Home Brewing

Now that you have jumped in to home brewing, you have hit the point that you want to make the jump to kegging your beer. Besides the kegs themselves, what other equipment do you need to get started?

First, you need a place to store your kegs. This place needs to be somewhere that you can hold your kegs and maintain the proper, constant temperature. Kegerators are a great option since these are specifically designed for beer distribution. Professional kegerators are built for use in restaurants and bars, so they are built to be tough and to last. The only drawback is that they are expensive. You can search local restaurant supply stores or craigslist and usually find some used kegerators. However, even the used kegerators will still cost a good bit of money, anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to a thousand dollars.

 Because of this, most home brewers choose to go the do it yourself route. If you already have an old fridge or freezer, then you already have the perfect makings of your very own kegerator.  You will need to purchase a conversion kit because fridges and freezers aren't designed to be used as kegerators. However, they can be easily converted. If you do not have an extra fridge or freezer already, it isn't that difficult to hunt one down. You can look at home supply stores for sales or slightly damaged models, Goodwill, E bay, craigslist or even try yard sales. Perhaps one of your friends or neighbors has one they aren't using.

You can also opt to buy a new freezer at the home supply store. These make perfect keg boxes for home brewers and aren't too expensive brand new--you can usually find ones that are perfect for home brewing purposes for around $300 or less. The main thing you will need for the conversion is a temperature control kit. This will ensure that you maintain the proper temperature for storing your beer.

You will also need to purchase a CO2 tank and regulator to carbonate your beer. The regulator helps you dispense your beer at the proper pressure and temperature, and will also let you know when you are getting low on CO2. Next, you will need hoses and connections. You need to connect your CO2 tank to the kegs and faucets.

Finally, you will need to be able to dispense your beer via a tap. You can opt for a tower tap system, or you can simply attach taps to your kegerator. A cheaper option still is to use what are known as picnic taps, which are hoses attached to the kegs with a dispenser on the end. If you have ever been to a keg party, then this is what was used to dispense beer. They don't look as cool as actual taps, but they get the job done. This whole set up will set you back anywhere from a few hundred dollars upwards and even over a thousand.

 It really comes down to a matter of personal preference and how fancy you want your set up. Be sure to look at online home brewing supply shops as well as home brewing forums. You will find complete kegging equipment to get you up and running, and at the forums you will find many different do it yourself kegerators that can save you money and get you to kegging your home brew much faster and cheaper.

Typically in home brewing, if you are just starting you will likely bottle your first batches of beer. Many home brewers at some point take the plunge and opt to keg their beer. Kegging offers many advantages over bottling, but new brewers do not start with kegging because it requires specialized equipment with extra costs to get up and running.

 One great thing about home brewing is the fact that you can get started in this hobby relatively cheaply, without too great of an initial expense. However, to get started kegging your home brew, it will require some money initially. For many people, they simply want to try home brewing first as cheaply and easily as possible to determine if this is a hobby that they will want to continue to do. It does not require a lot of money to get started, just a simple starter kit and the first batch of ingredients. However, many people find that after a few batches they are hooked and then are looking for ways to enhance their home brewing experience. This is when they start looking into kegging their home brew.

Once you have the equipment in place, kegging offers many advantages over bottling. First, bottling can be a more difficult way to store and serve your beer versus kegging. You have to clean and sanitize each and every bottle. You also must have the storage space to store all of the bottles. A typical 5 gallon batch of beer requires at least 50 12 oz bottles, and one way or another you must purchase these bottles, as well as the bottle caps and capper. Fortunately, many of the starter kits will include these items. However, you still have to actually perform the task of bottling and capping, as well as storing the bottles.

You also must prime your beer and allow it to carbonate for a few weeks before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. On the other hand, kegs offer an easier way to enjoy your beer. You simply rack the beer from the fermenter directly into your keg. You can prime your beer in the keg itself, although this will still require a few weeks wait while the beer carbonates. Instead, most home brewers that keg purchase a CO2 tank for carbonation. This is what is known as forced carbonation.

This allows you to condition your beer in just a couple days, and then you can enjoy drinking your beer quicker. Another advantage of forced carbonation is the fact that you control the amount of carbonation. With bottles, it is possible to over carbonate or under carbonate your beer, which can result in either bottle bombs or flat beer.

To get started kegging, you will need to purchase some specialized equipment including the kegs themselves. You need a place to store the kegs, which can be a kegerator, or a converted freezer or fridge. This will wind up being an initial expense ranging from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand. Forunately, the costs associated with kegging are primarily upfront costs, so you can quickly recoup your investment.

Plus, it is cool to have beer ready to go at any given time. And this is another advantage of kegging: you will be the envy of your friends. How cool will you be to have delicious home brews on hand at all times, ready to enjoy? The only big drawback to kegging is that it isn't easy to transport your home brew. Taking along a 12 pack in bottles is much easier, although you have to still keep track of the bottles to reuse them.

However, just because you keg doesn't mean you can't also bottle your beer. After all, you will still have the bottles around. This makes transporting beer and giving home brew as gifts much easier, and offers you the best of both worlds. Once you have some home brewing experience under your belt, you may decide to take the leap and keg your beer. It really isn't that difficult to do, and can be a much better alternative to bottling.

