Guide to Making Your Own Beer

Whether it's once a day or once a week, there's always a need for alcohol. You can't be bothered to leave your home every time you want to drink ten or fifteen beers. Or perhaps you find that your manly/womanly drink they sell at your local booze purveyor unpalatable and overly expensive. There's always another answer to these pressing difficulties, isn't there? Here's an alternative, on that involves twelve steps, but that sounds way too hard. So here is one that involves five steps into making good beer, plentiful beer, and cheap beer. Brew it yourself.

There are actually two ways that you can brew up a batch of beer. First you can go to a you-brew establishment known as Brew on Premises which provides you with equipment, ingredients, and instructions, and keeps the beer for you while it's brewing. Second, you can brew it at some other location like your house. The second choice is the best and now you can whip up beer within the confines of your own property.

1. BUYING THE HOMEBREWING EQUIPMENT

It's not that expensive to buy your own brewing system and you can get mostly everything you need to start for $100-$150. In order to start, you will need the following items:

1. Brewpot

2. Primary fermenter

3. Airlock and stopper

4. Plastic hose

5. Bottling bucket

6. Bottles

7. Bottle brush

8. Bottle capper

9. Stick-on thermometer

10. Household items

Brewpot

You might have a huge pot already, but it's no good if it's made of aluminum or if it's a chipped enamelized pot. This will make the beer taste a little be funny. A brewpot is a huge pot made of stainless steel or enamel-coated metal and is of at least 16-quart capacity. The pot is used to boil up the beer ingredients.

Primary fermenter

The primary fermenter is where the ingredients goes after you have boiled it and its where the beer begins to ferment and become the stuff that makes you open and more outgoing. It must have a minimum of 7 gallons, a lid which seals airtight, and accommodates the airlock and rubber stopper. The one that you should buy is made of food-grade plastic because it doesn't allow anything to come in or out.

Plastic Hose

An ordinary five-foot length of food-grade plastic hose will be needed to transfer beer from place to place. Make sure that the hose is free from any leaks and kinks.

Bottling Bucket

This bucket is plastic of course and has a spigot at the bottom (Forgot to mention, it is also food-grade.) It must be at least as big as the primary fermenter, because once that baby's done cooking; you can start transferring but prior to bottling.

Bottles

After primary fermentation, you place the beer in bottles for secondary fermentation and storage. Make sure that you have enough bottles, which will probably be around 35 or more, so be prepared and just get a few extras because you never know. The best kinds of bottles are the solid glass ones with smooth tops (not the twist-off) that will accept a cap from a bottle capper. Most importantly, make sure that the glass is dark-colored because light damages beer.

Bottle brush

A thin curvy brush that you can insert into a bottle in order to clean it out is called the bottle brush.

Bottle capper

The best bottle capper is one which can be affixed to a surface and worked with one had while you hold the bottle with the other. There are also cheaper ones which require two hands on the capper, but let's not go there... its too much work. To buy caps, all you need to do is buy them from any brewing supplies store. Make sure that you stay within your budget while buy all the items necessary to make it happen.

Stick-on thermometer

This is a thermometer which you can apply to the side of your primary fermenter. It looks like a thin strip of plastic and they are backed with an adhesive. Purchasing them are easy and you don't have to look very far to get one. Online, brewing supplies store, and pet stores are one of the many places in which you can obtain one.

Household items

With all the equipment listed above it is highly recommended that you have the following household items available in your house:

-Small bowl

-Saucepan

-Rubber spatula

-Oven mitts/pot handlers

-Big mixing spoons (either stainless steel or plastic)

2. CHOOSE A RECIPE AND BUY THE INGREDIENTS

For the beginning brewer which is you, this step is accomplished all at once, because you are simply going to buy a "beer kit" which tells you what kind of beer it will make and includes all the necessary ingredients. A beer kit consists of a big can of hopped malt concentrate and a packet of yeast. It'll also be wise to purchase additional "fermentable" which makes alcohol. More of that means more alcohol. Common additional fermentable are brewers sugar, dry malt extract, liquid malt extract, rice syrup, demerera sugar, Belgian candi sugar or any combination of the above. At least two pounds will be needed and not more than three on your first go-round. Too much will make you act crazy.

It is also recommended that you purchase a book about home brewing which contains a good recipe section, subscribe to a brewing magazine which will provide with new recipe each month, or look on the internet yourself for online recipes.

3. COOK UP SOME BEER

Clean and sanitize your equipment

It is always important to be clean when doing anything and this is one of the tasks which require you to be clean. You must clean and sanitize all of your equipment right before you start brewing, and keep everything clean throughout the process. At the first stage of brewing, you will need to clean and sanitize the following items:

- Brewpot

- Primary fermenter

- Brew spoon

- Airlock and stopper

- Saucepan

- Small bowl

- Rubber spatula

- Big mixing spoon

Instructions for making great beer from a beer kit

1. Bring 2 quarts of water to 160-180F, basically streaming but not boiling. Then remove the heat.

2. Add your beer kit and additional fermentable according to the directions. Suggested fermentable, as was put out before, including brewer's sugar, dry malt extract, liquid malt extract, rice syrup, demerera sugar, Belgian candi sugar or any combination of the above. Each will impart its own unique flavor profile. Ask your local shop owner for advice on how to get what you want.

