Home Brewing

For many of the people that enjoy beer brewing, this hobby has become an obsession. They have elaborate beer brewing equipment set ups and regularly brew either partial mash or all grain recipes. However, they had to start somewhere, and for many, it was a Mr. Beer brewing machine.

Unfortunately, many beer brewing snobs look down on the Mr. Beer brewing machine. However, you have to start somewhere, and Mr. Beer is a great way to get into this hobby. You can make better beer using beer brewing equipment and more elaborate brewing methods. However, you can also make some good beers with a Mr. Beer, and many brewers continue beer brewing using it. These beer brewing machines offer convenience and simplicity, and for people that are short on time or space, it allows them to enjoy a hobby that they may not otherwise get to try.

 Mr. Beer is also a great introduction to the world of beer brewing. It allows someone to get in cheap and see if this is a hobby that they will enjoy and stick with. If not, then you are not out too much money, and you don't have a lot of beer brewing equipment that you won't use lying around. If you get hooked into beer brewing, then you can take the plunge and buy more elaborate set ups. Either way, you can pass along your Mr. Beer to someone else and see if they enjoy beer brewing.

 While Mr. Beer has its limitations, you can actually make some very good brews with it. Here are some suggestions on ways to improve your results using a Mr. Beer brewing machine. The first recommendation is using better ingredients than what first come with the kit. The starter ingredients aren't the best quality, and aren't designed to make great beer. Rather, the point is to make something drinkable and teach you the very basics of beer brewing.

The website has refill mixes available at reasonable prices, and these are better products than the initial ingredients. However, to make even better beer, skip these refills and look for recipes for Mr. Beer. These are available at the website, as well as at many beer brewing forums. As opposed to using the booster that comes with the ingredient kits, try substituting un hopped extract. Using all extract (and no booster) for a batch of beer will produce better results.

Additionally, one of the knocks on Mr. Beer is that many of the beers made result in a cidery taste. The booster has a lot to do with this result. Ignore the instructions to use table sugar. DO NOT use table sugar! You can make good beer, but not with table sugar. Instead, substitute corn sugar, also known as dextrose. You can find this at the LHBS or online. You could also get more malt extract, or use two cans of extract and skip the sugar altogether. Generally speaking, more malt makes better beer.

 It seems much of the blame for negative reviews has more to do with the ingredients used as opposed to the Mr. Beer brewing machine itself. Remember the saying, quality in, quality out! Remember not to judge the Mr. Beer on the ingredients you get with it when you first purchase it. The first ingredient kit that comes with it will have pre hopped extract and the booster. Your first beer will hopefully be drinkable, but won't be a very good beer. Just keep in mind that you are first and foremost learning the process, so the first batch is the test run.

 After that, purchase some un hopped extract to replace the booster. This combined with another can of malt (hopped or un hopped) can make some very tasty beers. Another tip is to join their club onthe website, this will allow you to order ingredients and avoid the costs of shipping. Other suggestions for improving your beers is to find a dark place to ferment your beer, such as a closet. A great place is to use a cooler, and this can help to maintain the proper temperature as well.

The instructions included should also be taken with a grain of salt. Rather than following them to a t, it is better to follow good beer brewing advice. For instance, when it comes time to carbonate the beer, instead of adding sugar to each bottle, add up the total amount of sugar needed, then boil a cup of water and add all of the sugar to it and completely dissolve. Boil for 15 minutes. Let the sugar solution cool down for awhile, and then add to your Mr. Beer and stir gently, but thoroughly. Fill your sanitized bottles and cap.

No matter what the instructions say, bottle conditioning tales more than a week. For that matter, it will only make your beer better to let it ferment for an additional week or two. It doesn't take just two weeks to make decent beer. You can drink it in two weeks, but your beer will be so much better with the additional time. The two weeks is a clever marketing ploy. They know you want beer and you want it as soon as possible. If they told you it took 4-6 weeks to make beer, they wouldn't sell as many kits.  Don't drink your beer before the magic is finished, you will wind up drinking flat, cidery beer. Wait at least 2 weeks, and preferably 4, before cracking that first bottle. The beer only gets better the longer you let it mature in the bottles.

