Monthly Archives: October 2012

This set of instructions will give you a good overview of your first brewing experience and can be your guide for many beers to come.  You will want to read and understand this guide and the document on sanitation before you get started.  Future brews will require some adjustments to this guide, but for basic ale made from barley malt, this will do the trick.  Be sure to secure the starting equipment described in my article named as such, and then pick a beer from one of my starter recipes, such as the Arkham Pale Ale,the Orcish Smoked Porter, or the Elven Blonde.   It also doesn’t hurt to find a friend to help you.

We will be preforming what is called a partial mash.  That is, part of our beer will be created from malted grain, the other half from malt extract.  This is a good medium ground between having some control and the complication of an all-grain process.  Someday, we’ll go all-grain, but that requires some more equipment.  In the meantime, this will make some great beer and allow us to have some fun with the equipment we have.

Your local brewing store will help you gather all of the necessary ingredients.  You will need to have the grains crushed.  Don’t forget to pick up a grain bag and make sure you are stocked with sanitizer.  You will need about 6 gallons of clean water as free from contaminates as possible and a couple of bags of ice.  I buy filtered water from a local water station in 5 gallon jugs.  This way I know that most of the minerals in the water are those I had put in it myself.  Many will boil local water and let it cool overnight.  This will allow any chlorine that is in the water to gas off, keeping it from influencing the flavor of the beer.

Lay out all of your equipment.  Make sure everything is clean and ready for use.   If the yeast you are going to be using is refrigerated, bring it out to let it start warming up to room temperature.  If it is one of those slap-pack pouches, break the inner pouch to release the nutrients and allow it to sit.

Start heating 3 quarts of water to about 168 degrees F.   If you’re recipe calls for brewing salts, you may add them now.  As it is heating, fill a grain bag with the crushed grains (also called the malt).  Place it inside the 2-gallon drink cooler and open a beer from the last batch to enjoy while you wait.  Once the water has reached the desired temperature, dump it inside the drink cooler with the malt.  Stir to be sure the grains are thoroughly soaked.  The room temperature grains and the hot water together should equalize to about 155 degrees.  Do your best to reach that temperature, adding more hot or cold water ass necessary.  You have now started what is called your mash.  Put the lid on the cooler and let it rest for about 30 minutes.  This is the optimal temperature for the enzymes in the mash to convert the malt to usable sugars and also capture some of the flavor that will make your beer delicious and unique from the others.

While you wait, start heating another gallon of water to between 170 and 180 degrees.  You will want to do this in your secondary kettle.  When your mash is done, remove the grain bag and place it inside of a strainer over your primary boiling kettle.  Use the fresh hot water to dump slowly over the grain bag to get what more you can out of it.  Measure the water in the cooler that was left over from the mash and add it to your main boiling pot, then top of so you have a total volume of 2 gallons of water. This will mean adding at least a quart of water, probably two.

Now you have a sugary solution we will refer to as wort.  We will call it wort until we add the yeast.  Turn the heat on and bring it to a boil.  When you approach the boiling point, remove it from the heat.  Slowly stir in the malt extract and add the bittering hops.  Then bring it back to a boil.  Watch it closely for a while and don’t let it boil over.  Hot sugar water all over your kitchen (or your body) is not very pleasant.  Once you reach the boiling point, set the timer for 55 minutes.  Lower the heat to keep it at a nice and even, but slow boil.  Grab another beer.

During this hour the oils from the bittering hops will slowly make themselves a part of your wort and you will be preparing a sanitizing solution for the next step.  Mix five or six gallons of sanitizing solution up in your fermentation bucket.  Be sure to consult the directions on your sanitizer and the section on sanitation.  Make sure that your bucket is thoroughly sanitized.  Turn the lid upside down and fill it with some sanitizing solution as well.  Let it soak.  You will also want to soak your fermentation lock and a measuring cup.  You will also want to dump a bag of ice into your kitchen sink for the next step.

Soon your timer will go off.  It is now time to add the final ingredients.  This will be the aroma hops and the Irish moss.  It doesn’t take long for the heat to drive away the sweet hop aroma.  This is why we are adding this bit right before the end of the boil – to preserve some of that wonderful odor.  The Irish moss is clarifying agent to help, well, clarify your beer.  Let this boil only for five minutes, then move it to the sink to cool.

Once you have removed the wort from the heat, it is imperative that anything from this point on that comes into contact with your wort is thoroughly sanitized first.  One of the primary keys to a good beer is sanitation and cleanliness.  Try not to hover over the kettle with wet hands to avoid dripping into the wort.  I wash my stirring spoon to remove the sugary residue and sanitize it before I use it again.  Once you have your boiling pot on ice, you can cool it faster by keeping the wort moving with your spoon.

