Home Brewing, An Illustrated Guide

Last week I brewed my first batch of home brew in about 5 years. It looks like it's going to be a good one. As a bonus, I'm running a little contest to name the beer. Just email your clever names to mj[at]fridayfishwrap[dot]com for your chance to win two 22oz bottles of fine handcrafted home brew. Deadline is February 11th, 2005.

Select the expanded entry if you want to see how home brewing works!

Home brewing is fun and easy. And it's not that expensive once you've made the initial investment in the basic equipment ($60-$200 depending on quality of equipment). You can use any old bottles or buy new bottles if you want. The ingredients for a single 5 gallon batch (over 2 cases of beer) cost around $20-$35 and you have the pleasure and pride of being a Brew Master!

STEP 1: Order your ingredients and equipment

Pick the beer you want to make. For this batch I chose Extra Pale Ale. It's a crisp, hoppy beer, like Sierra Nevada. Ales are pretty easy beers to make. And they don't take too long to ferment.

I've always brewed beer using a 2 stage fermentation process (stronger better beer!) which requires one 6 gallon glass carboy or bucket for the primary fermentation (first 5 days) and a 5 gallon glass carboy for the secondary fermentation (3-4 weeks).

Since I haven't brewed in about 5 years, I took an inventory of my old equipment and quickly found that a lot of it had to be replaced. In fact, the only things worth keeping were two 5 gallon glass carboys and the 5 gallon stainless steel brew pot (called a kettle - note: these pots are really handy for more than just beer!).

Northern Brewer offers a double glass starter kit but since I still had my old 5 gallons, I opted for the single glass kit. When buying your first kit, remember that you'll also need a 5 gallon kettle and bottles. If properly maintained and stored, your equipment should last forever.

Open your kit as soon as possible and refrigerate the yeast packet until Brew Day.

STEP 2: Brew Day

Set aside about 2-3 hours. It helps to have two people (and it's a lot more fun!) but you can certainly do it alone as I did, if you can lift 40 lbs.

First thing you need to do is assemble and inventory all your equipment and ingredients. Double check your recipe and instructions. Make sure you have everything you might need because once you start there's no turning back.

You'll need up to 6 gallons of fresh drinking water. I opted for bottled water because it's already pre-measured and easy to deal with. Also our water is pretty hard here so distilled or bottled water is probably better for the beer.

Activate the yeast at least 3 hours before you're going to begin brewing. The "smack pack" that came with my kit is pretty cool. Follow the instructions on the package. I found that I had to hit it pretty hard to pop the inner bag. You'll see it begin to inflate after about an hour or so.

Most folks brew their beer on the stove top. I chose to brew my beer outside using the outdoor burner (normally for deep frying!) because A) It doesn't stink up the house if your significant other doesn't like the smell and B) I prefer being outside on a sunny day!

If you do use an outdoor burner, make sure you have enough propane to keep it going for about 2 hours.

And now we brew beer...

First thing you do is start heating up 1.5 gallons of water. If you didn't order your grains pre-crushed, now is the time to do that.

Once your grains are crushed, put them in a muslin grain bag and steep them in the heating water for 15 minutes. Don't boil the grains. Remove the bag and sparge with a little hot water.

Once the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add your malt extract. I used a liquid malt but it also comes in power form. Stir well so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

Bring the pot back to a boil. What you have now is called "The Wort".

Be very careful. The pot has a tendency to boil over when you add ingredients now.

Add your bittering hops. My recipe called for 1oz. Chinook hops and they came in pellet form. I've never used the pellets before, I've always had leaf hops and used a straining bag.

Boil for 60 minutes. Don't leave the pot unattended.

At 59 minutes you add the finishing hops. Again, my recipe called for 1oz Cascade (pellets).

Once the 60 minutes is up, turn off the heat and chill the wort. I used a galvanized bucket filled with cold water and ice, but you can also just fill your sink with cold water and put the kettle in it.

While the wort is chilling it's time to sanitize your equipment, and anything that will come into contact with the wort. Once the wort has cooled to about 78 degrees, pour 3 gallons of clean water into the primary fermenter (your sanitized 6 gallon carboy or bucket).

Then pour in your wort, leaving behind the sludge on the bottom of the kettle. Add enough COLD water to bring the level up to 5 gallons.

Did I mention it's a good idea to mark 5 gallons on the carboy first? Yeah, forgot to do that... So I kinda guessed.

Pitching the Yeast
Sanitized the yeast pack and scissors. Be careful opening the yeast smack pack. there's a lot of pressure in there. Slowly pour the yeast into the carboy. Put the air lock on and store the carboy in a cool but not cold place.

You now have your primary fermentation.

Total time? 2 hours.

Step 3: Primary Fermentation

After a few hours, things will begin to settle, but not for long. A foamy head (called "kraeusen") will start to develop in 3-12 hours. This head should last for about 1-3 days depending on yeast type and temp. This is the active fermentaion. The yeastie beasties are going to work and you will see a lot of activity (swirling, bubbling etc.).

2 days after the head falls, it's time to rack (syphon) the beer into the secondary fermenter (5 gallon glass carboy) if you are using the 2 stage process.

