I know I just posted a home brew yesterday, but yesterday's post was actually the second all-grain beer I have made. This one is the first.  As you can see from the photo, this beer exhibits the same chill haze as yesterday's beer.  Cloudiness aside, this beer is fantastic.  It poured with a very rich amber hue and a thick head of foam that maintained for the duration of the drink.  This beer is definitely a malt monster.  The hops are present, but the malts here definitely come into play at a much higher level.  This beer has an estimated 32 IBU and an alcohol content of 6.5%, but with the heavier body (finished at 1.020 FG) the hop presence falls slightly into the background as the malt sweetness stays in the forefront.  The hop factor in this home brew comes in the form of an after taste and in the initial aroma of the beer.  This five gallon batch has a combined bill of 2 ounces of hops, Cascade on the bittering and flavor side and Williamette on the aroma.  It takes a lot of hops to punch their way through a 14-pound malt bill though...

I racked the Chocolate Oatmeal Stout to a secondary fermenter today after one week in the primary fermenter.  I took a gravity reading of 1.014.  Since it started at 1.060, I'm hoping this beer finishes up at 1.014 and doesn't ferment down any further.  I want this beer to have a medium body, and it already has pushed over the 6% mark on alcohol by volume.  I was originally going to let this beer sit in primary for two weeks, but I decided to go ahead and move it.  I will still let it condition in secondary for four weeks before bottling it. 

How to make a yeast Starter:

If you are planning to use a liquid yeast culture such as a vial of White Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast or one of the smack-packs, making a yeast starter can be beneficial to your fermentation for two primary reasons. The first reason is that your yeast will multiply to a level that will be more appropriate to fermenting 5 gallons of beer. The second reason is that the yeast will be active and ready to go when you pitch it to the wort. This process should be started 36 to 48 hours prior to brewing time.

What you need (pictured above):

#1 - pot for boiling water
#2 - one cup of dry malt extract
#3 - glass container for the yeast starter (sanitized)
#4 - one quart (32 oz) of water
#5 - liquid yeast culture
#6 - thermometer
#7 - funnel (not pictured)
#8 - air lock (not pictured)

Step #1: Boil one quart of water

The purpose of boiling the water is to kill any bacteria that may be present and provide a hot water base for dissolving the dry malt extract. Once the water starts to boil, let it boil for 5 minutes or so and then remove it from the burner.

Step #2: Dissolve the dry malt extract in the hot water

Remove the boiling water from the burner and add the dry malt extract.

Stir it in until it is completely dissolved.

Return it to the burner and let it boil for 5-10 more minutes. Pay close attention to this boil, because when the malt extract solution starts to boil again, it might want to boil over. When you see the foam start to rise, remove it from the burner until it settles back down. You may have to do this several times before the solution settles down into a nice rolling boil. While the extract solution is boiling, prepare an ice bath in the sink.

Step #3: Cool the malt extract solution

Place the pot with the extract solution in an ice bath and let it cool.

When the solution has cooled to less than 75 degrees or so, you can remove it from the ice bath and transfer it to the yeast starter container.

** IMPORTANT **

Anything that touches the malt extract solution after it has been boiled and cooled MUST BE SANITIZED. Everything should be clean before you start, but using a sanitizing solution such as Iodophor or Star San is required after that.

Step #4: Aerate

After you transfer your extract solution to your starter container, shake it up really well to oxygenate the solution as much as possible.

Step #5: Add the yeast

After your starter solution has been nicely aerated, dump in the liquid yeast solution and shake it up a little more.

Step #6: Put on an air lock

The air lock must also be sanitized prior to use. The air lock lets gasses out of the starter container but doesn't let anything back in. Some people prefer to use a liquid like vodka because it doesn't promote bacterial growth. If your air lock is properly sanitized, you can used bottled or distilled water, or water that has been boiled.

Step #7: Wait

Put the yeast starter container away somewhere out of the way, preferably in a dark area.  Periodically, you might want to pick it up and swirl it around a little to stir up the yeast that will settle to the bottom of the container.  Within 24 hours or so, you should see some occasional bubbles in the air lock.  Be careful not to shake any of the water from the air lock into the starter solution when you periodically agitate the starter. 

Step #8: Pitch the yeast

If you started your yeast starter 36 to 48 hours before you started brewing your beer, it should be ready to pitch to the wort when you finish cooking.  Remove the air lock from the yeast starter container and shake the solution up again to re-suspend all of the yeast that may have settled to the bottom of the container and then dump it in your fermenter with your newly-cooked wort! 

Note:

Some people prefer to NOT shake up the yeast starter solution before pitching to the wort.  Some like to drain off the top liquid and just pitch the yeast at the bottom of the starter container.  I generally pitch the entire starter because it has active yeast suspended in it.  It's simply a preference issue...

What's in a beer?

