Professional Documents
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DJx2 2006
Why this text? Because I think brewing beer is simple and fun and if it were presented in a way that makes it sound simple and fun more people might be willing to try it. Many of the great books published on home brewing are pretty technical in nature and strike fear in the hearts of timid would be home brewers. My theory is this start simple by brewing a basic ale and see how simple it can be, and once youve done it a few times you can get as technical or complicated as you want. Most people Ive talked to dont want to get technical they just want to make a good brew that they can enjoy with their friends and families and maybe even save a few bucks. So what is beer? Very basically - beer is a fermented beverage made by introducing yeast to sugar. The yeast eats the sugar so that it may grow and multiply. The bi-product of this consumption is ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Sounds simple doesnt it? Well it really is, so lets get started! The first thing you need to learn before you start brewing your own beer is this
Sanitize everything!
Brewing beer is pretty simple, but we always fear the unknown dont we? The most important facet of home brewing is cleanliness! Everything has to be washed thoroughly, and sanitized completely contamination from surface or air born bacteria is a big problem. That being said, Im going to introduce you to the simplest form of homebrewing malt extract brewing. There are numerous local stores and websites throughout the world from which you can purchase your supplies. Putting a little thought into you mail order purchases can save you a lot of money on shipping.
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................. 5 How Do I get Started ? ................................................................................................ 5 Batch Sizes.................................................................................................................. 5 Brewing Methods......................................................................................................... 6 Fermenting Containers .............................................................................................................. 7 Mini Homebrew Kits (2.5 gallon Sized) ........................................................................ 7
The Beer Machine.................................................................................................................7 Mr. Beer ................................................................................................................................8
Conical Fermenters................................................................................................................... 14
Stainless Steel Conical Fermenters ....................................................................................14 PVC Conical Fermneters ....................................................................................................15
The Pre-Brewing Steps ........................................................................................................... 21 Sanitizers................................................................................................................... 21 Water Preparation ..................................................................................................... 22 Brewing Your First Extract Beer......................................................................................... 23 Brewing an All Extract Wort ....................................................................................... 23 Brewing Extract with Steeped Grains and Hops ....................................................... 24
Brewing Your First All-Grain Beer....................................................................................... 25 The Mash................................................................................................................... 25 Back To Extract Brewing ........................................................................................... 26 Calculating % Alcohol .............................................................................................................. 28
% Alcohol by Volume ..........................................................................................................28 % Alcohol by Weight ...........................................................................................................28
Preparing to Bottle Your Beer .............................................................................................. 29 I have a Hydrometer! ................................................................................................. 29 I dont have a Hydrometer ......................................................................................... 29 What do I need to Bottle my Beer?............................................................................ 29 Priming the Beer ....................................................................................................................... 31
Bottle Priming......................................................................................................................31 Bulk Priming ........................................................................................................................31
Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 34 Grains, Extracts & Sugars ......................................................................................... 35 Hops .......................................................................................................................... 43 Spices, Flavors & Finings .......................................................................................... 46 Yeast Statistics .......................................................................................................... 50 Beer Style Statistics With Commercial Examples...................................................... 54
Introduction
How Do I get Started ?
The simplest way to get started is to purchase a Homebrew Starter Kit. There are several types of starter kits available, varying in size and level of simplicity. Some kits include everything but the pot to cook it in and others include almost nothing, so make sure you know whats included in you kit to avoid disappointment. Dont worry! Ill take you through it step by step
Batch Sizes
One of the first things you may want to consider is size. How much beer do you normally drink at a time? Is one case of beer enough? Do you have frequent get-togethers where you may want several cases on hand? Lets do some basic math first. From the table below you can see just how much beer can be made using the various sized kits available.
