Purchasing Equipment and Ingredients

If you haven’t already, you should read my post about must have beer equipment. Once you have most of the necessary equipment it is time to get some ingredients. Beer is made by mixing 3 things with water: malt, hops, and yeast. The process is a little more complicated than just mixing all the ingredients together. Most beer brewing supply stores have kits already put together for a certain recipe. You will have to choose brewing either an ale or a lager. I recommend brewing an ale as your first beer, because it can be fermented at room temperature. Pick a style of ale you like to drink such as an India pale ale, or an Irish red ale. Make sure to pick an extract kit and not an all grain / mash recipe. An extract kit comes with malt extract and is much easier to brew for a beginner. Also make sure that the kit includes a liquid yeast. This will save you some time re-hydrating yeast. I recommend Wyeast smack packs. Once you have your equipment and ingredients, it is time to start.

Preparation

The kitchen is a great place to brew your first batch. You will need a sink near the stove both for water and to clean equipment before and after the brewing. Lots of brewers stress about having the right water to make beer with. If the water out of your tap tastes good then use it in your batch. If your water tastes or smells bad then you will have to buy water. Purchase 8 gallons of drinking water at the store. In a large bucket prepare a sanitizing solution. I like to use a one step sanitizer that when mixed with water requires no washing after the sanitizer has come into contact with equipment. Sanitizer should be available at any home brew store. Prepare 2 gallons of sanitizer. You will also need some ice to cool down your once it has been made. If you purchased a Wyeast smack pack it is best to prime the yeast as soon as possible. I sometimes even prime it the night before. Lay the package on a flat surface and locate the bulge in the center. The bulge in the center is nutrients that will cause the yeast to wake back up. Smack the bulge hard enough to burst the center package, but not hard enough to make the packaging explode and ruin your yeast. Once the bulge has been popped, give the yeast a good shake. I sometimes put my ear up to the package and listen to the bubbling going on inside to make sure the bulge has been popped.

Let the Brewing Begin

1. Pour 3 gallons of drinkable water into the brewpot. Turn the stove to high and let it come to a boil. It might take some time for the water to start boiling so now is the time to grab a beer out of the fridge.
2. Once the water has come to a fast and heavy boil, it is time to add the malt. You should either remove the pot from the heat or turn the burner off while adding the malt. It is possible to scorch the malt and ruin the batch before you even get started. Continue to stir the pot as you add the malt. Once the malt has been added and everything is dissolved, turn the heat back up enough to get it boiling again. Congratulations you now have wort, or unfermented beer.
3. Set a timer for 60 minutes. The countdown begins.
4. Each recipe kit varies so you will have to read the instructions. Most of them will list a time to add the hops. Usually this is a time from the end of the boil. This can get confusing. For example, if a recipe says to add 1/4 oz of cascade hops at 40 minutes, you should add the hops 20 minutes after the wort has started to boil. Usually you will have to add hops twice, once for the bittering hops, and once for the aroma hops. Be careful when adding the hops to the boiling wort. It can sometimes cause the wort to boil over and make a huge mess. Just keep an eye on it.
5. After 60 minutes has passed, you should fill the sink with as much ice as you possibly can, and water. Carefully place the pot in the sink to get it to cooled as quickly as possible. Make sure to put a lid on the pot. You want to get the pot down to 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. While the wort is cooling, begin sanitizing your equipment. Fill a fermenting bucket or glass carboy with a sanitizer solution. Make sure that everything the beer will touch has been soaked in sanitizer. This includes your airlock, stopper, and carboy.
7. Empty the carboy and place a sanitized funnel in the top. Carefully pour the cooled wort into the carboy. Add water to the wort to produce a total of 5 gallons. Cut the yeast package open and pour into the carboy.
8. Fill the airlock with enough sanitizer to seal it. This creates a one-way valve that only lets air escape and not air into the wort. Quickly place a sanitized airlock and stopper on the carboy and close. Over the next couple day you will notice a large amount of foam at the top of the carboy. This is an indication that fermentation is happening. You also will notice air bubbles being produced in the airlock.

Over the Next Couple Weeks

1. Periodically check on your beer to make sure that the airlock still is full of sanitizer, and that bubbling is still seen in the airlock. Over time the bubbling in the airlock will slow. When the bubbling has stopped it is time to transfer to another container for secondary fermentation. This gives the beer a much cleaner taste and color.
2. Once again sanitize everything that will come into contact with the beer. You will need a racking cane, tubing, and a carboy cover.
3. You will need to start a siphon to move the wort from the primary carboy to the secondary clean one.  Put the racking cane through the top hole in the cover and thread the cane into the carboy with the wort.  The curved part of the cane should be on the bottom of the carboy.  Make sure that the cover is snug over the top of the carboy.  Attach a length of vinyl tubing to the cane and run it into your clean carboy.  It helps to have the primary carboy on the counter and the clean secondary on the floor. 
4. Once everything is connected, blow into the open side of the carboy to start a siphon.  Make sure your racking cane is not too low in the carboy or it will suck up the sediment on the bottom of the carboy.  Continue to let the new carboy fill with the beer until you get to the sediment, which should be left in the primary carboy.  Store your carboy as before for two weeks.  You will not see much bubbling going on in the airlock, this is ok.  The beer is conditioning and not fermenting like it was earlier. 

Almost Good Enough to Drink

1. After two weeks of conditioning has passed, it is time to bottle your beer.  Once again sanitize everything that will touch the beer.  Siphon the beer out of the secondary carboy and into a bottling bucket.
2. While the beer is siphoning, prepare the priming sugar that came with your recipe kit.  Heat 2 cups of water on the stove and dissolve the priming sugar into the pot.  Continue stirring until everything is dissolved.  Once you have an even solution, pour it into the bottling bucket.  Gently stir the beer to mix the priming sugar through out. 
3.  Connect a siphon hose to the spigot on the bottling bucket.  Attach a racking cane to the end of the tubing.  Once again sanitize everything that will touch the beer.  The bottles that you will use must be clean.  Make sure they do not have any dried on beer and if they do remove it with a small brush.  The bottles you will be using must also be the pop-top style caps and not the twist off caps.  These are the kind of caps that require a  bottle opener.
4. This step is best done with a helper.  Bribe a friend or roommate with some homebrew to take home.  Put the racking cane into a clean bottle and push the cane down onto the bottom of the bottle to start the flow of beer.  Once the bottle is a couple inches from the top release the racking cane and pass the bottle to your helper. 
5. The beer bottle will need to be capped with an unbent bottle cap and a bottle capper.  Place a bottle cap on the magnet of the capper.  Position the capper onto the top of the bottle and press both arms down.  This will bend the cap onto the bottle. 
6. Keep the bottles at room temperature for 1 week.  The yeast will become active inside the bottles and produce C02 which will get forced into the beer as carbonation. 
7. After 1 week refrigerate the beer with the bottles upright.

Time to Drink

1. Grab your favorite clean glass and slowly pour the beer down the side.  Do not pour the last inch or so of beer into the glass.  While the bottles have been stored up right in the refrigerator, most of the sediment and remaining yeast has settled to the bottom.  This sediment can effect the taste of the beer so be sure to leave it in the bottom of the bottle.

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