Homebrew Beer Howto

Just stumbled on this thread. Great to see it. I'm in the middle of a pale ale brew and hope to rack into a couple of 5 litre demi johns tomorrow. I'm working from extract mainly. Hope to graduate to grain in a while but lots to learn from extract yet. I get my supplies from grape 'n' grain but am a little worried about the freshness of the hops. They seem to source them from Young's in Britain but they appear poorly packaged and no doubt oxidised somewhat. I'm a hop head so got some Northern brewer for bittering in the boil only to discover that the guy at grape 'n' grain had weighed out 100 grams himself and stuffed them into a plastic bag. The English sites seem more promising for foil wrapped hops but the expense of postage can add to the overall cost. Generally, I think Ireland is very poorly provided for regarding Home Brew. Perhaps with an increase of popularity in home brew and a weaning of the nation from the commercial muck that is peddled in most pubs, there will be an improvement in supplies...

Thanks for the hop advice, bigears. Just ordered some decent bittering and aroma hops from the hopshopuk you suggested. Racked into the secondary fermenters this morning. Took a little sip of the green beer; not bad and perhaps, dare I say it, a little too bitter. Never thought I say that but I was fairly liberal with the hops during the boil.. I tried to compensate for the condition of the hops, which wasn't great. Still, after some maturation I'm sure all will be well. I ended up with an odd volume left so racked a few bottles off straight from the primary. I've never managed to burst a bottle by adding too much priming sugar or bottling too early but this time I might be pushing it a bit. I don't like allowing the primary fermentation to go too long and tend to rack off early once the krausen subsides. If these bottles go, you're gonna hear it where ever on the island you might live!

Hey oconn,

You shouldn't have too many problems with the starter kit. I did my first batch in a similar way a few years back and it worked like a charm. There are a few things to keep an eye on though. Whether you're brewing from a kit or have graduated to full mash work, everything that touches the beer has to sterilised. I screwed up a batch or two from being sloppy in this area. Anything that comes into touch with your brew has to be sterilised. (with the exception of the yeast, of course.....) The ingredients you use, like the sugar, will be sterilised by the boiling water that you use to make up the kit. The keg you store in after fermentation should be sterilised also, but things are a little more forgiving after fermentation because during this process there are a number of chemical changes that result in the beer being a little more resistant to infection. The major change is the alcohol production (Yay!) which is antibacterial in itself and also a drop in pH making the brew more acidic and less hospitable to bacteria. I have found that the major worry with regard to infection is wild strains of yeast which live just as happily in your brew as the brewer's yeast that you add yourself. Their action can be quite insidious as they grow slowly and can taint your beer over time. I got a batch once, after a long bottle conditioning, that smelt like phenol - a medicinal kind of smell, that is typical of a wild yeast infection.

I've probably scared the crap out of you now and you're certain that there is no way you can avoid contamination, but it's not the case. Kit brewing requires little movement of the beer, especially if you're kegging it so it won't be exposed to the air very much. This greatly reduces any chance of contamination. Give all you equipment a good soaking in the sanitiser solution and rinse it out throughly. Make sure to do the inside of the siphoning tubes and rinse through fully (I hate doing this bit, it seems like it can never be clean enough)

As for the best place for the fermentation vessel....the shed doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Temperature fluctuations could make things a little difficult and the yeast they have given you with the kit is likely to be an ale yeast despite the fact that you bought a lager kit. There's no real harm in that but ale yeasts like to work around 16 - 20 degree C and the shed might be too cold and the yeast could get a little sluggish. In my experience there is very little smell form the fermentation vessel and you should be able to keep in indoors with little problem. Just keep inquisitive hands away from it until the fermentation is in full swing. The beer is nicely protected from infection at that stage by the foamy head formed by the yeast and the carbon dioxide, which is heavier than air and sits on top of the brew.

I'd be confident that everything will go well and it's the sweetest thing to have your own homemade brew on tap. Let us know how you get on. I'm new to this forum but from what I've read, there are a number of guys who know there stuff here, so any questions you have could be answered, I'm sure

one more thing....I plan to use bottled water can i use the 2liter bottles afterwards to store the beer as i dont have any glass bottles ? or will leaving it in the plastic 5gal keg be ok to serve from ? I thought I could fill a few 2 L bottles from the keg as I wanted to dirnk them...throw them into the fridge to chill ?

conor,

how long has the beer been in the keg? you won't get decent carbonation for a few weeks anyway. whatever you do don't dump the beer! For now I'd let it sit, get the new cap and then take a decision. I've not used kegs but I wouldn't think it would be ready this soon. maybe someone who has more experience might be able to shed some light on it.

