You can buy drinkable beer far more cheaply than brewing your own. However, you can produce exotic and delightful varieties of beer from excellent recipes devised by others or even your own ideas. The commercial beer market can never possibly support all recipes and their variations. Your local purveyor of brews will have many choices for you. That is enough for most, but I want more selections than retail beer sellers can afford to stock.
Additionally, you will get a special satisfaction for having produced an excellent beer enjoyed by your friends and family. Finally, you will have discovered a relaxing and rewarding hobby which will give you many hours of contentment and pleasure; but with occasional strenuous effort.
To avoid explosions, avoid adding too much priming sugar and do not bottle your brew until the primary fermentation is complete. Use a hydrometer to assess the specific gravity of your brew and assure that adding more sugar won't be a problem.
In spite of all this, I prefer glass bottles. Until recently, I have used swing-top bottles with the silicone gaskets (Now, I crown cap them.). There is no chemical contamination to add off-flavors and glass bottles can be easily sterilized. However, be sure to obtain good quality glass bottles if you decide to use them. Avoid re-using twist-cap commercial beer bottles for bottling your own brews. They are not reliable for the pressures you may encounter with your home brews. Remember that commercial breweries carbonate their brews in a bulk process with far greater precision of pressure control than we can manage with priming sugar.
Another way to avoid explosions is to keg your beer rather than bottling it. There are many kegging approaches, but that is usually a choice made after experience with bottling. That is not to say that kegging is difficult, but there are both simple and more complex approaches. I keg some of my brews with a proprietary method offered by BrewArt©. It offers simplicity and convenience. It is called the BrewFlo©.
Cleanliness and sterilization of your equipment will avoid most contamination problems. Remember that your wort (new unfermented batch of beer) is vulnerable to a host of bacterial agents that can spoil the batch if they are not thwarted. Contamination can come from many sources: unwashed hands, dirty equipment and untensils; insects such as fruit gnats are attracted to your wort. They are covered with bacteria that can turn your wort into vinegar rather than beer. Always sterilize your equipment. And boil the wort with all its ingredients unless you are using a pre-packaged set of ingredients from a kit. Then cover the wort (pronounced wert) after adding the yeast so that your intended yeast will have no competition from undesireble sources of fermentation. Then, employ a fermentation lock so the CO2 can escape without allowing pesky fruit gnats into the brew.
Fortunately, there are many safe and effective sterilization products available from our brewing suppliers that make it easy to protect our brews from contamination. Just be sure to use them.
At this stage we will take a minimalist approach. You will need access to a water supply and drain. Look for a clean water supply; most municipal water supplies are OK. You may benefit from using filtered cool water from your refrigerator as well as the ice made from it's filtered water. You can also obtain inline water filters to remove chlorine from from suppliers of RV equipment. A regular kitchen sink will suffice for the drain. You will require a stainless steel (not aluminum) boiling vessel with a capacity of at least a few quarts (a few gallons will be better) and a heat source such as a stovetop range. The next important item is a fermentation vessel. This can be as simple as a large plastic bucket but I strongly recommend acquiring a proper fermentation vessel. Small ones can be obtained very cheaply. I started with a small plastic keg with a spigot on the bottom and a screw-on lid with tiny ventilation holes to release CO2 and keep out those pesky fruit gnats. It worked like a charm and I made numerous two-gallon batches of good beer with that little brown keg from Mr. Beer©.
Later, you will discover and be able to justify the advantages of better fermentation vessels. I highly recommend the conical vessels with the trub trap on the bottom. This allows you to remove and even re-use the yeast and keep it out of your bottled beer. These come in several sizes. I use two-gallon batches to experiment with new recipes and four or five-gallon batches on proven recipes. These fermenters use a fermentation lock for allowing the escape of CO2. Once you get professional (if you must) there are very large (and expensive) brewing vessels available.
Other important equipment items are: a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of your wort; a thermometer to accurately measure the temperature of your wort so you will know when to throw the yeast; auxiliary plastic vessels to hold cleaning solutions in which you can dunk stirring tools, squeegees and spoons before use; a can opener; and scissors to open packets of ingredients. If you plan to use glass longneck bottles, get a good capper. You will need a stirring tool. I recommend a stainless steel whisk. There are numerous other tools such as measuring spoons and cups that you will probably find in your kitchen.
