If you want to learn about Ancient Religious Brewing, here are some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysian_Mysteries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninkasi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_cup
An Ancient Mesopotamian Keg Party
Strains
In a Temple you would breed your own yeast strain. For example, there is Bread yeast, Wine/Beer Yeast, Champagne yeast and Distiller's yeast. That is in order of the strength of alcohol it makes. To check the alcohol content of a brew you would get a hydrometer and check the gravity. Then to breed the yeast you would keep it at the bottom of the brew container, then add more materials and yeast of a new strain, then test the gravity of that next one. And keep adding strains with each brew, then eventually stop adding strains and start separating the yeast glob into different containers and letting each section of the glob continue as its own strain, then eventually figure out which one makes the Wine or Beer you like the most.
Christian Monks actually used to call yeast by the name "God-is-Good"
If you mess up making Wine, it makes Vinegar. This is where Vinegar and Apple Cider Vinegar and stuff like that come from.
Once a Temple has yeast, they can not only make Wine and Beer, but also Bread and Vinegar. Then it is not hard to figure out Cheese (from Milk, but different than Wine making)
How and What to Microbrew
Microbrew just means that is was not made in a massive amount. If you make a 1 gallon jug of wine or beer at home, that is a "Microbrew", and if you make 10 gallons in a garage, that is also a Microbrew. I am not sure at what point it stops being a Microbrew, but it just means you didn't make enough to ship around the country or whatever, it's a small amount.
You can also Microbrew other things:
Chocolate, if you grow Coco beans or buy like 10-20 lbs of coco beans, then make Coco tea, add chocolate then make that Tea into hash... You have make a "Microbrew" of Chocolate.
Peppermint Hash and Candy, Peppermint is actually an invasive species. If you plant it, it will come back every year. And you can take the leaves and make it in to hash. This can be added it Chocolate or Candy to give it Peppermint flavor.
Candy can be Microbrewed, it's not hard to make candy. All you need it sugar, corn syrup, water, flavor, color & a heat source.
Hot Sauce can be Microbrewed, I have even heard of this happening before. One of our neighbors when I was a kid made his own Hot Sauce, and he went around to Grocery stores and asked if they wanted to put some on their shelves.
In America it is legal to brew your own wine or beer, just not to make your own Liquor/Moonshine. I think it is something like 100 Gallons a year you are allowed to brew for personal use. And it is not hard to brew your own wine or beer and you can even make Champagne (not true Champagne, since it's not from that region of France). If you use Bread Yeast you will make weak wine/beer, if you use beer/wine yeast you will get stuff that is a little stronger, if you get Champagne yeast you can make it even stronger, and if you get Distiller's yeast it will be the strongest possible.
Here is how to make Wine, Mead and Champagne:
Wine and Mead are the same, but Wine uses Fruit and Sugar, While Mead uses Honey and Sugar. Mead just means you used Honey.
1. Get a Fermenting Cap or Fermenting lid or whatever it is called, if you search those things it will show up.
2. Whatever Container you use, fill it up about 1/4-1/3 of the way with fruit and sugar, lots of sugar, sugar becomes alcohol. No matter if the container is 1 gallon or 10 gallon, about 1/4-1/3 should be fruit and sugar, before water is added. If you are making Mead you could go up to 1/2 Honey and use less sugar.
3. Mix in Cinnamon or whatever Herb you want to mix in here. Then add water and mix.
4. As long as your water was hot from the sink and not Boiling in a pot before it went in the container, it should be ok to add your yeast. You may want to wait for it to cool a little if your water is extra hot, but about 10-15 minutes after you add the yeast you should start to see bubbles, it may take a little longer and you may have to shine a light through it.
5. If using Wine or Beer or Bread yeast it should take like a month to finish, if you use Distiller's yeast or Champagne yeast, it won't take as long.
6. If you are not making champagne, you would siphon and bottle at this point. If making Champagne, you would add water and Sugar to the bottom of your empty bottles, then add the wine that is finishing. Then once the lids were on the bottles, they would finish fermenting, and this would cause bubbles. This is done with beer and champagne.
If you make your own beer or wine, here are some herbs that are mixed in to a brew sometimes.
Hops: Contains Myrcene, this is the herb that people usually use to make beer.
Bitter Orange Peel: Contains a Epinephrine or Synephrine, it is used in beer making to make a stimulating beer instead of a depressant.
Lemon Grass: Contains Myrcene, Lemonene and other Terpenes.
Cinnamon: Contains Cinnamaldehyde for smell and flavor
Lemon Peel/Zest: Contains Lemonene
Orange Peel: Contains Lemonene
There are more, but this should be a good list for people just starting. There are also "Fermenting Sweeteners" since Sugar is turned into alcohol, if you want to make your Alcohol sweet there are plants like Stevia that have been used for this forever. It contains a Sweet compound different than sugar, so it does not turn into alcohol and it will still be sweet when you drink it.
Another Herb that was historically used in Wine Making, but us not used very much anymore is White Lotus aka Sacred Lotus. White Lotus contains a compound that attaches to the Dopamine receptors, and in ancient Egypt it was extremely common to let White Lotus sit in wine, then to filter it out and drink it. Or even just leave it in and drink it if it is just a few full flowers instead of a bunch of ground up flowers.
