Ah, the thrill of creating your own beer-it’s as close as you can come to playing God without stitching together body parts and messing with lightning. Nothing beats home-brew lessons from a master brewer, or even a solid book on the subject. But if you’re curious about how much time, effort, and money it takes to brew your own beer, here’s a quick overview.
1. BRUSH UP ON YOUR CHEMISTRY.
To understand the basic principles of home brewing, it helps to understand the miracle of fermentation. In a nutshell, yeast is a living organism that-at the right temperature-converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. As a brewer, your job is to facilitate this process. Take a look at “The Physics and Chemistry of Beer” on page 151 and come back here when you’re finished.
2. BUY SOME HOME-BREW GEAR.
All told, this equipment should set you back $150 to $200. You can jury-rig certain items from household materials, but you’re probably better off buying everything from a home-brew shop you trust.
3. PICK A RECIPE AND BUY THE INGREDIENTS.
First-timers should purchase a ready-made “beer kit” that includes all of the necessary ingredients-including a can of hopped malt concentrate, a packet of yeast, and some “fermentables,” such as brewer’s sugar, malt extract, Demerara sugar, or rice syrup. The more fermentables you add, the more your beer will ferment, which increases the alcohol content. Advanced beer recipes can be every bit as complex and rewarding as recipes for a gourmet meal.
4. CLEAN AND SANITIZE YOUR GEAR.
Believe it or not, this is the most important step in the whole process. You need to sanitize everything that will make contact with the beer-pots, utensils, hoses, air locks, bottles, everything. Just one strain of bacteria or fungus can completely ruin your whole batch. Commercial sanitizers are available from any home-brewing supply store, or you can dump the equipment in the dishwasher and run it on the “heat dry” cycle. Still another option is to soak your supplies in a solution of bleach and water for 30 minutes; this is all but guaranteed to destroy any nastiness lurking about. Whatever your method, be sure to rinse everything with cold water when you’re finished, and let the equipment air-dry.
5. COOK YOUR INGREDIENTS.
This will vary depending on your equipment, but you’ll typically fill your brewpot with 2 quarts of water and bring it to a boil. Add your beer kit ingredients and stir briskly, making sure everything dissolves. Lower the heat to simmer, pop the lid on, and let it cook for 15 minutes. Next, take your primary fermenter and fill it with 4 gallons (15 l) of cold water. Pour in your hot beer kit mixture. Mix well so that oxygen will permeate the mix. When the temperature reaches 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 to 26.7 degrees Celsius), it’s time to add the yeast (now you know why you bought that thermometer). Congrats. You’ve made wort-the stuff that will eventually ferment.
6. WAIT FOR THE WORT TO FERMENT.
An-ti-ci-paaaaaaation. Fermenting can take anywhere from three to five days or more. You can tell the wort is fermenting by the little white bubbles that form in the air lock. Fermenting is like microwaving popcorn; if the bubbles are popping up fast and furious, it’s too soon to stop the process. But if the action slows to the point where there’s a good two minutes between bubbles, primary fermentation is probably complete. (You’ll want to wait, though; bottling a beer that is still fermenting can result in messy explosions of primordial wort.)
7. SIPHON THE BEER FROM THE FERMENTER INTO A BOTTLING BUCKET.
By now, your fermenting vat has a bunch of settled yeast at the bottom-this sludge will cloud your beer and spoil its taste. So you’ll need to use rubber tubing to siphon off the beer. This gets a little tricky, so bear with me. First, place the fermenter on a shelf that is higher than your bottling bucket. Next, fill the siphon tubing with water (fig. a) and hold it in a U shape, with a finger covering either end (fig. b). Place one end of the tube in the fermented wort. Remove your finger just before dipping it in (fig. c). Don’t lower the tube too close to the bottom of the bucket, or it’ll suck out the sludge. Place the other end of the tube in the bottling bucket and release your finger (fig. d). The water will drain out of the tube, into the bottling bucket, and the beer will follow it along.
8. BOTTLE IT UP.
Most brew kits will advise you to pour a solution of pure dextrose into the bottling bucket-this will help carbonate your beer. But don’t take a sip just yet-you need to get the beer in bottles, where it will finish the fermentation process. Make sure your bottles are squeaky clean-your old empties can have a lot of moldy goo if they’ve been sitting around. Use a commercial sanitizer or the bleach and water method described in step 4. Once they’re clean, use the spout at the bottom of the bottling bucket to pour the beer into individual bottles.
9. CAP AND STORE.
Leave an inch of air at the top of each bottle and cap as soon as you can, using either twistons, self-sealing bottles, or a capping machine. The quicker you can get your newborn beer away from the air, the better. Put all of your bottles in a cool place-between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 and 21.1 degrees Celsius); a basement usually does the trick. And now you have to wait for secondary fermentation to occur, which usually takes about one or two weeks. Hey, it’s better than pregnancy.
10. BOTTOMS UP.
When the cloudiness (caused by yeast) in your beer starts to clear, you’ll know your brew is ready to be served. Chill some bottles in the refrigerator and invite some friends over. You might want to take a test sip first, of course. That way, if the batch is lousy, you can replace your home brew with Sam Adams, and your friends will be none the wiser.