Ingredients:
Here, I'm assuming you're making a small, two-gallon batch: Bring a quart of water to boil in your stainless steel brewing vessel. Shut off the heat and stir in the malt extract. Add a gallon of filtered cool water to your sterilized fermentation vessel and then pour in the hot solution of water and malt extract into the fermentation vessel. Stir the mixture and note the temperature. Add cool water (with ice cubes as necessary) to bring the wort up to the target two gallons at a temperature of less than 74oF. Stir the wort thoroughly and take a hydrometer reading (optional). Then sprinkle the yeast over the wort and close the lid. (Do not stir in the yeast.) Assure that the fermentation lock is installed properly if your fermentation vessel uses one.
The advantage of a partial boil is that you can bring the wort temperature down quickly (with filtered refrigerated water and ice cubes if necessary) to avoid contamination from wild yeasts before it becomes cool enough to add your proper brewer's yeast. A disadvantage is that your finished beer may be darker. Purists will disdain partial boils but full-boil methods will require the use of a wort chiller to quickly lower the temperature. If you can accomodate a wort chiller, then you may reap the benefits of a more sophisticated brewing process.
After a day or so you will see some activity in your wort. It will be bubbling and creating some froth. This is why you need a fermentation vessel larger than the volume of your wort. This state is called high krausen. It will subside in a few days but the fermentation process is still ongoing. Wait at least a few weeks before you bottle this beer.
Again, I'm assuming you're making a small batch of beer. At this stage, you are following a recipe. You will start with a small amount of water (about one quart). Boil it and then cut off the heat. Some ingredients will be dissolved in the initial charge of cool water (before boilimg). Others will be added after the wort has reached the boiling point. Hops and other special herbs can be added after the wort has reached boiling. I recommend placing hops or other brewing herbs in a muslin sack before immersion. Then add the wort to the fermentation vessel and cool it with filtered water and ice, if necessary, until you have reached the target volume and temperature. Throw the yeast and then, my advice is the same as for the simple extract only recipe: wait at least a few weeks before you bottle this beer.
Beer is made by fermenting malt sugars. These are obtained from grains by a complex process. First, the grain is soaked so it will sprout. This converts the starch into malt sugar. When the grains show tiny rootlets, they are collected and roasted. Roasting stops the germination process. Otherwise, the seeds would sprout into the next generation of barley. The time and temperature of roasting determines the darkness and flavor of the malt sugar that is produced. Next the grains are cracked. Usually, the roasted and cracked grains are what you obain from the brewing supplier if you choose to use grain recipes. The alternative is to let the brewing suppliers handle this and sell you the malt extract we use in the simple recipes. (Or you could sprout, roast and crack the grains yourself.) Barley is the usual grain used but wheat and even rice is sometimes malted.
Assuming you are brewing with the malted and cracked grains, you will heat an amount of water to a designated temperature and place the cracked grain into a muslin sack and steep it at the required temperature and time. For example, I steeped my grains for 30 minutes at 160oF in a recent batch. Then the grain sack is removed and can be sparged by pouring a few cups of hot water over the grain sack while holding it in a sieve over the brew pot. You should not squeeze the grain sack.
Next, bring the mixture to a boil and add the hops. The boil time depends on the recipe but one hour is typical. I prefer to use pellet hops and to place them in a muslin sack for the boil. Depending on the recipe, you might leave the hops in the brew throughout the whole fermentation process or pull them out at the end of the boil. Some brewers prefer to use whole dried hops or even to grow their own. Since hops grow from rizomes, they will be hard to get rid of in your garden. That's why I use pellet hops from the supplier.
After the boil, rapidly cool the wort to about 100oF - (a wort chiller is very helpful here) - and add cool water (and ice, if needed) until the final volume and temperature of about 72oF or less is reached. Mix well and aereate, then throw the yeast.
This section is only a brief overview of some of the procedures encountered with more advanced recipes. There are many excellent recipes that result in great beers.
You have choices on how to present your beer. The two major choices are whether you should bottle or keg your beer. Bottling is less expensive but far more time-consuming than kegging. Kegging requires kegs, CO2 vessels and refrigeration capacity large enough to hold the kegs. However, it is slick and impressive. You can have a setup similar to what you would find in a respectable pub. We will explore kegging at a later date. If you are just starting you should probably stick to bottling - but don't invest in too many bottles.
At this point, we will deal with bottling. Even here, you have a variety of choices.