3. Stir aggressively to ensure that everything gets dissolved. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit for 10-15 minutes on the lowest heat setting. This will ensure that you achieve sanitation.

4. Add the contents of your pot to 4 gallons of cold water already in your primary fermenter. Mix well, at least a minute or two. This helps add oxygen to your ingredients prior to adding your yeast. Trust us, your yeast will thank you for it later. When the side of your fermenter feels cool to touch, it is safe to add your yeast. Some kits recommend re-hydrating your yeast in water first. This is not really necessary.

5. Ferment as close to recommended temperature range as possible.

4. LET THE BEER FERMENT

Primary fermentation

You now have made your "wort". Wort is your beer that has not been fully developed, and it looks like a liquid wart in funny terms. Anyways your wort will begin to ferment within the first day, and it will continue to do so for 3 to 5 days. When you see little air bubbles rising up through the water in the airlock, you know its going good and working. It's becoming fermented baby. After that 5^th day is up, you should begin to check on your beer every day, to see if it is still fermenting. If the water in the airlock is still bubbling, the beer is still in process. When the bubbling stops or slows until there is a pause of two minutes between bubbles, primary fermentation is completed and your beer is ready to be bottled.

Bottling and Secondary Fermentation

Secondary fermentation is what happens once it is in the bottle and it means that you can't drink your beer just yet.

- Make sure you have enough bottles to contain your new brew. Five gallons of beer is equivalent to approximately 640 ounces, so you need to plan accordingly. If you have 16-ounce bottles you'll need about 40.

- Also some pure dextrose is handy to make a priming solution. This is what allows the remaining yeast in your beer to carbonate the beer. Take the saucepan and put two or three cups of water in it, and dissolve 3/4 cup of dextrose in the water. Bring the solution to a boil over medium heat, then cover it and set it aside to cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

- After every thing is cooled, place your cleaned and sanitized bottling bucket on the floor. Place the primary fermenter on a chair, table or counter directly above the bottling bucket. Be steady with it and don't try to shake it too much because you want all the sediment to stay on the bottom. Attach the plastic hose to the spigot on the primary fermenter and put the other end of the hose in the bottom of the bottling bucket. Pour the priming solution into the bottling bucket, and then open the spigot on the fermenter, allowing the beer to flow into the bucket and mix with the solution. Don't try to get the last of the beer out of the fermenter, because it contains sediment you don't want.

- Close the spigot on the fermenter, take off the hose, and clean it well. Then get the fermenter out of the way and put the bottling bucket up where it was and hook up the hose to its spigot. Line up all your bottles on the floor underneath it and stick the hose into one of the bottles. Then you're ready to open up the spigot on the bottling bucket and let the beer fly. Stick the hose in all the way to the bottom, and when the beer gets really near the top, yank the hose out and stick it in the next bottle. The level in the bottle drops when you take the tube out, and you want to leave about one inch of airspace at the top of the bottle (as close to one inch as possible; much more or less than that is not good). Therefore, you should be yanking the hose out when the beer is more or less right at the top of the bottle. If you have any financial aid money left over from last semester, invest in a bottle filler. It will make bottling less messy and be the best $2.99 you ever spent.

- Once all the beer has drained out of the bucket, get ready to put the caps on your bottles. You need to do this right away, because every second that your beer remains exposed to the elements is a bad second. We've warned you about the bacteria and fungi. If you are using plastic bottles with screw tops, you can just sit down on the floor with your beer and twist them on. If you're using glass bottles with metal caps, you're going to need to use a bottle capper, and it will be way easier if you move them to a table or wherever you're going to sit and work. Follow the directions of the capper you've purchased, and take your time. If you suspect that one of the caps didn't go on correctly, rip the cap off and put on a new one. Check all your bottles for leakage and re-cap any that leak.

- Once you've got all your bottles capped, you need to find a cool, dark place to put them while secondary fermentation takes place. They should not go in your fridge. Refrigerators are too cold for the yeast to do its work. You might as well put your beer wherever it was you put your fermenter, like in a closet, in the basement, in the attic or wherever, so long as the location is at a steady temperature of around 60 - 70 degrees. Now comes the really hard part. You have to leave your beer there for a minimum of two weeks before you can drink any of it. We know you've already waited for like, a whole week or maybe more, but you must be patient.

- You must also continue to be clean. We know you're tuckered out from all that bottling, but you have to clean out all of your equipment before you shove it into the closet. You'll be doing yourself a huge favor, as the equipment will be much easier to clean and sanitize next time you want to make beer, and, therefore, it will be easier to make your next batch.

5. DRINK OR STORE

Here is where it gets easy. Once you've waited one week, check on your beer and see if the cloudiness caused by the yeast has cleared. If it hasn't, you'll have to continue to be patient and check on it every day or so until it does clear. Once your beer has clarified, go ahead and put it in the refrigerator. If you don't have enough room in your refrigerator for all your beer, leave it in the same cool, dark spot and refrigerate it as room becomes available.When your beer is as cold as you like it, crack one open and pour it into a glass. It's best not to drink your homebrew out of the bottle, because doing so will probably result in your consuming some of the sediment and leftover yeast, which can lead to bloating and gas. Not very sexy. Pour the beer into the glass; let the head and the sediment settle, and drink, enjoying the scents and flavors of the fruits of your toil. Repeat until desired level of wit, charm and attractiveness has been attained. Then invite us over and share the wealth.