Home Brewing

The production of alcohol has been around for about 7,000 years, and back in those days there were no bars or stores to go grab something to drink. Home brewing was the necessary origin that many people enjoy doing to this very day. Of course, it didn't take long for commercial breweries to take advantage of this new discovery, and eventually this lead to mass produced beer. This made beer more accessible, but home brewers never stopped making their own brews on their own. Home brewing was especially prevalent in England, mainly because it was customary for feudal manors to have beer available for the lords and their subjects. In America, home brewing was practiced by such luminaries as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

In the 1800's, home brewing was dealt a severe blow when the federal government heavily taxed home brewing to benefit the bottom line of the commercial breweries. Early in the 1900's Prohibition came along, which resulted in all types of alcohol being banned. Many home brewers continued to brew their own beer simply as a means of being able to enjoy their favorite drink, despite the risk of such illegal behavior. Prohibition was repealed in 1933, but only wine was allowed at first. When then President Jimmy Carter passed the Cranston Act in 1979, finally home brewing was once again legal.

Since then, home brewing hobby shops have steadily increased in number across the country. In 1981, there were only 150 home brewing hobby shops nationwide. In 1996, there were 1,000. That number actually declined due to rising costs of materials. Commercial breweries have continued to thrive over the years, and home brewing lost popularity to the point that it was considered an endeavor of connoisseurs and fanatics. Home brewing got to the point that it was an elitist hobby, and required expensive materials and extensive preparation. Not something for the "common man".

Today, a lot has changed. The Home Brewers Association estimates that there are roughly 1 million home brewers nationwide. The internet has certainly played a role in this explosion, but one key reason for this surge of popularity is the existence of scaled down home brewing set ups and easier access to 100 different strains of yeast. Quality instruction and ingredients are much more easily available to today’s home brewers. Many years ago, home brewing consisted of a can of Blue Ribbon malt extract, a 10 gallon ceramic crock and some Fleischmann's bread yeast. Today, brewers have a wide selection of beer ingredient kits, which are much cheaper and easier than earlier home brewing kits.

Because of these improvements, today's home brewer can produce a wider variety of beers, and better quality brews. There is a wide variety of beers the home brewer can produce. Without a doubt, home brewing is here to stay. This is a great time to get started home brewing. It has never been easier.

If you are researching home brewing online, you may be a little overwhelmed about all the information. However, there is no need to think that home brewing is too difficult. If you learn and follow the proper fundamental steps, then you can easily produce good batches of beer on your first attempts. To help you get started on the right track, here are five easy steps that you can use to guide you and get you started off right in this fun and rewarding hobby.

First, you will need home brewing equipment. There are many options here, but there are two primary options to make it easy to get started. You can purchase an all-in-one kit (like a Mr. Beer or The Beer Machine), or you can purchase a kit made up of all the essential pieces of equipment you need to brew.  Both of these options aren't too expensive--either way, you can basically get started home brewing for under $100. The main equipment you need will be included with the component kits, and the all-in-one kits are self contained and ready to brew beer.

Next, you need ingredients. Beginning home brewing ingredient kits exist to make the process stripped down and simplified--you first must learn the basics of the process of home brewing. Once you have that understanding down, then you can learn about using different ingredients and utilizing different techniques in an effort to exert more control over the final product.

But at first, you just need to be able to make beer in the easiest manner possible. Ingredient kits contain what you need to brew beer--simply drop all the ingredients in your brew pot, boil, and you are on your way! The ingredient kits will come with all the necessary ingredients essential to making beer--malt extract, which typically comes pre hopped (so you needn't worry about adding hops), and yeast, so all you have to add is water. These kits also have instructions to show you how long you need to boil, and how to turn this wort into beer.

The process of home brewing starts with first making sure all your home brewing equipment is properly cleaned and sanitized--these are not the same. Cleaning and sanitizing are two different steps, but both steps must be done to ensure that your beer does not become contaminated by bacteria and germs. After proper cleaning and sanitizing, the beer brewing starts with the boil.

You will typically bring the water in your brew pot up to 160 degrees F, and then remove the water from the heat so that it doesn't get too hot. You then mix in your ingredients from the kit and stir to blend according to the directions. You now have produced what is known as the wort, and this will eventually become your beer. You will want to be sure that all of the ingredients have dissolved and been fully incorporated. You then add the wort to the fermenter, and then add the top off water so that you have a 5 gallon batch of wort in the fermenter.