Also be careful not to overtighten the lid of your Mr. Beer brewing machine. The lis has to allow gasses produced to escape. This is especially true for beers with higher alcohol levels. If you overtighten, you could wind up with spilled beer and a ruined keg. Another good tip is to purchase the sugar measure they offer if you will be using the 12oz, 22oz, or 1 liter bottles. The sugar measure is very easy to use and provides the correct, exact measurement.

Finally, the best tip is to do a Google search. There are numerous beer brewing forums out there in cyberland that have entire threads dedicated to the world of Mr. Beer. You can learn some more great tips, as well as recipes, to really enhance your beer brewing experience and the resulting beers using a Mr Beer brewing machine.

In the home brewing process, it is possible that during fermentation you might experience what is known as a stuck fermentation. This is when the fermentation stalls, and all of the available sugars have not yet been fully converted to CO2 and alcohol. You do not want to drink your beer at this point, as it is not yet ready. It is also dangerous to ignore this and continue on with the home brewing process, and attempt to bottle your beer. This can lead to a dangerous mess of bottle bombs.

However, this happens from time to time, so there is no need to panic either. There are many reasons that stuck fermentations occur, so here is a look at what causes them, as well as what ways you can remedy a stuck fermentation. First, you have to make sure that you have a stuck fermentation. Do not rely only on visual cues, such as lack of activity in the airlock. The only sure fire way to know is to take a hydrometer reading. If your SG reading doesn't change over three consecutive days, and you are more than 5 points off of your target FG, then you have a stuck fermentation.

One of the most important factors during fermentation is keeping your beer at a constant, proper temperature. The yeast you use will tell you what the optimum temperature range is for your beer. It is important that you keep your beer within this range at a steady temperature without fluctuations. If you fail to do that, then you have a different issue to remedy besides the stuck fermentation. In other words, if the temperature caused you to get stuck, then you need to fix that issue first before attempting to fix the stuck fermentation.

One of the most important lessons for those new to home brewing is to remember to have patience. The fact that your beer is stuck does not mean that it is ruined. In fact, your beer can remain stuck until you figure out how to fix it, and your beer will not suffer any ill effects in the meantime. It is worse to panic and try to fix it without knowing the cause. You could end up doing something unnecessary or detrimental to your beer.

 Keep in mind that you have many great resources available to help you solve this, or any other home brewing issue. You can ask local home brewers, visit the LHBS or go online to home brewing forums. Fortunately, there are several ways you can fix this issue.

The first thing to try is to agitate the fermenter--shake or roll it some. You can also try stirring the wort, but use caution not to splash the beer and aerate it. However, a little stirring can rouse the yeast, suspend it and this might be sufficient to get the yeast to restart fermentation. It can also help to raise the temperature a few degrees, and agitate the beer as well over the course of a few days.

Another idea is to add some yeast nutrient to the beer. Take 3 oz of corn or table sugar and add to some boilng water, as well as some yeast nutrient. Cool this mixture down to fermentation temperature and then add to your beer. Take care when pouring this in the beer so that you do not splash it. Hopefully this will be sufficient to jump start your beer.

You can also pitch more yeast. You can simply add dry yeast to the beer, although it might be more effective to first rehydrate the yeast before pitching. An even better method is to use liquid yeast with a starter.

 If none of these work, then there are more desperate measures, but these aren't the best options and should only be used if all else fails. Try adding champagne yeast. There is also something called amylase enzyme. Finally, you can try alpha galactosidase, also known by the brand name "Beano", but this will dry out your beer and could affect the final flavor.

 If none of these work, then you might be better suited to simply let the beer age and see if time helps. Try to avoid at all costs dumping your beer--that should be the last resort. Often, the mistake new home brewers make is taking action. Sometimes nothing is the best thing you can do. Make sure to take care in how you store your beer. Glass bottles should be avoided because of the risk of bottle bombs. If this is your only option, then be sure to store the bottles out of harms way in case bombs happen.

