How to Brew Your Own Beer 

Brewing beer at home is quite easy...

It requires only a modest outlay of those hard-earned dollars for equipment and materials and around an hour and a half. When you enjoy a cold glass of beer that you made yourself, you will discover that the reward is well worth the effort.


Basic Equipment:

(be sure to have a look around the house, you may already have some of this stuff)


Ingredients:


Process


Sanitize your fermenter and air lock with a solution of one tablespoon of bleach in a gallon of water. Use a clean sponge to rinse all surfaces of the fermenter and its lid. Drop the airlock in the bleach solution until you are ready to use it. Sanitation is very important. The quality of your beer depends on it! Once sanitized, rinse the fermenter and lid. Place lid on fermenter to protect against airborne contamination.

Bring one and a half gallons of water to a boil in your brew pot. Remove the pot from heat and pour in the malt extract. Stir thoroughly and rinse cans to get as much of the syrup as possible into your pot. When the malt extract is dissolved, return the liquid, now called wort (pronounced 'wert') to the stove.

Bring the wort to a rolling boil and maintain the boil for at least half an hour. Keep an eye on the boiling wort to prevent boilovers. The sticky nature of the malt makes cleanup a difficult and tedious process.

About five minutes before the boil is done, throw in the pelletized hops.

When the boil is complete, put about two gallons of cold water into your fermenter, then pour in the hot wort. Add enough cold water to bring the level to five gallons and replace the lid.

When the wort has cooled to around room temperature, pitch (add) the yeast, sprinkling it over the top of the wort. Do not stir. Replace the lid and attach the airlock.

You should notice signs of fermentation within a day. The airlock will bubble steadily for one to three days, then slow substantially. Keep the fermenter in a dark place at room temperature. If a closet is not available, a blanket thrown over the fermenter will serve, but make sure the airlock is unobstructed.

After ten days, take a few minutes to watch the airlock. If the bubbles have slowed to a rate of one in five minutes or less, it is ready to bottle. It may take as long as two weeks before your beer is ready.

Clean your bottles if necessary. If they are not clean, sanitizing will not be effective. Gather several towels; bottling can be a messy process.

Sanitize your bottles with a solution of five tablespoons of bleach to five gallons of water, pouring some solution in each bottle and allowing them to sit for 45 minutes to an hour. Rinse all bottles with hot tap water.

Sanitize your priming bucket, siphon tube, racking cane and bottle filler. Sanitize your bottle caps in a weak solution of 1/2 tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water.

Boil your priming sugar in a cup of water for ten to fifteen minutes.

Place your fermenter on a stable surface above the priming bucket. A table and the floor are ideal.

Pour sugar solution into bottom of priming bucket.

Attach racking cane to siphon hose and fill with water from your fresh water tap. Hold a clean thumb over the end of the hose and place the racking cane into your fermenter. Place the other end of the hose in your priming bucket. This is the easiest way to start a siphon without contamination. Do not splash the beer, and get as little sediment as possible from the bottom of the fermenter into the priming bucket.

Put the priming bucket in the high position (table top or whatever). Add the bottle filler to your siphon hose and restart siphon using the water procedure described above. Fill each bottle, leaving about half an inch to an inch of air space at the top of the bottle. Cap the bottles.

Store the bottles in a cool, dark place and allow to age about two weeks (if you can wait that long).

After chilling your beer, open it carefully and pour into a glass leaving the sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

Taste your beer. This is a good time to begin planning your next batch, after all, you only have a couple of cases left!