TO OTHER CRAFT BEER ENTHUSIASTS, OUR WILLINGNESS TO ENGAGE IN NEAR-CONSTANT DIALOGUE ON OUR FAVORITE SUBJECT OFTEN CONFOUNDS THOSE WHO HAVEN’T CHOSEN TO LIVE A LIFE OF SUCH SUDSY IMMERSION. TO BE HONEST, THEY CONFOUND US, TOO. WHEN YOU TAKE A MOMENT TO TRULY CONTEMPLATE GREAT BEER, THE PATH IS CLEAR... AND COMPELLING, REWARDING, ENRICHING, SATISFYING.
I COULD GO ON.
QUITE WILLINGLY.
And as such, this book has been born. Although it pays homage to the time-honored traditions of our favorite beverage, it is not just a repackaging of the solid, classic brewing tomes. As valid, important, and necessary, as they are, The Brewer’s Apprentice offers a more picturesque view into our favorite subject.
In the writing of this book, we have had the great privilege of taking many educational sightseeing excursions along the great road-trip that is a brewing life. Although this book could certainly be read in a straight-line fashion, and is organized so it follows the steps of the brewing process, I invite you to bounce around as you wish. Interested in a deep-dive into malt? Turn to chapter 1 and be our guest. Eager to get a brewer’s-eye-perspective on traditional Bavarian-style hefeweizens? Skip ahead to chapter 7, and learn from the best! Fancy a snifter of imperial stout while curled by the fire reading tales of conquest and woe at the hands of buggers such as Pedio, Brett, and Lactobacillus? Turn gingerly to chapter 9 on spontaneous fermentation.
I once heard, and have since oft repeated, what has become a favorite saying: “Buy a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, waste a lifetime.” While I’ve known some who take offense to the saying, I feel that it is nothing but complimentary. “Wasting an hour” suggests a temporary yet rewarding pause from an otherwise hectic and go-go-go life. However, “wasting a lifetime” is not a true “waste,” but instead, a diversion from the rat race into one of life’s nobler pursuits: the art of brewing.
“Buy a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, waste a lifetime.” While I’ve known some who take offense to the saying, I feel that it is nothing but complimentary.
As noble as brewing is (and as just about anyone would attest if they were anywhere past the half-pint mark), a junior executive might scoff at brewing, instead preferring to pursue upward mobility. He can have his upward mobility, as I don’t care much for it.
Not to say that I don’t crave forward movement and progress. I admit, I do. Does this pose a conflict? Joyfully, no. The world of craft beer and brewing has afforded me all of life’s rewards that I could wish for: satisfaction from a job well done, respect of my friends and peers, standing in the community, access to the world’s best culinary experiences, friends and comrades-in-arms around the world, an endless opportunity for creative flow, and yes, the proverbial food on the table.
And then there’s the beer. And the opportunity to work with co-author Matt Allyn to bring you front-row and behind-the-scenes access to the greatest minds and talents in the brewing world.
The world of home brewing is both stuck in old-world tradition (in the best of senses) and simultaneously rocketing forward into new and barely charted territories. We’ve had the privilege of consulting, cajoling, and cavorting with both old friends and new to bring you unique access into the insights of those who live and breathe the art of brewing. Many of the names you’ll hear in this book are familiar, and we’re excited to bring you their insights. Other names will be new, and this introduction invites further discovery, as you will no doubt be inspired to seek out their fine work in order to back up the veracity of their studied opinions.
You might expect a portion of this book to be dedicated to the straightforward how-to of home brewing, or a starter’s guide to professional brewing. A novice brewer might feel that omitting the basics of brewing might leave one with little orientation, as though the steering wheel, speedometer, tachometer, and shift column were completely omitted in favor of an on-board computer system and the automatic window controls. After a brief introduction to the brewing process and a glossary of equipment and ingredients, the book focuses on the technical, diverse, and the spectacular. And a spectacular view it is.
So, pull the owner’s manual out of the glove compartment when you must review the operational basics of brewing—there are many great ones out there, and most likely you already have a trusted, well-worn, perhaps even wort-stained one on your shelf. Leave this book on the coffee table to peruse when you want to think about brewing (but not necessarily while you’re brewing).
A great beer in hand is optional, but it’s always in good taste.
— Greg Koch
BREWERS USE ONLY FOUR INGREDIENTS TO MAKE A BASIC BEER—WATER, BARLEY, HOPS, AND YEAST. EACH PART IS IRREPLACEABLE AND ESSENTIAL TO THE PROCESS, SO UNDERSTANDING ITS ROLE AND WHAT IT BRINGS TEACHES YOU HOW TO MODIFY, TWEAK, AND USE THE INGREDIENTS TO CREATE NEARLY ANY BEER, WILD OR MILD, YOU CAN DREAM UP.