Empty your fermentation bucket by transferring the sanitizing solution into another container.   Once the wort reaches room temperature, dump it into the fermentation bucket and top it off until you reach a total of 5 gallons.  Use that sanitized measuring cup to grab a sample to take a specific gravity reading and write it down.  Be sure to adjust for temperature by using the chart that came with your hydrometer.   For example, 70 degree wort will require you to add .001 to your measurement.  Hydrometers are calibrated to be accurate in fluids at 60 degrees.  This specific gravity reading will give you an idea of how much sugar is in the wort; thus how much alcohol content potential you have.  We’ll finish that calculation later.  Right now you want to take your sanitized spoon and give the wort a good stir for a few minutes.  We want to oxygenate the wort as much as we can.  The yeast will use that oxygen in the early stages to multiply to a healthy population before fermentation begins.

Be sure your wort is room temperature.  Your yeast should be room temperature by now, too.  Dump the contents of the yeast container into your wort.  We call this “pitching” the yeast.  Place the lid securely over the bucket.  Assemble and fill your fermentation lock with sanitized water to the fill line (or vodka if you want to feel cool like I do).  Finally, seal it all up by inserting the fermentation lock into the hole on the lid of your fermentation bucket.  Place the bucket in a cool place and let it sit for 10 to 14 days.  Grab yourself another beer and start cleaning up.

Time passes.  Use this time to review these instructions again and start dreaming about your next beer, but be sure also to stop by your favorite brewing store and pick up 4 ounces of corn sugar and some bottling caps.  It won’t be long until it’s time to bottle your beer.

When that day arrives, a couple of buckets up with sanitizing solution and use that to soak a couple of cases of clean, empty beer bottles.  Use some of this time to enjoy a beer, but be sure also to fill your bottling bucket up with a sanitizing solution.  Make sure this bucket is as free from contaminants as it can be.  Toss in the bottle filler, a couple of lengths of surgical tubing (one about 2 inches long, the other about 3 or 4 feet long), the racking tube, and a measuring cup.

When you are content that you’re bottling bucket is thoroughly sanitized, start draining it into another container by using the spigot.   Also fill a small container to start soaking your bottle caps in.  Heat a cup of water up in the microwave to a boil.  Mix the corn sugar with it.  Let it sit for a minute or so until it turns clear.  Close the spigot on the bottom of your bucket and dump the hot sugar water into it.  Right now your beer while delicious is flat.  This is just enough sugar to reactivate the yeast and add the proper amount of carbonation to your beverage.  Now let’s add the beer.

We’ll need to move the beer from the fermentation bucket to the bottling bucket; a process called racking.  Gravity will do most of the work for us, but we’ll have to start and monitor it.  Remember not to allow anything to come into contact with the beer that hasn’t been thoroughly sanitized and never directly touch the fluid with your skin.  Place your fermentation bucket on a surface above your bottling bucket.  Remove the lid and insert the racking cane into the beer.  Attach one end of the tubing to the cane and let the other end rest inside the bucket.  The lower it rests the better.  Avoid splashing to minimize the amount of oxygen that will make its way into your beer.  It is best that when the beer starts to syphon, that it enters the bucket from below the fluid line.  Hold the cane so that it doesn’t rest in all the trub at the bottom of the fermentation bucket.  Give it one good pump to start the flow and let the circular motion of the beer spilling into the bottling bucket be just enough to mix with it with the sugar.  Hand it over to your brewing partner while you go get another beer.  I guess it is probably a good idea to grab one for your brewing buddy too.  You want to keep the help happy.

While you are doing this, you will also want to grab a sample of the beer as it comes out of the tube and before it mixes with your sugar water.  Use the sanitized measuring cup.  Carefully lift the hose and grab about a cup.  Place the hose back into the beer and let it run until you get as much beer out as you can before it starts to get cloudy.  You’ll lose a little, but not enough to worry about.

Now that we have a sample of beer, let’s take another specific gravity reading, again adjusting for current temperature.  You will notice that every time you take a specific gravity reading, the hydrometer also has a reading for potential alcohol by volume.  Subtract your second reading from the first, and note your total alcoholic content.  For example, if your first reading is 1.054, it has potential alcohol content by volume of 7.4%.  If your second reading is 1.012, then 1.7% will represent the sugars that were not fermented, thus resulting in a difference of 5.7%.  You won’t be drinking too many of those back to back.

