How To Make Beer

Brewing your own beer might seem a bit complicated. But it's actually a simple series of steps common to most types of beer. Once you've done it a few times, it will become easy AND fun.

FIRST, be sure that you have all the equipment you need. Buy all your ingredients. Friends always come in handy when you need help! If you're working from a kit, everything you need will already be assembled and measured. Let's get started!

Part One: Start Your Yeast

If you're using liquid yeast, the package must be squeezed and left in a warm place for at least two days before you begin brewing. The package will visibly expand during this time as the yeast rises, much like making bread. If you're using dry yeast, make a starter just before you begin to brew. Using a starter gives the yeast a head start and prevents weak fermentation:

Put one cup of warm (90F), boiled water into a sterile jar and stir in the yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and wait 10 minutes.

Stir in one teaspoon of sugar.

Cover and place in a warm area out of direct sunlight.

After 30 minutes or so the yeast should be actively churning and foaming. It is now ready to pitch.

Part Two: Sanitize

The next thing you need to do is sanitize everything that will come in contact with your unfermented beer, and I mean everything. To do this you'll need a sanitizer such as Idophor or chlorine bleach. Immerse everything in a solution of one tablespoon of bleach to five gallons of water, or follow the directions that come with your sanitizer. Your fermenting bucket makes a good container for this, or a large kitchen sink. It takes time for the sanitizer to do its job, so allow your equipment to soak in the sanitizing solution for at least a half hour. If you used bleach, you must next rinse everything thoroughly to remove the odor. Idophor solution does not need to be rinsed away.

Part Three: Boil the Water

The water you use is very important. After all, beer is mostly water. If your tap water tastes good at room temperature, it should make good beer. It will just need to be boiled for a few minutes to remove the chlorine and kill any bacteria. Do not use water from a salt-based water softener, and don't use distilled (de-ionized) water. Beer, and ale particularly, needs the minerals for flavor, while the yeast needs the minerals for proper growth. A good bet for your first batch of beer is the bottled water sold in most supermarkets as “drinking water”. Add five gallons of cold water to your brew pot and bring it to a boil.

Part Four: Steep the Grain

Many beer kits come with flavoring grains. Look for grains contained in some sort of porous bag that can be easily removed. Loose grains can also be strained out with a colander. If you're using grains, add them just before the boiling point to steep for about 15 minutes, then remove and discard.

Part Five: Add the Malt

When the water boils, add your malt syrup or extract. Stir it well with your sanitized paddle, making sure the syrup dissolves and doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. You don't want your beer tasting like burnt sugar! Now you've got wort. Set your timer for an hour and let the wort boil.

Part Six: Add the Bittering Hops

Some kits include bittering hops. These can improve the character of your beer and need to boil for a long time in order to reap their full benefits, so add them with the malt.

Part Seven: Add the Flavoring Hops Last

Flavoring hops act as a flavoring agent, as well as aiding in beer-foam head retention. They should be added during the last 15 minutes of the boil. If you're making a flavored beer such as a raspberry ale, add the fruit flavoring at this stage, as well.

Make sure the wort keeps up a good, rolling boil, and that it doesn't boil over on to the stove. Not only is it a mess, this boil-over can negatively affect the flavor of your beer.

Part Eight: Cool the Wort

When the boil is complete, let the wort cool to less than 80ºF. While it is above 130ºF, bacteria and wild yeasts are inhibited, which is good. However, it is very susceptible to oxygen damage as it cools, which is bad. There are also sulfur compounds that evolve while the wort is hot. If the wort is cooled slowly, these can dissolve back into the wort causing cabbage or cooked vegetable flavors in the final beer (blech!). The objective is to rapidly cool the wort before oxidation or contamination can occur.

To cool the wort quickly without a wort chiller, place the pot in a sink or tub filled with ice water that can be circulated around the hot pot. While the cold water is flowing around the pot, gently stir the wort in a circular pattern so the maximum amount of wort is moving against the sides of the pot. If the water gets warm, replace it with cold water. The wort will cool in about 20 minutes.

Note: Do not add commercial ice to the wort to cool. Commercial ice harbors lots of dormant bacteria that would love a chance to work on the new beer. Bottled drinking water is usually pasteurized or otherwise sanitized to inhibit contamination.

Part Nine: Hydrometer Reading

This is also a good time to take a hydrometer reading. Pour a small amount of beer into a tall container and float the hydrometer inside. Record the numbers in your log book. This will tell you the potential alcohol content in your batch.

Part Ten: Transfer the Wort

When the wort is cool enough, transfer it from the pot to the fermenter (your glass carboy or plastic bucket). I highly recommend using the reverse siphon for this process. You'll leave behind more sediment and avoid the sticky mess of transferring it by hand.

