How to Brew Your Own Beer In 7 Simple Steps

CC photo by Les Chatfield

Introduction

• While the art and process of brewing beer dates back at least 6,000 years, the practice of homebrewing (by which an individual produces a small amount of beer for personal use) is relatively new. With the rise of brewing supply stores and the increased availability of specialized homebrewing ingredients and equipment, many beer lovers have decided to try their hand at producing their own unique and delicious flavors of beer. Although brewing your own beer may at first seem like a daunting and complicated process, with the right equipment, knowledge and instruction, homebrewing can be a fun and inexpensive way to enjoy your favorite alcoholic beverage.

What You'll Need

Ingredients

1. Malt Extract: Malt Extract is produced by the forced germination of barley grain, which activates the enzymes that can then be used in the brewing process. Packages of pre-made malt extract can be purchased at your local home-brewing store or online retailer and come in many different flavors and varieties.
2. Hops: Hops, as used in brewing, are the flowering cones found on the end of the vine of the hop flower. Hops are used to give beer its bitterness, aroma, and additional flavors.
3. Yeast: Yeast is a type of fungus that is used in the fermenting process to convert the sugar in the malt extract into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide.
4. Water: While normal tap water can be used for home-brewing, it is important that it be free of any major impurities or chemicals. The chlorine that is found in most water supply systems can give your beer a harsh flavor, so it is often better to use bottled or filtered water.
5. Sugar (Dextrose or Glucose): Added to the beer before bottling in order to carbonate the beer.

CC photos by buba69, Studiokitchen, Ayelie, Tom Fogga and Glenn Fleishman

Equipment

1. Brewpot: This is where you will bring your initial mixture of malt extract, water and hops to a boil. A 4 or 5 gallon stainless steel brew pot should suffice for brewing your first batch. Any smaller and you risk spillage and overflow.
2. Fermenter: A fermenter is basically any type of vessel that can be used to contain the beer as it is being fermented. A sturdy plastic bucket, pail or glass carboy are the most common types of fermenters.
3. Funnel and Strainer: Used to help transfer the contents of your brew pot into the fermenter.
4. Siphon Hose: Used to transfer your beer from the fermenter into the empty beer bottles. Clear plastic tubing should suffice, although some brewers choose to purchase an auto-siphon.
5. Airlock and Stopper: This handy device is used to prevent outside air from getting inside the fermenter,
   

   Brewing Equipment (Creative Commonsphoto taken by Michael Gorsuch)
   while at the same time allowing the carbon dioxide that is produced by fermentation to escape.
6. Thermometer: Used to measure the temperature of your brew during different stages of the brewing process. A stick-on thermometer is often preferred because it can allow you to take the temperature without having to put it directly in the mixture.
7. Bottling Bucket: Used to hold the mixture of the finished beer and the priming solution before bottling. Some bottling buckets come equipped with a spigot, making it easier to transfer the beer into bottles.
8. Beer Bottles and Capper: Used for the packaging and storage of your finished beer.

Home Brewing Terms and Definitions

• Wort (pronounced Wert): Refers to the "raw" beer liquid (usually just the malted grains and water) before it has been fermented using yeast.
• Enzymes: Proteins that serve to create chemical reactions and speed up the fermentation process. Malt barley is the major source of enzymes in the brewing process.
• Fermentation: The process in which the fermentable sugars in the wort are consumed by the yeast, which in turn produces the alcohol and carbon dioxide.
• Bottle-conditioning: Used as a secondary fermenting process, bottle conditioning occurs when the beer is allowed additional time for fermentation after it has already been bottled. Bottle conditioning is often used to add carbonation, and may include the use of additional yeast or sugars.
• Top-Fermenting Yeast: Produces a sweeter, fruiter beer that can tolerate higher alcohol concentrations. Often used in "Ales".
• Bottom-Fermenting Yeast: Produces a crisp, clean beer. Often used in "Lagers."

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Step 1: Choose a Type of Beer

• Since beer can come in many different styles, flavors and varieties, 
  

  So many different types of beer, so little time (CC photo taken by Karri Huhtanen)
  you will first need to decide on which "type" of beer you want to make. Do you enjoy a crisp, easy drinking lager such as a Pilsner? Do you favor a rich, dark colored ale such as a Porter or Stout? Or do you prefer the bitter, hoppy flavors of a Pale Ale? You will need to decide on a beer type before you go out and buy the ingredients. Here are a few resources to help you decide which type of beer you want to make:
  • Beer Hunter: Michael Jackson's Beer Style Guide
  • About.com: Beer Styles 101
  • Beer Advocate: Beer Styles
  • Wikipedia: Beer Styles

Step 2: Purchase the Ingredients and Equipment

• Now that you've decided on what type of beer you want to make, you can go out and buy the right ingredients to make it. Most local and online home brew retailers will sell beer ingredient "Kits" that contain all of the ingredients you will need to make the beer of your choice. Most of these kits will include a can of malt extract, a bag of yeast, a bag of hop pellets and any specialty grains that are included in the recipe. Many brew supply stores will also carry kits that include all of the necessary equipment you need to begin brewing, as well as the ingredients. But since most of the equipment you will need can be found in your home (or purchased cheaply), you can save money by purchasing your ingredients separately. Here are a few online resources for purchasing beer kits.