Keep in mind that in general the bigger the batch size the bigger the equipment necessary to make it and the more space needed to store the equipment and the finished beer. That being said, it also stands to reason that it takes longer to brew larger batches. So if you live in a small apartment, have limited storage or refrigerator space you may want to stick to smaller equipment and brew more frequently. It takes an average of one or two weeks to ferment the beer and one or two weeks to condition the beer before you drink it. Some recipes can take as much as a month just to ferment and several months to condition, but these are exceptional brews and not common very common. Once you get started brewing you may find you need find reasons not to brew!
Brewing Methods
There are many methods and variations used to brew beer from the simplest extract brewing to the more complicated All-Grain brewing. Ill explain in more detail later but for now, there are basically 4 types, heres a brief run down of what they are and what each means: Extract Brewing Kind of like making condensed soup. Put water in the pot, pour in the concentrated beer malt and away you go. You still have the option of adding additional ingredients, to make a special recipe but thats basically it. When you purchase a beer extract kit you usually get a can of condensed malt syrup in the style or your choice with the hops already added, maybe a can of plain malt syrup and sometimes the yeast. * Note the concentrate may be in the form of a powder. Extracts with Steeped Grains - Same as the extract above but you add a few ounces of crushed malt grains you steep in a small muslin bag like making tea. Not a whole lot more effort but a big difference in taste for some beer styles. Partial Mash In one pot boil water. Put specialty grains in a muslin bag, place in a second small pot of water, bring water up to 170F turn off heat and let it steep like tea for about 20 minutes then remove the bag. When the water in the big pot boils add extracts and the tea from the small pot. Add hops as needed. All-Grain This is the most complicated of the four and takes some extra equipment. This is how beer has been made for thousands of years. You need a mash tun to soak to grains in and two large pots, one to add the water to the mash tun and one to collect the water from the mash tun. The basic process is to add the grains to the mash tun, allow the water to be filtered through the grains to extract the sugars and boil the collected sugar water down to make an extract then its just like extract brewing.
Fermenting Containers
Mini Homebrew Kits (2.5 gallon Sized)
There are several types of beer brewing kits available from the more traditional bucket and carboy to the newer self contained keg fermenters. If you not sure about how much youll like brewing, you are short on space or you dont expect to make more than a few gallons at a time, I recommend the self contained fermenting kits such as Mr. Beer or Beer Machine. Ill go over several types to give you an idea of whats available and to help you choose the one thats right for you. Ill try to list an average price per unit you can use these information for comparison purposes.
Mr. Beer
A more traditional yet small sized brewing system. I actually got started brewing with the Mr. Beer brew system. I love the little keg fermenters! They are easy to use and easy to clean. Its just a little PVC container with a spigot and a cap. The cap threads have little cuts down them to let excess CO2 bleed out if needed, so an airlock is not needed. Each keg produces about 2.5 gallons of beer. This is a great size for testing the waters or experimenting with different malt extracts, hops, steeped grains and even mini mash recipes. There are a few different packaging variations of this kit. The Deluxe Kit comes with the keg, the ingredients in make one batch of beer sanitizer and plastic bottle caps for $30 . The Premium Kit also comes with eight, one liter PET bottles as well $40. Mr. Beer sold replacement kegs a while back online for only $15 and I bought three more of them for a total of 5 kegs. A 2.5 gallon batch of extract based beer only takes about two hours to brew start to finish. With 5 kegs I can try a new recipe every other night if I am so inclined. I did say I love them right? The Mr. Beer company also sells ingredients sized just for the kegs which allow you to make all sorts of beers, ciders and even rootbeer, but you are not limited to buying just their products. They even have a monthly brewing club. If you go to their website you can find look over products and over 200 easy to brew recipes. http://www.mrbeer.com How Do I brew Using Mr. Beer? The basic Mr. Beer recipes goes like this. Set a pot on the stove with about 2 gallons of water and boil it. Set one gallon aside to cool and save it for later. If you are using a Mr. Beer product called Booster add it to the water pot before the boil and dissolve it, then bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the can of extract and stir until completely mixed. This is called wort. Cool the wort down to 130 F before putting it into the keg. Add water until the water level reaches the 8.5 quart mark on the keg and stir vigorously. If you have a wire whisk whip it up to a good froth air at this point is good for the yeast, it is called aerating the wort. When temperature is down to 70 to 90 F sprinkle yeast on top of wort in keg and wait for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes mix it in well making sure NOT to cause a lot of bubbles. Once the yeast is in the wort aeration is not a good thing. Place the cover on the keg and let it sit in a cool (68 to 76 F) dark place for 7 to 10 days (or more) until bubbles stop forming. It may take as much as a full day before you start to see bubbles forming on top of the wort. These bubbles/foam are called krausen. Do Not open the keg again until its time to bottle!
