Homebrew

Two of my favorite things - cooking and beer - can be rolled into one hobby... homebrewing! While far from being an expert, I have been homebrewing for a few years and thought I could share a few tips and recipes to anyone interested.

If the idea of making one's own beer scares you, click here to go back to the Home Page.

First of all, most of my experience has been brewing using malt extracts and specialty grains (and most of the recipes and techniques here reflect that). I have also played around with a "countertop partial mash" technique I read about in Brew Your Own. My particular setup has not yielded the 50/50 yield anticipated (more like 40/60), but I think the beers have improved overall.

I've recently tried a couple of all-grain batches. I found a few articles online about batch sparging, so I thought I'd give it a try. My modified cooler seems to be a respectable mash tun, and so far so good! I'll share the setup and procedure here later, when I get a few pictures and some time to work on the page.

Anyway, this page outlines some brewing techniques and shows off a few pictures. If you are interested in some recipes, they are on another page.

I would like to plug a local store in my area, the All Seasons Gardening and Brewing Supply Company. Since we've moved to Nashville, I've only been a few times but the folks there are great and quite knowledgeable about brewing (honestly, I figured it to be a garden store with a few brew kits in the corner, but that was not the case!). Check out their website at http://www.allseasonsnashville.com/.

Cooking and fermenting procedures:

When I'm in the kitchen making a mess, I generally follow the same brewing techniques. I thought someone out there might find some use for this process, so I've detailed what I personally do below. If anyone has any suggestions or corrections, I would appreciate the input.

Before I get too far into this, I think it is important to stress a couple of things. One, don't skip corners on the cleaning/sanitation of everything, especially with anything that comes in contact with the wort after the boil. Every homebrewer says this, but I've noticed differences in my beers after being a little lazy with the cleaning. I'd also suggest writing details down as you go. There have been a few times where I had to "adjust" something (the recipe, the cooking, the fermentation, whatever), not make a note of it, and the beer turn out awesome. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have noted the "error" and thus could not replicate it!

With that said, here's what I like to do...

Update: I realize there isn't much about the yeast itself in the directions below, so I'm hoping to expand on that in the future. For a long time, I've used White Labs yeast straight out of the tube without any problems. Ignoring the it-ain't-broke-so-don't-fix-it mantra, I've starting experimenting with yeast starters.

I've found that a 4 oz DME (a little more than 2/3 cup) to 4 cups of water ratio gives a OG of 1.043... good for smaller beers. I'm thinking a 1 cup to 1 quart ratio might be a little better for my bigger recipes, but we'll see when the time comes.

My first starter was ready in about 2 days, but I had to let it sit for 4. The batch still started up quicker than usual and the overall beer was quite yummy. My used a two-day starter on my next batch and despite a few other flaws in the brewing process, the fermentation was quicker and the beer ended up great.

My Usual Technique for Specialty Grains

The Grain 'Tea'

The grain

'tea'

When using specialty grains in a recipe, start with about 1.5 gallons of tap water. Raise the water to about 155 degrees and add the grains in a hop sock. Cover and steep for about 25 minutes at that temperature.

While the grains are steeping, heat about 2 gallons of water in another pot to about 155 degrees. Once the specialty grain 'tea' in finished, place the grain-filled hop socks into a strainer on top of the brewpot. Slowly pour the heated water over the grains until the water runs clear. Remove the strainer and add the 'tea'. Pour slowly so as not to dump in the solids left at the bottom.

My straining

apparatus

Countertop Partial Mashing Process

Cooler with

added spigot

Start by heating 5.5 quarts of water 15 degrees above the target temperature (150 degrees target for a higher fermentable wort, 159 degrees for a lower one).

Place 4 pounds of grain (including the specialty grains) into a nylon bag and place it into a 3 gallon cooler. Slowly pour the heated water into the cooler using a large spoon to stir - you need to make sure the water and grains are thoroughly mixed. Place the lid on the cooler and rest for 30-45 minutes (use the longer time for a higher fermentable wort).

Adding water

to grains

Collecting

first wort

While the grains are resting, heat another 5.5 quarts of water to 180 degrees for sparging. Near the end of the resting period, heat another 2 quarts of water to boiling in the brewpot.

When the resting time is up, collect the first wort from the cooler using a pitcher. Pour the first several pitchers of wort back into the grain bed until the wort is relatively clear, then add the first wort to the boiling water in the brewpot.

Now add the heated sparge water into the cooler and let it rest for 5 minutes. After the short rest, recirculate and collect the second wort as before, then add it to the brewpot.

