How to make homemade beer?

Question

Does anyone know to make home made beer?

Answer 1

There is two main methods of brewing beer at home. The first method is extract brewing and the second is all-grain brewing.

Extract brewing is explained above. It is the "Cambell's soup" method of brewing. Open a can of extract (a malt syrup) boil it with hops (bitterness and flavors), cool this and add yeast. the home-brewer has a limited amount of control on the beer styles being brewed with extract methods.

In the all grain method the extract called wort (wert) is made by the brewer in a process called mashing. This will require some additional equipment and more time. This method allows for the brewer to truly pinpoint a recipe for a particular style of beer.

Common & popular beer sites on beer & brewing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrewing

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/terms/inde...

http://www.howtobrew.com/

http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/inde...

http://www.bjcp.org/2008_Guidelines.pdf

Answer 2

You can make your own beer with little effort and a fraction of the cost of commercial beer. This simple method uses just one fermenting process, so only one container is needed.

Large, reusable 2 liter plastic pop bottles are used to bottle the beer, saving the work of washing, bottling and capping 60 - 70 regular-size glass bottles.

    

And with every batch, you're sparing the environment the impact of manufacturing 60 - 70 aluminum cans or glass bottles.  

    

What you need  

Equipment

The few items you need to brew your own homemade beer can be found at your nearest beermaking supply shop, or at most hardware stores.

- One 10-gallon "food grade" plastic pail with lid. Cost: about $12.00

- Siphon hose. You'll need a 74" length of 5/16" "food grade" vinyl tubing. Cost: $2.00

- Hose clamp for siphon. Cost: $1.00

- Twelve 2- liter plastic pop bottles, with lids.

  

- Hydrometer. Cost: $8.00. A thermometer is also useful.

- Large pot, or turkey roaster.    

  

Ingredients

- Malt Extract. One 40oz. can of any flavor you like ( light, dark, stout), or a 1.5kg "tall" can of same. The 1.5kg can contains more malt extract so you can make a larger batch or use the same method here to make a richer beer. You can also buy 'pre-hopped' extract which will impart more of a hop flavor to your beer.

- Yeast. 1 tsp brewers' yeast. Note: some malt comes with little packets of yeast included.

- Sugar. 6 - 7 cups of regular white sugar, or 8 - 9 cups of corn sugar (preferred).

For even better results, consider using two cans of the malt extract and not using any sugar. This adds to the expense, but further enriches the taste of the beer.

These ingredients should cost between $10 - 15 depending on your choice of malt extract. The yield will be about 23 liters of beer, which equals 65 - 70 bottles or cans of beer, of the regular 345ml size.



How to brew  

Sanitize

It has been said that 75% of brewing is good sanitation. First, clean all equipment with warm, lightly soapy water. Rinse well to remove soap residue. Then sanitize using household bleach at a quantity of 1 tbsp/gallon of water. Or you can purchase a no-rinse acid sanitizer such as StarSan, which is effective and leaves no aftertaste.

Brew

1. Pour 10 liters of fresh, cold water into the 10 gallon plastic pail (carboy). If the pail is new, wash it out first with a mixture of water and baking soda to remove the plastic smell.

2. In your largest pot, bring 7 liters of water to a boil.

3. Add one can of malt extract. Stir and cook uncovered for 20 minutes.

4. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

5. As soon as the sugar is dissolved, pour contents into the carboy. Pour, or 'splash', the contents quickly, which adds air to the mixture. The more air the yeast get initially, the better. It allows them to rapidly grow and get things going.

6. Top up with bottled drinking water or tapwater until temperature is neutral. (If using tapwater, it is recommended to boil first to kill bacteria, or use an ultraviolet light water filter.) Test using a clean, sanitized thermometer. The carboy will now be a little more than half full.

7. Sprinkle in the yeast, and stir well. Cover with lid. (Set lid on loosely; if capped too tightly, a carboy can explode from the carbon dioxide gas that is produced.)

Keep covered and avoid unnecessary opening. The beer will be ready to bottle in 6- 10 days, depending on ambient temperature of the room and amount of sugar used in the brewing. Room temperature should be 20-24 Celsius at the highest; 16-20 Celsius is better but it will take the beer a day or two longer to ferment.

Test for readiness with a hydrometer. Set hydrometer into the beer and spin it once to release bubbles which cling to it and give a false reading. The "ready to bottle" reading should be about 1.008 for dark beers and 1.010-1.015 for light beers. If you don't have a hydrometer, you can judge readiness by tasting a sample - it should not be sweet tasting. There should be little or no bubbling action in the beer.

  

Bottle

Set the carboy on a sturdy table and the 12 2-liter bottles on the floor, with newspaper underneath to catch drips or overflows. Using a funnel, put 2 level teaspoons of sugar in each bottle.

Siphon the beer into the bottles, trying not to disturb the sediment on the bottom of the carboy. (One method is to tape a plastic straw alongside the bottom end of the siphon hose with 1" projecting beyond the end. The tip of the straw can touch the bottom of the carboy without the siphon drawing up sediment.) Tip the carboy as you near the bottom.

It is important to not splash or agitate the beer too much when bottling as any oxygen introduced can lead to oxidation and a “cardboard” taste.

As you fill the bottles, keep the end of the siphon tube near the bottom of the bottle to avoid frothing. It is essential that the bottles ar not completely filled - leave an airspace. s***w the caps on tight

Answer 3

Step 1) Get a copy of Papazian's book The New Complete Guide to Home Brewing. Read at least through page 42.

2) Go to the website of Brew Your Own magazine, http://byo.com and click on "Reader Resources" That will give you links to the advertisers' catalogs. Place your order and start collecting bottles.

3) Follow Papazian's directions.

4) Be patient for a week and a half to 2 weeks after bottling.

5) Chill.

6) Enjoy.

7) Start planning your next brew.