This was a simple Mr. Beer extract brew. You can also do mini mash brew and small batch All-Grain brews just make sure the wort is down to 130 F before putting it into the keg. Other Equipment Needed for Mr. Beer Fermenter Adhesive Thermometer Sticks on the side of your fermenter so you can watch your temperature. $2 Tubing Although not required a short length of tubing for bottling is helpful and keeps from introducing air to your brew.
(3 to 10 Gallon sized)
3-piece Airlock
S type airlock
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Blow-Off Tube Some brews will be extra active fermenters and blow off the top of you airlock. When this happens you simply add an extra length of tubing either into you bucket or into you airlock and place that in another bucket or container to catch the foam and gases that escape. Just remember to cover the end of the tubing with water so germs and bacteria wont enter your brew! Spigots As with everything else there are many spigot types available. It can be plastic, brass or stainless steel. The cheapest and simplest is shown on the right. They go for about $3. I like this style best because it has a tapered spout making it easy to slip hoses on and off and doesnt required you hold it to pour the liquid out. Turn it and it stays on until you turn it off.
Here is what the completed fermenting bucket looks like. That was easy now wasnt it?
Adhesive Thermometer
Sticks on the side of your fermenter so you can watch your temperature.
Pail Opening Tool Buckets are a pain to open, make it easier with this tool
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Carboy cap Used to attach hoses, airlocks and blow-off tubes or racking canes to the carboy. $3 You can also just use a drilled rubber stopper but this is more convenient. You will also need one of the airlocks shown earlier in the bucket fermenter section of the guide. Other Equipment Needed for Carboy Fermenter Adhesive Thermometer Sticks on the side of your fermenter so you can watch your temperature. Tubing Food grade tubing, used for transferring the wort or beer from one container to another.
Siphon This is used to get the beer out of the fermenter and into your bottles or kegs Carboy Brush A necessity for cleaning inside of carboys Racking Cane, Tubing and Bottle Filler For Moving Wort from carboy to Brew Bucket
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Conical Fermenters
Commercial breweries and micro breweries generally use huge conical fermenters. Conical fermenters make brewing amazingly easy (especially on your back). No lifting heavy buckets or carboys, no need to transfer to a secondary fermenter to clarify your beer. One container does it all! The most common conical fermenters are made of stainless steel or copper, needless to say they are VERY expensive but they also come in PVC The steeply angled bottom (about 60 degrees) allows all of the trub and spent yeast fall to the bottom. The trub can be dumped out using the lower ball valves for cleaner, clearer beer. It is also good for capturing the yeast for reuse later. The upper ball valve is used to remove your beer above the trub line so you could simply leave the old yeast in there and add new wort to start a whole new batch of beer!
A 7 gallon stainless steel conical fermenter like the one the left by Blichmann goes for about $500. Not exactly in the beginners price range. Leg extensions to get the fermenter off the floor go for around $65.
Other Equipment Needed for the Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter Adhesive Thermometer Sticks on the side of your fermenter so you can watch your temperature. Tubing Food grade tubing, used for transferring the wort or beer from one container to another.