Beer kits (Creative Commonsphotos by Marco and Tom Fogg)

Beer Ingredient Kits

• Homebrewers Outpost: Beer Kits with Steeping Grains
• Perfect Brewing Supply: Complete Beer Ingredient Kits
• Amazon.com: Beer Ingredient Kits

Beer Kits w/ Equipment

• HomeBrewery.com: Beer Brewing System and Equipment Kit
• Mr. Brew: Home Brewing Systems
• Home Brew Mart: Starter Kits

• Instead of purchasing a brew kit, experienced brewers may decide to purchase all of their ingredients separately. One advantage of brewing without a brew kit is that you can customize your beer recipe, or make use of the hundreds of different beer recipes available online. Brewers from all over the world contribute recipes they've used to a number of different online forums and brewing resources. In fact, with the rise of the Open Source Beer movement, many prominent breweries have begun to make their beer recipes available to the public. Here are just a few of the resources for finding beer recipes:

Beer Recipes

• BeerRecipes.org: Beer Recipes and Resources for Homebrewers
• The Beer Recipator: Beer Recipe Database
• BeerTools.com: Recipe Library

Step 3: Sanitize Your Equipment

• Before you begin making your beer, it is extremely important that you thoroughly clean and sanitize all of the equipment that will be used during the brewing process. If you don't, bacteria and fungi can get into your beer and ruin the flavor, negating all of the hard work you've put it. But it is not enough to just clean your equipment. You need to fully sanitize each piece of equipment so that you remove all of the microorganisms and spores that may have accumulated. Here are a few tips on sanitizing your equipment:

Sanitize all of your equipment, including your beer bottles(Creative Commons photo bySean Mason)

1. Use a strong, commercially available sanitizing product such as chlorine, iodine, or bleach.
2. Don't use abrasive cleaning products on plastics, as the small grooves this can make are an ideal habitat for bacteria.
3. Mix up a batch of sanitizing solution by combining your sanitizing product with cold water. Make the mixture in a tub or sink that is big enough to clean all of your equipment.
4. Fully immerse your smaller items in the sanitizing solution and let them soak (30 Minutes for Bleach, 5 Minutes for Iodine or Chlorine).
5. Thoroughly rinse off all of your equipment and store it somewhere where it will won't get dirty until you are ready to use it.
6. Sanitize your beer bottles by putting them in the dishwasher.

Step 4: Making the Wort

• Now that we have all of our ingredients handy and our equipment cleaned and ready to go, we are ready to start making our first batch of beer. The first step in the beer making process is to produce the wort. Heres how we do this:

Pour malt extract into your brew pot (CC photo by Jon Roberts)

Heating the Wort

1. Pour 3 gallons of water into your brew pot and bring it to a boil on your stove. Also put 2 gallons of cold water directly into your fermenter, as this will be used later.
2. Once the water is boiling, remove it from the heat and add the contents of your malt extract canister. Stir until it is fully dissolved, making sure that there are no large pieces left floating in the pot.
3. Put your brew pot back onto the heat and bring it back to a rolling boil, stirring as needed.
4. Keep your wort at a rolling boil for about 10 - 20 minutes while monitoring the heat levels diligently.

Add your hops (CCphoto by Jon Roberts)

• 5. During the boiling process, proteins in the wort will cause a good deal of foam to rise to the surface of your brew pot. This is natural. The key for you is to make sure that the wort doesn't boil over, sending the foam and sticky beer mixture all over your kitchen. Monitor your heat levels closely and lower them if it begins to boil over.
• 6. Keep the wort boiling until the protein clumps sink back into the pot and the foaming subsides.
• 7. Add the hops and stir them in gently. Be careful of additional boil over.
• 8. Continue boiling the wort for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Cooling the Wort

1. We are now ready to take the wort off of the heat. In order to prevent oxidation and contamination, you will need to quickly cool down your wort to below 80 degrees.
2. Prior to taking the wort off the burner, prepare a cold water bath that you can put your brew pot in. If you have a small sink, fill it with cold water and ice. If you don't have a sink available, use any large basin or container that is big enough to hold your brew pot.
3. Using heating pads or oven mitts, take your brew pot off of the burner and dip it gently into your cold water bath.
4. Cool down your wort until the pot is cold enough for you to touch without getting burned.

