Homebrew beer

I like beer. There, I said it. Sure, wine is good to but I prefer beer in most cases. I guess that makes me an unusual woman. What makes me even more unusual is that I brew my own beer. Such a task is usually relegated to groups of bearded gruff men, or so I have been told, researched, and witnessed.

I have allergies, so brewing my own beer means I can avoid allergens and also I get to do "science experiments" of sort while brewing, and create my own, well, creations.

Homebrew beer is super tasty. Big corporation beer is pasteurized in most cases, and even many microbreweries add extra food safety precautions, as is obviously needed, which can detract from the subtle flavors of home-brew.

The first step to home-brew, not pictured, is SANITIZATION. Imagine you are performing a surgery, and you can then imagine how sanitized things need to be. If you forget a step, you can end up with beer that tastes awful (like a fruity sauerkraut) or worse, food borne illness.

To sanitize, I prefer star0san or sank-clean. Follow the directions on the bottle and sanitize the carboy (container your beer ferments in), bunghole and accompanying pieces, siphon, thermometer, the thing that detects alcohol and brix ( I forget the name. I'm awful with brewing terminology), spoon9s), funnel, scissors, tongs. Also I like to give a good dawn-soap scrub-down to the brewing pot and spoons and other cooking utensils (as in, soap them up, rinse them off, samite them, that order). I do not generally sanitize my brewing pot and lid but use hot hot water to clean.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some sanitization step. Forgive me.

Really, before brewing, read a book, yes, a whole book, or attend a class. Don't simply take my blog as "word" for brewing as I'm sure I am skipping things. I don't skip things when actually brewing. Phew.

Oh in addition to all the cooking/brewing gadgets, you will need a recipe or beer-ingredient kit with cracked grain, malt, hops, whirfloc or irish moss, any flavoring agents (use those once you've brewed a few times as they get tricky) and bottling supplies. Many prefer to bottle in sanitized bottles and use priming sugar to carbonate but that means a whole week of looking at your beer in the bottle and not being able to drink it. You can invest in a kegerator and c02 tank and play mad scientist and you get beer much quicker, but it isn't bottled, just legged. Your choice.


Anyways let's commence to brewin'!

To the left/below is by brew pot. I am boiling 3 gallons of water. I prefer bottled spring water as we have hard water, and it is chlorinated and fluoridated and all that nasty stuff. I add the water cold/room temp and quickly get to the next step.

overkil, my gajillion gallon brew pot. I suggest an 8-10 gallon one.

Here is step 2. You will have a certain amount of grain or grains. Each recipe is different, so really, follow the recipe, but the procedures generally stay the same, just with different amounts and times and stuff.  Here I have some carapils and bavarian roster barley. I add it to a brewing sock thing (see, I can't get the terminology right) but cheesecloth works too. I prefer the socks though as they keep stuff in better, but floating  stray grains aren't the end of the world. Oh, don't use regular people-socks. 

So put your grain(s) in the sock and tie it up. Don't waste time as your water is heating. Add your sock of grain to the water. Heat until 152-170 depending on the recipe, and it should take just about 30 minutes. So...don't leave the kitchen too long, If it gets that hot before 30 min turn the stovetop off and let it steep, if it seems like it will take longer, put a lid on your kettle/pot.

grain just put into the pot

timing things and showing my thermometer.

So here, below, is my grain at 20 minutes. See how it has steeped like tea? Different grains and brews steep at different colors.

steeping

leftover water bottles

fully steeped

Once your brew has steeped, remove the grain bag. Some people cook healthy granola bars and stuff with the grain. I give a spoonful of it to my dogs mixed with their food.

Get the "tea" to just boiling and then remove from heat. Stir in your malt slowly, making sure it doesn't clump or stick or anything. Sometimes it can get frothy which is why you don't make 3-5 gallons of beer in a 5 or less gallon pot. But again my giant pot is overkill.

Occasionally stir, and put the heat back on until boiling.

(blurry) malt par

another blurry shot of the malt going in.

Every recipe varies as to type(s) of hops and how/when/how much to add. But here I am adding some hops. I prefer hops pellets but you can do fresh, fresh-dried, etc. They look much greener in person. Add hops according to recipe, and I prefer to put it in those brewing sock things. My recipe called for 1 oz for 60 mins, 1 oz at 15 mins, 1 oz at 1 min.

hops hops hops

Not pictured is adding either a whir floc tablet or recipe-amount of irish moss. Usually you add it the last 5 minutes. If not, you get gross looking cloudy beer.

Remove hops after "done" per recipe, usually 60 mins.  Oh! And check your yeast instructions while boiling...gives you something to do, and you will see why yeast directions matter, soon.

removing hops

As seen to the right, you then need to cool your beer, or wort, or whatever it is called. Most use a wort chiller which is a cool looking steampunk-type contraption but I do it the longer more boring way. I add water to a giant tub as seen below (well I fill it abut 6" deep with water) and a ton of ice. I plop my brew pot of wort in there and let it cool, checking the temperature constantly. Each recipe calls for a different pitching temp.  Then when very close to temp, I add 2 more gallons of spring water. 

BE SANITIZED here as boiling helps sanitize but now it isn't boiling. Even sanitize your hands. 

So yes I add water to the giant brew pot or, more preferred, I use a funnel and two people and pour the warm wort into my carboy and add water on top. 

Then, not pictured,  get ready add your yeast.  DON'T ADD IT YET! READ THE YEAST DIRECTIONS. Some need to be always refrigerated until right before rewind, some need to be added to warm water, etc etc.  Ok, you're well read. You're this close to adding yeast. STOP! Get your alcohol/brix/cal measuring thing and your siphon/beer/wine thief  (sanitized of course) and suck up some warm wort and pour into a skinny beaker (usually supplied with that measuring thingy I'm speaking of) and write down your measurements and keep it safe. Date it, too.

cooling

Now it is time to ferment! This to the left is the carboy, bunghole (yes it is a real word) etc. My "wort" is "primed" with yeast. 

Let me back up a bit. I do all the stuff I did and put the carboy/bunghole and wort and all that. Place in a cool and dark place (warmer than say 55, cooler than 80). Add sterilized water to the water-part of the bunghole (see this is why you should read  a book on brewing). Let sit. Within a few to 36 hours you will see bubbles in the carboy and the bunghole part you put water in. It takes at least 7 days to ferment and turn into beer. Recipes vary on time and tell you what brix, cal, alcohol percent to aim for. SANITIZE a siphon, your hands, the measuring thingy and beaker and test after 7 days or until bubbling is longer than every minute.

Once "ready", cool in a fridge for a day or to to let stuff settle and clear. I was out of fridge space but it was cold out so I used outdoors. Fridge is preferred.

Now you can keg, or bottle. Enjoy!

Oh and homebrew has more vitamin B and probiotics and stuff so it is good for you! In moderation.

Happy brewing!