There are a few factors that will affect how quickly the beer will carbonate. First of all how much priming sugar did you use? Depending on the style of beer it can vary. A lager is normally carbonated more than an ale - typically 4 to 5 grams of sugar/glucose for example. Too little priming sugar and it will be flat; too much and you can have explosions....

The temperature will also help determine how quickly the carbonation will complete. It helps if it is stored in a warm area e.g. 18C. The difference in how much fizz you'll get at week three compared to week one is quite high from my limited experience. I bottle my brews and I always sample one after a week just to get an idea of how it changes as it matures. Three weeks is normally the earliest it would approach something decent although it may be different with kegging.

noby,

i'd be interested to see that recipe too. i included some chocolate malt and crystal along with the roasted barley. won't sample it for a month or so; i don't know how it'll turn out but it smells pretty good.

conor, 55 grams of priming sugar seems quite low for a lager if you brewed around the 23 litre mark. Have a look at this from HowtoBrew:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

judging from his priming chart you could have used twice the amount (4 oz/110g). were the instructions on the kit specific to lager? some of the kits have standard instructions that normally lean toward ale styles. throw away the instructions that come with the kit and check out the procedure online. ken's instructions at the beginning of this thread are a good place to start. there are also loads of 'first homebrew' links if you google them.

Just want to get a few peoples opinions on the homebrew stuff. Well, whats it like? How does it compare to mainstream beers? How much would a pint cost(roughly) of your stuff?

Tripper,

Definitely there's more involved in making a lager, first of all you'll need patience. A spare fridge for fermenting also helps to keep the temperature down. As noby says ales are easier to brew. Some ales such as steam beers e.g. Anchor Steam and Kolsch beers from Germany are technically ales but they taste like lager. I haven't brewed these styles yet but they are apparently a less involved brew than the full blown lager. I made quite a tasty lager from a kit of Cooper's Bavarian along with some DME (dried malt extract) a little glucose and some hops. I would describe the taste as being like a cross between a Bavarian lager and Budvar but maybe I'm being too generous . It probably cost about 20 to 25 euro to brew for about 40 pints which isn't bad value at all but you can do the basic kit lager for a tenner less.

If you like weissbiers such as Erdinger, Franziskaner, Schneider these are quite easy to brew and turn out really well - you do need the proper liquid yeast though which will add a few quid to the cost. For me the attraction of homebrew is that you can experiment with the ingredients to achieve (hopefully) the style that you like. You can focus on price i.e. make the cheapest pint possible or try to make the best quality brew you can with the best ingredients. Either way it will be cheaper than a commercial brew but the saving depends on the cost of the ingredients and the cost of the beer you're comparing it to. The saving on a one euro can is less than on a 2 to 3 euro bottle of premium beer.

So to answer your question, depending on what you brew and the ingredients you choose you can achieve a beer that ranges from drinkable to downright tasty. And you get to have some fun along the way.

Nice recipes, I've taken a copy of them. That sounds like a good book.

For my stout I used Galena as my bittering hop and East Kent Goldings for flavour; I quite like the Porterhouse beers and they use this combination (along with Nugget) in a lot of their beers. The stout was my first extract with steeped grain and I found the process easier than I thought. Once the water had reached the correct steeping temperature I turned the heat off. I expected to have to fiddle around a lot to keep the temperature constant but it held it very well on its own.

Speaking of the Porterhouse has anyone tried their Porterhouse Red? This is really tasty and I'd love to brew something similar. This is how they describe it:

"Porterhouse Red

Alcohol by volume: 4.4%

Grain: Pale Malt, Crystal Malt, Wheat Malt, Chocolate Malt.

Hops: Galena, Nugget, East Kent Goldings.

At last an Irish Red Ale with a traditional hop flavour to balance the fruit character of the yeast and the luscious caramel flavour notes delivered from the malts used, as opposed to artificially added."