Now let’s attach the bottle filler.  Use a piece of tubing, about two inches in length to attach the bottle filler to the spigot at the base of the bucket.  Open the spigot.  It is now loaded and ready to start filling bottles.  Force the trigger onto the bottom of the inside of a bottle to allow the beer to fill it from the bottom up. Fill it to the very rim.  When you remove the bottle filler, the displacement will leave just the right amount of head room.  Then repeat.  Use your bottle capper to carefully cap the bottles and label.  I buy colored dots from the office supply store to put on the caps.  Take your final notes and store the freshly bottled beer in a cool dark place for 2-4 weeks.

Now that your beer has had a chance to carbonate and age a couple of weeks, it is ready to be chilled to drinking temperature and enjoyed while you work on your next batch of beer.  It’s a never ending cycle, but one you will enjoy.  I hope you find this guide helpful.  More information and countless ways you can improve on your brewing process can be found in a wide selection of books that are available at your local brewing store, book store, or online.

Wild yeast and stray bacteria will love your little party as much as the yeast that have been invited to it.  These unwelcome guests will create flavors that will make your beer less than the best it can be and sometimes downright raunchy.  The secret to keeping these contaminants from your beer is to reduce their means of getting there as next to zero as you can.  You do this by cleaning and sanitizing everything that will come in contact with your soon-to-be beer.

The first step in sanitation is cleanliness.  You can’t sanitize anything that has goop on it.  Everything must be cleaned with soap and water first, and then sanitized.  Make sure the tools you use are metal, glass, or otherwise non-porous.  Wooden utensils have countless pores that can harbor bacterial, as do scratches in your tools and containers.  If they’re scratched, replace them.  Those scratches are hard to clean and can keep bacteria safe from your bacterial warfare arsenal.

There are many means of sanitation.  Boiling for 15 minutes is one of them.  This is why we are a little less worried about what touches the brew before you boil.  After you turn off the heat, everything that comes into contact with your brew must be cleaned and sanitized.

Over the course of your brewing career, you will probably come in contact with several sanitizers.  Each has their strengths.  Bleach for example is cheap, but it must be rinsed completely.  Mix 1 tablespoon/gallon of water and let your equipment soak for 20 minutes.  Then rinse.  Long exposure to bleach may corrode metals.  I only use bleach to clean used bottles before storage.  I used to use a cupful or two of bleach in the dishwasher to sanitize bottles before bottling, but I had too many problems.  I now soak them in a sanitizing solution.

Another sanitizer I frequently use is Iodophor.  It is an iodine solution that comes in different strengths, so just follow the directions on the bottle.  Your goal is 12.5 ppm, but the bottle instructions will tell you how to get there.  Before I start a batch of beer, I’ll fill up a bucket with this solution to sanitize the bucket and everything I put it in.  It will need to soak for 10 minutes.  It will need to be drained, but will not necessarily need to be rinsed.  The amount of iodine left over will not impact the flavor, though I do know a lot of people that are uncomfortable with that explanation and still feel the need to rinse.  It will stain the bucket, but this is only cosmetic.

Star San is very popular.   Sanitizing equipment takes only a 1-2 minute soak, and the residue left behind is nutrient for yeast, so no rinsing is required.   Just mix one once with 5 gallons of water and you have your solution.  I also fill a spray bottle up with the stuff and use that to dowse utensils with.  It is the acid that does the trick but it will break down after a couple of weeks, so refresh your spray bottle with your new stuff.

Remember, anything that comes into contact with your masterpiece after the boil must be cleaned and sanitized first until it is safely in the bottle.  Do not put your hands in it.  Do let wet hands drip into it.  Try to keep your hair from falling into it.  Don’t let your kids throw toys into it.  You get the idea.

While it is impossible to create a completely sterile environment, stay vigilant and you will scream success.  Keep clean and sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.

You can spend as much or as little as you want in your start-up collection for your own private little brewery.  That answer probably isn’t much help to you, though.  The shortest and perhaps the best answer is $200 – $300, and it is likely to include your first batch of beer.  From there on out, each beer will probably cost you between $40 and $50/batch.  After that, I don’t mind saying you can spend as much as you want because you really can, and by then you’ll know enough about what you’re doing to make those choices for yourself.  In the meantime, I’ll tell you exactly what you need to start with.

You can get all of the needed supplies individually, but it will get you off to a good start if you buy a beer kit.  A good beer kit will have supplies in it that you will use for a long time to come.  Avoid the beer kits you’ll find in department and drug stores.  They are targeted toward gift-givers that really don’t know anything about beer and are good for little more than economic stimulation.  Find a brewing or wine-making store; local or otherwise.  They will not only have what you need, but also the expertise to give you some guidance along the way.