This begins the fermentation process, which is the process of turning the wort into beer. Fermentation can go on for 7-10 days, and one key factor for fermentation is monitoring and maintaining proper temperature during the fermentation period. How do you know when fermentation is complete? You can tell by visual cues such as activity on the airlock has slowed or halted.

However, visual cues are not always fool proof, and it is best not to rely on them as your sole means for determining when fermentation is done. You should also take specific gravity measurements with a hydrometer. If your sg readings do not change for a few consecutive days, then you know fermentation is complete. If your sg does not change for a few days, but it is not near your target final gravity, then you know you have a stuck fermentation--this means fermentation is not completed, and proper steps must be taken to ensure that fermentation does complete.

Finally, once you have completed fermentation, it is time to bottle and prime. Priming is the process of adding sugar to your beer prior to bottling--this additional sugar feeds the yeast and creates carbonation. You can add the sugar to each individual bottle, however many home brewers add the sugar to the beer in the bottling bucket and stir to fully dissolve. Once you have fully incorporated the sugar, you are ready to transfer the beer to the bottles.

But don't make a rookie mistake and think your beer is ready to drink. Yes, you can drink your beer now, and many kits will tell you it is ready. However, if you allow your beer a couple of additional weeks in the bottles, your beer will taste much better--this is known as bottle aging. It may be tough to wait longer to drink your beer, but you will be rewarded with a much better quality brew. This guide is a very basic overview of getting started home brewing. There are many great resources available on the internet to teach you more about home brewing. These include e books, forums, articles, and websites dedicated to the world of home brewing.

In beer brewing, mashing is a process of soaking grains in order to draw out flavor, color, and fermentable sugars. Mashing is not to be confused with steeping. Both processes are the same, but there is one key difference: mashing adds fermentable sugars to the wort, while steeping does not. There are some other differences between the two, but this is a simplistic way to explain the differences.

Steeping uses specialty grains that have already been mashed. Mashing uses base malts that need to be mashed. You do not want to steep base malts because this will add starches to the wort that have not been converted to sugar. As a result, your final beer will end up with the starches in it, which will affect the clarity and mouthfeel of your beer.

You can combine base malts and specialty malts together, and by doing so you are now mashing. When combining the two, you must make adjustments to ensure that you mash the base malts in order to convert the starches into sugars you can use. When combining specialty malts and base malts, you can do a partial mash or go all out and do a full mash, which is all grain brewing. Partial mashing is right in the middle between extract brewing and all grain brewing.

The difference between partial mashing and all grain brewing is the use if malt extract. Partial mashing involves using the malt extract, either as your only base malt or with additional base malt(s). In all grain, you are mashing all your base malt(s) from grains and not using any extract.

 Mashing requires specific times and temperatures. You must mash the grains long enough and at the right temperature in order for the conversion of starches into sugars to take place. Therefore, mashing times are longer than steeping. Constant temperature is the other important factor.

When mashing for beer brewing, many brewers use a mash tun. This is yet another DIY project in beer brewing, so it does not require the purchase of any specialized beer brewing equipment. You can make a mash tun from a cooler. It is necessary to make a few adjustments to the cooler, so that it also doubles as a lauter tun which filters out the mash before racking to fermentation. This requires just a few steps and a few inexpensive pieces of equipment that you can get at any local hardware or home supply store.

There are different types of mashes that can be done, but the one that is most common is the single infusion method. Likely this will be the first one you attempt when you start mashing. Single infusion involves bringing a specific amount of water up to a certain temperature for mashing. The resting temperatures are usually between 149 F and 165 F.

Many brewers use 154 F as the preferred temperature for mashing because this gives a nice balance of body and fermentability that works really well with British and American style ales. To do a single infusion mash, the strike water (the water that is used for the mash) is heated to a temperature higher than the desired mashing temperature so that once the grains are added, the water temperature is where the brewer desires for mashing. In other words, the strike temperature is actually slightly higher than the mashing temperature to account for the drop in temperature that results after adding the grains.

John Palmer, author of the beer brewing bible "How To Brew", uses the following formula to calculate the strike water temperature: Strike Water Temperature = (.2/R)(T2-T1) + T2.  R represents the ratio of water to grain in quarts per pound, T1 is the temperature of the grains in Fahrenheit, and T2 is the target temperature of the mash in Fahrenheit.