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MiniBrew Conical Fermenter Similar to the V-Vessels are the MiniBrew polyethylene plastic conical fermenters. They come in 6.5 gallon, 8 gallon, 15 gallon, 25 gallon and 40 gallon sizes. WOW! One of the things I wished the V-vessel had was a bigger mouth opening so I could actually stick my arm in it for cleaning. The MiniBrew has it! What is also has is a second valve port for draining your brew from above the yeast and trub. I have not used this product however I have got to say Ive had to convince myself more than once that I really dont have room for another conical. The price of the 6.5 gallon unit is $120.
Adhesive Thermometer Sticks on the side of your fermenter so you can watch your temperature. Tubing Food grade tubing, used for transferring the wort or beer from one container to another.
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Funnel Funnels come in all shapes and sizes get one with a large mouth to make pouring easy. Large Pot For brewing wort in. See page 5 for sizes. Its really handy to have one with a spigot on it. Aluminum pots are acceptable. Stainless steel is best. This is easy to make by adding a brass ball valve, gasket and a nutted nipple. I also have a nylon barbed fitting which threads into the ball valve on the outside to add tubing for racking the wort. Musslin bags or Cheese Cloth Used for addig grains or hops to the wort. Maybe be reused until they self destruct. Some people use nylon stockings for this purpose.
All-Grain Equipment
Mash Tun Made from a 10 Gallon Rubbermaid cooler - $30 Replace spigot Added nylon threaded T Added nylon threaded barb fittings at ends of T Added Stainless Steel braid to barbed fittings Added Stainless steel hose clamps to hold braid on Tubing for the end of the spigot Turkey Fryer Kit If your stove is not commercial grade you will need a turkey cooker and propane tank to cook wort over about 3 gallons.
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Malts
Beer is a malted beverage so lets take a minute to talk a bit about what malts are. Malts come in three basic forms:
Malted Grains
Malted grain is made from barley, wheat or rye. It is soaked until it sprouts then it is drained and dried. This process harnesses natural enzymes a process that releases fermentable sugars, and develops the flavors in beer. It is then kiln dried using hot air. Different temperatures and combinations of air or lack of it produce different styles of grains. Malted grains come in over a hundred varieties.
Specialty Grains
Specialty grains are grains which do not have to be mashed. The starches have been converted to sugars in the kilning process so they can be steeped in a bag like a tea. They control the color, body and flavor of our beer.All Crystal Malts, Chocolate Malt, Black Patent Malt, Cara-Pils or Dextrin Malt, Roasted Barley Malt, Victory (Biscuit) Malt, Belgian Aromatic, Belgian Biscuit Malt, Belgian Caramunich, Belgian Caravienne , Belgian Special B, Canadian Honey Malt, German Rauch (Smoked) Malt, German Karaffe Malt, Scottish Peat Smoked Malt, Special Roast are specialty grains.
Known as LMEs - made from mashing the grains then boiling the liquid into a concentrated syrup. LMEs come in two forms Unhopped and Hopped. LMEs usually come in cans or plastic jars if purchased in bulk. Unhopped liquid Malt Extracts - are a concentrate made from a base malt grain with no other flavors or hops added. Some companes refer to this form as UMEs or ULMEs. They usually come in Extra Light, Light, Pale, Amber, Dark and Wheat. Hopped liquid Malt Extracts also called HMEs. HLMEs or beer mixes, are LMEs which have hops added and sometimes other grains for flavor. They come in every style of beer that can be made. You usually have to buy at least one can of UME and one can of HME per batch of extract beer.
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Known as DMEs a dry malt powder or spray. Same as LMEs but in powdered form. DMEs weighs less, lasts longer and is easier to handle. Come in Extra Light, Light, Amber, Dark, Extra Dark, Wheat, barley and wheat, Rice, and Barley and Rice.
Hops
Hops are actually a flower, green in color with yellow lupulin glands down between the petals. Hops are used for preserving the beer and the essential oils also add flavor and aroma to balance the sweetness of the malt. Come in two forms: Leaf hops and palletized hops. Hops come in Cascade, Willamette, Northern Brewer, Fuggles, Horizon, Kent Goldings, Chinook, Tettnanger, Perle, Hallertaur, Centennial, Columbus, Brewers Gold, Mount Hood, Nugget, Saaz, Sterling, German Spalt, Cluster, Challenger, Cyrstal, Eroica, Liberty, Styrian Goldings, Galena, Bullion, Amarillo, Olympic, Magnum, Target, and Hersbrucker varieties to name a few.
