, but also with certain costs. Under such conditions, craft brewers are forced to either work partly illegally, or give up experiments, which kills the whole idea of ​​beer creativity in the bud.

Another problem: the law does not distinguish between large brewery and microbrewery, and non-commercial craft "for the soul" physically cannot meet the requirements. Also here we can mention the bureaucracy of our system. But, despite all the difficulties, the process is going on: craft beer festivals are being organized, brewers are uniting in associations and lobbies, craft pubs are opening.

In Russia, St. Petersburg is considered the capital of author's brewing. More than 60 private breweries are located here. AF Brew is widely known in narrow circles, Bakunin, Brickstone, Drakkar, Jaws, La Beerint, Victory Art Brew and others have many fans. Many of them have IPA (Indian Pale Ale) and APA (American Pale Ale) in their assortment, but they definitely enrich the drink with their own developments and ingredients.

Today, the production of craft beer is gaining more and more popularity. Craft beer brewers brought out hundreds different varieties this drink. The first craft brewery appeared in 1975 in Northamptonshire. The founder of the brewery is Bill Urquhart.

The concept of craft beer emerged in the 1970s. During this period of time, small-sized breweries were organized and developed, which produced beer according to copyright or according to traditional recipes. If translated from in English Name craft beer , then it would mean "craft" beer. The concept means that the brewer prepares a drink according to traditional recipes and uses all the skills and craftsmanship that he inherited from his ancestors. The purpose of craft beer is customer satisfaction rather than producing large volumes of the drink.

To date, the production of craft beer is successful business area. The development of the craft brewing business was significantly influenced by American entrepreneurs. In the middle of the 20th century, large corporations that were engaged in the production of beer represented the standard lines of the drink. Standard beer became boring to people and then enterprising businessmen, true lovers of the drink, decided to build small factories for the production of beer different varieties. Such small factories fully satisfy all the needs of the client and produce a completely diverse variety of intoxicating drink.

The most famous brewers are the brewer Fritz Maytag and Jack McAuliffe.

Many people often confuse concepts craft and draft beer, so it's worth finding out what a draft is.

draft is a beer that is in barrels, and craft means a microbrewery without the use of barrels.

However, in the production of craft drinks, innovative technologies along with the traditional ones.

What is the difference between craft beer and regular beer?

To understand how a craft hoppy drink differs from a regular one, you should know The main differences between these drinks:

Types of craft beer

Before determining the varieties of craft, it is necessary to indicate what types of drink generally exist.

To date, two types are known:

• Lager.
• Stout.

Lager is a kind beer drink, which matures during its storage. Lager production is quite common in Russian Federation. Lager introduced light, dark and black beer.

staun is dark ale look. The recipe for this drink involves the use of roasted malt in the preparation of beer. Because of this, the drink becomes peculiar taste and pronounced aroma.

List all varieties of fragrant foamy drink impossible, as producers often experiment and improvise, using various ingredients in production, creating completely new varieties.

As for the production of Russian craft, we can distinguish the following varieties of this drink:

Large producers of craft beer in Russia

To date, the production of craft drink in the Russian Federation has expanded significantly. The expansion of this type of brewing was the commitment of people to traditional recipes for the production of a foamy drink. In Russia there is great amount entrepreneurs who are engaged in the production of craft, but especially large are the following breweries:

• Bakunin.
• AF Brew.
• Brickstone.
• Victory Art Brew.
• Vasileostrovskaya brewery.
• Brewery 1 Ton.

Today, these manufacturers are the largest suppliers of craft to a variety of pubs and shops across the country. They make a drink according to their own recipe, resulting in author's varieties. St. Petersburg is considered the capital of craft production. Many connoisseurs say that St. Petersburg beer is the most delicious.

Craft Beer Recipes

Kraft is easy to make at home. However, it is worth paying attention Special attention on water quality, which is used to prepare this drink. Before use, the water must be well cleaned, boiled.

Recipe #1

Used as ingredients for making beer 5 kilograms coarse barley malt And water, purified drinking. You don't need to boil the jam.

Malt must be poured 35 liters of water which must be preheated to 70°C. The drink should be infused for 20 minutes. After the drink has been infused, the wort must be filtered and put on fire for 1 hour.

After 25 minutes, you need to lay in the wort 30 grams of granulated malt, and after another 5 minutes - 20 grams. The finished wort must be cooled for 15 minutes at 22 ° C, periodically need to be filtered. The wort should be poured into a fermentation tank and added 11 grams of beer yeast, previously diluted in warm water. The fermentation process continues for 14 days.

Recipe #2

A drink prepared according to this recipe will have a bitter taste and a beautiful amber color. In this case, it is necessary to prepare a congestion.

For this, it is taken 7 liters of water which is heated up to 65°C. Water must be filled 3 kilos of malt brands Coopers light malt, 250 grams of malt Crystal and Briess Victory 50 grams of chocolate malt. All this must be thoroughly mixed and brought to a boil.

When the suspension boils, it is necessary to add one teaspoon Irish moss And 6% hops Hallertau (42 grams). All this again must be boiled for 40 minutes, after which more should be added. 28 grams of hops. After three minutes, the wort must be removed from the heat. Then you need to enter 20 liters of cold water, yeast and 3/4 cup corn sugar. Yeast should be added at 23°C. The drink will ferment for 2–3 weeks at a temperature of 12–13 ° C.

Types and varieties of craft beer