Many brewers struggle hitting the proper mash temperature using the single infusion method. This can be frustrating. One note about the formula--it doesn't account for heat loss to the mash tun. It assumes that the mash tun has a thermal capacity of 0. To get around this issue, you can preheat the mash tun with some boiling water or adjust the strike water temperature based on previous experience.

If you choose to adjust the strike water temperature, you need to make sure to keep the mash tun and grain temperature consistent between the different mashes.  Another way to account for the unknown thermal capacity of the mash tun is to adjust the strike water's temperature after it has been added to the mash tun and before adding the grains. This can be done by adding hot or cold water.

Get a free beer brewing e book
Learn more about beer brewing at my blog.

If you can brew tea, then you should be able to steep grains when home brewing. There are differences between steeping grains, partial mashing and full mashing, but if you brew with any of these processes, you will produce quality home brew.

To clarify the difference between steeping and mashing, mashing is a process in which the grains are converted into sugars to feed the yeast. This is what produces the beer. Mashing adds color, flavor, and fermentable sugars to the finished beer. Mashing is necessary in order to convert the starches in the grains into sugar.

Grains or malts with a lot of starch should never be steeped. This excessive starch will create serious issues with the finished beer. Steeping uses specialty grains that have already been mashed, and they are steeped in hot water to extract color and flavor. Unlike mashing, steeping does not add any fermentable sugars. The purpose of steeping is to add flavor that you cannot get from the extract. It is basically a way an extract brewer can improve the flavor of their beer, and have more control over the final beer.

The specialty grains used for steeping are the opposite of the base grains used for mashing. The base grains haven't been mashed, and therefore still need to be mashed. If you add a base malt to the steeping, you can then create fermentable sugars, and therefore, you are now mashing. If you use steeping grains and add malt extract as your base malt, then this is partial mashing.

 It varies according to the recipe as far as what temperature you want to steep at, but they usually fall in the 150 degree to 165 degree range. You do not want your steeping temperature to exceed 170 degrees. Doing so will lead to the extraction of tannins, and tannins create off flavors and astringency.

There are a few different methods of steeping. Hot Steeping is the most common home brewing method. Simply boil water in a pot up to 160 degrees, and then soak the grains for 20-30 minutes while holding the temperature steady.

Boil Steeping is a method that works if you are in a hurry. Simply add the grains into the brew pot before applying any heat, and remove them before the temperature reaches 170 degrees. You then continue to make your wort, so you are essentially combining your boil and steeping into one step. While this method saves time and effort, it isn't as effective as the Hot Steeping method.

Cold Steeping: some brewers prefer to steep their grains for a longer period of time, up to 24 hours. They do this in cold or room temperature water.

No matter the method used, many brewers will put the grains into a mesh bag that they then drop into the pot. Alternatively, you could pour the grains into the pot directly, and then strain them out by using a sanitized colander. Place the colander into the brew kettle, and pour the steep into the kettle to filter out the grains.

Some brewers will heat additional water to no higher than 170 degrees, and pour that water through the grains in the colander to get one more rinse of the grains. This is known as sparging, and this extra rinse helps to ensure that every last drop of goodness (sugars and flavors) has been extracted from the grains. Brewers that use the mesh bag will sometimes squeeze the bag to get out all of the flavor they can. Others avoid this for fear that it will extract tannins. This is something that you can research further, or experiment with in your own home brewing to determine which way suits you best.

Learn more about home brewing with this e book and
my home brewing blog

Home brewing can be a language all its own, so here is a quick rundown of some common terms:

 Adjuncts are sources of fermentable sugars other than malted grain. They serve a myriad of purposes, such as adding distinctive flavors, lightening color and body, and boosting alcohol content without affecting taste.

Adjuncts can refer to any ingredient other than water, malt, hops and yeast. Ingredients whose primary purpose is not to add fermentable sugars to the beer are known as flavoring agents or brewing additives.

                                                                                                                              

Airlocks: plastic devices that contain one or more liquid chambers and are attached to the fermenter. They allow built up CO2 produced during fermentation to be released, while keeping air and contaminates out.