As you research and learn about beer brewing, one of the most important lessons you will see repeated is to keep oxygen away from your beer. You do not want to expose your beer to possible contamination from airborne germs, bacteria and wild yeasts. However, at one point in the beer brewing process, not only do you want to introduce oxygen to your beer, but it is an important part of the process to do so.

After the boil, once your wort has cooled, you will need to oxygenate your beer just before pitching the yeast. Once you have completed the boil, it is critical to quickly cool your wort down to 80F degrees. Between 80F and 165F degrees is the "danger zone" that bacteria live and thrive in, so it is best that you do not stay in this temperature range for too long. Once you have the wort cooled to the proper temperature, then you need to re-introduce oxygen to it. Oxygen was boiled off, however, the yeast you will pitch needs oxygen in order to feed and start the process of fermentation. This is the only time in the beer brewing process that you will want to expose your beer to oxygen.

There are several ways you can do this, and it does not require you to purchase any additional or specialized equipment. There are some specialized pieces of equipment you can buy, but there are plenty of manual methods that work just as well, ones that many experienced home brewers use themselves. If you are extract brewing and are doing partial boils, then the top off water you add will take care of oxygenating your wort. The water will have oxygen in it, but you could also take a few of the steps described below and use them as well.

 For one, you could simply spray water from the hose on your kitchen sink for additional aerating (assuming your tap water doesn't have too much chlorine). You can use a large whisk or spoon. Just make sure that they are sanitized first. You can also use a paddle. Be sure to stir for several minutes, stir like crazy until your arm hurts.

When you pour your wort into the fermenter, pour from a high angle so that the wort splashes on the sides and gets agitated and aerated--do not pour like this at any other time by the way. You can also seal the fermenter and shake it vigorously, which has the added bonus of giving you a good workout.

Another method is pouring the wort through a sanitized strainer to aerate. If you have two plastic buckets for fermenters (or one plastic bucket fermenter and a bottling bucket) then you can pour the wort back and forth between the two. Some home brewers even attach long stirring rods to their power drill and use that to stir to save time and effort.

 If you want to make this task easier, some home brewers will attach vinyl tubing to an aquarium pump and pump air in this way to save trouble. You can also purchase aerating stones. However, chances are one of the manual methods will work just fine for aerating purposes. No matter how you aerate in your beer brewing, it is important to get oxygen in your beer so the yeast can do their job--make your wort into delicious home brew!

Two common issues that new all grain brewers come across are low efficiency and missing (or failing to maintain) the proper mash temperature. These are certainly two key components, so here is quick look at common causes of these issues and what you can do to prevent them from happening for better home brewing.

Efficiency can be tricky for someone just getting started in all grain home brewing, but it is important in order to produce better beer, as well as to get your money's worth from the grains you purchased. One common cause of poor efficiency is not using enough water in the mashing or sparging processes.

  For mashing, you need to figure that you will need 1 to 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, and about 1/2 gallon of water per pound of grain for sparging. This may seem like a lot of water, and this will produce a lot of wort. However, in order to maximize efficiency, you will need to use the proper amount of water and boil down the wort until you reach the desired volume. It may mean that you have to boil over 10 gallons of wort down to 6 or 7 gallons or less. Needless to say, this will take time. Obviously, if you do not have a brew kettle capable of holding this volume, then you will have to compensate by using more grain.

You still want to keep the mash volume of water the same ratio, but you must adjust the sparge to complete the desired volume. Your efficiency will be lower as a result. It is a dilemma for all grain brewers. You can try to produce the target kettle volume (less water) and spend a couple extra bucks on grains, or you can try to maximize your efficiency and spend extra hours of boil time (as well as extra propane). It is a choice that comes down to your preference, as there really isn't one right or wrong answer.

If you are serious about making the jump into all grain home brewing, it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest an extra large brew kettle, one 12 gallons or larger, and a propane burner with extra BTUs. These will help you cut down on boil time and maximize efficiency. Another factor that gets overlooked in efficiency is the crush of the grains. Sometimes the grains you get online or at the home brewing supply store aren't crushed well enough.

