Updates soon.
I’ve been busy to say the least. This blog isn’t entirely about beer either. It’s about everything I feel like writing about. It’s called concatenated. You figure it out. More to come.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
HomeBrew Beginners Guide. You asked for it.
Lots of folks want to learn how to brew beer, and this is my guide explaining how I go about it. Be warned, I swear a whole bunch and didn’t write this for your children. It’s about brewing beer for Christ sake. That being said…
I brew my own beer. This is how I do it. Some of my information will almost assuredly be incorrect. Some of it could even be..GASP.. wrong! But here’s the thing, I’m making my own beer, and you aren’t. My beer is damn good too. So… Follow my methods, do what I do, and you’ll get drinkable, perhaps even great, beer. If you decide to take it a step further and develop your own style, techniques, preferences, great! There are a million ways to do any of the steps below. So again, this is how *I* make beer.
First off, a lot of people think making beer is difficult, but it isn’t. So chill out. Everything will be fine. If you can add some stuff to a boiling pot of water, and then pour the (cooled) pot of water and said stuff into a plastic bucket without too much trouble, you’re in. The only things you need to do are follow the steps in this guide.
I’ll begin by outlining exactly what it is you are going to need to brew your beer. I’m even going to include links to where you can purchase it. Keep in mind, I am going to give you links to kits and products I have reviewed with an eagle eye, and I may have even used before myself. I’m not going to set you up for failure here. There can be a lot of steps, and equipment you are unfamiliar with at first, and I’m going to do my best to cover ALL of the bases for you.
What you will need
1 Stock pot (5 gallons in size is preferred.)
1 Pale Ale Ingredient Kit or Honey Brown Ingredient Kit (Pick Wyeast 1056 American Ale and Priming Sugar 5 oz. for either recipe. I’m brewing the Pale Ale in this guide.)
1 Large spoon (Stainless is easy to sanitize and clean.)
1 Digital thermometer (The remote probe type works well for me.)
50 Empty, brown, beer bottles (Have some extras on hand too, just in case. Buy a six pack of Sam Adam’s, or whatever you’re into and drink it. Make sure they are pry off and not screw off caps.)
5 Gallons of spring water (I suggest two 2.5 gallon containers)
1 Pair of scissors
1 Roll of papertowel
1 Relatively dark, cool, and infrequently entered space. A closet, a basement, a garage. Find a room that maintains a temperature between 60F to 75F.
Optional, you do not NEED these, but they help: Reusable cooler ice packs, kitchen tongs.
You can of course use your own stock pot, spoon and thermometer. You can even just use left over beer bottles you have already consumed the contents of. You don’t HAVE TO buy any if you don’t want to. I suggest using Sam Adam’s bottles if you’re going to re-use bottles because the labels come off very easily and they cap very well. These are just examples of what I have, and use. Substitute as you wish/dare.
Alrighty. Got your stuff listed above? Cool!
Oh my God it’s time to brew! Everybody is gonna die!
Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. Okay, maybe a lot.
First thing you need to do is dig your Wyeast Activator out of the refridgerator. If you feel around the package, you will feel a weird little bump in there. This is a nutrient package. Our goal is to crack that bad boy open and let it mix with the yeast. Place the smack pack flat on your palm and then use your free hand to feel around the package until you figure out “where” the nutrient package is inside of it. This can take some tipping of the Activator package side to side, up and down, etc. Take your time, no rush, and you won’t hurt it.
Once you figure out where it is inside the package, try to position the package so it’s right over your palm, the palm of your hand holding it. Then using your free hand, smack it, hitting your two palms together, almost like you’re clapping. You’re going to need to do this with some force, but don’t go all Lenny on the friggin’ thing and rupture the outer package in the process. Once you’ve whacked it, feel around, see if the pouch has ruptured, you can usually tell by feeling around. If not, just try again until you get it.