These are the simplest and most trouble-free bottles to use. Although there are several sizes, the 740 ml brown BPA-free plastic bottle is the best in my opinion. It should have a rather convoluted bottom with about five bulges. This is similar to plastic soda bottles except they should be brown and not clear. Light is the enemy of fine beer. Do not use flat-bottomed plastic bottles since they will not be flat-bottomed under pressure. You will have a bottle that cannot stand up due to it's hemispherical bottom.
Another advantage of the plastic bottles is that they are highly unlikely to explode if you use too much priming sugar - you will simply get a frothy beer-bath when you open it. Also, it is easy to tell when the beer is fully presurized because of the squeeze test.
A more traditional and elegant bottling system is to use glass bottles. There are several sizes and sealing techniques. The danger of glass bottles is that carelessness in priming with the bottling sugar can result in a dangerous condition. Also, dropping a glass bottle will usually destroy it and leave a mess. However, glass bottles are easily sterilized.
A common choice is to use 12-ounce longnecks. They are to be capped so you need to obtain a supply of fresh crown caps and a capper that is easy to use and efficient. Since this a a relatively small bottle size, you will obviously need more bottles and it will take longer to process a batch. There are other cap-able sizes but they are harder to find. Above all - do not attempt to re-use screw-top bottles that commercial brewers provide. (See earlier comments on this.)
Another choice is to use swing-top glass bottles. This involves a stiff wire spring-like mechanism to seal the bottle with a silicone rubber gasket. If you use the right gasket, they work very well and are re-usable. These also come in several sizes but the 16-ounce bottle is the most common swing-top bottle used for beer. This is the method that I have come to prefer for bottling. The best gasket is the Grolsch high-pressure gasket. It looks like a tiny hat and seals the bottle much better than the default washer-like gaskets usually provided. Shop for Grolsch gaskets on the web.
One drawback of the swing-top bottles is that they sometimes fail to seal properly and leave you with a flat beer. Even the Grolsch gaskets sometime leak. However, the one-pint bottles designed for swing-top use are very robust and can also be crown-capped. However, you will need a bench-type capper to cap them. For the past few years, this has become my bottling choice. For the past year I have been capping my one-pint bottles with oxygen-barrier crown caps.
During the last few years, I have been experimenting with a new (to me) concpt in brewing beer. After struggling with the tedious details on boiling the malt, steeping the grains and infusing the hops, I have investigated the new technological breakthrough of the BeerDroid from BrewArt. This allows a simple approach to re-creating many notable beers by applying simple kits of ingredients to an automated brewing protocol that manages time and temperatures with testing and feedback on progress. As a retired professor of engineering, what more ould I ask?
The beauty of this situation is that I can still innovate my own recipes under this new regime. I have options:
In short, I can do almost anything within the realm of beer brewing.
I am still keeping my Gigawort boiler, my wort cooler and all the other accessories needed for traditional beer brewing. Once a wort has been created for fermentation, it can be professionalally brewed in the BeerDroid. Its excellent temperature controls provide a good outcome over challenging brews. E.g.., I have been able to brew LAGERS in a 75oF environment.
However, you must accept 10 liter (2.6 gal) batches. This is too big for the popular 2 gallon kits and too small for the 5 gallon recipes. If you had two BeerDroids you could split a 5 gallon batch between them. I plan to augment my remaining 2 gallon kits with 30 percent more malt syrup and a booster pack or two.
The BrewPrint kit from BrewArt is a collection of packets of powdered malt extract, dry enhancers, wet or dry hops and dry yeast. There is no boiling. Yeast is first added to the ten liters of room temperature water and then the dry ingredients with no mixing or stirring. This actually works. An application for your smart phone or iPad can be used to control the BeerDroid but is not required. However the app gives you far better control and information during the process. Once started, the process is automatic but can be altered. However, you never open the lid on the BeerDroid until it is time to add the hops or to bottle.
There is also a kegging system called the BrewFlo. I use both methods. Typically, 5L's get bottled and the rest goes into a 5L BrewFlo keg.
I will describe various batches of beer that I have brewed with the BrewDroid. This will help those who desire a vicarious description of the processes before they commit to the expense of BrewArt's system.
This was not my first BrewArt batch. In fact, it is a repeated batch from over a year ago. However, it was the first batch resumed after my brewing hiatus caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It is a good starting point because my records are now better kept.