Many home brewers see a big jump in efficiency with a finer crush from their own mill at home. you can also ask the supplier to crush the grains finer. You can also buy a mill, or make your own adjustable two roller mill. This is one of many home brewing do it yourself projects out there, and by searching online at home brewing forums, you can find step by step instructions.  Or, simply use a rolling pin or meat mallet.

It is another common mistake when it comes to proper mashing temperature. The right temperature will extract as much sugar as possible while leaving behind the tannins. Different types of beers require different temperatures for mashing. New brewers often experience trouble with maintaining the proper temperature during mashing as opposed to simply hitting it at the start. This can often be attributed to using a converted cooler as a mash tun. The coolers can actually lose heat over the course of a 60 or 90 minute mash, and drop the temperature below the desired mashing temperature.

 You should not trust your cooler the first time you mash. It is a good idea to test it out first to see how it will perform. There are a couple ways you can remedy losing mash temperature. First, pre heat the mash tun by rinsing it out with hot or boiling water. This will pre heat the cooler, and drain this water just prior to adding your strike water. This will help prevent the cooler from pulling too much temperature from the strike water and mash.

You could also adjust the temperature of the strike water by a few degrees and heat it to a higher strike temperature than your actual target. Pour it into the cooler and let the temperature drop until you hit the desired mashing temperature. This might take a little practice to figure out what the perfect temperature is, and how much heat is lost in your cooler. Once you have added the grains to the mash, it is best to keep the cooler sealed. You will want to check the temperature a few times, especially on the first few batches. But do not check constantly as this will allow heat to escape. Many brewers will wrap their tuns in blankets, pillows or towels to help their tun maintain temperature.

In home brewing, sparging is a process of rinsing the grain bed to extract as much of the fermentable sugars from the grains as possible, while taking care not to extract the bittering tannins from the grain husks. Sparging is done to extract the maximum amount of colors and flavors from the grains, and to maximize efficiency. Sparging takes place after mashing has been completed, and the wort has been drained from the tun.

There are two primary methods of sparging, batch sparging and fly sparging. Both are done in the mash tun. The basic method of sparging involves heating up a separate pot of water, which is known as the sparge water, which is used to pour over the grains. The sparge water can be poured directly over the grain bag or over the grains themselves in a colander, or into the mash tun. In batch sparging, the water is added to the tun and the grains are allowed to settle before being drained. In fly sparging, the wort is drained slowly and sparge water is added to the tun at the same rate as runoff, so that the grain bed is constantly under water. 

Typically, 1.5 times as much water is used for sparging as for mashing. Temperature of the sparge water is very important. Sugars are more soluble at higher temperatures,  which means that at higher temperatures you can more easily extract more sugars. However, you do not want to exceed 170F, because tannins from the husks become more soluble. You do not want tannins in your beer, they impart a bitter, astringent flavor to your beer.

There are many other ways brewers accomplish flavor and sugar extraction. For instance, you can rest the grain bag in a pot after use and allow gravity to pull out the remaining liquids over the course of 10 to 30 minutes. There is also what is called a dunk sparge in which the grain bag gets dunked into a separate pot of water and allowed to soak for 10 to 30 minutes. Then, this water is added to your wort.

There is a debate amongst home brewers whether or not it is a good idea to squeeze your grain bag in order to get out all of the liquid and sugars. Some fear that doing so will extract tannins. For the most part, this is a myth, and you should be ok to squeeze out every last drop of goodness to maximize efficiency. This is just another aspect of home brewing that you can read up online and experiment with on your own to see what works best for you.

Partial mash beer brewing, also called mini mash, is the bridge between extract brewing and all grain brewing. Partial mash beer brewing is the next step beyond steeping grains. What makes partial mashing the next step past steeping and just short of full mashing are two things.