Once you’re confident you’ve broken the nutrient pouch inside of the Activator, lay it flat on the counter, and run your fingers over it, mixing the yeast and the nutrients together. Remember spider fingers from your elementary art classes? Yeah, sort of like that. Once it’s mixed up, put it somewhere warm, standing upright, around 65F-70F and let it sit. It can take several hours before this package shows signs of swelling. Just keep an eye on it and once you’ve noticed the package swelling slightly, and showing some ‘fullness’ when you gently squeeze it, things are working fine. I would make sure this package shows signs of swelling before you start brewing. If it’s inactive and won’t swell, I’d be concerned it won’t ferment your beer properly. If it’s not swelling, I would hold off, call or email Northern Brewer and see if you can get a replacement. Remember, without active and healthy yeast, you will not end up with good beer.
Wyeast 1056 Activator Yeast Pouch
Sanitize your junk.
There are two primary things that separate a good brewer from a abominable one. Clean junk included.
Sanitization and Fermentation. Let’s face it, anyone can boil whole bunch of water, and throw three or four things into it. Brewing the beer is easy as hell. It’s what you do when handling your new beer (wort), and how you maintain it’s environment while it’s fermenting that is going to make ALL of the difference.
Take all of the following equipment you received out:
Fermentation bucket and it’s lid (It’s the one that does NOT have a spigot on it.)
Spoon (You do have a spoon, right?)
Strainer (I TOLD YOU TO GET A STRAINER DAMNIT.)
Airlock
Sanitizing powder
You'll want to sanitize this stuff.
Take it to your bathroom, throw a package of sanitizer in the bucket, put all the other stuff in the bucket, and fill it with warm water. Let everything soak in this bucket for about 10 minutes. This equipment should be new, so we don’t need to sandblast it or anything crazy. You only need to make sure you give the sanitizer a chance to soak into any surfaces that may be harboring any kind of bacteria that you don’t want to grow in your beer. I have seen a lot of people suggest you just cram the lid to the bucket into the bucket as well, but I would advise against this. It could scratch the inside of the fermenter and leave tiny little spots for bacteria to hide that are not easily sanitized in the future. Our goal here is to let the yeast be the only active organism inside of that bucket when we’re done brewing, and nothing else. If something else wins the battle and your yeast loses, your beer could in fact be really gross, or what’s known as “infected”. So just take a bowl, whatever, and scoop out some water from your sanitizer filled bucket, and put it on the inside of your lid, and let it soak as well. You can optionally fill a small bus bucket or other container with some left over sanitizing solution to keep near you in the kitchen to keep other things sanitized while not in use. I recommend it. I am also using StarSan, it is a food grade, non-rinse sanitizer. It foams a lot, and does not require being washed off if mixed at the recommend dilution. The sanitizer that comes with your kit is also non-rinse, but they are not legally able to advertise it as such. Oh well. Your call.
Bring all this stuff into your bathroom.
Stuff in the tub soaking in sanitizer
Optional bus bucket, to keep things sanitized in the kitchen
Wanna come back to mis en place?
I know. The French can be a little strange sometimes. …Yeah okay, we’ll leave it there. Parts of Belgium speak French and they also make some of the worlds most kickass beer. That should be good enough.
The French culinary world has a term that I take very seriously, called “mis en place“. The short and skinny of this phrase is… Don’t be such a fucking nightmare all the time. Lay your shit out in an organized fashion, and in the order it’s going to be used. Because otherwise, you’re going to freak the fuck out and make a massive mistake that will ruin your day. (Note: This is my interpretation, I don’t speak French, what the hell do you want from me? I’m also decidedly obsessive compulsive. Your call.)
Put your kettle on the stove. Fill it with the entire contents of water from one of your 2.5 gallon spring water containers.
2.5 Gallons of water into the kettle!
Drape your probe thermometer into the water, so the probe is just barely submerged in the water. (Don’t get that wire in the water, it will screw up your thermometer.)
Turn your burner to HIGH.