This was a BrewPrint from BrewArt - an organized package of all the ingredients needed for a particular brew. The ingredients were: element packets E1, E3 and E4; with enhancer packet X1 and yeast packet Y2. (You can see how organized this is.) First, the BrewDroid (after an elaborate sterilization process) was filled with ten liters of water (easily done - the vessel is clearly marked for volumetric filling) and then the dry ingredients from individual packets are added. Strangely, for a traditional home brewer like me, the first ingredient to be added is the dry yeast. Then all the other packets of dry powders are poured in. You need to do this slowly so you can avoid a cloud of powdered malt extract in your brewing room. There is no stirring. Also, there is no boiling. When all ingredients are added, you simply close the lid and start the brewing program. The BrewArt website explains the apps very well so I will not go into that here. You will get detailed instuctions in a charming strine accent. This is an Aussie enterprise. For those following the protocal, the ingedients are:
210319: Started the procedure as outlined above.
210327: BeerDroid indicated completion. Bottled into 21 pint-sized swing-top glass bottles with one fermentation drop per bottle. Used vaseline to line lips of bottles to assure sealing of the swing-top caps.
210417: Sampled two bottles. Slightly sweet with appropriate bitterness for a stout, but a little bit weak.
This was a very drinkable beer. I enjoyed it in spite of its weakness compared to a Guinness. In my opinion, a stout should be more robust than this brew. Several bottles were flat due to imperfect sealing of the swing-top capping (my fault). I used a CO2 infuser to correct this for drinking and the flavor was not impaired. I would rate it a four out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210327: Started the procedure as outlined above.
210403: BeerDroid indicated End of Fermentation (EOF) so liquid hops H6 (twice) were added and the lid was resealed.
210408 :Bottled into 21 pint-sized swing-top glass bottles with one fermentation drop per bottle. Used vaseline to line lips of bottles to assure sealing of the swing-top caps.
210417: Sampled a bottle. Very good taste. Fresh and pungeant. Will definitely repeat.
This was a sparkling, sharp and zestful brew that I enjoyed. Several bottles were flat due to imperfect seals on the swing-top bottles. I used the CO2; infuser to correct this for drinking. Next time this brew will be capped in order optimize carbonation. I would award this BrewPrint a 5 out of five for flavor and zest.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210408: Started the procedure as outlined above.
210417: BeerDroid indicated End of Fermentation (EOF) so liquid hops H3 (twice) were added and the lid was resealed.
210420: Bottled into 21 pint-sized swing-top glass bottles with one fermentation drop per bottle. Used food-grade silicone to line lips of bottles to assure sealing of the swing-top caps.
210511: Sampled a bottle. Drinkable but not spectacular.
Might repeat some day. I would rate it a three out of five until a future sampling under better bottling conditions.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220428: Fermentation complete. Added hops
220430: Bottled into 22 one-pint swing-top glass bottles. Sealed bottles with food grade silicone grease. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose.
210521: Sampled a bottle.
Drinkable and repeatable. Four stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210509: Fermentation complete. Bottled into 21 one-pint glass bottles. Sealed bottles with crown caps. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose.
210528: Sampled a bottle. Sort of weak.
210712: Finished last bottle. Strange medicinal taste. Two stars out of five.
This was one of my batches made from ingredients obtained from Mr. Beer and others. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the implementation protocol described.
210518: Fermentation complete. Bottled into 20 one-pint glass bottles. Sealed bottles with green (for Ireland) crown caps. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose.
210614: Sampled a bottle. Very rich and robust. Five stars out of five; but a lot more effort than a BrewPrint.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210522: Overflow. Small amount. Caught in bag.
210525: Fermentation complete. Bottled into 21 one-pint glass bottles. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose.
210530: Bottled into 21 pints and on longneck.
210621: Sampled. A little weak becasuse hops were not added. Better attention, next time. Plan to repeat.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210606: Added dry hops.
210611: Bottled into 22 pints with two sugar drops per bottle. Capped with yellon crown caps.
210702: Sampled. It had a hoppy, malty, slightly sweet taste. Plan to repeat. Five stars.
Lots of ingredients but did not overflow.
This was one of my batches made from ingredients obtained from Mr. Beer and others. It is a modified version of Mr. Beer's Crater Stout recipe augmented from two gallons to ten liters. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the implementation protocol described.
210628: Fermentation complete. Bottled into 20 one-pint glass bottles. Sealed bottles with blue crown caps. Primed bottles with two sugar pellets.
At bottling, I noticed that the dry hops had been ineffective because the small tea infuser did not allow them to expand. In fact, the hops were still dry at the center of the infuser. Next time I will use a much larger steel mesh cage, i.e., a "hop bomb".