As you research and learn about home brewing, it is important to know that there is no one set way to go about it. There are some steps of the brewing and fermenting process that must be followed properly in order to make beer. However, part of the appeal of home brewing is the fact that there are a wide variety of beer styles, recipes, ingredients and brewing methods to make beer.

You can learn a lot about the home brewing process by visiting a local beer supply store, home brewing websites and forums online, and by visiting local home brewing club meetings in your town. One of the greatest benefits of home brewing is the social aspect, and you can end up having a notebook full of ideas for beer batches. You will likely have enough ideas to keep you occupied for months, and you may never run out of ideas for new approaches, recipes, and styles of home made beers for yourself and to share with family and friends.

If you are just getting started with home brewing, one of the best ways to start with minimal investment is to start with an all-in-one beer machine. This takes up minimal space, is cheap and less messy. Beer machines simplify the process of home brewing, and allow you to test the hobby out to see if it is something you will enjoy for years to come. The machine comes with a set of ingredients for one batch of beer, and the equipment is automated so the rookie brewer move through the brewing and fermenting process with ease, and be able to enjoy home made beer a few weeks later. Equipment kits are another way to get started, for a little more of an investment. These are perfect if you are certain you want to enjoy home brewing for years to come, and a basic kit has everything you need to get started home brewing. You can upgrade or add on other equipment as you go along, and these kits will give you years of usage. You can always continue to brew using the beer machines, and many brewers do so. But, after a few batches, you may decide to upgrade to a kit.

Even experienced home brewers can try new challenges. There are many options for the method of brewing beer, and each variation gives the brewer more flexibility and choices that will affect the final beer. Each method involves a little more effort in the process, so it is best to research them in advance so that you are familiar with the requirements of these methods.

For beginners, it is common to start with the extract brewing method. Actually, you will start with ingredient kits, a simplified form of extract brewing. But, if you extract brew using recipes as opposed to kits, you can still produce great beers. You still can control what style of beer you brew, as well as the flavor profile and characteristics you desire.

You can continue with extract brewing for some time, and many brewers only extract brew. But many brewers look for another challenge, and desire to make a wider range of beer styles and flavors. They next try steeping, partial mash brewing, and all grain brewing. Each is a little more complex and take longer to complete the brewing process. But each offers more flexibility in making beer, and allows the brewer greater control over the final beer flavor and characteristic profile. It is up to you where to start, as well as what path you take along the way. You can learn a lot about home brewing by networking with other brewers. But you will probably not get bored with home brewing because there are so many ways to make great beer at home.

Assembling the equipment and the ingredients to make beer is a cut and dried operation.  The process of  home brewing  isn't really a mystery.  That is one of the reasons that home brewing has become so popular.  Because you can get set up to brew beer at home with a relatively low investment in equipment and ingredients, it's easy to get started on home brewing  your own beer.  And when you finish that first batch and it is stored away to be sampled in a few weeks, the excitement that you soon will be drinking your own beer is a unique feeling and one you want to repeat often.

Once you have confirmed that you can indeed make beer, the next question comes up is - can you make GOOD beer?   When you tasted that first batch, you were pretty excited because it really was beer.  But you may have noticed some aspects of the beer you would like to improve.  The beer may have been too bitter or have too strong a hops flavor.  The clarity of the beer may have been imperfect or you could see stuff floating around in your beer. 

But these flaws are acceptable at first because they drive you to want to become a better beer maker.  You want your beer to be so flavorful and enjoyable to drink that your guests say its as good or better than store bought beer and that it even lives up to the quality at the local brew pub.  That’s a tall order but part of the fun of home brewing is to strive for those goals.  To get there, some of the tricks that the old pros of home brewing know will help a lot.  Some of their wisdom can help you move from a rookie beer maker into the ranks of people and actually know what they are doing.

Most recipes for home brewing call for making a batch of five gallons of beer.  That's a lot of beer.  So sometimes home brewers try to cut the batch to make less beer.  It's done with good intent.  It's hard to store five gallons of beer.  And if you don't drink your own beer up pretty fast (or give it away), the beer can go stale or bad which is hard to watch happen to "your" beer.   But old pros tell us don't cut the batch and go ahead and make beer up five gallons at a time.  You need that quantity to get the full value out of the brewing process.  And it's hard to adjust the recipes for a smaller batch which means that there is a good chance you will end up with a beer that does not have the right balance of malt, hops and yeast.  The outcome can be a beer that is difficult or impossible to drink and it all gets thrown out.  Better to make five gallons of good beer than three gallons of undrinkable brew.

The more you study and learn about beer making, the better you will become at home brewing.  Don't just go from the instructions that come with the equipment.  Sink your teeth into learning all you can.  The beer you make will benefit from the homework you do.  And you will have more fun too.