Adding wort

to brewpot

Now for the Brewing Part

Boiling wort

The wort chiller

Topping off

with water

Once the specialty grains and/or the partial mash are taken care of, start adding the extract. It's okay to heat the brewpot while doing this, but try to stir frequently to avoid scorching on the bottom. Once the extract is dissolved, top off the brewpot with warm water.

Watch the pot closely... it will try to boil over the second you turn away! Once the rolling boil begins, carefully skim off the top layer of the wort. I heard somewhere that it helps clear up the beer, but who knows?

As for hops, I generally use pellets for bittering and flavoring and whole hops (if available) in a hop sock for aroma. Wait to add the bittering hops until after the scum scraping mentioned above. Also add 1/2 tsp on Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes.

When the cooking part is done, use a wort chiller to bring the liquid's temperature down to where the brewpot is cool to the touch. Before I had the chiller, I just placed the brewpot in the sink and added ice around it. It took a lot longer that way, but it worked!

Once the wort has cooled down, dump it into a plastic fermenter and add enough chilled dechlorinated water to make 5 gallons. Try to splash as much as possible so as to aerate the wort (I realize that this is far from the most effective way to do this, but you have to work with what you have!). Finally, dump the yeast in the fermenter, give it a stir, and close the lid.

Boiling hops

The primary 'dump'

Adding yeast

Primary and Secondary Fermentation

Kahlua guarding

the primary

Try to keep the primary fermenter at the yeast's upper temperature range until you see bubbling in the airlock (usually within 24 hours), then slowly drop the temperature to more in the middle of the yeast's range. Maintain this temperature until the fermentation is complete, usually about 10 days (less if you used a starter).

Once the primary fermentation is complete, carefully rack the beer into a glass carboy for a secondary fermentation. You can add 1/2 tsp of gelatin dissolved in water to the secondary to clear the beer. Let the beer condition for 10-14 days at the same temperature as the primary fermentation (some beers are better if you drop the temperature and condition a little longer.

The secondary

fermenter

Kegging and Bottling

Keg and

CO₂ tank

My converted

'kegerator'

I usually keg my beers - it's quicker, more convenient, and I don't have to clean all those dang bottles. I basically rack the beer from the carboy into a 5 gallon keg and chill the beer to about 40 degrees in the refrigerator. I'll then add about 10 psi of pressure to carbonate (more or less, depending on the style) - it usually takes a few days to complete the carbonation, although you can shake the keg to speed things up.

I still occasionally bottle some beers - those that need some aging or that might not be consumed quickly. I usually use "swing top" bottles, just because they are easier to use.

To bottle, dissolve 5 ounces of priming sugar into 2 cups of water and add to the bottling bucket. Use a bottling wand to dispense the beer into each sanitized bottle (fill the bottle to the bottom of its lip), then cap/close. The beer will carbonate in about two weeks at room temperature, but most recipes get better after conditioning for more time at a cooler temperature.

(I'll try to include some bottling photos next time I do it.)

Racking beer

into the keg

The taps and the

finished product

More Photos:

Although I primarily do all of the cooking in the kitchen, I keep everything in one corner of the basement. Here are a few photos of what I like to think of as my little homebrew station.

The first photo shows a false sense of organization I have for all of the random pieces of equipment. It's amazing what an industrial table, some pegboard, and a wobbly bookcase will do for you!

The fridge on the left is my kegerator. I bought it off some guy for $75, drilled a few holes, installed a couple of taps, and it still works! I have to admit, I always dreamed of having one of these in college...

The blue thing is a fermenter chiller. You can make them yourself out of foamboard and a few other gadgets, but I just bought this one online because I was too lazy to do it myself at the time. It basically uses ice and a little fan to control the temperature in the chamber - pretty dang handy in the summer months!

I started trying to grow my own hops last year by planting two rhizomes of Cascade. I like the flavor of this particular hop and it apparently grows pretty much anywhere.

Even though hop bines aren't usually very productive for a year or so, you can see in the photos that my first "crop" still grew quite tall and produced some lovely cones. I was able to harvest enough for the flavoring and aroma hops in my American Pale Ale recipe.

I'm maintaining a low expectation for the second season... I'm not sure how the growing bines will handle being moved from Georgia to Tennessee.

One cool thing about doing this is that I can pick the cones when they are just right. I use a food dehydrator to dry them in little batches (105 degrees for about 8 hours seems to work well in my area).

If all goes well in our new home in Tennessee, I'll try to plant a few other varieties in the future.