How To (Homebrew)

Sanitize

Cleanliness is not only next to Godliness, it is essential for repeatable flavor and healthy brews. But cleanliness is not the whole story - sanitization is the other part. The two agents required for sanitizing your brewing apparatus are TSP (trisodium phosphate) or ONE-STEP brand cleaner and a sanitizer such as BTF iodophor. I know from experience that ONE-STEP alone will not completely sterilize. Minimize the use of each; a little goes a long way.

Start your preparations by gathering your equipment to begin the boil:

• the 5 gallon brew kettle
• the 7 gallon polyethylene bucket
• floating thermometer
• spoon
• paper towels
• funnel
• 6-gallon carboy, stopper and gas trap
• racking tube (siphon)
• stainless steel tongs (for removing bags from hot wort)
• hydrometer and sample bottle (the plastic tube the hydrometer comes in will work)

Fill the carboy 1/3 full (2 gallons) and add 2 tablespoons of BTF iodophor to it. Shake vigorously and wet the entire inside surface thoroughly for 2 full minutes. Let stand while you clean all the tools in the bucket.

Dissolve a teaspoon of TSP in a gallon of water in the bucket and wash all the items (except the kettle) in the solution. Wipe the solution all around the inside bucket surface. Drain a bit through the siphon tube and the drain valve to clean them, too. Rinse all the items thoroughly in fresh warm tap water and air-dry on fresh paper towels. Empty the bucket. NOTE: If you have a septic tank, don't dump it down the drain. Dump into a bottle you can dispose of another way. Don't dump it in your yard if you have a well, either.

Dump the carboy into the cleaned bucket and let it drain upside down for a few minutes. Rinse and soak all the tools in the sanitizing solution, leaving them in the bucket until you need them. Return used, rinsed tools to the solution during the brew if necessary.

Never let un-sterilized things come into contact with the wort, including your hands. The BTF iodophor should NOT be rinsed off prior to using the carboy or tools - that will void the sterilization process, introducing contaminants from your water supply. It will not impart a taste or odor to the beer.

Boil

Now we boil the wort (pronounced "wert"). We're going to take over the kitchen for about 2 to 3 hours, including sanitization, boiling and cleanup. If you don't clean up afterwards, your partner may not let you use the kitchen next time!

