THE FIVE BASIC STEPS OF BREWING BEER are wort production, boiling, cooling, fermenting, and packaging. Wort production is the creation of a solution of water and the sugars needed for fermentation. For most beginning homebrewers, wort production is simply the blending in a pot of malt extracts and water. For an advanced all-grain brewer, it involves mashing the grains by soaking them in water at an appropriate temperature for an appropriate length of time and then rinsing the grains with water to fully extract the sugars. In the boil, hops are added to the wort and the wort is boiled for at least an hour. The wort is then cooled to a temperature adequate for yeast growth (usually below 80°F). To start fermentation, the mixture is shaken vigorously to aerate it, yeast is added, and the beer is allowed to ferment for several days or weeks. During the fermentation period it may be transferred (or “racked”) to another vessel one or more times in an effort to reduce the amount of sediment and improve the beer’s clarity. The finished beer is then usually packaged in either bottles or kegs. It’s then time for the most important step of all — drinking the finished beer!
A complete examination of all these steps would take a book to explain. Fortunately, that book has already been written. Most basic equipment kits sold at homebrew supply stores today will include a basic introduction to brewing. These instructions will explain, in simple terms, what you need to do to brew better beers, have more control over the finished product, and develop a more complete understanding of brewing ingredients, styles, and processes. If you want a book that fully examines the brewing process in a straightforward, technically sound manner, we recommend Dave Miller’s Homebrewing Guide.
Before you get started, you need to have a recipe in mind (or an ingredient kit with the proper ingredients assembled) and your equipment and work area ready and sanitized. Some brewers like to pre-boil their brewing water or let it sit overnight to drive off the chlorine usually present in municipal water. Pre-warming malt syrups will also help them pour better.
For most beginning homebrewers, wort production is easy. You simply pour the malt syrup or powder into a pot of water and stir. For the all-grain brewer, it’s an involved process that begins by crushing grain and then adding hot water to reach an appropriate temperature. The target temperature will depend on which type of mashing schedule the brewer is using. The simplest of the mashing schedules is what’s known as a single-step infusion mash. For this type of mash, water is added until a temperature in the range of about 148° to about 158°F is reached. This could be preceded by other, lower temperature steps, such as what is called an “acid rest,” or perhaps a “protein rest,” or both. Each of the different types of steps promote the activity of a different type of enzyme reaction in the grains. After the grains are mashed (i.e., all the starches are converted to sugars), the mash is sparged with water, which is the rinsing of the grains to fully extract the sweet liquid from the grain.
The boil is important for several reasons. It’s during the boil that hops are added and their bitterness extracted in a process known as “isomerization.” There are also a number of kettle reactions that change the character of the beer, drive off unwanted flavors from the grain, and contribute to the color of the beer. For all-grain brewers, the boil reduces the volume of the wort, concentrating the sugars. A rolling boil is best, and the brew kettle should not be covered or else those unwanted substances that would normally be driven off will be unable to escape from the pot.
Hops are often added in stages during the boil. When the boil first begins, add the hops that will provide bitterness. These should boil for at least one hour. Often brewers will add more hops about 30 to 40 minutes into the boil to provide flavor and again at the very end of the boil to provide aroma.
After the boil is finished, you need to cool the wort before you can add yeast. One way that extract brewers often cool their wort is to begin the brewing by only boiling 6 quarts of water, boiling with the extract and syrup, and then at the end of the boil mixing the hot wort in the fermenter with about 3½ gallons of cold water. This works fairly well except during the summer months when the water is too warm. All-grain brewers will always have at least 5 gallons that need to be chilled, and many extract brewers find that boiling with a full 5-gallon volume can help improve their beers. If you need to cool a large amount of beer, a wort chiller is invaluable.
After the wort is cool enough to pitch yeast (usually somewhere in the 60° to 68°F range for ales, but always below 80°), you will want to aerate the wort. One way to do this is to simply shake the fermenter as vigorously as possible, or to splash the wort as you siphon it into the fermenter. Aeration is important because oxygen will help promote vigorous yeast growth.
You then add the yeast, shaking the fermenter or stirring the mixture. Many homebrewers prefer to grow large starters before adding the yeast. It’s important to realize that low yeast pitching levels are one of the biggest problems homebrewers face. Using starters can solve that problem. If you’re not comfortable with yeast starters and are using only dry yeast, adding 3 or 4 packets of yeast instead of the 1 or 2 that some recipes suggest can also give your yeast a leg up on their growth cycle.
After the yeast is added, seal the fermenter (put the lid on if you have a bucket, or use a cap if you have a carboy), put an airlock in place, and leave the beer alone for several (usually 3 to 5) days. Sometimes, after the initially high level of yeast activity settles down, homebrewers will transfer the beer to a second fermenter so that they can remove the clean beer from sediment and, hopefully, end up with a cleaner-tasting and clearer beer. This process of transferring beer from one fermenter to another is called “racking.” After racking, the beer is allowed to continue fermenting. This second stage is referred to by brewers as “secondary fermentation.”
After the beer is finished fermenting, you’re ready to put it in bottles or a keg. Most homebrewers start out using bottles because of their low cost and ready availability, but a keg is easier to clean and requires a lot less time to deal with.
If you bottle, you’ll need at least 2 cases of bottles (that’s 48 bottles) to handle a 5-gallon batch. You’ll need to clean and sanitize the bottles and then prime your beer to provide carbonation. Priming is the addition of a small amount of sugar to induce a small second fermentation that produces carbon dioxide. Usually ¾ cup of corn sugar is used. Some homebrewers have added priming sugar by the teaspoon to each bottle, but that’s more work than is necessary and produces inconsistent results. It’s easier to add the corn sugar to the entire volume of beer, mix it in, and then siphon the beer into the bottles.
Then it is time to cap the bottles, wait about 2 weeks, and enjoy a cool, refreshing homemade beer!