Ingredients

=Ingredients= =**Beer **= The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, able to be fermented (converted into alcohol); a brewer's yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavoring such as hops
 * //Water //
 * Makes up 90% of beer
 * Should be free from chlorine and other chemicals
 * Filter or boil water to remove chlorine
 * Beer needs mineral content to ferment, therefore you __cannot use distilled water__
 * __Interesting Fact__: Regions have water with different mineral components; as a result, different regions were originally better suited to making certain types of beer, thus giving them a regional character.
 * Dublin has hard water well suited to making stout, such as Guinness; while Pilsen has soft water well suited to making pale lager, such as Pilsner Urquell.
 * The waters of Burton in England contain gypsum, which benefits making pale ale to such a degree that brewers of pale ales will add gypsum to the local water in a process known as Burtonisation.


 * //Barley Malt //
 * Main source of fermentable sugar
 * Contains many minerals and vitamins that help yeast to grow
 * A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary starch source, such as maize (corn), rice or sugar, especially when used as a lower-cost substitute for malted barley
 * The most common starch source used in beer is malted grain
 * Darker malts will produce darker beers.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">__Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch__
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Other malted and unmalted grains (including wheat, rice, oats, and rye, and less frequently, corn and sorghum) may be used.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In recent years, a few brewers have produced gluten-free beer made with sorghum with no barley malt for people who cannot digest gluten-containing grains like wheat, barley, and rye.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Hops //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">__Flavoring beer__ is the sole major commercial use of hops.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The flower of the hop vine is used as a flavoring and preservative agent in nearly all beer made today. The flowers themselves are often called "hops".
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Combinations of various aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood would be combined into a mixture known as gruit and used as hops are now used.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Hops contain several characteristics that brewers desire in beer.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">They contribute a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt; the bitterness of beers is measured on the International Bitterness Units scale.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Hops contribute floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors to beer. They also have an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms, and hops aids in "head retention", the length of time that a foamy head created by carbonation will last.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The acidity of hops is a preservative.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">//Yeast// (The microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Metabolizes the sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In addition to fermenting the beer, yeast influences the character and flavor.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The main types of yeast used to make beer are //Saccharomyces cerevisiae//, known as ale yeast, and //Saccharomyces uvarum//, known as lager yeast; their use distinguishes ale and lager.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Clarifying Agent //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Some brewers add one or more clarifying agents to beer to make the beer appear bright and clean, rather than the cloudy appearance of ethnic and older styles of beer such as wheat beers.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Examples of clarifying agents include isinglass, obtained from swimbladders of fish; Irish moss, a seaweed; kappa carrageenan, from the seaweed Kappaphycus cottonii; Polyclar (artificial); and gelatin.

=**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cider **=
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cider is normally fermented apple juice which can be freshly pressed or bought as a commercially available kit containing
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Apple syrup and yeast but can be many other fruits including pear or plums
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The addition of yeast to freshly pressed apples is not vital as apples contain an amount of natural yeast however most home brewers add yeast to ensure the process works well as each variety of apple contains different amounts of yeast.

=**<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Wine **=
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from //grapes//.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts produce different types of wine.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Other wines, such as barley wine and rice wine (i.e., sake), are made from //starch-based materials// and resemble beer and spirit more than wine.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Mead is a honey-based wine and is arguably one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the historical record.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ginger wine is fortified with //brandy//.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Sodium or (Potassium) Metabisulfite //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When dissolved into water, sodium metabisulfite releases sulfur dioxide, which kills harmful bacteria in wine.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Campden Tablets //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">These tablets are made from either sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite and are made to treat wine with sulfur-dioxide to kill living bacteria within the wine.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Yeast and Yeast Nutrients //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Yeast are living organisms that are the crux of wine-making.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Yeast will consume the sugars in the wine must and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Acid Blend //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Acids such as citric acid, malic acid, and tartaric acid (or a combination there of) can be used to raise the acidity of wine


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Sugar //


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Water //


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Grape Tannin //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Comes from the skins and of grapes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Tannins give wine the extra character or 'spunk' that it may otherwise be lacking.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It causes the "dryness" in the mouth phenomenon, as it actually modifies the saliva in the mouth by removing the lubrication in the saliva.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Finings //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Used to assist with wine clarification
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">After a fining treatment, the wine can be racked and cleared of its cloudy state.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Typical finings include benonite, kieselsol, isinglass, liquid gelatin, or dry gelatin.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Historically, raw egg whites have been used for centuries as fining agents; though, knowing that raw eggs can carry harmful bacteria, I would not recommend the addition of raw egg whites to your wine.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For white wines a common technique to clear the wine, is to place the wine at cold temperature (30-40 degrees F) for 1-2 days. This acts to crystallize particles in the wine, causing them to drop as sediment. Once the sediment has dropped, the wine can be racked. This is a very effective method to "clear" wine, and does not require the addition of any chemicals