So I have ventured in to the world of home brewing. I figure if I can make it for .50 to .75 cents a bottle instead of going out and spending around 5 or 6 bucks for a bottle, I'll have enough money to buy a bar in about 30 or 40 years..... that's if everything works out of course.
So for those of you that don't know the process of making beer, I'll give you lesson in home brewing.
STEP ONE.
Get yourself a home brewers kit. There are several places on the internet to purchase such kit from several places. I will not recommend any at this point but the kits are basic and cost anywhere between 30 bucks to a couple of hundred dollars. Depending on what you want to brew, you may need a secondary brewing kit which includes a carboy (it looks like a 5 gallon water bottle that you get at the grocery store.). With your kit you need to order you beer recipe kit. These kits range from porters to ales to Belgian abbeys to lagers to wheat beers. It's just a preference on what you want to start with. I started with a red irish ale which I think is the best everyday drinking beer.....just me.
STEP TWO.
BREWING PROCESS.
Your kit will complete with malts, yeast, malt extract, hops and other ingredients that it takes to make the beer for the kit you ordered. I ordered the 5 gallon kit so you need a bigger pot to make the beer with. Preferably a 6 gallon pot to start the boil with. I added 2 1/2 gallons of water to the pot and started to soak my malts for 20 minutes. This is what gives the beer its color and flavor. My kit called to soak the malts for 20 minutes or to 170 degrees. I let it soak for a bit longer to give it a bit more flavor. After the soak time for the malts, I brought the water to a boil and was ready to add the malt extract. The extract is very thick and comes in a half gallon bottle. (for other kits it may be different) Once it was at a boil, I took the pot off the fire and added the extract stirring as I added it. Once the extract was added, I put the pot back on the burner to bring it to a boil. Depending on the recipe, you may add hops at this time. This is a low boil and will happen for about 60 minutes. during this time depending on the recipe, you may add different ingredients to the recipe according to what is needed.
I had to switch from inside to outside because I could not get a boil going so I switched to my gas grill with a side burner to finally get the boil going. IN THE MEAN TIME........
I decided to have an Old Pecilier to pass the time. It would be a good thing to set timers to add your ingredients at specific times. If you are like me, a person who drinks beer, you will need timers to let you know when you need to add ingredients. For us who have CRS syndrome (can't remember shit) a timer is the way to go.
STEP TWO.
SANITIZE.
It is a necessity to sanitize you equipment. It keeps the outside bacteria and wild yeast from fermenting your beer by mistake. It sucks when the beer taste like Natty light. So you must sanitize everything that comes into contact with the beer for at least 2 minutes in the sanitizer. DO NOT rinse the equipment out. Use it fresh from the sanitizer and go to the next step. SANITIZE EVERYTHING! NO QUESTIONS!
STEP THREE.
WORT.
The boil mix when you are finished is called wort or unfermented beer. This is a very critical stage in the life of beer because it is very vulnerable to outside influences. This is a very sterile mix and is ready for fermentation. You must cool the wort to between 100 and 76 degrees to add the brewers yeast to start the fermentation. I cooled mine with the lid on to about 78 degrees and added my yeast at that time. When the wort is cooled, it must be transferred to the fermentation container and water added to reach 5 gallons. REFERENCE: the cleaner the water, the better the beer. If your tap water taste like shit, so will your beer. Use filtered or spring water for your beer. It makes better beer.
STEP FOUR.
FERMENTATION.
When you fill the fermentation container with the wort and water to make 5 gallons, you roll the container to mix the water and wort. Allow to settle and add the yeast. I had a dry yeast and during my water and wort process I kept my container covered. I added the yeast, filled the air lock with sanitizer and sealed the fermentation container. DEEP BREATH. The major process is finished. Now it is time to let the yeast do all of the work and FERMENT THE DAMN BEER! Sorry, in a bit of a hurry. I'll get in line and let the mix do it's job. IDEA! I'll go and drink different kinds of beer, and get ideas on how to make better beer! Well, it was a good idea to begin with but going to World of Beer on a Friday night with a band was great for the moment, but I never remember what I did the next day. CRS Syndrome.
So I am now a week into my fermentation process and I used the beer thief ( check you kit for this item)
to check my hydrometer reading and taste the beer. Understand that the beer is flat and is incomplete in the process but I think that my beer has potential. Another week or so in fermentation and I'll be ready to bottle. So much for this step and I hope I have given you the idea that anybody can make their own beer.As one of the instructions told me, it's like making mac and cheese!. OKAY! I'll give you the bottling part next time!