In reality, the ingredients that go into beer are relatively simple.  There are four primary ingredients:

• Water
• Malted Barley
• Hops
• Yeast

The water provides the liquid base that sustains everything else.  The malted barley provides the fermentable sugars.  Hops provide bitterness to balance the sweetness from the fermentable sugars as well as an added aroma for the beer.  The yeast is the magician that converts fermentable sugars to alcohol.  With only four basic ingredients, why do we have so many different types and flavors of beer?

The malted barley is a rather generic term that covers all the types of grains that are used to make beer.  There are lots of different specialty grains that are used for flavor and color properties required for various styles of beer.  The actual matled barley is only a portion of the grain bill that is used to make most beers.  The primary purpose of the malted barley and other grains used to make beer is to provide a source of sugar.  The amount of grain used in any given beer will determine how much fermentable sugar goes into that beer. 

There are also many different types of hops that are used to make beer.  Each hop variation has different bittering and aroma properties, so the combinations of bitterness and aroma that a brewer might choose are almost endless.  Bittering hops are hops that are added early in the boiling process.  When they are added early, they give up a lot of their oils to the beer, which provides bitterness to help balance the sweetness of the malted barley and grains.  Hops that are added late in the boiling process do not give up much of their oils and only provide aromatic properties for the beer. 

Yeasts are micro-organisms that have one sole purpose in life as far as beer is concerned.  Their job is simple.  They eat sugar and poop carbon dioxide and alcohol.  As with the grains and hops, there are many different variations of yeast used in brewing.  The choice of yeast used provides characteristics for the beer style being brewed.  Some varieties of yeast will produce more alcohol than others.  Some yeasts will provide flavors and aromas that others won't. 

The Process:

Home brewers have several ingredients choices to make when they decide to make beer.  The choices mostly come into play with the grains that will be used in making the beer.  There are three basic roads to choose from:

• Extract brewing
• Partial-mash brewing
• All-grain brewing

A lot of beginning home brewers will start out on the extract brewing path.  This is, by far, the easiest road to take in making your own beer.  An extract is either a dried (powdered) or liquid (syrup) concentrated malt that simply has to be dissolved in boiling water to provide the fermentable sugars for your beer.  After it has dissolved in the hot water, you bring it back to a boil and add your hops at timed intervals and boil for one hour.  After the hour is up, you cool your wort (unfermented beer) to 70 degrees or so, transfer it to your fermenter, add the yeast, seal it up, put the air lock on it and let it ferment for a few weeks.  After the ferment is complete, you can bottle or keg the beer (discussed in a future lesson).

The partial-mash option uses a combination of extracts and grains.  This process is a little more complicated because the brewer must use a process called mashing (discussed in a future lesson) to extract fermentable sugars from the grains that will be used in the beer.  Once the fermentable sugars are extracted from the grains, they are added to the brew kettle along with the extracts, and the process from this point follows the same procedures as extract brewing.

All-grain brewing uses no extracts.  All of the fermentable sugars that go into the beer are extracted from grains through the mashing process.  Those fermentable sugars are added to the brew kettle and then the process is the same as extract brewing.

What are the differences in the above processes?

Partial mash and all-grain brewing require a little extra time and equipment.  The mashing process, whether it be partial-mash or all-grain, will probably add 1.5 to 2 hours to your brewing schedule, but the main reason brewers choose these options is because it gives them finer control over the flavor and color of their beers.  These processes also require the use of a mash / lauter tun.  The MLT is a simple device usually made from a cooler, and they aren't difficult or expensive to make.  When using the MLT, you add hot water (at a specific temperature) to the tun and then add your crushed grains and stir them in.  You let those grains soak for about an hour at a specific temperature (discussed in a future lesson) and then drain off the liquid into your brew kettle.  After that drain is complete, you add some more hot water at a specific temperature to rinse out as much of the leftover fermentable sugars as possible.  With this process, you have total control over your beer.  You choose specific types and amounts of grain to produce your beer.  You don't have any control over the grains used to make extracts.  If this has peaked your interest in the process, check out the How-To page on this site and watch some of the videos.  There are two videos that describe how to make a mash tun, and there is an 8-part series on brewing an all-grain beer from start to finish. 

Some extract beer recipes also use specialty grains, but they aren't mashed by the process described above.  They are simply soaked in hot water at a specific temperature for about 30 minutes.  After that soak is complete, the water is brought to a boil and then the extracts are added.  This technique is very easy and it allows you to have some additional control over the flavor and color of your beer. 

What's Next?

In our next lesson, we will walk step-by-step through a complete home brewing session with an extract recipe that might have some specialty grains involved.  I haven't decided exactly what I will be making yet, but I will be cooking outside where we will be doing a full 5-gallon boil rather than a stove-top session.  I will also have my immersion chiller completed by then, so I'll be able to demonstrate how that works.  There is a video on my How-To page that shows the process of building an immersion chiller, and I'll be following those instructions as closely as possible when I build mine.  The lesson will include photos and possibly some videos with detailed instructions of everything involved in the process. 

Home brewing is like any other hobby. It requires 'stuff' that you probably don't already have on hand. You might have some of the items you need and you may have to purchase the rest. But like any other hobby, you can usually get started without major expenditures. In this lesson, I'll show you the minimum hardware requirements for brewing beer. After we discuss those items, we will look at some additional items that you can get to enhance the experience and results of your home brewing.

