How To Make Beer

Thinking of brewing your own beer huh?   That might be a great idea and it can be fun at the same time.  If you are thinking of brewing your own beer because economic times are tough, you might want to save yourself the trouble and the work,  you will not save yourself that much.  If you are thinking of making a few “depression dollars” on the side, you may want to re-think that if you weren’t planning on getting a liquor license.   Getting caught with your own little retail brewery without the proper certificates and licenses can be very costly.    If you want to brew beer because you like beer and think it will be cool to brew your own then we are good here.

This can be a lot of fun if you have friends that brew their own beer also, you can have little test parties and taste each others blend.   When I was in college,   we did this quite a bit.   I had quite a group of beer brewing buddies, we used to have BBQs on the weekends and show each other our latest creation.  Well, enough of memory lane, let’s talk about you brewing some beer. 

The best way to get you started in the beer brewing hobby is to purchase a pre assembled kit for making your beer.       This will give you everything you need, the ingredients, the equipment (or a list of what you need) and of course, the instructions.   All home brewing kits are not the same but the basic process is the same in all so we will stick with generalities here.   Once you brew your beer from the kit, you will then have the process down; you will be able to get recipes for different varieties and use the equipment and just follow the new recipe. 

The first step in the process of Beer Brewing is to make sure everything is clean. You must have and continue to keep your materials and equipment clean. The last thing you want is some bad bacteria in the batch of beer. When all your friends get violently ill shortly after drinking your home made beer at the picnic, you will not be very popular, besides that , you do not want to make someone seriously ill, just be clean- rule number one. (Tip: clear vinegar works very well for your equipment)

Beer is making with grains in the main recipe, so for the first step of the production you will need a large bag made of cheese cloth. You will note how much grain will go into your cheesecloth bag by the size of the recipe. You wall then want to steep your grain to get the beer started. You will steep the grain in 4 gallons of water for about 30 minutes; the temperature of the water should be about 150 degrees. When the steeping is done, you will then bring the mixture to a boil and add your malt extract.

Before you bring the mixture to a boil and add the malt, you need to make a large tub with ice water to put the vat of brew into to cool it after the boil. As soon as it is boiling well, you need to cool the brew down, that is where the ice water comes in, and you can just set the entire large pot into the ice water tub and bring the mixture down to somewhere below 80 degrees. The mixture is now called wort.

Once your wort is below the 80 degree mark, transfer it into the fermenting container. When you add the wort to the fermenting container, you should continue to slosh it around a bit, (this is supposed to add flavor), or maybe it is for good luck, it is one of the two, both are good so just make sure to slosh your wort.

Now that you have your wort in the fermenting container, if it is not a total of 5 gallons, add water to make five gallons. Now you will add your yeast. (Pitching is the term real brewer’s use). When you buy your yeast make sure you know how to use the specific variety you get. Some types require that you mix in warm water to activate, others you will just throw into the wort. This goes without saying I think, but you never know; make sure you buy active yeast or you will have flat beer. There I said it, not sure I had to but something told me I should. It is all pretty basic stuff really.

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A week after you pitched the wort mixture, you should be ready to bottle up the finished product.  Most of the kits that you buy will tell you to add sugar to the bottles to speed up the   carbonation, so if that is the case you will need to cook the priming sugar before bottling your beer.  You will now be ready to transfer the brew into the bottles with a food grade tube. As far as bottling methods,  there are a few out there,  the kit that you used will recommend one or give you a choice, as you brew more you will read more and decide on your favorite method to do all these steps.

Now you will want your bottled beer to sit for about 5 days before you refrigerate.  Now that it is in the Box, when it is cold, you can sample it.

A tip about drinking home brew; you will not want to drink it out of the bottle, you will notice some sediment in the bottom of the bottles when it is done.   What you will do is pour the beer off into a glass slowly and leave about a ½ inch on the bottom with the sediment in the bottle.  Trust me, that stuff does not taste good, not even a little bit.   As a rule of beer brewing etiquette, you do not pour the drunkest guy at the house a glass of this residual sediment laden beer.    Be nice, Have fun, and do not drink and Drive...  Cheers!