INGREDIENTS
WATER
Water constitutes 90 to 95 percent of a beer, so always use a clean source for brewing. Most tap water is acceptable as long as it’s run through a carbon filter prior to brewing. Advanced brewers learn to adjust their water to suit their beer (see chapter 5 for how to modify your water).
MALT
Malted grains bring color, aroma, and flavor to a beer, but most importantly, they are the fuel for creating alcohol. Malt houses let grains such as barley and wheat germinate and begin to grow, creating starch. Then they dry the grains and stop the process, leaving a large amount of starch. The majority of any beer will use a pale malt (called base malt). Darker beer adds “specialty grains” that are roasted to different temperatures and impart various flavors and color.
New brewers often use liquid or dried malt extract to simplify the brewing process. This provides the same maltose (sugar) grains impart for brewing. While extracts are just as fermentable, their flavors can be inconsistent and lack the subtlety and complexity of true barley or wheat.
HOPS
These dried green flowers contribute bitterness, aroma, and flavor to a beer. A 5-gallon (19 L) batch of homebrew might need only an ounce of dried hop pellets to balance a sweeter amber ale, while a hop-centric India pale ale could use up to 8 ounces (227 g) or more.
YEAST
This microorganism is the engine behind beer. It consumes sugar derived from the malt starch to make alcohol. There are hundreds of different brewing yeast strains, each working at different temperatures and producing varying flavors. German wheat beers (hefeweizens), for example, owe much of their spicy character to their specialized yeast.
These are the supplies necessary to brew beer from grain to glass like a pro. Beginners should feel no shame in skipping the mash and lauter by adding malt extract to the kettle, but these are the tools of the trade for homebrewers ready to emulate their favorite brewmasters.
MASH TUN
Your crushed grains and hot water are combined in the mash tun to produce sugar during the first step of homebrewing. The two most common options are insulated coolers and metal mash kettles. Coolers, like the ones in which you would store beer at a party, hold the mash at a constant temperature with minimal work, but it’s difficult to raise the mash temperature if needed. Mash kettles are heavy-duty pots, usually fitted with a spigot and false bottom for lautering.
Pictured from left to right: gypsum, crushed crystal malt, malt extract, Cluster hop pellets, Northern Brewer hop pellets, molasses, brown sugar, Belgium candy, Irish moss, Kent Golding Hops, yeast, maple syrup, and priming sugar.
LAUTER TUN
Often the mash and lauter tun are the same thing. A lauter tun is a large container with a screen or false bottom under the grains that allows the wort to drain out.
BREW KETTLE
Any large metal stock pot will do—copper, stainless steel or aluminum—as long as it’s big enough. Your brew kettle should have one to two gallons (4 to 8 L) more capacity than the liquid in it. Extract brewers uses 5-gallon (19 L) pots, and all-grain brewers use at least 7-gallon (26 L) pots.
WORT CHILLERS
These copper or stainless coils have an inlet (and outlet) for tap water to run through the coil. When placed in hot wort, the water-cooled coil quickly drops the wort temperature.
FERMENTOR
Brewers need a primary fermentor, usually a food-grade plastic bucket, and then a secondary fermentor, typically a glass carboy for aging. The bucket is easy to use and clean, but it is also porous, letting small amounts of oxygen in, making it a bad candidate for aging beer.
BOTTLING BUCKET
This plastic bucket with a spigot allows you to mix your beer with priming sugar and then easily dispense into bottles.
CAPPER
This simple device crimps bottle caps and seals your beer.
AUTOSIPHON
It’s not a necessity, but this makes transferring beer from one container to another a breeze.
HYDROMETER AND REFRACTOMETER
These devices will tell you how much sugar is in your beer, indicating how much can be fermented, and later, how much has been fermented out.
A stout is pitch black, but only uses a small percentage of black roasted malt. Use black roasted barley for five to ten percent of the total grains to get the color and flavor.
The brew deck at the Firestone Walker Brewer looks endlessly complicated but follows nearly all the same processes as a 5-gallon home brewery.
UNDERSTANDING GRAVITY, CALCULATING ABV
When the sugars from your mash dissolve into the hot water, the liquid (your wort) becomes denser. As yeast ferments that sugar out, converting it to alcohol, the beer becomes less dense. By subtracting the second, third, or final gravity reading from the first, and then accounting for the density of alcohol (multiply by 1.31), you can easily calculate a beer’s alcohol content.
Starting gravity – final gravity × 1.31 × 100 = alcohol by volume
THE BREWING PROCESS: AN OVERVIEW
Brewing is a simple process that’s easily complicated. And this book assumes a basic understanding of the principles that turn barley starch and hop flowers into pale ales and porters. These steps provide a basic reference for the steps to reach a finished (and delicious) beer, but for a more in-depth look at brewing fundamentals, read Charlie Papazian’s The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and John Palmer’s How to Brew.
