How to Brew

There are five basic steps for brewing beer. Before you start, you will need to have a recipe in mind and all of the ingredients for the brew. For a list of equipment, click here. Make sure that your work area is cleaned and your equipment is sanitized. The best way to sanitize is to purchase a sanitizing solution, such as C-Brite, which you can add to room temperature water and allow your equipment to soak. You may also want to have a yeast starter ready, which are typically prepared 24 hours in advance.

Step 1 - Making the Wort
For a 5 gallon recipe, you will want to begin by bringing 2 gallons of water to 150 to 160 degrees farenheit. This is the best temperature to steep your grains. A muslin bag is most often used to hold the grains during steeping. After the steeping is completed, you will want to run hot water over the bag. This will extract all of the remaining sugars from the grains.

Step 2 - The Boil
After steeping, the water should be brought up to a rolling boil. It is not as necessary to be concerned about bacteria at this stage because most bacteria will be killed during the boil. The boil will typically last for one hour. Hops are added in stages during the boil. For example, when the boil first begins bittering hops are added. Flavoring hops are usually added 30 to 40 minutes into the boil. During the last 5 minutes of the boil, the remaining aroma hops are added. This process may change depending on the recipe. Be sure to follow your recipe carefully.

Step 3 - Cooling the Wort
After the boil is over, the wort must be cooled before the yeast can be added. It works well to set the pot in an ice bath for about 15 minutes and allow it to cool down to around 70 degrees farenheit. Also, you will have to bring the water amount up to 5 gallons. To do this, add the contents of the pot to your fermenter containing 3 gallons of cold water. This will also help bring the temperature of the wort down more quickly. The wort must also be aerated at this time.

Step 4 - Fermentation
Add the yeast to the wort and stir vigorously. Once the yeast is thoroughly dissolved in the batch, make sure that the airlock is installed properly and the lid is on tight. If air gets into your batch it may become contaminated. You will want to place the fermenter in a dry, dark place until first fermentation is over. If your recipe calls for a second fermentation, you will need to transfer the liquid to a glass carboy, again sanitizing all of your equipment. Use a siphon to transfer to avoid getting air into the batch. Leave the batch until fermentation is complete.

Step 5 - Packaging
Once fermentation is complete, you will need to add 3/4 cup of priming sugar to a quart of boiling water. This will be added to the beer to reactivate the yeast, which will also carbonate the bottles. You will want to use a bottle filler. Having help during this step will allow you to fill and cap the bottles more quickly. The best way is to use a bottling bucket with a hose attached to the bottle filler. Sanitize the bottles before filling. You will also need a bottle capper. The bottles will most likely need to sit in a dry, dark place for about five to seven days.