**Note – The piezo electric ignition on my stove and burners pisses my digital thermostat right the fuck off. If you have the “snap snap snap snap” type auto igniter on your stove, pick up the probe to the thermometer and the wire both so they are NOT touching any metal (the pot) while you are lighting it. The electricity in the igniter and the circuitry in the thermometer do not play well together.
Thermometer wrapped around handle and dipped into the water
Get your ingredient kit out and arrange it like so. This way you have everything easily accessible as needed.
Ingredient kit un-packed
Take the grains from the plastic bag, and put them in the sock (steeping bag), and tie a knot in it. Put it on the counter next to the stove.
Grains go in the steeping bag
Set your thermometers temperature alarm for 112F. (If it has one, otherwise you’ll just have to pay more attention and monitor the temperature yourself.)
Set your thermometer alarm for 112F.
Here we are. This is the steeping process.
Once your alarm has gone off at 112F we are ready to begin the steeping process. This is where we will take some of those speciality grains we put in the steeping bag into the 112F water and pull some of the goodness out of them. One of the largest benefits you’ll see from steeping grains is color in your finished beer, the second would be flavor additions. This is a really good way to fine tune an extract beer.
So, your alarm has gone off, the water is 112F. Toss the steeping bag right in the water and put the lid on. Once the lid is on, adjust your thermometer alarm for 160F and then set the timer for 20 minutes.
Steeping bag in the kettle
Settings for steeping the grains
If the temperature alarm goes off at 160F before the timer runs out, leave the lid on the kettle, and kill the heat entirely to the burner. Then wait for the timer to run out, letting the grains steep in the ~160F water.
If the timer goes off before the temperature alarm goes off at 160F, that’s fine too. Just move to the next step.
Take the grain bag out of the water. I use regular kitchen tongs for this. Grab the knotted bit of the bag and loop it around the tongs, lift the steeping bag up out of the water, and hold it there for a minute or two to let all the liquid drain back into the kettle. IMPORTANT: DO NOT SQUEEZE THE GOD DAMN STEEPING BAG. THERE IS SHIT IN THOSE GRAINS YOU *DO NOT WANT IN YOUR BEER* JUST LET IT DRAIN BY GRAVITY These grains are very soaked and very heavy, so you don’t want it to slip back into the kettle and splash you with hot/sticky water. When the bag is done draining for the most part, just throw it in the trash. If you’re so inclined, you can also save the grains and toss it in your composting bin/pile. (Go Earth!)
This looks good. This also smells good. Mmm. Beerish!
Let the steeping bag drain back into the kettle
The Boil
Alright. Steeping is over. If you turned your heat off in the previous step, crank it back up. If you left it on, cool, continue with the leaving it on. Keep the kettle covered. Set your thermometers temperature alarm for 212F. That is the temperature that water boils at. Genius.
Alarm set for 212F
You’re now going to water for that alarm to go off. So here’s what we’re gonna do here. We’re going to bring kettle to a boil, and then we’re going to stir in both the liquid malt extract that came in that milk jug like container, as well as the dry malt extract, the powder in the clear plastic bag. While you wait for that kettle to reach 212F, I strongly suggest you put a bowl or other type of container in your sink, and fill it with the hottest water your faucet is capable of producing. Put that plastic container of liquid malt extract in there, and let it soak. This will loosen it up quite a bit and make pouring it into the kettle much easier, and much faster. Otherwise it can be quite molasses like.
Warm up the extract in some hot water in a bowl.
Has your alarm gone off for 212F? Cool! Turn the burner off. If you leave it on, you risk scortching the extract we’re about to add. You don’t want this. Turn the burner OFF. If you have an electric stove, you’re going to want to also remove it from the hot element while adding the extract. Let’s slowly stir in both the liquid and dry malt extract, starting with the liquid first and then the dry. Stir them both in slowly, and make sure you get as much of them out of the container and bag as possible.