STEP 1. MASH AND LAUTER THE GRAINS
The first step on the road to homebrewing is mashing the malted grains. You need sugar to ferment beer, and this is where you create it. The mash is a mixture of crushed grains and hot water that converts the starch in barley, wheat, or other grains into sugar (which yeast will turn into alcohol). Barley has two enzymes (proteins that encourage chemical reactions) that break starch down into sugar when they’re within particular temperature ranges. Home brewers typically mix their grains with hot water and hold their mash between 145°F and 158°F (63°C and 70°C) for at least 20 minutes.
Once enzymes have converted most of the starch to sugar, drain the liquid out in a process called “lautering.” Add additional hot water (around 170°F [77°C]) to help flush out the sugar. The first couple gallons of liquid drained out should be gently poured back over the grains. Water clarity should improve, and small bits of husk will stop coming out. This recirculation creates a filter to keep grain out of the wort. In total, you should have 5.5 to 6 gallons (20 to 23 L) of wort to create a five-gallon (19 L) batch of beer.
STEP 3. BOIL
Boiling wort sanitizes the liquid and absorbs bitter acids from the hops. The longer hops are boiled, the more bitterness they add. The later they’re added, the more flavor and aroma they infuse. After 60 minutes, cool the wort as quickly as possible to prevent infection by wild bacteria. Homebrew stores sell wort chillers that cool batches to room temperature in 20 minutes or less, but placing the kettle in an ice bath for 30 to 60 minutes also works.
STEP 4. INOCULATION
When the wort is at least below 100°F (38°C)—higher temperatures kill brewing yeast—you’ll mix in oxygen and add the yeast. The easiest way to aerate and add oxygen is by pouring the wort back and forth between the fermentor and kettle until there’s a tall head of foam. You can also transfer the wort to the fermentor, seal the top, and shake it for 45 seconds. Before you add the yeast and seal the fermentor, measure the gravity (density) of your beer with a hydrometer or refractometer. This tells us how much sugar is in the wort. For reference, a beer that is aiming to hit 5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) will have a starting gravity around 1.052. Finally, add the yeast and close the top of the fermentor. Use an airlock to allow CO2, a byproduct of fermentation, to escape.
STEP 5. FERMENTATION
Every yeast has a particular temperature range for its ideal fermentation, but most beers ferment well at room temperature. After ten days, most of the sugar will have been converted into alcohol. You can take a second gravity reading to see how much sugar has fermented. Beer yeast leaves about a quarter of the total sugar behind (unlike a dry wine, for example). A common beer will have a final gravity around 1.012 to 1.016.
STEP 6. CONDITION
Conditioning acts like a filter. After the first (primary) fermentation, almost all the alcohol has been created, but letting the beer sit for at least two weeks will allow the yeast to stay active and literally clean itself up. With a siphon, transfer the beer to a conditioning fermentor, leaving the layer of yeast behind in the bottom of the primary. Tiny hops, barley, and yeast particles will also slowly sink to the bottom of the conditioning fermentor, clarifying the appearance and further improving the flavor.
STEP 7. BOTTLING
After your beer is fermented, conditioned, and tasting satisfactory (that one’s up to you), the final step is to bottle. By adding a little (about an ounce per gallon [7 g per liter]) sugar to your beer and sealing it, the yeast will create both a small amount of alcohol and enough CO2 to carbonate the brew.
Five gallons (19 L) of beer needs about two cases of bottles, plus a six-pack (54 total), but don’t be surprised if you lost beer along the way when transferring from the kettle and then again to the conditioning fermentor. To bottle, boil the priming sugar in a cup of water for 15 minutes to sanitize it, then cool the liquid and add it to the beer. Then either siphon each beer individually into bottles, or transfer to a bottling bucket with a spigot near the bottom. Cap the beer, let it sit at room temperature for two weeks, and then enjoy. Congratulations, you’ve made beer.
BARLEY TO BEER, SIMPLIFIED
Select your grains and crush them (most homebrew shops will do this for you).
For every pound of grain, mix in 1 to 2 quarts of hot water (2 to 4 liters per kilogram), creating the mash.
Hold the mash at a temperature between 145°F and 158°F (63°C and 70°C) for 30 to 60 minutes.
Add sparge water and drain out the liquid (now called the wort).
Heat the wort to a boil and hold there for 60 minutes.
Add hops: 1) at the start of the boil for bitterness, or 2) within the final 30 minutes for aroma and flavor.
Cool the wort to below 80°F (27°C) and transfer to the fermentor.
Shake the closed fermentor vigorously, then add yeast. Ferment the wort for 10 days as it becomes beer.
Siphon the beer to a second fermentor and age it for at least two weeks.
Add priming sugar (0.5 to 1 ounce per gallon [4 to 7 grams per liter]), then bottle the beer.
Let the beer carbonate for two weeks, then enjoy.
