How to Brew Your Own Beer
Brewing beer at home is quite easy...
It requires only a modest outlay of those hard-earned dollars for equipment and materials and around an hour and a half. When you enjoy a cold glass of beer that you made yourself, you will discover that the reward is well worth the effort.
Basic Equipment:
(be sure to have a look around the house, you may already have some of this stuff)-
Brewpot
Enamel coated or stainless steel (don't use aluminum or cast iron, it will affect the flavor of your beer). This pot should hold 2 1/2 to 3 gallons minimum. A canning kettle is ideal.
Fermenter
A food grade plastic bucket with a tight fitting lid is satisfactory. It should hold six gallons. optional - a five or more gallon glass carboy also makes and ideal fermenter, and is generally preferred by most brewers
Priming Bucket
Another food grade plastic bucket. This one does not need a lid.
Siphon Hose
Clear, food grade plastic tubing. You will want about six feet to siphon from the fermenter to the bottling bucket and from bottling bucket to bottles.
Air Lock
A plastic gizmo that lets gasses escape but will not let outside air in while the beer is fermenting. It should fit a hole in the lid of your fermenter.
Bottles
You will need about 50. Don't use bottles with twist-off caps, they leak and you will not get satisfactory carbonation of your beer.
Bottle Capper
This fastens the bottle cap to the bottle. Use whatever style appeals to your aesthetics or your wallet.
Bottle Caps
Use new caps, old caps will leak. You will need about 50.
Unscented Bleach
For sanitizing your brewing equipment. It is important to keep bacteria and wild yeast out of your beer; they can make it taste unpleasant.
Long-Handled Spoon
For stirring. Use one of the ones in your kitchen.
Racking Cane
A stiff piece of plastic tubing with a device on one end to hold it above the bottom of your fermenter. It helps keep the end of the siphon in place when transferring beer.
Bottle Filler
(optional) A piece of stiff tubing with a valve at one end. When pushed against the bottom of a bottle, allows flow to start. When pulled up, flow stops. This device greatly speeds up the bottling process.
Ingredients:
-
Malt Extract
Available as a syrup or a dry powder. Use Six to seven pounds (two 3.3 lb. cans of hopped malt extract syrup is ideal). If you buy a beer kit (typically a 3.3 lb. can of hopped syrup and a packet of yeast), buy another can of light hopped syrup or a 3 lb. package of powdered dry hopped malt. Do not add any sugar to the beer until bottling time.
Hops
If your syrup is hopped, purchase one ounce of hops with an alpha acid content of between 3% and 5%. Pellets are the most convenient form of hops to use. These hops are for aroma (the hops in the syrup provide the bitterness).
Yeast
Use two packets of dried ale yeast.
Water
Ordinary tap water is fine.
Corn Sugar
You will need 3/4 cup for priming. This provides carbonation.
Process
Sanitize your fermenter and air lock with a solution of one tablespoon of bleach in a gallon of water. Use a clean sponge to rinse all surfaces of the fermenter and its lid. Drop the airlock in the bleach solution until you are ready to use it. Sanitation is very important. The quality of your beer depends on it! Once sanitized, rinse the fermenter and lid. Place lid on fermenter to protect against airborne contamination.
Bring one and a half gallons of water to a boil in your brew pot. Remove the pot from heat and pour in the malt extract. Stir thoroughly and rinse cans to get as much of the syrup as possible into your pot. When the malt extract is dissolved, return the liquid, now called wort (pronounced 'wert') to the stove.
Bring the wort to a rolling boil and maintain the boil for at least half an hour. Keep an eye on the boiling wort to prevent boilovers. The sticky nature of the malt makes cleanup a difficult and tedious process.
About five minutes before the boil is done, throw in the pelletized hops.
When the boil is complete, put about two gallons of cold water into your fermenter, then pour in the hot wort. Add enough cold water to bring the level to five gallons and replace the lid.
When the wort has cooled to around room temperature, pitch (add) the yeast, sprinkling it over the top of the wort. Do not stir. Replace the lid and attach the airlock.
You should notice signs of fermentation within a day. The airlock will bubble steadily for one to three days, then slow substantially. Keep the fermenter in a dark place at room temperature. If a closet is not available, a blanket thrown over the fermenter will serve, but make sure the airlock is unobstructed.
After ten days, take a few minutes to watch the airlock. If the bubbles have slowed to a rate of one in five minutes or less, it is ready to bottle. It may take as long as two weeks before your beer is ready.
Clean your bottles if necessary. If they are not clean, sanitizing will not be effective. Gather several towels; bottling can be a messy process.
Sanitize your bottles with a solution of five tablespoons of bleach to five gallons of water, pouring some solution in each bottle and allowing them to sit for 45 minutes to an hour. Rinse all bottles with hot tap water.
Sanitize your priming bucket, siphon tube, racking cane and bottle filler. Sanitize your bottle caps in a weak solution of 1/2 tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water.
Boil your priming sugar in a cup of water for ten to fifteen minutes.
Place your fermenter on a stable surface above the priming bucket. A table and the floor are ideal.
Pour sugar solution into bottom of priming bucket.
Attach racking cane to siphon hose and fill with water from your fresh water tap. Hold a clean thumb over the end of the hose and place the racking cane into your fermenter. Place the other end of the hose in your priming bucket. This is the easiest way to start a siphon without contamination. Do not splash the beer, and get as little sediment as possible from the bottom of the fermenter into the priming bucket.
Put the priming bucket in the high position (table top or whatever). Add the bottle filler to your siphon hose and restart siphon using the water procedure described above. Fill each bottle, leaving about half an inch to an inch of air space at the top of the bottle. Cap the bottles.
Store the bottles in a cool, dark place and allow to age about two weeks (if you can wait that long).
After chilling your beer, open it carefully and pour into a glass leaving the sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
Taste your beer. This is a good time to begin planning your next batch, after all, you only have a couple of cases left!