1. Prepare your stove. I always put some foil around the burner and under the decorative ring to prevent the white stovetop from accumulating burned-on wort. We're going to use the large front burner.
2. Put 3-1/2 gallons of water in the 5-gallon kettle and place it on the burner. Remember, adding grains and hop bags and malt extracts will raise the level some. Some water will be lost to steam, and retained in the hops bags that are removed later.
3. Heat the water to about 160°F. Place your cracked flavoring grains (also any wheat, barley or oats in the kit) in the water, turn off heat, cover and steep for 20 minutes.
4. After steeping at an average 155°F, raise the temperature to about 175°F and "sparge" the grains (lift the grain bag out of the water, allowing it to drain, then plunge back in again) several times - but don't squeeze - into the wort; we want all the 'love' out of our ingredients we can get, but not a lot of "fines" or mouth-biting tanins!). This step will ensure a full yield of sugars from the grains.
5. Heat to a full boil, turn the heat off and stir in the malt extracts and any other sugars (adjuncts) furnished with your kit (but not the 4oz. bottling sugar!). Stir while adding the syrups, to prevent the extract from sticking and burning on the bottom of the kettle.
6. Turn the heat back up and add the "boiling" hops to the sweet wort.
7. Watch the kettle while bringing back to a full boil. It will boil over at this point, if you aren't there to turn the heat down! Reduce the heat enough to prevent boiling over, yet provide a full rolling boil that agitates the hops bags. The tendency to froth will decrease in about 5 minutes.
8. At this time I usually start a second pot of water boiling. I use the boiling water to replace evaperation losses and keep the brew kettle level up at around 4 gallons.
9. After boiling 40 minutes, add the Irish moss and "flavoring" hops.
10. Here's when I half-fill my sink with cold water in preparation for cooling the wort at the end of the boil.
11. In another 18 minutes, with 2 minutes left in the boil, add the "aroma" hops.
12. After the full 60-minute boil, turn off the stove, remove the kettle from the heat and place in the cooling water. Leave all the ingredients steeping in the wort and add your floating thermometer. Turn on a slow stream of water around the kettle to hasten cooling. My sinks are separated by a partition that allows the water to overflow from one to the other without going onto the counter.
13. Although not shown in the pictures for clarity, my kettle came with a clear glass lid and I leave it on to minimize ingestion of air-borne contaminants (flies, moths, pet hair and dust) while the wort cools. When the wort cools to 130°F, use sterilized tongs to remove the hops bags, squeezing them to drain into the wort for the most flavor. You might want to empty and save the bags for future recipies you may create yourself. I give my used grains and hops to my chickens, who unconciously re-cycle them into (mostly) eggs.
14. Continue cooling the wort to below 80°F.
15. Add about two quarts of cool water to your fermenter (carboy).
16. Put the funnel into the neck of the fermenter and slowly pour or siphon the cooled wort into the funnel. If you use loose whole-leaf hops, pour through a strainer. I use linen hop bags and pour the entire wort -- my experience has been that any fine solids settle out during later stages of fermentation anyway.
17. Top up the fermenter with make-up water, filling to a little more than the 5 gallon mark made previously, put in the stopper, and agitate to mix the wort and water.
18. Place your hydrometer in its sample bottle and siphon enough wort from the fermenter to float the device. Take a reading, where the level of the fluid (not the miniscus, or curvy part) indicates on the scale. A typical reading is between 1.045 to 1.065 for porter or stout. (Remember the scale reads increasing downwards because as specific gravity increases, the instrument floats higher.)
19. If you are using dry yeast, re-hydrate it 15 minutes, following the directions on the yeast packets. Don't overheat the water. When the wort temperature falls below 75 degees, pitch the yeast (pour it into the wort).
20. Agitate the stoppered fermenter by rocking vigorously for 3 to 5 minutes to oxygenate the wort and activate the yeast. (I place mine on a convenient table on a thick piece of plywood.) Fill the gas trap half way with water and put the trap in the stopper. Remove the trap, cover the hole with your SANITIZED thumb, and agitate the wort every hour until fermentation begins. Fermentation will start in 4 to 6 hours for dry yeasts, and 8 to 12 hours for liquid yeasts.
21. Air and light are now your enemies. Cover the fermenter with a large cloth or towel and place in a stable temperature of between 60 and 80 degrees for ales, 40 to 60 degrees for lagers.
22. If the fermentation is especially active, substitute the siphon tube for the gas trap, placing the lower end in a small pot of water to prevent reverse-air intake. Liquid yeasts generally take longer to get started (18 to 24 hours versus 4 to 6 hours), and ferment less actively than dry yeast commonly found in kits (it's less expensive). Always let liquid yeasts go the full 2 weeks of fermentation. Take a gravity measurement at the end of the 2 weeks to be sure fermentation has ceased. Ending gravities have been from 1.010 to 1.020 for my porter.
23. After a couple of weeks fermentation settling, depending on how clear you like your beer, the beer is ready to be bottled. I let all my brews go for four weeks "on the yeast". Rule-of-thumb: you can bottle when the bubbler goes longer than two minutes between burps. To be sure, sanitize a gravy baster or "thief" and take a sample - if you've reached your final gravity (under 1.020), you can bottle it!

Priming and Bottling

Bottling takes some preparation also, involving cleaning and sterilizing bottles and the bottling equipment.

