My First Batch of Beer, Straight from My Kitchen

The first time I brewed beer I tried to do the easiest way possible. I wanted to make a tasty beer and I didn't want to mess it up. It seemed pretty easy but I knew it would be pretty easy to mess up.

I kept the ingredients pretty simple for my first batch. I picked up a 4 pound can of Northern Brown Ale by Iron Master and 2 pounds of dried Amber Malt Extract. I kept it simple for the hops even though I do appreciate a hoppy beer. I only added one ounce of hops. The last ingredient that I picked up was a four ounce package of Muntons yeast.

I put a gallon and a half of water into my brew pot. I use tap water because I have a well and have had it tested. There isn't an excess of minerals in it. Some people like to use bottled water, which is fine for them. I would definitely use bottled water if I had treated tap water. I brought the water to a boil and then added my malts. The easiest way to add the liquid malt is by placing the can in warm water probably 15 minutes before adding it to the boiling water. I put it in warm water so that it will loosen up a little and is easier to pour. The powdered malt is pretty easy to add, just open the bag and pour. Make sure you stir these as you put them so you don't burn on the bottom of your pot.

I then brought this to a boil again. This next part is very tricky. It seems easy but I have messed it up. I removed the boiling water/extract from the burner and slowly added my one ounce of Northern Brewer Hops. You want to do this very slowly because it will boil over if you just dump them in. Put the pot back onto the burner and bring to a boil again. This time we are going to keep the boil for at least 30 minutes.

While the wort is boiling I put three gallons of cold water into my clean carboy. I put cold water in the carboy so that it won't crack when I put the hot wort in with the water. Once the wort has been boiled for 30 minutes I take it off the heat and add it to the carboy, then add cold water to get the level up to five gallons. I then put my solid stopper on and turned the carboy on its side and roll it around, this is the easiest way to mix everything together. Here is where the thermometer comes in handy, and once again it is a waiting game. You need to wait until the temperature in the carboy drops below 80 degrees before you add the yeast. After what seemed an eternity the temperature dropped to 76 degrees and I was able to add the yeast. Once again I rolled it around on the floor. The next step in this process was to take my original gravity. I took some of the pre-fermented beer out of the carboy and put the hydrometer in it. I got a reading of 1044, what we do with this will come along later.

After I figured everything was pretty mixed I changed stoppers. I took out the solid one and put the one with a hole in it in its place; I also put a run off tube in the hole. The reason for this is so that it will get rid of any fermentation foam that forms. I then put it in my basement and kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't get too cold down there. You want to make sure the temperature of your beer stays between 60 and 75 degrees (for ales).

Three days later I changed my run off tube for the fermentation lock. The lock is plastic and half filled with water. The lock is the easiest way to tell if it is still fermenting. It allows gasses to escape and doesn't allow air to enter the carboy. Now is where you watch. When it is done bubbling it is done fermenting. So I kept watching...daily. It's pretty cool to see the bubbling.

Two weeks later I was ready to bottle. I made sure all of my bottles were clean and sanitized, and I boiled my caps in a pan for about 5 minutes to sanitize them. I then siphoned my beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket. As the beer was changing containers I added 5 ounces (about 3/4 cup) of corn sugar to the beer. I added the corn sugar so that the beer will carbonate in the bottle. Putting the beer into the bottles I made sure and left about an inch of space between the beer and the cap. I didn't want my bottles to explode during the carbonation process. I ended up getting 50 bottles that day. There was still a beer left on the bottom of the bottling bucket, so I was able to take another gravity reading. I got a reading of 1016 for the final gravity. This gave me an alcohol level of 3.7%.

Overall I was quite pleased with the first time I brewed my own beer. After bottling I let the beer carbonate in the basement for ten days. The flavor was ok after the initial ten days. About a week later the taste was a lot better. Since this first batch I have played around with the types of beers, adding different grains and adding more hops. I also realized by adding more malt extract and hops I needed to add to my boiling time. But overall making your own beer is pretty easy, you just need to remember that mistakes happen and you can't get upset, just keep going.