Here is what you will need:

Fermentation Vessel.  Your beer kit will come with a food grade plastic bucket with a lid.  For now, your first beers will only be fermenting for a little over a week, so this will work just fine.  For longer brewing beers, meads, and wines, you’ll eventually want to use a glass carboy (giant jug).  When you make this upgrade, this bucket will continue to be very handy for other jobs, such as cleaning and sanitizing.  One day you will find that you cannot have too many carboys.

Fermentation lock.  The fermentation lock, or water lock, holds a small bit of sanitized water (or vodka if you are so inclined) to separate the fermentation vessel’s inside environment from the outside world.  There are countless contaminates that would love to get inside your fermenter.  If you don’t mind sharing that might be okay, but that kind of infection will cause off-flavors and a less than perfect beer.

Bottling Bucket with a spigot, and bottle filler.  Your beer kit will have a second food grade plastic bucket with a predrilled hole in the base for filling bottles.  You will use an inch or two of tubing to connect the bottle filler to the spigot at the base of the bucket.  By inserting the bottle filler into a bottle, pushing the bottle upward onto the trigger will cause your bottle to fill from the bottom up.  This process is used to minimize oxidization of the beer as it is being bottled.

Thermometer.  There will be several moments when you will need to measure the temperature of your concoction.  It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of these, especially if one of them is glass.  They break easily.

Hydrometer.  This is a fun little measuring device that will give you specific gravity readings of the beer, and help you estimate how much alcohol will result.  You might remember in your high school science class that water has a specific gravity of 1.0.  Anything measuring more than 1.0 will represent fermentable sugars and other flavor contributing solutes.

Racking Cane and tube.  This little siphon will help move your beer from one vessel to another (a process we call racking) while minimizing splashing and excess oxygenation.  Oxygen is good before your yeast is added.  Oxygen is bad after fermentation has started.

Bottle Capper and caps.  With every batch, you’ll need to seal fresh bottle caps onto their temporary homes until some lucky soul feels the need to imbibe your beer.  Each batch of beer, assuming you make about 5 gallons, may yield up to 55 bottles of beer.  Caps usually come by the gross.

Bottles.  As soon as you think you might be interested in making beer, start collecting bottles.  You can buy them for about $13 or $14/case, but most prefer to collect.  It gives you an excuse to try a variety of beers from around the world; if you need an excuse that is.  Keep the brown bottles without the screw-tops.  Most of your best beers will come in these bottles anyway.  Wash them immediately after use so you don’t have dry mold stuck to the bottom of them when you go to use them.

Strainer.  Most brewers like to keep a strainer separate from their kitchens supplies as any oil from last night’s pasta will negatively impact your beer.  You will use this to hold your grain bag while you rinse the goody out and into what will be your beer.  This is not likely to come with your beer kit, but your kitchen strainer might do just fine, especially if it is clean and easy to clean.  Those wire net strainers can really hold some gunk.
2 Gallon Cylindrical Drink Cooler (igloo).  Many first-time instructions suggest you use just any kitchen pot to steep your grains.  For how little it will cost for you to get a small drink cooler, I find it is much easier to hold a constant temperature in a little drink cooler.  Put this little guy on your buying list.

Pots and Spoons.  Set your eyes on a 20 quart stainless steel boiling pot as you’re first main boiling pot. A smaller pot will also be helpful, say about 8-12 quarts.  You’re likely to already have that one in your kitchen.  You’ll need to stir in some ingredients.  A giant stainless steel spoon is preferred by most, but anything you can agitate water with will do just fine.

Sanitizer.  You’ll be using a little bit of sanitizer on every batch of beer you make.  Several varieties are available and each work a little differently.  I have written an entire section on sanitation.  It is just that important.  Actually, if I were to reflect its importance, I would do several sections on sanitation.  In fact, let me take a moment to at least introduce to you how important sanitation is to making good beer.  Sanitize.  Sanitize.  Sanitize.  Also, don’t forget to rid yourself of as many mycobacterial and fungal contaminates as you can.

Grain Bags.  A grain bag is to beer as a tea bag is to tea.  With 1-3 lbs. of grain, it is much easier to fish it out if you can keep most of it inside one of these bags.  You’ll use one of these for each batch of beer you make.

Notebook.  You will want to take notes on everything so you can learn and repeat your successes.  Write down everything.  You’ll find a need to look back on dates, times, ingredients, measurements, and your impressions of the beers you make.  Jot down any peculiarities and occurrences while you were brewing.  It may help you later to understand what happened that contributed to such a great beer.

There you have it.  Add this to your first recipe and prepare to make your first beer.  The more you learn, the more you’ll find a need and a desire for more toys.  Such is the way of any geek I would guess.  I certainly still have some toys on my wish list.