 It goes beyond steeping because you are adding mashable grains to the steep. If you add base malts and specialty grains together, you must mash them, you cannot (or don't want to at least) steep them together. Keep in mind, specialty grains are perfect for steeping because they have been mashed (the fermentable sugars have already been extracted). Base malts have not had their sugars extracted yet, and mashing is the process to accomplish this.

Partial mash is not all grain simply because you are still using malt extract. When you introduce base malts to steeping, you will need to make sure you adjust your process so that you will be mashing and not steeping. If not, the starches will not be converted to sugars, and this will affect your beer's clarity. You will also have wasted the fermentable sugars in your base malts, and that will lower your efficiency. Assuming that you adjust the process accordingly, and you mash instead of steep, you will have added fermentable sugars to your brew in addition to the added flavor and colors of the specialty malt(s).

 This will also give you a taste of all grain brewing, and the only difference is that with all grain, all of the fermentable sugars are obtained from the grains, none come from extract. With partial mash, you will get your fermentable sugars partially from the grains and the rest comes from the malt extract. Partial mashes are preferable to steeping simply because they open up more options as far as ingredients you can use, as well as recipes.

There are a wider variety of malts (and adjuncts) available which gives the home brewer more flexibility as far as types of beers one can brew, and also allows the brewer to have more control over the flavor profile of the final beer. Partial mash can also be more cost efficient by replacing some of the malt extract required.

 One other thing that makes partial mashing attractive to extract brewers is that it does not require any additional equipment to buy. You get more choices as far as available ingredients that can be used, and this opens up much more possibilities as far as recipes you can try, and styles of beer you can produce. Also, because you are using less malt extract, you can also reduce the costs of beer brewing. Although you still have to buy grains, you can purchase them in bulk to save money. Partial mash/mini mash also allows you to further explore the world of beer brewing, and it can help progress you towards the world of all grain beer brewing.

In the world of home brewing, the next step in the progression from kit brewing is steeping with specialty grains. Many home brewing ingredient kits are available that include some specialty grains and bags, so making the step to steeping isn't that difficult. If you can brew tea, you can steep.

Steeping grains allows you to introduce new flavors that might not be available with extract. The process of steeping is basically adding some grains in a bag to your brew kettle. You do not want to boil the grains, you just want to submerge them in warm water and let them steep. The exact same way that you would make tea.

 This is done in home brewing because it will make better beer. It also gives the brewer more options when making beer. The proper water temperature for steeping is between 145F and 165F. You do not want to exceed 170F because anything higher and you run the risk of extracting the tannins from the grains, and these undesirable elements will add a bitterness and astringency to your beer. While tannins are good in wines, they are a major flaw in beer.

If you accidently exceed 170F, there is no need to panic. Many experienced brewers have made this mistake and their beers still turned out ok. But do try to avoid this if you can. Just like many mistakes you will make, remember DWHAHB--Don't Worry, Have A Home Brew!

There is some debate in home brewing circles as to whether the amount of water used for steeping matters. One thing to note is that we are talking about the water amount for steeping, and not mashing. In mashing, water temperature, water chemistry and time are all important factors. For steeping, these factors aren't quite as important (other than water temperature).

You have to make sure that the grains you are steeping are specialty grains and not base malts. You can steep specialty grains and base malts together, but then that is mashing. If you do these together you must make sure you take the proper steps to ensure you are mashing.   Steeping specialty grains is done simply to add flavor and color to your beer. These grains have already been mashed, so they add no fermentable sugars to your wort. Mashing is done to base malts because they have not been mashed, they still contain fermentable sugars you want to extract. Mashing will extract them, steeping will not. 

If you steep base malts, you will extract starches, not sugars, and this will negatively affect the flavor of your beer. Because steeping does not extract fermentable sugars, it is not mashing. Because of this, some brewers do not think that the amount of water used for steeping matters. Others swear that their beer tastes better by being careful as to how much water they use to steep.

This is something, like so much in home brewing, in which you can experiment with to see what works best for you. Remember, always take careful notes when home brewing! For the brewers that feel less water is best when steeping, the rule of thumb is to use less than a gallon of water per pound of grain.