Yeast
The yeast cells consume simple sugars and produce a bi-product of carbon dioxide and alcohol. There are two main types of yeast, ale and lager. Ale yeasts like the warmer temperatures between 60-70F, while lager yeasts work best at temperatures of 50- 65F even as low as 40F. Yeast also come in two forms Liquid and dry. The liquid yeasts come in any variety of beer styles and is said to be superior by the brewing experts. They average between $5 and $7. Dry yeast is more limited in styles but Ive had great luck with several dry yeast brands and inconsistent results with the expensive liquid yeasts. One of the best yeasts Ive ever used is the Superior Dry Lager yeast which sells for around $1.25. It always works perfectly no matter what the brew or temperature whether I am making ale or lager! Other good dry yeast is Coopers Ale Yeast $1.25 and Nottingham Ale yeast $1.75.
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Hydrometer Readings
What is a hydrometer?
According to Wikipedia: A hydrometer is an instrument used for determining the specific gravity of liquids. It is usually made of glass and consists of a cylindrical stem and a bulb weighted with mercury or shot to make it float upright. The liquid is poured into a tall jar, and the hydrometer is gently lowered into the liquid until it floats freely. The point where the surface of the liquid touches the stem of the hydrometer is noted. Hydrometers usually contain a paper scale inside the stem, so that the specific gravity (or density) can be read directly in grams per cubic centimeter.
Hydrometer Temperature Corrections Example: The temperature of our wort is: 100 F, your specific gravity reading (SG) Is 1.040, the Delta G value from the chart is .0061. Round this number off to the same number of decimal places or .006 add that number to the original reading of 1.40 Your corrected specific gravity reading would be 1.046.
T C 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Delta G -0.0007 -0.0008 -0.0008 -0.0009 -0.0009 -0.0009 -0.0008 -0.0008 -0.0007 -0.0007 -0.0006 -0.0005 -0.0004 -0.0003 -0.0001 0 0.0002 0.0003 0.0005 0.0007 0.0009 0.0011 0.0013 0.0016 0.0018 T F 32 33.8 35.6 37.4 39.2 41 42.8 44.6 46.4 48.2 50 51.8 53.6 55.4 57.2 59 60.8 62.6 64.4 66.2 68 69.8 71.6 73.4 75.2 T C 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Delta G 0.0021 0.0023 0.0026 0.0029 0.0032 0.0035 0.0038 0.0041 0.0044 0.0047 0.0051 0.0054 0.0058 0.0061 0.0065 0.0069 0.0073 0.0077 0.0081 0.0085 0.0089 0.0093 0.0097 0.0102 0.0106 T F 77 78.8 80.6 82.4 84.2 86 87.8 89.6 91.4 93.2 95 96.8 98.6 100.4 102.2 104 105.8 107.6 109.4 111.2 113 114.8 116.6 118.4 120.2
The original gravity will be higher because of the sugar in it. The final gravity will be lower because most of the sugars have fermented out and been converted to alcohol! 20
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Water Preparation
If you have chlorinated water, boil the water you are going to use in your brewing, this is will help get rid of the of the chlorine taste. Many people will only use well water, bottled water or filtered water when brewing. Ive tried bottled, filtered and tap water. As long as I boil the water before I brew I dont taste a difference when using tap water in the final product. Some people dont pre-boil their water its not required. I really love to brew! Sometimes To save time I will boil the water I will be using on the day before I brew if I plan on brewing a 5 gallon all-grain brew during the work week. Dial Thermometer
Monitor the temperature of you wort. The metal clip to attaches to the lip of the kettle. Should read from 0 to 220F
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5. Turn off the heat cool down to 70 - 90F as quickly as possible by placing pot in a sink or tub filled with cold water, or a snow bank stirring constantly or if you have one use a wort chiller. 6. When the temperature is down to 70 - 90F aerate the wort by stirring up quickly or using a wire whisk. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort before its added. 7. Take a hydrometer reading if you have one and record this number correcting for temperature. Drink the wort from the hydrometer test tube. Never pour this back into the beer. Make notes on your readings and what youve tasted for later. It will be really sweet! 8. When there are plenty of bubbles in the wort add the yeast now stir gently you dont want to add air to the wort once the yeast has been added. Let it sit for 10 minutes. 9. Transfer wort to your fermenter of choice being careful to leave as much of the sediment and trub behind as you can. 10. Place Air lock on ferementer (if there is one) 11. Place fermenter in a place where it will be out of the sunlight and undisturbed for several days to a few weeks depending on the recipe. In about 24 hours you should see bubbling in the airlock. Keep an eye on the temperatures! 12. Clean up!
