Here's the start of a thread on how to brew beer. I've only done it for extract kits, as that's the simplest way for people to get into it. In the future they may want to get into extract or even all grain brewing but that's a bit more work. The ready-hopped kits available are a reasonably simple and very drinkable introduction to the wonderful world of homebrew, without the need to understand too much of the science behind it.
I hope that this will become a sticky and that people find it useful.
Cheers
Ken
Beer Instructions
Step 1:
You (should) have:
- A Fermenting Bin (a big barrell with a lid with a hole)
- A Rubber Bung with a hole in it
- An Airlock
- Sanitizing powder.
- Beer Kit
- Sugar according to beer kit (1KG is usual) - brown is best,
or, if you can get it, and want a better tasting beer, buy some
Dry Malt Extract from a homebrew supply shop (DME, or SprayMalt)
and use this instead of sugar. It's a bit expensive though.
Insert the airlock into the bung (If you put the bung in warm water for a bit
this becomes easier).
Sanitize the fermenter, airlock, lid, a plastic ladle (like you'd use for
cooking) following the instructions on the sanitizer. (easy to lob everything
into the fermenting bin and do it all in there). Rinse everything very well with
cold water (tap water is fine).
Follow the instructions on the beer kit - typically:
Take the label off the kit and stand in boiling water for a while to soften.
Boil <SOME> litres of water.
Pour the beerkit into the fermenter. Add the boiling water and sugar. Top up to
<23> litres with cold tap water. Stir very well. Sprinkle the yeast (from the
beer kit) on top and stir again.
[Another good thing to do though is to get a cup of boiled water and let it cool
to about room temperature - you want it about 25-30 degrees C. Add the yeast to
the cup of water and leave for about 10 mins. stir it all up and add to the
fermenter. Also, it's good to get lots of splashing action when pouring the
water into the fermenter - it oxygenates the water and the yeast does better.]
Put the lid on the fermenter, the bung/airlock into the lid and leave in a
warmish room for about 2 weeks or so, until you're only getting a bubble from
the airlock every couple of minutes. DON'T OPEN THE FERMENTER TO PEAK!!!! You
should see it bubbling every 5-10 seconds after about 24 hours. You will also
be able to see a cruddy foam rise up the inside of the fermenter - this is all
normal and good. The foam will recede.
[If you have a second fermenter it is a good idea to transfer ("rack") the beer from
the first fermenter to the second after about a week or 10 days with a syphon. This
leaves a lot of "crud" behind which can add an off flavour (dead yeast) or certainly
affect the clarity of the beer. But I've successfully made beer in 1 fermenter and
straight to a bottle or Keg. See the bottling section for syphoning instructions]
STEP 2 : Bottling
You (should) have:
- 46x0.5 litre bottles or 66x0.33litre bottles or some combination of this. NB
do not use clear bottles, nor those with screw-off tops. Brown is best, followed
by green.
- Bottle brush
- Caps for the number of bottles
- syphon.
- small amount of sugar - again brown is best, or DME if you can get it.
- Sanitizer
When the bubbles have mostly stopped, it's time to bottle! You need to sanitize
all the bottles in sanitizer solution and wash out with a bottle brush. Rinse
all the bottles well with tap water. Leave the bottles to drain in a drainer or on a
bottling tree if you have one. Also you need to put the caps into a cup of
sanitizer solution and also sanitize the syphon.
Line up all the bottles and add about a teaspoon of sugar per 0.5l bottle, a bit
less for smaller bottles. Put the fermenter up onto a kitchen table or counter.
Take the lid off the fermenter (or the bung out of the lid is better) and stick
the syphon down to the bottom. The syphon should have a doo-dah at the bottom to
prevent too much solid stuff being sucked up this. Depending on the type of syphon
you have you need to get it started. Some work by you blowing into a little tube
into the fermenter which forces the beer out the tube. Other times you can start
it by filling the syphon with (sanitized) water, put your finger over one end
and starting the syphon by putting the other end into the beer and then taking
your finger off the syphon but make sure it is lower than the fermenter otherwise
the sanitized water goes into the fermenter. DON'T SUCK ON THE END OF THE TUBE
DIRECTLY, IT CAN LEAD TO INFECTION (of the beer - not you). However, if you want
you can shorten the syphon tube slightly and use the bit you cut off the tube to
put on the end of the tube to suck on, but remove this when you have the syphon going.
[An alternative to the syphon is a bottling wand which is a tube which goes onto
a tap on the bottom of the barrel which has a valve on the bottom which is used to
fill the bottle. much easier]
Anyway - once you have worked out how to start your syphon, it's time to bottle
- fill the bottles to about 2-3 cm from the top. try not to let the syphon splash
- run it down the side of the bottle. Loosely put the lid on each bottles as you
go until you are all done. Then go back to the first bottle you filled and start
using the capper to lock the caps down. Invert each bottle a couple of times to
let the sugar get mixed in a bit (and also to check for leaks). Place the bottles
in a coolish dark place for as long as you can before drinking - at least 2 weeks,
but the longer you leave them the better, it gets much better with age. When
ready to drink, chill in fridge, pop and pour. Leave the last bit in the bottle
as it will be largely yeast (this beer is bottle conditioned - thats how we get
the fizz into it - thats why we add the sugar to the bottles) and will taste
icky.
STEP 2A : Kegging (I have a King Keg)
You (should) have:
A Keg
small amount of sugar - again brown is best, or DME if you can get it.
Sanitizer
Co2 Cannister for the keg.
Kegging is much faster and simpler than bottling. However the downside is it doesn't
fit into the fridge, and hence the beer is warm. Also you have to drink all the beer
before you can keg again. Great for parties though.
You need to sterlilze the keg as per the fermenter. Dissolve the recommended sugar in a
small amount of water and add this to the keg (the kits usually tell how much sugar to
use for kegging). Syphon the beer from the fermenter into the keg and put the lid on TIGHT.
Leave in a coolish dark place for as long as you can before drinking- at least 2 weeks. The
CO2 given off by the yeast when eating the sugar added to the keg is used to pump out the beer
from the tap. When the CO2 runs out you will need to add more CO2 from a cannister via the valve.
Too much will give very fizzy beer, too little will give flat beer, it's a bit of a guessing game
to be honest I'm afraid, start with a little and add more.
Hope this helps, feel free to PM for more details/questions, although I will be travelling the world for the next year (my Worldwide Beer Tour!)
A good online book is
http://www.howtobrew.com/. Don't worry too much about the fact that they suggest boiling - don't do that to your kit, it's already been done for you - the book is referring to un-hopped malt kits, different things. There are plenty of other resources, each to their own, but
In Ireland:
www.grapengraindublin.comwww.thehomebrewcentre.iewww.grogsmugglers.com
In the UK.
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/acatalog/intro.html
A very useful and friendly forum - you'll find me here also:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/
There are plenty more.
Enjoy