According to John Palmer, author of "How To Brew":

"Water chemistry also plays a role in tannin extraction. Steeping the heavily roasted malts in a low alkalinity water (i.e. low bicarbonate levels) will produce conditions that are too acidic, and harsh flavors will result. Likewise, steeping the lightest crystal malts in highly alkaline water could produce conditions that are too alkaline, and tannin extraction would be a problem again. For best results, the ratio of steeping water to grain should be less than one gallon per pound."

Efficiency is a term you will see in beer brewing, especially when you start to get into all grain beer brewing. Efficiency is the measurement of how much sugar you got out of the grain. As someone new to beer brewing, you probably do not need to worry about efficiency just yet. This is something that is concerned in the world of all grain beer brewing. However, you will see it come up on beer brewing forums, and as you may one day decide to give all grain a try, here is a quick overview to help you better understand.

The efficiency expresses the ratio of the amount of sugars you actually obtain from the grains versus the theoretical maximum amount of sugars available. With extract brewing, you will get a consistent amount of sugars per pound of malt extract. A pound of Liquid Malt Extract in a gallon of water will produce 37 points of specific gravity, while a pound of Dry Malt Extract yields 45 points of specific gravity. Extract brewers are therefore not typically concerned with efficiency. This is more the concern for all grain beer brewing.

For mashing, there are many variables that affect the efficiency. Different types of malt yield various amounts of sugars. The brewers pocesses of mashing and sparging will also have an affect on efficiency. With some practice you can hone in your mashing and sparging processes and become more consistent and efficient. Over time, you will be able to predict how much sugar you can extract from the malt, provided that you know what your efficiency is.

Most home brewers will fall into the 60% to 80% range, some can actually exceed 80%. To determine efficiency requires some math, and a hydrometer. First, you have to determine what the theoretical maximum yield of your malt is. This is expressed in points per pound of malt per gallon of wort. Then divide that amount by the amount of wort you are brewing, which is expressed in specific gravity. Compare that number by the actual specific gravity to see the efficiency. Make sense?

Probably not at first reading, so here is an example to better illustrate it. Let's say the theoretical yield for a malt is 37 points per pound of malt, per gallon of wort. So, with perfect efficiency (100%), mashing 8 lbs of malt to produce 5 gallons of wort would give you (8 X 37)/5 which equals 59.2 points, which on a hydrometer is expressed as 1.059 (1.059 specific gravity). If the actual specific gravity of your wort is 1.041, then 41/59 gives you an efficiency of .69, or 69%.

This is a simple example using only onbe type of malt. In the real world of all grain beer brewing, recipes usually involve using multiple types of grains in differing amounts. But this formula remains the same, but you will have to adjust for the types of malts you are using and if you are not using full pounds of them. This will require conversions to decimals, such as a half pound of 38 point malt would be 38 X .5 = 19. You then add the total points of all the malts and still divide by the amount of wort you are brewing. Don't worry, there are online calculators to help you with this.

Specific Gravity is an important measure for how to make beer. This measurement lets you know when your beer has completed fermentation, as well as how efficient fermentation was. You will be able to know how much of the available sugars were converted to alcohol. Gravity readings are taken using a hydrometer, which measures the density of liquids. A hydrometer floats higher the more dense a liquid is, and the reading of a liquid's density is expressed by the metric measurement called Specific Gravity.

Specific Gravity (SG) is the ratio of the density of a particular liquid in comparison to the density of water. Hydrometer readings taken just prior to fermentation are called Original Gravity (OG), and the targeted Specific Gravity of the beer is called the Final Gravity (FG).  These numbers vary and depend upon what strain of yeast was used, as well as the type of beer that is being brewed. From all of these numbers the home brewer can determine alcohol percentage as well as the efficiency of the brewing process.