There are three major steps in the home brewing process, and each step requires its own equipment:

• Cooking
• Fermenting
• Bottling

This lesson will be based on cooking 5-gallons of beer, and the equipment described will be based on a recipe of that quantity.

Cooking Equipment:

To cook 5 gallons of beer, you don't necessarily need a huge kettle.  You can get started by cooking a smaller portion of that (2 to 2.5 gallons) and then mixing the cooked wort (unfermented beer) with water in the fermenter.  So at a minimum, you will need a 16 or preferably a 20-quart kettle for cooking on the stove top.  The kitchen supplies section of Walmart should have a selection of these that aren't too expensive.  You can cook in aluminum, stainless steel, or even the ceramic-coated canning kettles if you wish.  I recommend stainless steel if possible, but it's not required. 

This 20-quart stainless steel stock pot is available from amazon.com for $20.00. 

Fermenting:

After the wort is cooked, you need a container for fermentation.  For a starter home brewing kit, a 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket is a good place to start.  The bucket must have a lid and should be drilled on the top so you can insert an air lock (discussed later). 

This is an example of a good bucket for fermentation.  This particular fermenter from William's Brewing comes with an air-lock (seen on top) and some plastic tubing for $30.00.  The drain tap on the bottom of this bucket is particularly useful when it's time to move the fermented beer into another container for additional fermentation or for bottling. 

Bottling:

After the beer is fermented, it's time to put it in bottles.  You must transfer the beer from the fermenter into another container for bottling.  The fermenter will have a thick sediment on the bottom, and we need to separate the beer from that sediment as much as possible before bottling.

The 'priming tank' is basically another bucket like the fermenter, but a lid and air-lock is not required for the bottling process.  The drain valve on the bottom of the priming tank allows you to connect a length of plastic hose for filling your bottles.  There are various accessories for filling bottles that we will look at in the next section.  This priming tank costs about $20.00.

You will also need bottles.  You can buy the proper bottles from about any home brew supply shop, but I have never bought a bottle.  I like to re-use bottles.  I save beer bottles as I drink the beer from them, whether they be purchased beers or home brew.  Bottles that have twist-off lids are not acceptable.  You must have bottles that have the pop off top (the ones that require bottle openers).  I like to go to a couple local bars / night clubs and ask for permission to rummage their recycle bins for bottles.  When I get permission, I park my car as close to the bins as possible, put on a pair of rubber gloves, pick through the bottles that I want, make sure they are empty, and put them in a cardboard box lined with several layers of old newspaper in the trunk of my car.  I bring them home and fill a large plastic bucket (not my fermenter or priming tank) with a water and clorox solution of about 1 cup of clorox per gallon of water.  I submerge the bottles and let them soak in that solution for 5 minutes or so.  I drain the bottles out as much as possible and then store them upside down in the box.  At some point before I intend to use them, I will bring them inside to the kitchen sink and scrub the labels off and thoroughly clean each bottle with soap and water.  They will be sanitized once again before I actually put beer in them.

If you wish to purchase new bottles, you can do that for an average price of about $15 per case (24 bottles) and you will need at least two cases for a 5-gallon batch of beer. 

A bottle brush is a requirement when cleaning bottles for re-use.  These can be purchased for about $7.00. 

You will also need a bottle capper and some bottle caps...

A bottle capper like this one sells for about $16.00 and a gross of bottle caps can be purchased for about $5.00. 

There are three more essential items that you will need at this point.  The first of those items is a thermometer.  You need to know the temperature of your unfermented beer in order to know when it's OK to put the yeast in for fermentation.  Any hand-held quick-reading thermometer will work and these can be purchased for about $10.00.  You will also need a hydrometer and hydrometer test jar.

The hydrometer and test jar are used to measure the original gravity and finishing gravity of your beer.  There are two primary purposes for this equipment.  It is used to determine when fermentation is complete and also to calculate the alcohol content of your beer.  A hydrometer and plastic hydrometer jar kit costs approximately $12.00.

This covers most of the bare equipment essentials for cooking a simple 5-gallon recipe of beer.  The only items left to think about here are the tools you will need to transfer beer from one container to another.  If you purchase buckets like the ones listed in this post, all you will need is a 5' length of plastic hosing that will fit on the drain taps to smoothly transfer beer from one container to another.  A 5' length of this tubing can be purchased for about $3.00. 

So, in a round-up, the very basic equipment you need if you are not purchasing new bottles adds up to about $115.00. 

Starter Kits:

Most home brew supply shops sell starter kits.  This example kit includes everything described in this lesson except bottles and a brew kettle for $85.00.  It also includes a couple extras.  Bundles like this one can save you a few dollars usually.  Click on the picture to see the details of this kit. 

Support your local shop!

I'm in no way affilliated with William's Brewing, but I have purchased from them in the past with excellent results.  If you have a local home brew supply shop, I highly recommend supporting them with your business.