Part Eleven: Pitch the Yeast

Open your sanitized yeast package and add the contents to the carboy. Gently rock the carboy to aerate the wort, splashing it around.

The use of oxygen in brewing is a double-edged sword. The yeasts need oxygen to grow and multiply enough to provide a good fermentation. When the yeast has first been pitched, whether to the starter or the beer, it first seeks to reproduce. The yeast makes use of the dissolved oxygen in the wort for this. Boiling the wort drives out the dissolved oxygen, which is why aeration of some sort is needed prior to fermentation. The yeast first use up all of the oxygen in the wort for reproduction, then get down to the business of turning sugar into alcohol and CO2 as well as processing the other flavor compounds.

On the other hand, if oxygen is introduced while the wort is still hot, the oxygen will oxidize the wort and the yeast cannot utilize it. This will later cause oxidation of the beer that gives it a wet cardboard taste. The key is temperature. The generally accepted temperature cutoff for preventing hot wort oxidation is 80ºF.

Now assemble your airlock, fill it with water, and insert it into the hole at the top of your fermenter.

Part Twelve: Fermentation

In about 12 to 24 hours some signs of yeast activity should be present. You should see bubbles rising through your airlock, and if you sniff the gas coming from the airlock it should smell yeasty or beer-like. After a few days, the vigorous fermentation should subside. When the bubbles in your airlock appear only once a minute or their production seems to have stopped, your beer is ready to move to the next stage.

Part Thirteen: Siphoning to a Secondary Fermenter

When your beer has finished the initial fermentation, it is time to move it into another vessel, usually a smaller carboy. When transferring the beer it is important not to mix air into the beer, as this can cause it to have a stale flavor. Therefore, you must use a siphon to move your brew. Be sure to sanitize the carboy and siphon first.

At the bottom of your original container there may be a layer of sediment. This is mostly dead yeast. You should try to leave this behind by not allowing the suction end of the tubing to touch it, as it can add undesirable flavors to your beer.

Seal the carboy with a stopper and add the airlock as before. Place the carboy in a cool, dark place for another week. You will know that it's time to bottle it when the surface is clear, not foamy, and bubbles cease to rise through the airlock (or rise very slowly).

Part Thirteen: Add the Priming Sugar

Dissolve ¾ cup corn sugar in one quart of water and bring it to a boil. Add this mixture to the contents of the carboy. The yeasts will feed on this new sugar and continue to produce CO2, causing carbonation and pressurization in the bottles. Take another hydrometer reading at this point and compare it to your previous reading.

Part Fourteen: Bottling

You will need at least 48 bottles (two cases) and caps to bottle a 5-gallon batch. It's better to have about 60. You may not need all of them, but having a few extra bottles and caps is better than having extra home-brew and nothing to put it in.

As with all stages in the brewing process, sanitation is extremely important. Thoroughly wash and soak your bottles in the sanitizing solution.

Fill each bottle, leaving about an inch of headroom. This headroom allows the carbon dioxide to expand and create a proper seal.

Part Fifteen: Capping and Conditioning

When your bottles are filled, cap them and place them in a cool, dark place for at least 10 days to condition (become carbonated).

Part Sixteen: Chill and enjoy! Raise a toast to your first batch of home brew!

Optional: Kegging

If you prefer, you may keg your beer instead of bottling it. Kegging does require additional equipment, but it offers added convenience over bottling.

You must, of course, sanitize your keg and anything else that will come in contact with your beer. If you are using a plastic keg, then follow the sanitizing procedures outlined above. If you are using a metal keg, use iodine to sterilize your keg as bleach and other oxidizing sanitizers may react with the metal in your keg.

Prepare your priming sugar as before by dissolving it in water and bringing it to a boil. Siphon your beer into the keg and add the dissolved sugar as you go. Seal the keg and place it in a cool place for two weeks. Tap and enjoy!

Pouring

If you bottled your beer then you will notice that there is some sediment at the bottom of each bottle. This is mostly spent yeast, and you should avoid mixing it into your beer as it will cloud it and add a bitter, yeasty flavor to your beer. Each step in racking reduces the amount of sediment in the bottles. Sometimes it is possible to remove virtually all the sediment. However, since sediment is common to homebrewed beverages, it is recommended that you pour your beer slowly, in one smooth motion, stopping before you pour the yeasty dregs into your glass. You should also start pouring slowly so that you can see how foamy your beer is and adjust it to bring about the proper head. You can pour it slowly down the side of the glass for bubbly beers or down the middle of the glass if it is less bubbly. This may take a little practice, but the results are worth it.