No matter if this is your first batch of home-brewed beer or you’ve now become an expert at it, there are always some tricks you can learn and implement to your craft. In this article, we’ll tell you all you need to know about brewing beer at home. Here we go:
Key Ingredients
- Water
- Fermented Sugar
- Hops
- Yeast
Brewing Equipment
- Brewing Kettle
- Fermenter and Air-lock
- Sanitizer
- Auto-siphon
- Funnel
- Carboy
- Stir spoon
- Racking cane
- Thermometer
- Bottles and bottle caps
If gathering all of these pieces of equipment and ingredients seems a lot, then you can buy a beer making kitwhich will have everything you need in a single box to ease up your beer making process.
First of all, you need to sanitize your work area as well as every equipment you’ll be using during the whole process. This avoids spoilage of beer and foul smell. The last thing you ever want is a terrible spoiled beer after weeks of waiting.
We’ve decided to go with a simple ale recipe, to begin with for your first-ever home-brewed batch of beer.
We’ll divide the remaining process of making beer into three parts from here
- Making the Wort and Cooling it
Boil 1.5 gallons of water. After the water begins to boil remove it from the heat and add malt syrup and stir till it dissolves. Make sure no syrup sticks to the bottom or walls of the vessels. Bring the mixture again on heating for 50 minutes and keep stirring.
The next ingredient we’ll be using is Hops. Hops are cone-like flowers credible for balancing the sweetness with its bitter taste, which also help to keep the froth over the beer for a long time.
Add hop pellets. Before you add them make sure that your vessel isn’t filled completely as hops tend to create a foam on the top of the liquid. Let it cook for 15-20 minutes.
Once the wort is cooked, cool it immediately to 80 degrees Fahrenheit in just about 20 minutes. After adding hops, prepare an ice-water bath.
- Ferment
Add 3 gallons of cold water in the carboy. Pour the warm wort. To prepare yeast put one packet of yeast in one cup of warm water. (90°F) Stir and then cover it for 10 minutes. The yeast should form foam.
Sprinkle this yeast preparation into the carboy. Close the carboy tight and shake it well to mix the yeast evenly. Clean the carboy’s mouth and put the fermentation lock.
For fermentation to take place you need to store the carboy in a cool place (65-75°F) without direct sunlight. If everything falls in place, you’ll see air bubbles and foam in the fermentation lock. This entire process will take around 2 weeks.
- Bottling
Before starting to bottle your beer, clean all the bottles, bottle caps, bottle fillers and transfer hoses. Air-dry everything afterwards. Pour a mixture of corn syrup and water that is boiled for 10 minutes in the bottle. Using a racking cane, a siphon and a bottling bucket, fill all the bottles leaving an inch from the top. This is how you do it . Cap the bottles once you’re done.
Leave the bottles at room temperature for any time between two weeks to two months to age.
Is home-brewed beer cost-effective?
Each bottle of homebrew beer will costs you around $5.00 per six-packs as compared to $9-$10 for your favorite six-packs at any local craft beer bar. It is up to you which beer are you deciding to home-brew. Replacing great craft beers with home-brewed ones will surely give some relief to your pocket. Plus, it shall account as a new hobby.
Good job! You’ve created your first batch of homebrewed beer successfully. Pop the bottle maybe on a hard day and toast yourself because beer beats all the weariness and that too if you made it on your own. Impress your friends with your new hobby by inviting them over conversations and booze.
Have fun and luck with your first batch! We hope it turns out just the way you like.