Brad P Newman asked:


s quite so satisfying to the taste as one you\’ve brewed yourself. Brewing beer is also a fun hobby. What are you waiting for? Let\’s get started.

You\’re going to need some equipment. It\’s not hard to find, and shouldn\’t cost too much to pick up. You\’ll find everything you need at any local brewing store or online brewing site. Here\’s a list:

Small bowl

Bottle brush

Saucepan

Bottling bucket

Airlock and stopper

Spatula

Oven gloves

Wooden mixing spoons

Brewing Pot

Plastic hose

Fermenter

Bottle capper

Thermometer – the stick-on type is best

But – it\’s much easier, especially if you\’re new to this, to pick up a microbrew kit. It will include everything you need, all the brewing ingredients, including hopped malt concentrate and brewers yeast powder, and fermentables, which are what you need to produce your desired flavor of beer. It\’s possible to get everything separately, but a self-contained kit is much more convenient.

The equipment will need to be sanitized. In fact, this is one of the most important steps in producing a decent beer. Everything needs to be cleaned with hot, soapy water. Then the equipment should be sanitized using either the chlorine solution or iodine solution which came with the kit. Even better, and more environmentally friendly, is sanitizer which contains Sodium Percarbonate – as effective as chlorine but without leaving the problematic residue of bleach.

Once everything is sterilized, we are ready to begin. Two quarts of water go into the brew pot. Heat the water until it begins to steam – around 180F. Remove from heat. Add the beer kit and fermentables. Follow the instructions that came with the kit.

Stir the brew until everything is dissolved, then put the lid on and leave it to sit for ca twenty minutes on a low heat. Fill the fermenter with four gallons of water and add the mix, known as the wort. Stir this for four minutes to oxygenize the mixture. Once the wort is cool to the touch, the yeast can be added.

Now the wort needs to ferment. The fermentation process continues for five days. During fermentation it\’s important to keep the temperature constant, at around 65F, and the wort should also be kept in a dark place. During the fermentation process you will observe tiny air bubbles rising to the surface.

After five days you need to check the beer daily. The beer is ready to be bottled when no more air bubbles appear. It\’s very important to wait for fermentation to fully complete, so don\’t be impatient or you will ruin your beer.

Before bottling you need to prepare what is known as the primary solution. The primary solution is what carbonates the brew. Add two cups of water and three-quarters of a cup of dextrose to a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Let it cool for thirty minutes then pour it into the bottling bucket.

Now for the bottling itself: put one end of your hose in the bottling bucket and attach the other end to the spigot on your fermenter. Open the spigot and transfer the beer to the bottling bucket. When finished, detach and clean the hose and throw away the fermenter. Each bottle should be filled leaving one inch of air at the top. Cap the bottles tightly making sure there are no leaks.

Almost there now, but it\’s still not quite ready for drinking. The bottled beer needs to be kept in a cool dark place for the second fermentation process. The fridge is too cold for this purpose. Basements are ideal, if you have one. The beer needs to sit for two more weeks before being ready to enjoy.

Well, that\’s the traditional way to do it. But it\’s really much easier to purchase a microbrewery kit which includes an all-in-one single step fermenter, conditioning vessel, and dispenser apparatus. No need for bottling – the beer can be tapped directly from the dispenser. And the assembled kit sits in your fridge taking up no more room than a conventional six-pack.

Cheers!

RAPHAEL

Steve Cownley asked:


The first thing you’ll need to do when brewing is to sanitize everything that will come in contact with your unfermented beer. It will take time for the sanitizer to do its job, so don’t rush things.

Next, you’ll need to rinse everything to remove any remaining sanitizer. Any remaining sanitizer can kill of your yeast if you don’t rinse things well. Add 3 1/2 gallons of water to your fermenter then seal it with the fermenter’s lid or a rubber stopper. This should be done as soon as you can before you begin to cook the wort.

Cooking

Add 2 gallons of cold water to the pot and bring it to a boil. Once the water has started to boil, add your malt syrup or extract kit. Always watch your pot boil and never leave it. Stir it well, until the extract has dissolved. Boiling over can create a mess and cause you to loose precious ingredients. Malt doesn’t boil like water, as it comes to a boil the liquid willexpand and foam over the top. Stir constantly and keep a close watch to avoid boiling over. Add a few tablespoons of your boiling wort to 1 cup of cool water in a santized container, making sure the temperature isn’t too high. Next, add your yeast packet and cover the container with a saucer or lid.

Pitching yeast

After the wort has finished boiling, allow the mixture time to cool to 70 – 80 degrees then pitch the yeast into your fermenter, which you already have filled to 2/3 of the desired final level with cold water. These are the basic steps for brewing your own microbrews. You’ll also have to siphon,bottle, then pour your brew. The final steps aren’t that difficult, although they do require a certain level of precision. If this is your first time brewing, you should watch someone experienced first.

With microbrewing, there are many different methods, including fruit. Fruit is unlike other types of microbrews, as the method introduces fruit into the equation and makes for a very unique – yet interesting taste. When brewing your own beers, you can use any method you prefer. Some are harder than others, although a little bit of time is all you need to become a pro. Once you have been brewing for a while, you’ll be able to brew even the most exotic of microbrews – all it takes is time and dedication.

Steve Cownley

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