Brewing your own beer should be as much a science as it is an art. The process requires a precise and calculated aspect, but at the same time the rules and possible boundaries can be blurry. This can provide grounds for personal interpretation and the creation of a truly unique beer. However, that might sound like the art of brewing could be difficult, right? Well, she isn't. Brewing beer is a simple process whose roots go back 12,000 years. Essentially you just need water andHeat barley, boil the mixture with hops and cool it and then ferment it with yeast and let it carbonate. If this seems simple enough for you, we'll go into each step in a little more detail in this post.
So you've decided to make your ownBeer drink at homeclose. Now you are about to take on a wondrous and rewarding task that is almost as old as humanity itself. However, there is no reason to be intimidated by this. Although people have been brewing beer for thousands of years, the basic process has remained largely the same over the centuries. So in this article we will try to explain what brewing equipment you need to get started. We'll also walk you through the basic steps of brewing a pilsner. First of all, we can divide homebrewing into two types: brewing from barley or from malt extract. The beer is made from the sugar of malted, partially sprouted grains. During the entire brewing process, the master brewer extracts this sugar himself from ground grains through a series of steps.
If you want to use extracts in the brew, these can be pre-made malt extracts. However, you can also skip the sugar extraction process entirely. Brewing the extract is a good starting point for most new home brewers as the process requires minimal beer equipment and procedures while still producing quality beer. However, it is the type of brewing that we will focus on here. Maybe you know someone who has turned their entire basement or garage into a professional brewery. This can be full of shiny tanks and barrels, welded piping, washing stations and refrigerators with taps, always providing nice frothy beer. But rest assured that you don't have to invest a fortune if you want to brew your own beer. The easiest way is to buy a simple set. You can always add fancier brewing equipment after you've brewed for a while and decided it would be worth it.
Beer making ingredients and equipment
Now that you've taken care of the equipment, let's go over the beer's main ingredients. There are only four: hops, barley (and/or malt extract), yeast and water. First, put together your brewing system. You will need a brew kettle, fermenter + airlock, funnel (optional), disinfectant, suction tube, spoon for stirring or a “home brewing beer kit”. Once you have all the necessary equipment together, the first step will be cleaning and disinfecting.
First you need to bring all devices into the appropriate state. This step is crucial. Absolutely everything that comes into contact with your beer during the brewing process should be properly cleaned with a cleaning product and then disinfected with a hygiene approved solution. We recommend no-rinse varieties as they simplify the process while remaining effective. Once you've properly cleaned and disinfected your equipment, it's time to start brewing.
Brew your own beer – recipe
So you've looked at the equipment and key ingredients you'll need for home brewing. Now you can discover a classic recipe for a bock beer below. You're probably also wondering what type of beer it is. We have selected an alternative variant which is a hybrid variety. You can use the barley or theextract as well as the hops themselveschoose according to your preference.
If you use a kit to brew your own beer, it should at least contain liquid malt, grains in a grain bag and hops. At 5.5% alcohol by volume, the alcohol content does not overwhelm the malty taste, while the aroma of the hops comes through well. This special recipe is perfect for beginners and hobby brewers, but is also suitable for experienced brewers due to its balance.
Brew your own beer – instructions
- Always read all instructions before you start brewing so you can be sure you have everything on hand (equipment, ingredients) as well as a complete understanding of the process.
- Start by heating 600ml of water in your brew kettle.
- Then put the crushed special grains into the grain bag.
- Tie a knot at one end of the grain bag, leaving room for the grains to loosen in the bag.
- Place the grain bag in the water.
- Then slowly increase the temperature to 60°C to 80°C.
- Let the grains steep at this temperature for 20 minutes.
- Remove the grain sack from the pot.
- Do not squeeze the bag. Simply drain the liquid from the bag into the pot.
- You now officially have the wort for an unfermented beer. However, there are a few other steps to get your wort fully onPrepare for fermentation.
Start cooking
- First bring the wort to a boil and be careful not to let it boil over. Once the liquid is boiling, remove the pot from the heat source.
- Stir the wort until the malt extract is completely dissolved. Any undissolved extract left at the bottom of the pot can burn.
- For this reason, make sure you have stirred thoroughly before bringing the wort back to a boil.
- Let your wort boil for 55 minutes and then add the aromatic hops. Since you're only boiling this for five minutes, hops don't add a bitter taste, but rather contribute to the aroma and scent of the finished beer.
- Chill the wort. After boiling for almost 60 minutes, you need to get the wort below 37°C as quickly as possible. There are many ways to do this and one of them is the ice bath. To do this, fill your sink halfway with cold tap water and then fill it with ice and place the pot in it.
- If you haven't already, now is a good time to disinfect the airlock, hose and hydrometer. Your wort is vulnerable to microbes at this point. Anything that can come into contact with it should be sanitized.
Fermentation
- Now the cooled beer wort is siphoned into your primary vessel for fermentation.
- Then fill it up with enough cold water so that you have about 1.4 liters. You should also aerate the wort, either by using a diffusion stone or simply rocking the fermenter back and forth once the lid is on.
- Now you can use your hydrometer to measure the initial gravity of the wort, which essentially indicates a range of fermentable sugars present. You should write the number down because you will later use it along with your final gravity measurement to calculate the alcohol by volume of your beer.
- It's time to add your yeast to the wort. During fermentation, the yeast consumes the malt sugar and produces alcohol with CO2. The temperature of the wort should be around 30°C before pitching the yeast. However, it is best to follow the instructions given on the package.
- After you have pitched the yeast, close the fermentation vat tightly, attach the renovated air lock and fill it with water.
- First place the fermentation vat in a remote, temperature-stable location. You should see activity within 24-48 hours as CO2 begins to escape from the airlock. It takes one to two weeks for fermentation to complete. During this time, you should not do anything that could disrupt the process.
- Some brewers perform a secondary fermentation step after about a week. This involves siphoning the beer into a secondary fermentation vat like a carboy and conditioning it for another week or two. This step is optional. However, the benefits include the beer becoming clearer, resulting in less sediment once you bottle the beer.
Determine alcohol content and bottle beer
Use your hydrometer to read the final gravity of the beer. You can calculate the approximate alcohol content of the beer using the following formula: Alcohol Content = (OG-FG) × 131.25 So using your goals for this bock beer, you get: (1.057-1.014) x 131.25 = 5.64 % alcohol content. However, keep in mind that this calculation is only an approximation, but it is the simplest method and is generally good enough if you brew your own beer.
Now ladle the finished beer into the bottling bucket. If the recipe calls for bottling additives, such as priming sugar, to be added to the bottling bucket, add them now. So these are the basic steps you can follow to make your own beer. Once you've conditioned the whole thing, it's time to share it with friends and family and brag that you made it yourself.
Now you know the basic process for brewing your own beer at home. As you gain experience and confidence, you can work with multiple types of beer to improve your brewing skills. You can even add Irish moss to your drink to improve the clarity of the beer. However, there are many other aspects to homebrewing that you can master over time.