Auto-siphon:  allows for quick and easy siphoning. No contamination is caused by having to suck on the hose. No need to fill the racking hose with a liquid to prime the siphon. Simply lift and plunge the inner racking cane and your siphon is started.

Blow Off Tube: a length of plastic or vinyl tubing that serves the same purpose as an airlock, and fits in the same place on the fermenter as the airlock. The other end of the tube is placed in a bucket of sanitized water.

Bottle Bombs: literally exploding bottles of beer due to too much pressure caused by excessive CO2

Bottling Bucket: essentially the same as fermentation bucket, but has a spigot to make bottling easier without having to use a siphon

Bottling Wand: A metal or stiff plastic tube with a one-way flow valve at the lower end that is used in bottling. In its simplest form, when the tip is pressed against the bottom of a bottle, liquid flows into the bottle. When the tip is lifted, the flow-valve closes and stops the flow of liquid.

DWHAHB:  Don’t Worry, Have A Homebrew! The homebrewers mantra, which basically reminds you to be patient with your beer—good beer comes to those who wait. If you rush beer (don’t ferment long enough, drink too soon) you will likely not have good beer (green beer). Also a reminder if you make a mistake, not to panic—chances are it can be fixed.

Someone else probably made the same mistake and often mistakes are the best batches. Most mistakes can be overcome, especially over time. Worse comes to worse, you learn something about home brewing, whether to repeat the mistake or how to avoid it in the future 


Green Beer:  young beer that has not aged yet, could have off flavors, but often a green beer may taste good—but give it more time to age and it will be much better

Hydrometer: A device for measuring the density of a liquid. A hydrometer will float higher in a more dense liquid than in a less dense one

Krausen:  thick looking foam that forms at the top of your fermenter. It will fall to the bottom of the fermenter later and is a normal part of fermentation—nothing is wrong with your beer.

Mashing is the home brewing term for steeping malt and other grains in hot water in order to extract the starches from the grain and allow them to be converted into sugar. If the grain is not mashed, the starches will end up in the finished beer, affecting the beer's clarity and mouthfeel, and no fermentable sugars will be available for the yeast.

Partial Boil/Full boil:  simply refers to boiling a partial wort (2 or 3 gallons) as opposed to a full wort (5 gallons). Partial boils are common for new brewers and extract home brewing, and top off water is added to complete the wort volume (5 gallons).Full boils are required for all grain home brewing, and require larger pots, and usually more space.

(Primary) fermentation is when the wort finally becomes beer through the conversion of sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This conversion is done by the yeast which "eat" the sugars. It is the brewers job  to provide the right conditions for the yeast to do its job. Secondary Fermentation is for conditioning and clearing the beer rather than additional fermentation

Racking:  transferring wort or beer during the home brewing process—from brew pot to fermenter, primary to secondary or from primary/secondary to bottling bucket

Racking Cane:  a plastic tube that is bent on one end and is used in siphoning beer from one vessel to another, known as racking. Siphon tubing is placed on one end of the cane while a plastic cap is placed on the other end which is inserted into the carboy or bucket. The main advantage to using a racking cane is that it allows liquid to be siphoned while filtering out the undesirable solids from the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

Siphon: a tube for transferring either wort to secondary fermentation vessel, from primary or secondary to bottling bucket. Use gravity to start, never the mouth (contamination)

Sparging:  After steeping grains and filtering them out of the wort, some brewers heat additional water some brewers will heat additional water and pour that through the grains in the colander. This extra rinse helps ensure that as much sugar and flavor from the grains is removed, and is known as sparging.

Specific/Original Gravity:  Specific Gravity is a ratio of the liquid's density compared to the density of water, giving water a Specific Gravity of  Wort is a sugar solution and is more dense than water. Readings taken after fermentation will give a lower reading since sugars have been converted to alcohol.

Strike Water: water used for a mash

Trub:  is what is left at the bottom of the fermenter after fermentation, and the wort has been removed. The trub is comprised of proteins from the grains.

Wort:  The term used to describe "raw" beer--beer that has not yet had yeast added to it. Wort (pronounced 'wert') is essentially just sugar (from malted grains) and water.

home brewing free e book
home brewing blog

Fermentation plays an important part of the process of how to make beer. This is when your wort becomes beer. One of the key factors of fermentation is the temperature. The home brewer must maintain a consistent temperature throughout the fermentation period. The right temperature depends on the type of beer brewed, as well as the strain of yeast used. Usually, the yeast will have the optimal temperature right on the package.