Adding the liquid malt extract
Adding the dry malt extract
Now that those are both stirred into the kettle, go ahead and return the kettle to the burner and turn the burner back on. Put the cover back on as well. Set your alarm for 212F once more and wait for it to go off. Then place your hops on the counter in the order you will be adding them. I’m making the Pale Ale kit here, so that would be Summit, Perle and then lastly Cascade. NOTE: Do not walk away from your kettle at this point. Now that you have added malt extract, the possibility of a boil over is much greater. You are now trapped in your kitchen for the next ~60 minutes. I hope you have a smart phone. Or a book. Or something. Once the alarm goes off, take the lid off, we’re going to be ready to start adding the hops.
Set your alarm for 212F and arrange your hops
We’re going to boil this batch of beer for 60 minutes. We’re going to add hops at 60 minutes, 20 minutes, and then lastly at 1 minute. There is a reason we are adding these different varieties of hops, as well as there is a reason for when we are adding them. Some hops have a higher alpha acid content than others, and the longer you boil the hops, the more bitterness and other flavors you will extract from them. This is a key part of the recipe. If you want a well balanced beer, follow the “hop additions” as outlined here. Try not to mess it up. Really. This is often referred to as a “hop schedule”, which is a smarmy euphamism for when to add the compressed pellets of flowers to your boiling water. You may have heard some brands of beer advertising a beer such as “60 Minute IPA” or “90 Minute IPA”, etc. That’s where this comes from. Neat, eh? At least try to act excited, Jesus.
Now that the kettle is at a boil (Yes, 212F. Don’t look at me like that.) you need to set a timer for 60 minutes. If you also happen to have a timer on your microwave, or your stove, set that one as well, but set it for 40 minutes.
Timer set for 60 minutesTimer set for 40 minutes
Timer set for 40 minutes
Now that your kettle is now at sultry 212F boil, it’s time to add the Summit hops. Cut the pouch open, have a smell, and pour them into the kettle. No need to stir these at all. Also, the kettle can also boil over every time you add something new. Keep a close eye on this once you at those.
Cut open the package of Summit hops. Smell them. They smell good.
Pour the Summit hop pellets into the kettle
Now we need to wait for the 40 minute alarm, the one you set on your stove/microwave to go off. This would be a good time to have a beer.
Mmm. Homebrew.
Okay, 40 minutes are up. Let’s add the Perle hops now.
Mmm. Perle goooood.
Adding the Perle hops
When your timer has 1 minute left on it, it’s time to add the Cascade. I usually stir these in a little bit to get them mixed evenly through the new beer (called wort, pronounced “wert”) since they’ll only be boiled for a minute. Some people suggest to add them, turn the heat off and immediately start cooling the wort, but I like to give them a minute to break up and let them distribute through the kettle. Boil ’em for a minute, give ’em a good stir, and then cut off the heat. If you’re using an electric stove, move the kettle off of the hot burner as well.
Cascade is the hop we're adding for "aroma", it's going to add mostly a hoppy smell to our beer
Tossing in the Cascade!
Cooling your wort
Now that the brewing process is complete, we need to cool the new beer. And fast. As fast as possible. You also need to keep in mind now that the boiling is over, you need to take extra care not to touch anything that has not be sanitized to your beer! The boiling process kind of covers your ass in a way. If you happen to dip a dirty spoon in the wort during the boil, no harm, it’s boiling! Anything that might have caused an issue was probably killed, burned, sterilized, sanitized, etc. However now that the boiling is done, you effectively have a 2.5 gallon container of that sweet pink petry dish goop they use in science labs to culture bacteria. No coughing, sneezing, or mouth breathing into or over your kettle. No vacuuming, no dusting, no mixing Quikcrete, etc. Keep crap away from your beer and out of the air around it.
The easiest way to cool your entire kettle of wort quickly, is to use an ice bath. Fill your sink with the coldest water you can get out of your faucet, and remember that bag of ice I suggested you pick up?
Sink full of cold water and a bag of ice
Now, add your kettle to the ice bath. I leave my thermometer in for this, since we’ll need to keep an eye on the temperature still.