Step 5: Fermenting Your Beer

Pouring the wort into the fermenter (CC photo bybub69)

• Now that we have created our wort, we are ready to begin the most important part of the beer making process: The Fermentation. This is where the strange mixture you've been making will be turned into honest-to-goodness beer. Here's how to prepare your wort for the fermentation process.

1. Take your funnel and strainer and attach them to the top of your fermenting container.
2. Slowly pour all of the cooled wort through the strainer and into your fermenter.
3. Take your thermometer and make sure that the wort is at room temperature. If not, let it cool down before adding your yeast.
4. Pour the yeast directly into the fermenter. Stir the fermenter gently to provide some oxygen for the yeast.

Adding yeast to the fermenter (CC photo byBlake Burris)

• 5. Place the airlock and stopper over the top of your fermenting container, making sure that they are sealed tightly.
• 6. Place your fermenter somewhere cool and dark. It doesn't have to be complete darkness, but at least somewhere where direct sunlight can't affect it.
• 7. Check on your fermenter every couple of days, making sure that the temperature doesn't get too high and that the fermenting process is continuing as it should.
• 8. The initial fermenting process should take anywhere from a week to 10 days. There are a couple of ways in which to tell if your beer is ready for bottling: If there is fewer than one bubble coming out of your airlock every minute, your beer is probably ready to bottle. If the yeast has become used up and settles at the bottom, leaving your beer clear and not hazy, then you are probably done.

Step 6: Priming and Bottling

• Congratulations, you've created your first batch of beer! But don't get too excited, because you aren't finished just yet. You will first need to prime and bottle your beer before it is ready to be enjoyed. Priming is a process in which additional sugar is added to the beer before it is bottled. The remaining yeast in the beer will convert the added sugar into carbon dioxide (inside the bottle), creating the carbonation for the beer. Here's how to prime and bottle your beer:

Bottling your beer (CC photo bySean Mason)

1. Combine 3/4 cup of corn sugar and 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan.
2. Boil the sugar for at least 15 minutes or until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Pour the priming sugar into your bottling bucket.
4. Using your siphon, transfer the contents of the fermenter into the bottling bucket, being careful not to disturb the sediment that has accumulated at the bottom of the fermenter.
5. Stir the contents together.
6. Using either the spigot, or your siphon tube, transfer the contents of the bottling bucket into your clean and sanitized beer bottles. Fill them to one inch below the top of the bottle.
7. Using your bottle capper and bottle caps, make sure that each bottle is securely capped as soon as possible after it is filled.

Step 7: Storing Your Beer

• Although your beer is now in bottles, it is still not quite ready to drink yet. You still need to give it enough time to condition properly inside the bottle. This is known as bottle-conditioning. Here are a few tips on how and where to store your beer, and how to know when it is ready to crack open and enjoy!

1. Initially, during the carbonation process, your bottled beer shouldn't be stored at a cold temperature.Store them in a warm place (anywhere from 70-80F or 21-27C) until the conditioning is done.
2. Bottle-conditioning should take at least a week, and sometimes more. After the first week, pop open one of your beers in order to test the carbonation levels.
3. Once your beer has been carbonated, it is then alright for you to store it at colder temperatures (either for aging purposes or just to chill your beer).

Store your beer until its fully carbonated (CC photo by Kris Arnold)

• 4. The amount of time that you let your beer age is dependent on the specific style of beer you are making, as well as how well you are able to avoid the temptation of opening it earlier. In general, darker beers taste better with age, while lighter beers may be prone to spoiling sooner.
• 5. Once you have finished aging your beer, put a few bottles in your refrigerator to chill.
• 6. Open up one of your cold, glorious beers and slowly pour it into a glass, leaving the last bit beer at the bottom of the bottle. Don't drink your beer straight from the bottle (or drink the last part of the bottle), as this can contain some sediment and leftover yeast, which can give you gas and cause bloating.

Conclusion

Cheers! (Creative Commonsphoto by Bruce Turner)

• Now that you've successfully brewed your first batch of beer, you can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. What? Your first batch didn't turn out perfectly? Don't worry. It'll probably take you a few tries to get all of the kinks worked out and to figure out all of the factors that can affect the flavor and aroma of your finished beer. But you can take solace in the fact that at least you will have an alcoholic beverage to help ease your pain. And no matter how bad it turns out, it'll still taste better than the watered-down beer they charge a fortune for at your local store. So, pour a few glasses for you and your friends and enjoy your first homebrew!

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