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7. If you have bittering hops place them in a clean muslin bag tie a knot in it and add them now. Boil Bittering hops for 55 minutes. 8. If you have aroma or finishing hops add for the last 5 minutes of the boil. 9. Turn off the heat cool down to 70 - 90F as quickly as possible by placing pot in a sink or tub filled with cold water, or a snow bank stirring constantly. If you have one use a wort chiller. 10. When the temperature is down to 70 - 90F aerate the wort by stirring up quickly or whip it using a wire whisk. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort before its added. 11. Take a hydrometer reading if you have one and record this number correcting for temperature. Drink the wort from the hydrometer test tube. Never pour this back into the beer. Make notes on your readings and what youve tasted for later. It will be really sweet! 13. When there are plenty of bubbles in the wort add the yeast now stir gently you dont want to add air to the wort once the yeast has been added. Let it sit for 10 minutes. 12. Transfer wort to your fermenter of choice being careful to leave as much of the sediment and trub behind as you can. 13. Place Air lock on ferementer (if there is one) 14. Place fermenter in a place where it will be out of the sunlight and undisturbed for several days to a few weeks depending on the recipe. In about 24 hours you should see bubbling in the airlock. Keep an eye on the temperatures! 15. Clean up!
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Then I found Mr. Beer, which introduced me to extract brewing in small batches. My second batch of beer was a Coopers Brew Master Select kit with steeped grains. I just followed the recipe everything was in the kit! Okay lets get rid of the fear this is easy, a bit more time consuming but easy! Here we go! This will be for 5 gallons of beer assuming a few different grains and hops - so get out all you equipment wash and sanitize everything! If you dont have a grain mill order your grain pre-crushed. To make it easy on your back place the boiling pot (HLT) on the stove with tubing attached long enough to go into the Mash Tun, place the Mash tun on a high chair or stool with tubing long enough to reach the bottom of the collection pot and a collection pot for the Mash tun on a chair or the floor. It should look something like this if possible:
HLT
Stove
Mash Tun
Stool
Pot
Chair
The Mash
1. Bring about 4 gallons of water up to about 160F NOTE: Lets say we have a total of 8 pounds of grain we need about 1 quarts of water per pound of grain to put into the Mash Tun with the grain so thats 12 quarts of water (the 4 gallons from step 1). 2. Pour a few gallons of hot tap water into you Mash Tun to warm it up and let it sit with the lid on for about 5 minutes then dump it and put the lid back on. 3. Place all of the crushed grains into the Mash Tun.
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4. Slowly add the water to the grains to cover them by about an inch and stir them up to make sure they arent stuck together and let them sit covered for one hour. The temperature in the grain bed should be about 150F. This is called the Mash.