Kettle sitting in the ice bath
Sink full of cold water and a bag of ice
The Fermenter
Bucket!
It puts the strainer in the basket! Oh. Sorry.
Pour the wort through the strainer into the bucket
Top off the bucket to 5 gallons with the left over water
Pitching the yeast
Sanitize the Activator
Pitching the yeast
Lid on the bucket, airlock in place, filled with water, and the cap snapped on.
My fermenting bucket in the closet. All happy and ready to ferment into beer.
I’m going to get a lot of shit for this, but fuck it
If you read your kits original instructions, or you are already somewhat familiar with brewing beer you will notice I neglected a step in all of this. Yeah, I left out the part about Original Gravity and Final Gravity. Most people will fill their hydrometer sample tube with a bunch of wort (new beer), and take a gravity reading. This reading tells you the amount of sugar in your wort. Why is this useful? Well, when you’ve just brewed your wort, it’s full of sugar. The yeast is going to convert those sugars into alcohol. If you take a gravity reading after the beer has fermented, you will get a lower number. You can compare these numbers to figure out your alcohol content, or ABV. Here is why I left it out.
You are brewing an extract kit. If you have used 5 gallons of water, and both your liquid malt extract container and dry malt extract bag are empty? You’re fine. These kits are nearly fool proof. Sure, you could take readings if you wanted to, and certainly, if you start making your own recipes, you should be taking OG and FG readings. This is a great way to fine tune your beer, and make sure your beer is fermenting to the maximum potential. However, in this scenario, we just want to make beer for the first time. There is already a slew of crazy shit you’ve never done before or heard of. You’ve been having a panic attack over keeping everything sanitized at all times. In my opinion, worrying over gravity readings at this point would just be an added pressure and freak you the fuck out.
Brew a few batches, see how things go, and decide for yourself if you want to get into taking readings, adjusting recipes and all that fun stuff. If you just want to brew the occasional beer for something to do, screw it. I don’t measure anything with equipment from a science lab before and after I make a batch of soup. I just know that it’s good, and if I repeat the recipe, I get good soup again. Simple as that.
Good luck! I’ll try to cover bottling in another post. I’m no longer bottling and have moved to kegging my homebrew, but I can do a set of ‘mock’ instructions to help you out I’m sure.
Topics: Beer | 2 Comments »
Happy Memes!
So there have been a lot of internet memes. YouTube videos, animated GIF images, etc. But this one really makes me smile. It’s cheery, funny and slightly scary, all at the same time.
Here’s to you Edward Khil. *raises glass*
Topics: Amusing | 1 Comment »
Everybody, be cool.
Look folks, I get it. You’re on top of things. You have strong opinions. Having your voice heard is important to you. You want to make a difference. You would like a new civilization a billion years from now to pump all off the water off of what we call dry land today and find your WordPress blog post about how big of a douchebag… Wait, what?
Now that you understand that I understand your understanding of how fucking important EVERYTHING you bitch about is…
Please keep in mind you will likely be remembered more for your positive influence on our society. Your compliments, moving into the passing lane of the highway when traffic is merging, telling someone you really appreciate something they invest countless hours in and receive little monitary compensation for (artists and musicians, teachers, etc) and having an overall respect for others even if you disagree with them so strongly they make your teeth ache. Take account of your last dozen tweets, Facebook updates and blog posts, etc. How is your positivity to negative asshole ratio looking?
We are not going to be here forever, try to enjoy your time here much as you try to improve it by airing your grievences.
Cheers.
Learn to swim.
Topics: Random Thoughts | 1 Comment »
Still debugging the link to Twitter.
Image added for interests sake.
Deliciouso!
Topics: Food | No Comments »
Shiny Beer Related Objects
Steeping specialty grains for my Honey Brown Ale.
Mmm. Smell the goodness!
Topics: Beer, Shiny Objects | No Comments »