STEP 4: Racking Your Beer

Sanitize all the equipment that will come into contact with the beer (yes, it's beer now!). Gently move the primary fermenter to a higher place (heh) like a table or something. Gravity is key. Try not to disturb the sediment on the bottom.

Remove the airlock and insert the syphon.

My kit came with a nifty auto-syphon tool, but if you don't have one, you can start the flow the old fashioned way. Sucking...

Begin filling your secondary, being careful to leave behind as much sediment as possible.

Bring the level up to about 3" from the top, adding water if needed. Re-sanitize the air lock and replace. From now on, air is your enemy.

The beer now needs to rest in the secondary for 3-4 weeks for ales, stouts and porters, 6- 10 weeks for lagers, up to 16 weeks for Dopplebock.

Total time? 15 minutes

Next up ... Step 5: Bottling!

Check back for an update around the third week in February.

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UPDATED
February 26, 2005

Step 5: Bottling and Conditioning

This is your final step towards enjoying your beer. After 3-4 weeks in the secondary fermentation, your beer should have a clear and quiet appearance with a fine layer of sediment at the bottom of the carboy.

As a matter of convenience, I let the secondary sit a little over 4 weeks so that I could bottle on a Saturday when I had the time to devote to it. Bottling takes about about 2 hours if your doing it by yourself. And trust me, not only is it a lot more fun to bottle with a friend, I so wished I had had an extra set of hands (Staz!). But as you can see, it's totally doable with just one person.

Sanitize

First thing you need to do is to sanitize all your equipment and bottles. If you are using new bottles this shouldn't take long, but if you are recycling bottles, take plenty of time to make sure they are totally clean. Scrub each bottle carefully with a bottle brush and sanitizing solution.

My bottle count was exactly 24 22oz. bottles. Sometimes a batch can run a bit over so I picked up a couple of quarts of Tecate just in case I needed the extra bottles. Though it's a cheap Mexican Cerveza, Tecate is still good beer and I didn't like the thought of pouring all of it down the drain, so I enjoyed a glass or two while I cleaned.

After cleaning them, I always dry the bottles upside down (with a towel at the bottom to absorb moisture.

Racking
Next you need to rack the beer from the secondary carboy into a 5 gallon bucket. My kit came with a nifty "Ale Pail" with a screw on spigot at the bottom. Since I had never used one like this before, I checked and re-checked for leaks where the spigot screws in and did a couple practice bottles with tap water so I knew how everything worked. The last thing I wanted was to run into a problem and have my beer spill out on the garage floor - tragedy!

Again, gravity is key when racking. This take about 15 minutes.

Add Your Priming Sugar:

Once you have your beer in the bottling bucket put a small amount in a sauce pan and heat on the stove. Add your priming sugar (usually corn sugar) 3/4 to 7/8 cup for Ales or even a full cup of if you are going to serve the beer ice cold. Dissolve the sugar by bringing it to a boil and pour it back into the bottling bucket. Stir well with a sanitized spoon. This sugar is what carbonates your beer.

Now it's time for the fun part!

Filling the bottles:
Most kits come with a bottle filler, a small plastic tube with a plunge-like stopper at the end. Attach the bottle filler to the bottling bucket spigot with plastic tubing. Gravity is all you need, no need to siphon anything. Insert the bottle filler into the bottle, when it hits the bottom of the bottle, the plunger opens and allows the beer to flow into the bottle. When you lift it up off the bottom of the bottle, it stops the flow.

Fill bottle all the way to the lip. When you pull the filler out of the bottle, the level will go back to about 1.5" below the lip.

My batch filled all 24 22oz. bottle plus 1 Tecate quart, with just enough left over to take my second gravity reading and have a taste.

Alcohol Content:
I just realized I forgot to mention an important step in the brewing process. If you want to know your alcohol content you need to use a hydrometer to test the specific gravity. There are several different ways to do this, but since I am not a scientist and just want a rough estimate, I use potential % scale on the hydrometer which involves only simple math, but gives you a good ball park figure.

On brew day, after you've pitched your yeast and once the wort has chilled, take your first reading (OG or original gravity). My first reading was 12%. The second reading (FG or final reading) taken at bottling was 4% +1 for temperature adjustment. Subtract the second reading from the first reading and you have a rough estimate of your alcohol content. This batch is roughly 7% Alcohol by Volume. I've brewed high gravity ales before (up to 15%) and they'll kick your *ss. 7% is just fine by me. Right now, of course, the beer is totally flat, but it still tastes great. Very hoppy and crisp. If you like Sierra Nevada, this EPA is the recipe for you.

Capping:
Now it's time to cap your bottles. Each kit comes with a hand held capper and blank bottle caps (don't forget to sanitize your bottle caps too!) I used to have a Bench Capper (the ones on the right) but I can't seem to find it. Dang. But that's okay, the hand capper works just fine.

Place the blank cap on the bottle. Put the capper over it, clamp down and voila! You've just bottled beer.

Conditioning:

And now we wait... In 1-2 weeks the beer should be fully conditioned (carbonated) and ready to drink. While you wait, work on your lables and affix them to the bottles.

Coachella Valley Swamp Cooler EPA

Posted by MJ at January 27, 2005 05:46 PM