210614: Sampled a bottle. Very rich and robust. Slightly coffee-like in flavor, but a little too sweet. Four stars out of five due to ineffective application of hops.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210705: Added hops.
210707: Bottled into 21 pints with two sugar drops per bottle and one longneck with one drop. Capped with silver crown caps.
210728: Sampled. It had a pleasant spicy, flavor. Four stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210714: Added hops. Fermentation completed
210717: Bottled into 22 pints 1.5 tsp priming sugar per bottle. Capped with golden crown caps.
210808: Sampled. It had a pleasant, malty flavor. Four stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210723: Added dry hops (loose).
210731: Fermentation completed. Bottled into 22 pints using the BrewArt coarse hop filter. Added 1.5 tsp priming sugar per bottle. Capped with silver crown caps.
210821: Sampled. It had a strong, hoppy flavor. Four stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210903: Fermentation completed. Bottled into 21 pints. Added 1.5 tsp priming sugar per bottle. Capped with red crown caps.
210821: Sampled. It had a crisp, clean taste. Five stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
210911: Added dry hops in two large hop bombs.
210916: Fermentation completed. Bottled into 22 pints. Added 1.5 tsp priming sugar per bottle. Capped with red crown caps.
210821: Sampled. It had a crisp, malty and bitter taste. Five stars out of five.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol. This is my second time to brew this recipe. The hops have been changed from the liquid H6 to a single dry hop D7.
210921: Added the dry hop pellets directly.
210926 :Bottled into 21 pint-sized glass bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose for priming each bottle. Capped with green crown caps.
211019: Sampled a bottle. Very good taste. Fresh and pungeant. Will definitely repeat.
This was a sparkling, sharp and zestful brew that I enjoyed. Switching to dry hops was an improvement. I would award this BrewPrint five out of five stars for flavor and zest.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
211005: brewing complete
211066: Bottled into 21 pint-sized glass bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose for priming each bottle. Capped with tellow crown caps.
211027: Sampled a bottle. Very good taste. Roasty, malty but bland. Four stars out of five.
This was one of my batches made from ingredients obtained from Mr. Beer and others. It is a modified version of Mr. Beer's Weissbier recipe augmented from two gallons to ten liters. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the implementation protocol described.
211024: Added dry hops
211029: Fermentation complete. Bottled into 20 one-pint glass bottles. Sealed bottles with silver crown caps. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose. Final SG (by hydrometer was 1.009. ABV = 5.84%.
210127: Sampled a bottle. Rather sour, but sharp. Be careful od Hallertau hops in future.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220204: FG = 1.000 (by htdrometer)
Bottled into 20 one-pint glass bottles plus one 5-liter mini-keg. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose and primed mini-keg with 1.5 TBSP dextrose. Capped bottles with green crown caps. Used a rubber bung on the mini-keg.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220204: FG = 1.028
Bottled into 10 one-pint glass bottles plus one 5-liter mini-keg. Primed bottles with 1.5 tsp dextrose and primed mini-keg with 1.5 TBSP dextrose. Capped bottles with silver crown caps. Used a rubber bung on the mini-keg.
210315: sampled from mini-keg. Excellent robust, slightly sweet fravor. Fivi out of five stars.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220205: Started the procedure as outlined above.
220209: Added dry hops/
220215: BeerDroid indicated End of Fermentation (EOF) Bottled into 10 pint-sized swing-top glass bottles with one 1.5 tsp corn sugar for priming per bottle. Filled one 5L mini keg and primed it with 1.5 Tbsp corn sugar. Capped all bottles with green crown caps.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220216: Started the procedure as outlined above.
220224: Added dry hops/
220226: BeerDroid indicated End of Fermentation (EOF) Bottled into 10 pint-sized swing-top glass bottles with one 1.5 tsp corn sugar for priming per bottle. Filled one 12 oz. longneck and primed with 1 tsp of corn sugar. Filled one 5L mini keg and primed it with 1.5 Tbsp corn sugar. Capped all bottles with blue crown caps.
This was another BrewArt recipe batch. It consisted of the following ingredients, added according to the above protocol.
220301: Started the procedure as outlined above. OG = 1.128 @ 71oF
220305: Added dry hops/
220310: BeerDroid indicated End of Fermentation (EOF) Bottled into 11 pint-sized glass bottles with one 1.5 tsp corn sugar for priming per bottle. Filled one 5L mini keg and primed it with 1.5 Tbsp corn sugar. Capped all bottles with bllack crown caps.