NOTE: Place a saucer or colander over the grain bed to keep from stirring up the grains. 5. Add about 4 more gallons of water to the HLT and bring this temperature up to about 170 F. 6. After an hour run about 2 quarts of water out of the Mash Tun into the collection pot. This water will have a lot of grain particles in it. Thats normal! This is called the first runnings. Slowly pout this back into the Mash Tun. 7. Pour another 2 quarts of water out from the Mash tun into the collection pot. This should be cleaner than the first. Again slowly pour this back into the Mash Tun. 8. Continue to pour a few quarts Mash water at a time into the collection pot until it runs clear. This may take only be once or could take 3 or 4 tries. 9. Once the Mash water runs fairly free of particles open the spigot a tiny bit to let the mash water slowly drip into the collection pot at the same time slowly open the spigot of the HLT and let it run into the Mash Tun. This should take about an hour to complete so just a trickle will do! NOTE: As the water passes through the grains it takes with it the sugars which will become the wort. The more water that passes through the lighter the color of the run off. 10. Once all the water has passed through the grain checkthe specific gravity of the final runoff .It should be between 1.010 and 1.000. If you dont have a hydrometer just look to see that its really light compared to the earlier runnings. NOTE: Now the Mashing is done and all the sugars (extracts) are collected. The rest is just extract brewing.
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4. Turn off the heat cool down to 70 - 90F as quickly as possible by placing pot in a sink or tub filled with cold water, or a snow bank stirring constantly. If you have one use a wort chiller. 5. When the temperature is down to 70 - 90F aerate the wort by stirring up quickly or whip it using a wire whisk. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort before its added. 6. Take a hydrometer reading if you have one and record this number correcting for temperature. Drink the wort from the hydrometer test tube. Never pour this back into the beer. Make notes on your readings and what youve tasted for later. It will be really sweet! 7. When there are plenty of bubbles in the wort add the yeast now stir gently you dont want to add air to the wort once the yeast has been added. Let it sit for 10 minutes. 8. Transfer wort to your fermenter of choice being careful to leave as much of the sediment and trub behind as you can. 9. Place Air lock on ferementer (if there is one) 10. Place fermenter in a place where it will be out of the sunlight and undisturbed for several days to a few weeks depending on the recipe. In about 24 hours you should see bubbling in the airlock. Keep an eye on the temperatures! 11. Clean up! Now that wasnt to hard was it?
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Calculating % Alcohol
So why do we want to know this? Who cares anyway? We can use these numbers to caculate how much alcohol is in our beer! Most states regulate how much alcohol is allowed to be present in the beer within its boarders. Thats why in one state the same brand of beer maybe be higher or lower in alcohol content or not available at all. That stinks but thats the law, however these laws do not apply to Homebrewed beer! Yippie! Here are two basic methods for calculating % alcohol in beer, the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) and the percentage of alcohol by weight (ABW). We need to retrieve the note we made of the original gravity (O.G.) when we finished brewing. Then just before we bottle we take another reading the final gravity (F.G.). Some people call this the terminal gravity (T.G.).
% Alcohol by Volume
To calculate the percentage of alcohol by volume we take our original gravity and subtract our final gravity, multiple that by 1.333, then multiply that by 100. Calculating % Alcohol by Volume (%ABV) (O.G. F.G.) x 1.333 x 100
% Alcohol by Weight
To calculate the percentage of alcohol by weight we take our original gravity and subtract our final gravity, multiply that by 105. Calculating % Alcohol by Weight (%ABW) (O.G. F.G.) x 105
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I have a Hydrometer!
If you have a hydrometer you can take a specific gravity reading and compare it to the recipe readings. Most recipes will list the original gravity and the final gravity that was achieved when the recipe was designed. If it is not listed you can go to this website, type in the ingredients and it will calculate it for you. http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/ Use this to determine your final gravity. After about a week, maybe two, depending on your recipe, your beer will be ready to bottle. The beer will nearly stop fermenting, you wont see anyor very few bubbles in the airlock. Note: Recipes that have a lot of fermentables or fruit can take up to a month so be patient. If the airlock is happily bubbling away let it sit for a few more days. Just watch it. As long as something is happening in there its still working. The alcohol acts like a preservative so dont worry if you gone over by a few days. I know a guy that had a good batch of brew that forgot it for over a month! I wouldnt push it though.