You should take hydrometer readings towards the end of fermentation, as this is the only certain way to determine when fermentation has completed. Do not rely only on visual cues. If you have a few consecutive days of the same Specific Gravity, then fermentation has completed. Make sure that your SG readings are within 5 points of your targeted Final Gravity. If your Specific Gravity is off by more than that, this indicates you have a stuck fermentation, and there are certain steps you must take to get the fermentation going again so that it will complete the process.

When you take hydrometer readings, it is important to make sure that oxygen does not get into your beer. You want to be careful that you do not splash or agitate the beer. All equipment that you use to take the hydrometer reading must first be sanitized, and sanitizing your hands is a good idea as well.

 You can purchase a Wine Thief for taking samples for readings, or you could use a siphon that comes with most kits. Or, just use something that most people have lying around the house already--a turkey baster. Once you have drawn the sample, quickly reseal the fermenter to keep air out. Do not return the sample to the fermenter. You can either dump it, or taste it.

However, keep in mind that this is beer that is nowhere near ready yet, so do not panic if it doesn't taste too good. A quick way to determine what your final gravity should be is to take the Original Gravity before pitching the yeast. Take the number to the right of the decimal point and divide by 4.

For example, an OG of 1.060. Take 60 and divide by 4 = 15. Therefore, the Final Gravity should be 1.015.

In order to determine Alcohol By Volume (ABV), simply subtract the Final Gravity from the Original Gravity, and multiply by 131.

So, using the prior example, 1.060 - 1.015 = .045 X 131 = 5.9% ABV.

 

Read your kit instructions for adding yeast. More than likely it will be a dry yeast that needs to be rehydrated in warm water before pitching. Make sure that you take a hydrometer reading to determine your Original Gravity (OG). This is important to help you determine later in the process when the fermentation has completed. Make sure you seal the fermenter and insert the airlock or blow off tube.

At this point you sit back and wait, and let the yeast go to work turning your wort into beer. Your package of yeast should tell you waht the ideal temperature range is for fermentation. It is critical that you keep the beer within this range at a steady, constant temperature.

The fermentation process takes about 10 days to complete, but the only definite way to know it is done is to check with your hydrometer. If you take readings on consecutive days and get the same reading, and that number is within 5 points of your target Final Gravity, then fermentation is complete. The instructions in your kit should give you your target FG.

You can then decide if you want to transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter, or just leave it in the primary for a couple more weeks. Fermentation does not actually happen in secondary fermentation. You only rack to a secondary once the process of fermentation has completed.

The secondary fermentation is done to calrify and condition your beer. Not all brewers secondary ferment, and for many types of beers, it isn't necessary. You can research online into this a little further to see why you would and woulod not want to secondary ferment. From there, you can decide what way works best for you. It doesn't hurt the beer to leave it in the primary for a few more weeks as opposed to racking to the secondary after fermentation is complete. In fact, it will actually make your beer better.

Many kit instructions will tell you that your beer only needs to ferment for a week, and then soon after it will be ready to drink. Ignore these instructions. Leaving your beer in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks, whether you seconsary ferment or just leave it in the primary, will make much better beer. It may be tough to wait that long, but it will be worth it.

Once you have completed fermentation, you are now ready to bottle.

First, make sure that the bottles have been sanitized, as well as all the beer brewing equipment you will use for the bottling process--siphon, tubing, bottling wand, caps, and bottling bucket. Your kit may tell you to add sugar to each bottle, but a better way to do it is to take the total amount of sugar called for and thoroughly dissolve it in some boiling water. Let that mixture cool to 70F, and then add that to your bottling bucket. Then, rack your beer into the bottling bucket and take care not to let the beer splash. You can use a siphon to transfer the beer. Here is where it helps to have an auto siphon. If you do not have one, do not use your mouth to start a siphon because your mouth has bacteria and germs that can get into your beer.

Let your beer age in the bottles for a few weeks. You need to allow it time to carbonate fully. You could drink it sooner, but allowing your beer to fully prime and bottle condition a couple extra weeks will pay off with better beer. While you are waiting for your first batch of brew, make sure to clean and sanitize all of your beer brewing equipment and go ahead and start your next batch.