This gives me an indication of the recipe but not the breakdown in quantities which is obviously crucial. It's quite a bitter beer which I like, but it also has a nice caramel/fruity flavour to balance it out. Is it Crystal that adds the caramel undertones?

Cheers for the stout recipe noby. Where can you get the flaked barley? It seems like an important part of a decent stout. The Porter House's Wrasslers 4X has flaked barley in it and that is perhaps the best stout I've ever tasted. It's a seriously big beer with super bitterness and roasted flavours. A stout is my next venture methinks. I told my mum I was brewing a stout and she was very interested, being a Guinness Extra stout drinker her whole life. She swears by the stuff and apparently drank a bottle a day while she was pregnant with me. I turned out alright...........I think.

I'm still a little concerned about the patent black malt problem. Some of the books I've read say it will result in much better colour and give the colouring of the head seen in bottles stouts. It shouldn't contribute to the flavour a whole lot being burned to a crisp and all.

Used Noby's recipe as a template for a stout I brewed up. Had to make do with what I had so used dark LME, roasted barley, Nothern Brewer and Goldings. Didn't have any flaked barley but the stout I'm somewhat prematurley supping on at the moment has good head retention and tastes excellent. It's a sample I bottled straight from the primary fermenter and I'm surprised at how good it is already. I hope to do the proper recipe soon but having problems with suppliers. The Wexbrew guy seems to have forgotten aboout my order entirely. Said he would e mail over a week ago but I haven't heard anything. Also the beersmugglers site is acting up. Got some top hops and yeast from the hop shop in the Uk, though. Will use them in the next brew. How are the rest of you getting on?

Growing your own hops? That's hardcore. I bow to you, sir.

My stout has been in secondary for about 3 weeks now. I plan to bottle this weekend (bottling is such a pain!)

I reckon your lager is on its way Conor, i wouldn't expect too much carbonation after a week but I'm not up to speed on kegs so someone may know better. The fruity taste is most likely from the yeast. Lager fermented with an ale yeast will not be as crisp. I even find the Saflager yeast a little fruity. The one I have used is Saflager S23. I believe they have another one called W34 or something - I 've seen references to it on US/Oz sites but it doesn't seem to show up on UK/Irish sites. It's a German style yeast which is supposed to be a little crisper. I plan on trying a liquid yeast at some point over the summer - either a Kolsch or a Budvar yeast. More expensive but I'll give it a try.

I have a question for all you keggers - do you use CO2 cylinders with your kegs? I would like to try kegging a stout at some point with a CO2/Nitrogen mix (used with draught stouts to give the creamy head) but I've only seen one place selling it - www.hopandgrape.co.uk. It's called a Widget system and you can use CO2 or CO2/Nitrogen. Now I don't mind ordering yeast or hops from the UK as the weight is not an issue but I don't plan on ordering this from abroad, especially seeing as refills are on an exchange basis!

Can you use the same gas cylinders that pubs use? And where on earth would you find the suppliers? I'm probably wasting my time but I thought I'd throw it out there and see.

If I do decide to go for a keg regardless what setup would you recommend?

I got the Wyeast from the hopshop uk. I've never used it before but It's reasonably fresh (Good til Jan 2007 with a one year shelf life). It syas you can do a starter or toss is straight in after popping the pack. I'm inclined to toss it straight in because of the danger of infections from a starter. Didn't think there was any risk invloved until you mentioned it. Where can I get white labs yeast from in case it all goes arse ways?

My experience with Wyeast was probably due to the way I used it. I got it from hopshop as well and they posted a note on it saying it might take several days to swell after the inner pouch had broken due to its age. It actually swelled in 24 hours but I had it in the hotpress - this was back in February - so the temperature may have got too high and killed the little yeasties. When I opened the corner with a scissors a load of it went spraying everywhere and I'm not sure how much of it got into the starter.

I found White Labs more idiot proof as it comes in a vial and you just unscrew this and plop it in, no need to wait for 24 hours/several days. i got mine from hopandgrape, I've posted the link in an earlier post. I think they're the only suppliers on this side of the atlantic. I'm sure the yeast itself is not better but I prefer it purely based on my own experience. Liquid yeast is pricey and I don't want to take the chance of wasting it, even if it is due to my own stupidity