Just as it's not advisable to cut the size of any batch of home made beer you produce, also avoid cutting corners in terms of time or clean up.  Sometimes it seems that boiling the beer in progress which is called the "wort" for an hour to an hour and a half seems like a lot.  But the long boiling time helps the ingredients mesh in just the right way.  It also boils off bad elements of the mixture that you don't want in the beer and it brings out the flavors of the malt, the grains and the hops so you are getting the best of those ingredients.  Finally, don’t be worried about being too fussy about cleanliness.  Keeping your boiling pots and fermentation tanks absolutely clean and sterile assures that nothing will get into the beer except that pure wort that you so carefully brewed. So go ahead and be fussy.  The beer you make will be better if you are.

It probably comes as no surprise that home brewing is a fast growing hobby. As long as there are beer lovers that enjoy drinking beer, it is a safe bet that home brewing will continue to gain and maintain popularity. And seeing as how people have enjoyed beer for centuries,  that seems likely to continue. So, just what makes home brewing so popular? There are many reasons home brewing lures in so many enthusiasts. For many people, it comes down to several personal reasons. But, there are a couple health benefits as well! 

Obviously, the most popular reasons have to do with personal choices. Nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself. You took on a challenge and succeeded. And the best part, you can thoroughly enjoy your success, the fruits of your labor.  Many people enjoy trying something new, and once learning the basics, trying to expand and learn new ways to do something.

Home brewing is perfect for those curiosity and adventure seekers. There are so many ways to make beer, it is unlikely that you will master them all, let alone get bored.

It is a great sense of accomplishment to produce your own beer, and to make something better than what you can buy. It is also fun to be able to share your beer with friends. This is an added benefit--a way to share with others and enjoy the social aspect of home brewing.

This can take home brewing beyond a mere hobby, and as a way to bond with people. Not only can you share your delicious home brew with friends, you can bring it along to parties and gatherings. Your brew will be the topic of conversation, and you as well since you are the person that made (and brought) this to the party.

Home brewing is also a good hobby for people who are generally busy. Constant monitoring isn't necessary with home brewing. It takes some time to set up the home brewing process, and to make the beer itself, but once you have it in the fermenter, you can basically set it and forget it.

Finally, there are health benefits to home brewing. If you have to move some heavy equipment, such as a full carboy or a full keg, then you can get a workout doing so! But seriously, there are some health benefits to home brewing. Beer can actually be good for you, in moderation, of course. Some studies suggest that one or two glasses of beer can be good for your health.

Home brews can reduce hangovers in two different ways. First, because they contain large quantity of yeast that is rich in Vitamin B, a vitamin that helps reduce hangovers. Also, your home brew will not contain any preservatives, and likely no adjuncts, and these are what contribute to hangovers when you drink mass produced beers.

It should come as no surprise at the popularity of home brewing. There are many obvious reasons, but if for no other reason, it is a way to enjoy delicious beer!

One of the steps in the home brewing process is the transferring of your beer. You first transfer the wort into the fermenter, and then when the fermentation process is complete, you transfer your beer into bottles so you can enjoy and share your brew. Bottling can be messy, but it is just another important step to learn as you master the process of home brewing. There will probably come a time that you will consider taking the next step in home brewing, and that is kegging your beer as opposed to bottling it. If you are looking into taking this next step, you will want to know what additional costs and what additional steps are involved before taking the plunge.

Kegging will cost you some money, and can be expensive to start. Kegging requires more home brewing equipment, starting with CO2 tanks, kegs themselves, and a kegerator of some sort to store the kegs and keep them at a constant temperature. However, these costs are upfront, and prove to be good investments over time. Once you have some home brewing experience under your belt, you will be able to determine if this is the right move for you.

However, this can improve your home brewing experience, so for many home brewers, this is simply a step in the progress of their passion and enjoyment. It is probably a good idea to make sure everyone in the household is on board, especially a significant other or spouse. Chances are, they have already been through this before, when you first started home brewing. Kegging can actually be a natural part of the progression of home brewing. As this hobby becomes an obsession, your quality of home brew will improve, and you may find that your home brewing demand this next step.

As well as cost consideration, it is important to assess how much space you will need for kegging. Along with the additional equipment, you will need either refrigerator space or a kegerator. A kegerator is smaller than a fridge and designed specifically to store one or more kegs. A cheaper option is to take and old fridge and buy a conversion kit so that the fridge essentially becomes a kegerator--this is a great option if you have an old fridge out in the garage. If you like to entertain and host many gatherings and parties (or would like to), then this option is a no brainer.

Kegging gets rid of the fuss and hassle associated with bottling. Rather than have to deal with cleaning and sanitizing cases of bottles and finding a place to store them, and then keeping up with the empties after use, you can have all your beer in one spot ready to be dispensed whenever you want. Kegging also gives you better control over the levels of carbonation in your beer. This gives you more options in the variety of styles and flavors of beers you can produce.

Even if you decide to keg your beer, you can still bottle if you wish. For one, you will still have the bottles around. You can still bottle beer for gifts, or to be able to take with you to parties and other social gatherings. Of course, you can always take a long a keg, but that isn't always convenient. Bottles still give you another way to take along your favorite beer when you can't take along a keg. Kegging is something to seriously consider if you really enjoy home brewing. The expense will soon prove to be a worthwhile investment to your home brewing experience.

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.

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