How to brew beer

A brief guide to get you started making your own home brew

Brewing

Boil water

Brew kettle
For extract brewing, youll need something
that holds at least 3 gallons of boiling wort.
Got a turkey fryer? Youre in business. Large
canning pots work well, too.

Bring 2 to 3 gallons of water

to a boil in the brew kettle. If
specialty grains are included
in the recipe, you'll need to
steep them first.

Malt
Grains such as barley are allowed to germinate and
then quickly dried. These malted grains provide the
sugar for the yeast to feed on and ferment the beer.
Whole grain

Dried extract Liquid extract

Grains are crushed

and soaked to draw
out the sugars.

Extracts are the concentrated

sugars extracted from malted
grains.

Add malt extract A

A

Turn off the heat.

Stir in extract until its
completely dissolved.

Return to a boil
The wort will form foam
and may easily boil over
during this stage until it
reaches a hot break, when
the foam recedes.

Add bittering hops B

B

Hops
The cone-like flowers of a climbing vine; used to
provide bitterness, aroma and flavor to beer.
They also act as a preservative.

Long-handled plastic or metal spoon

Some recipes call for later

hop additions.

Whole

Plugs

Pellets

Boil for one hour

Add finishing hops, during
the last 15 minutes (if called
for by recipe).
Immerse the kettle in a cold
water bath and cool to
between 65 and 90 degrees.

Thermometer
Measures the temperature of your wort.
Use the dial kind that clips onto your
brew pot or a digital kitchen model.
Avoid glass, which can break
and ruin your batch.

Pour wort into fermenter D

Fermenter bucket

Cool the wort quickly C

Easy to strain from the

wort; often used in dry
hopping. These soak up
more wort than pellets.

Pellets dissolve and are

difficult to strain from
the beer, but store
fresh for a long time.

Fermenting
Carboy

Pour vigorously, allowing it

to splash, adding oxygen.
Strain hops as you pour.

Add water

Add bottled or boiled water

to make a total of 5 gallons
in your fermenter.
D

Airlock
Lets gases escape from the fermenting
beer while keeping air out. The airlock
fits into the lid of the fermenter bucket
or a stopper in the carboy.
Hydrometer
Measures the gravity, or concentration of malt
sugar in your wort. This allows you to monitor
the progress of your fermentation and estimate
alcohol content.

Measure the gravity E

Use the hydrometer in a tall
glass or test jar to determine
the original gravity.

Yeast
Yeast is made up of
microorganisms that
consume sugar in the
wort and emit alcohol and
carbon dioxide. Yeast is
sold in dry or liquid form.

Pitch the yeast F

Pour liquid or rehydrated dry
yeast into the fermenter.

Seal and store G

Seal your fermenter with lid
or stopper.
Put the airlock in place and
fill it with clean water or
sanitizer solution.
Leave in a safe location
where the beer can ferment
undisturbed at a temperture
between 65 and 70 degrees
for up to two weeks.

A plastic bucket or glass carboy can be used

to ferment the beer. Some kits include a
secondary fermenter, which gives beer extra
time to condition and clarify before bottling.

Homebrewing glossary

Original gravity: The concentration of

Ale: Beer brewed from a top-fermenting yeast,

with a relatively short, warm fermentation.
Hot break: The stage at which proteins
coagulate and settle out during the boil.

Kraeusen (pronounced KROY-zen):

sugar before fermentation. The final gravity

determines how much of the sugars have
been converted to alcohol.

Trub (pronounced troob or trub):

The foamy head that builds on the top of

fermenting beer.
Lager: Beer brewed from bottom-fermenting
yeast and given a long, cool fermentation.

The stuff that settles to the bottom of the

fermenter; includes hops bits, coagulated
proteins and dead yeast.
Wort (pronounced wert): The
malt-sugar solution that is boiled with hops
prior to fermentation.

Bottling
Prepare priming sugar

Boil 2 cups of water with sugar and allow to cool.

Pour into bottling bucket.

Siphon beer into

bottling bucket

Priming sugar
Added before bottling
to spark the secondary fermentation that
gives the beer its fizz.

Use an auto-siphon or racking cane and tubing

to transfer beer to bottling bucket; make sure
not to splash.

For transferring beer

from one container to
another. An autoAuto-siphon siphon makes the job a
lot less messy.

Racking cane

Bottle filler
Spring-loaded opening
allows you to easily fill
bottles without overfilling.
Plastic tubing

Bottling bucket

Transfer to bottles
Fill bottles using the bottle filler attached to
spigot on the bottling bucket (or use siphon if
spigot not provided).
Seal on bottle caps with capper.

Carbonate
Store bottles out of light at 65 to 75 degrees for
two weeks.

Source: How to Brew by John Palmer

Bottle
capper

Non-twist-off
Grolsch-style
Youll need 40 to 50 bottles, depending on
the size, cleaned and sanitized. You can raid
your neighbors recycling bins or buy new
bottles. Swing-top Grolsch-style bottles
are great as long as the gasket is intact.

Bottle caps

Bottle brush

Photos by KELLY JORDAN, Research by ED STANSEL, Graphic by ANNA BERKEN/The Times-Union