 Generally speaking, ales ferment between 60 and 70 degrees, while lagers should ferment between 50 and 60 degrees. If you ferment at too low a temperature, you can wind up with a stuck fermentation. This is a stopping of the fermentation process before it has completed. This makes the yeast go dormant, and it can even kill the yeast. If you try to bottle beer that hasn't completed fermentation, you can end up with bottle bombs. Even if you don't get bottle bombs, you will at least wind up with beer that doesn't taste too good.

If you ferment at too high a temperature, esters will be produced which create off flavors. Esters are undesirable compounds created by the yeast, and will give your beer a banana flavor. High temperatures also can produce fusel alcohols, heavier alcohols that have harsh, solvent-like flavors. It is important that the proper temperature is maintained at a steady, consistent rate, and does not fluctuate constantly.

A common mistake made by those learning how to make beer is pitching the yeast before the wort has cooled down enough. If the wort is too warm, more diacetyl will be produced early in fermentation than the yeast can reabsorb.

There are many methods you can use to maintain proper temperature during fermentation. You can buy specialized equipment, you can build your own, or you can use items you have around the house. The surrounding climate and time of year both play big roles in temperature control. In colder weather, you will have to keep the beer warm, and in hotter months you will need to keep your beer cool. A closet or basement are great places to ferment your beer.

You can buy a fridge or freezer for your fermenting if you like. If you are just starting to learn how to make beer, it isn't likely that you are ready to make that kind of investment just yet. But there are several cheap ways you can maintain your fermentation temperature, and some do it yourself type projects as well so that you don't have to make any major investments in specialized equipment.

The easiest method is simply relying on the temperature inside your home. This may only work in certain climates or at certain times of the year, but it doesn't require you to do anything. A water bath is another easy solution. Simply place your carboy or bucket in a bathtub and fill with water. It is best that this tub is in a guest bathroom. Or, place the fermenter in a kiddie pool or rubber tub. If it is hot outside and the water doesn't cool it enough, you can add ice to the water. Many brewers freeze water in 2 liter plastic soda bottles and place them in the water. This is what is known as a "swamp cooler". An alternative to a swamp cooler is to wet a towel or t shirt and wrap it around your fermenter. You can also point a blowing fan towards the fermenter as well.

At some point, you might decide to actually purchase a refrigerator or freezer especially for fermentation. But you don't have to buy a brand new one. Perhaps you or a friend has an old fridge or freezer around. You can also look for second hand fridges or freezers at local second hand stores, or see if the local home supply warehouse has slightly damaged ones on sale. You can also look online at sites like craigslist or ebay. You will need a separate temperature control device, but these are easy to find online or at the LHBS, and aren't that expensive. It is also possible that you might find a fridge or freezer that has already been converted by another home brewer.

Getting something especially for fermentation doesn't have to be an expensive option. There are plenty of do it yourself projects, including the son of a fermenter chiller. There are many variations of this, but you basically make a separate storage place for your fermenting that you can control the temperature. Pretty much the same idea as the fridge or freezer, it is a box for fermenting. A great thing about this DIY option is there are so many ways to achieve the same end result. It just comes down to creativity and ability.

I've even heard of someone that made a fermentation chiller out of cardboard they glued together and lined with fiberglass insulation. They used frozen 2 liter soda bottles, and this worked perfectly fine and cost them a total of $13. You can research more ways online at home brewing forums, and should be able to find a solution that suits your situation.

There is one more important note about fermentation temperatures. The fermentation process itself will produce heat, so the beer inside the fermenter will likely be a few degrees warmer than the surrounding air. You can purchase thermometers with probes so that you can monitor the actual temperature of you fermenting beer.

Many brewers notice an improvement in their beers when they have made the extra effort of maintaining a constant, steady temperature during fermentation. You don't have to buy any specialized equipment for maintaining fermentation temperatures when you are first learning how to make beer, but you should still make efforts to ferment at the proper temperature.

There are several dirt cheap ways to help in that regard. In time, you may decide to go ahead and make the investment necessary to maintain proper temperature. You will improve your beer, and that just  makes learning how to make beer that much more enjoyable.

Free how to make beer e book
Visit my how to make beer blog