BarCamp Homebrew Presentation Final (No Transitions)

Homebrew 101
How to Get Started Making Your Own Beer

We’re going to talk about...
What exactly is beer, anyway?
What kind of beer can you make at home?
What equipment do you need?
How do you actually make beer?
Cool! How do I get started?
What to do after my first batch?

What is beer, anyway?

Besides delicious, beer is...
Yeast
Convert fermentable sugars to alcohol and CO2
Two types, ale (top fermenting) and lager (bottom fermenting)
Ale yeasts can add flavors
Water
Cleaner water leads to better beer
Home brewers often opt for bottled drinking water
Hops
Add bitterness, flavor and aroma to beer
A natural preservative
Lots of variety in level of bitterness and types of aromas
Malted Grains
Contribute fermentable sugars, flavors, and color
Typically barley, but also wheat, oat, rye, etc
Base and specialty malts

In addition to the four main ingredients, you can brew with... just about anything!
Fruit (raspberries, cherries, watermelon, etc)
Chocolate
Coffee
Spices (vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon zest, etc)
Sugars (like brown or beet)
Honey
Chili peppers (no really)

Answer: Anything but Bud Light

Most home brewers start with ales
They ferment best between 65 and 75 degrees
Some common ale styles:
Brown / Red / Amber Ales
Wheat Beers (Hefeweizen)
BelgianDubbel and Trippel
India Pale Ale (IPA)
Stout
Porter
Barley Wine

Sounds a little intimidating... that’s a lot of options
Home brew stores sell recipe kits with everything you need
As a beginner, just decide what you want to brew

We’re going to talk about making:
An ale recipe kit using specialty grains
With a single-stage fermentation
Using a technique called Extract Brewing and a Partial Boil

What kind of equipment do you need?
Hint: Not this much...

Brew Pot
Stainless vs. Aluminum
$40 - $300+
Lots of sizes (4 to 30+ gal.)
Fermenter
Bucket or Carboy
6 gal. min. capacity
Both require an airlock

Brewing Accessories
Long Handled Spoon (plastic or stainless)
Strainer
Thief (Turkey Baster)
Auto-Siphon
6 foot hose
Cheap ($11) and super easy to start a siphon

Bottling Bucket
Plastic bucket with spigot
Short length of hose
Bottle filler
Bottling Accessories
Bottles – New or Used
Caps
Bottle Capper

Measurement Devices
Thermometer
Hydrometer
Test tube
Cleaning Supplies
Powdery Brew Wash
StarSan Sanitizer
Brushes

Made (not so) painstakingly by YOU!

Step 1: Clean Everything
Mix up a solution of your cleaner, per instructions
Thoroughly clean everything that will touch the beer
Step 2: Assemble Equipment and Ingredients
You’ll need the brew pot, fermenter, airlock, long spoon, strainer, turkey baster, hydrometer, thermometer
Recipe kit + 6 gallons of bottled drinking water
Set the yeast out at room temperature, up to 24 hours

Step 2: Assemble Equipment and Ingredients

Step 3: Soak the Specialty Grains
Bring 2 to 2.5 gal. of water up to approx. 155o
Once heated, place the grain bag in the water
Typically steeps for 20to 30 minutes, per recipe
When finished, lift in and out like a tea bag
Let it drip, then discard
Return the pot to the heatand bring to a boil

Step 4: Add Malt Extract
Remove the heat source and slowly add the extract
Add slowly, and stir; it can scorch and needs to dissolve
Return to heat, bring to a roiling boil
Watch it! It contains a LOT of sugar and can boil over...

Step 5: Boil the Wort and Add Hops
Once you get to a roiling boil, reduce heat and set timer
60 minutes: Add bittering hops
15 minutes: Add flavoring hops
5 minutes: Add aroma hops
While the wort boils, sanitizethe fermentation equipment
Bucket, airlock, turkey baster, strainer, ladle
Just don’t go too far...

Step 6: Cool the Wort
Need to get the wort below 75oas fast as possible
Wort Chiller
Passes cold water through a ring of tubing for heat exchange
Connects to faucet with adapter
Place into wort for last 15 min of boil to sanitize
Your Kitchen Sink
Submerge the brew pot in an ice bath in sink or cooler
Will need to stir the wort to circulate
Replace the cold water as necessary
Ice Cold Top-Off Water
Put 3 gallons in the freezer when you start
When you’re ready to ferment, it will be ice cold
Some brewers frown on it, and it’s not entirely effective

Step 7: Strain & Aerate the Wort
Straining remove grain and hop fragments
Aerating introduces O2 which helps start fermentation
Check specific gravity with sanitized hydrometer

Step 8: Pitch the Yeast
Shake the yeast vial and pour into fermenter
Give a good stir with a sanitized spoon
Seal the fermenter with sanitized lid, and add airlock

Step 9: Clean Everything
Take good care of the equipment, clean after every use
Step 10: Wait
Beer ferments for between 2 and 3 weeks
In the third week, take three specific gravity readings at 24 hour intervals; stable gravity = time to bottle

Step 11: Prep for Bottling
Soak and scrub all bottles the night before
Day of, clean bottling bucket, spigot, bottle filler, siphon

Step 12: Prime and Transfer to Bottling Bucket
Sanitize everything, let bottles drip dry
Boil and dissolve priming sugar into 2 cups of water
Add sugar water to bottling bucket
Using the sanitized auto-siphon, transfer the beer from primary to bottling bucket

Step 13: Bottle and Store
Fill each beer to top and put sanitized cap on top
Seal all bottles with capper
Store in a cool dark place for 3 weeks

Cool! How do I get started?
Don’t take my word for it
Keep reading, there’s a ton of info out there
The Complete Joy of Home Brewing
HomebrewTalk.com (Forums)
TastyBrew.com (Recipe Database)
Purchase an equipment kit and recipe
I buy from AustinHomebrew.com
Tons of recipes, $7.99 flat rate shipping

What to do after my first batch?
Get another fermenter and try two-stage fermentation
Transfer from primary to secondary after 7-10 days
Gets away from dead yeast, and allows for clarification
Come up with your own recipe
Software available to help build recipes
Mini-Mash and All-Grain brewing
Mini-mash is all-grain technique for a small amount of grain
All-grain is using nothing but grains

Resources
Equipment / Recipes
AustinHomebrew.com
NorthernBrewer.com
Knowledge
HomebrewTalk.com
TastyBrew.com
This Presentation
slideshare.net/mlamb2005
CHS Homebrew Club?
If interested, email me at:matthewlamb@gmail.com

BarCamp Homebrew Presentation Final (No Transitions)

by Matthew Lamb on Nov 12, 2010

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BarCamp Homebrew Presentation Final (No Transitions) — Presentation Transcript