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What is a PET Bottle? PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic resin and a form of polyester. Basically any bottle that at one time held a carbonated beverage can be washed, sanitized and re-used along with the caps. They can also be purchased in brown colored bottles like the one on the right, which is better for you beer because it blocks UV light which can ruin your beer. I dont usually leave my beer in the sun do you? Some people claim clear and green glass bottles leave a funny taste in your beer, Ive never found this to be true. I bottle at least two beers from every batch in clear glass bottles so I can evaluate what I have. I evaluate its color, clarity, yeast remnants etc. These I save in brown paper lined boxes and drink it on its anniversary date a year after I brewed it. If you think it was good a few weeks after you brewed it let one sit a year! Whats a Crown Top Bottle? Unfortunately, many of our beers today come in twist off caps. You can not re-use these with a hand capper. The old style bottle that require a bottle opener are crown tops. You can get them from a recycler or your local beverage store or get your friends to save them for you. See photo on right.
For glass bottles you need a capper and lots of caps. I use the one on the left. Its called a universal capper and costs about $12.
Metal Bottle Caps come in bags either by the pound or the gross. I buy these at $1.20 a gross from Quality Wine and Ale I think they are cute! http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/2060 Okay Ive got my bottles and caps washed and sanitized what next? Well priming the beer of course!
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Bottle Priming
To bottle prime you scoop the appropriate amount of sugar into each and every bottle then pour in the beer into the bottle and swish it around a bit.
Bulk Priming
To bulk prime you simply measure out the total corn sugar required to prime all of the beer (see chart above) then and 2/3 cups of boiling water priming the whole batch of beer at at one time. To do this follow the instructions below: Boil the water, remove it from the heat and then dissolve the corn sugar in the water. Cover the pot and let the sugar syrup cool to room temperature. Once this sugar mixture has cooled add it to the fermenter and stir slowly using a sanitized spoon, taking care not to stir it up to much. NOTE: If you are using a brew bucket to transfer the beer from a carboy to the brew bucket dont prime until you are ready to rack the beer from the brew bucket to the bottles. The most accurate way to calculate your priming sugar is to use a nomograph. A nomograph eliminates the need to do any calculations you just draw a line or place a straightedge or ruler on the mark for the temperature of your beer, and the volumes of CO2 required for that style of beer. The place where the line crosses the sugar line is how much sugar you need to prime 5 gallons of that specific beer. This method is much more accurate because it
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takes into consideration the temperature, and the style of the beer you have brewed. At lower temperatures, the beer can dissolve more CO2, so the colder the beer the better. Please note: Temperatures are listed in degrees Fahrenheit (F) and sugar is measured in ounces (oz.).
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If you are using a carboy you will need a clean, sanitized racking cane, tubing, bottle filler and brew bucket. You place the racking cane in the carboy and place it up on the table, put the bucket on a chair below the carboy and put the tubing in the bucket. Release the clamp on the hose and transfer the beer into the bucket keeping the tubing submerged to prevent splashing. Add the bottle filler to the racking cane and close the clamp. Put the brew bucket on the table and the bottles on the chair. When your ready push the bottle filler into the bottom of the bottle and fill. When you release the pressur on the bottle filler it will stop the flow of beer. Set the cap on top of the bottle but dont cap it yet. If you let it sit a until you fill all of the bottles it will create CO2 and expel any air out of the bottle keeping your beer fresher longer.
Bottle Conditioning
Once all the beer is bottled you need to crimp the caps and let it sit in a cool place out of sunlight to condition for a week to 10 days. For some beers it is suggested that you condition for up to a month so check the recipes instructions on this. In general, the longer you condition the beer better it tastes.
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Appendix
Ive added a few handy reference tables to aid you in your brewing. Let me explain what these tables can do for you and why I added them.
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Hops
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Yeast Statistics
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