1. Several days before bottling, submerse and soak 2 cases (48 bottles) of re-cappable beer bottles in a tub under a solution of 2 tablespoons TSP per 5 gallons of water. This will remove any labels and fungal growth or mold in the bottles. Screwtop bottles will not reliably re-seal with new caps. Most microbrew beers are re-cappable.
2. If you need to move your fermenter to be able to siphon into the bucket, do so a day ahead of bottling to permit the wort to re-settle. Be careful not to jostle it too much.
3. The evening before "bottling day", rub off any exterior label adhesive as you move the soaked bottles from the tub into a sink full of ONE-STEP solution. Using the straight bottle brush, scrub and thoroughly rinse all the bottles, making sure the bottles look clean inside, and the opening is free of debris that might prevent a cap seal.
4. Sanitize the bottling bucket, bottle filler, hydrometer, sample jar, a two-cup measuring cup (for priming sugar), and siphon (racking tube) with the BTF iodophor solution as before. Drain some through the bucket's valve, too. Don't rinse anything at this time. The small residue of solution will not impart any flavor or odor to the beer. I let my sanitized tools rest between fresh paper towels until needed.
5. Sanitize 50 or so bottle caps by boiling in a small sauce pan of water for 2 minutes, or use some of the sanitizing solution. Set the pan aside to cool.
6. Run the dishwasher through a full cycle without soap, and set to "heated dry" to sanitize the bottles with high temperature. If you have hard water, you may see some white calcite deposits, but these will not hurt the beer. When the washer cycle ends, crack the door and let the bottles cool to room temperature for an hour.
7. Dissolve your 4 ounces of priming sugar in 1-1/2 cup of bottled water in the sanitized measuring cup. Cover with a fresh paper towel and let the mixture cool.
8. Rinse the outside and fill your racking tube with sanitizing solution and clamp the pinch clamp to hold the water in. I do this by placing the straight end into the bucket and holding the tubing end tight up against the sink's water spout until it's full, then lowering it into the sink until the siphoned run-out turns redish. Hang the racking tube somewhere safe for a minute while you get the bottling bucket ready.
9. Splash the sanitizing solution all up around the inside of the bottling bucket. If you want to be extra careful about sanitization, you can drain the sanitizing solution from the bottling bucket into a large bowl and dip your bottles a few at a time just prior to bottling. I find this added complication unneccessary with dishwasher-sanitization. I save my sanitizing solution in two 2-liter softdrink bottles for several brews, adding one capful of BTF idophor during each session to freshen it up.
10. Remove the gas trap and stopper, and carefully insert the siphon tube to the bottom of the carboy, so the bottom end of the tube is toward the rim of the bottle and just above the bottom residue. Steady the tube so it doesn't flop around and stir up the bottom "stuff".
11. Start the siphon into a small pot positioned well below the carboy, wasting as little beer as possible. Release the tube clamp and the water should flow out into the pot, starting the siphon. Let it run a little until clean beer comes out, then take a specific gravity sample and continue siphoning into the bottling bucket. Let the end of the tube rest against the side of the bucket to minimize air entrainment. The gravity reading shown here is correctly read at the fluid level, not the miniscus (where it curves up the stem) at about 1.016 indicated.
12. When the siphoning finishes, stir the dissolved bottling sugar slowly into the 5 gallons of beer. Stir without making air bubbles for 2 to 3 minutes to evenly distribute the sugar throughout the beer. I don't add sugar to individual bottles because I think this is a less accurate method, and it's too easy to over-sweeten which can cause explosions. Gentle stirring also helps move any sediment into the center of the bucket's floor, away from the drain valve.
13. Cover the bottling bucket to prevent dust or moths... whatever, from falling in. It is not necessary to tightly cover.
14. Lift the bottling bucket onto the counter and move a chair nearby to sit on as you bottle. I get my partner to hand me the bottles right out of the dishwasher, and set the filled ones on the counter. She sets the caps on to keep contaminants out.
15. Install the bottle filler (little tube with a valve in the bottom) into the drain valve of the bucket, and open the drain valve above a small pot or cup to catch any leaks. My drain valve is the same diameter as the filler and has a short piece of clear tubing that holds the filler. Its valve should shut automatically.
16. Have the sanitized bottle caps ready, and clear a convenient space to store filled bottles temporarily.
17. Slip bottles up the bottle filler until its valve opens on contact with the inside bottom of the bottle, and fill the bottles clear to the top. When you lower the bottle, the bottle filler valve should shut off automatically, and when you drop the bottle off the filler, you will have the needed 1 inch (3 cm) of headspace.
    
    
18. Set a cap on freshly-filled bottles and place them in rows nearby.
19. When you have filled all the bottles, begin capping with the first bottle filled. It helps to have an assistant to position the bottles for you to cap, and take away the capped ones. That way, you are not forever putting down the capper, moving bottles and picking up the capper, etc. You can also do just fill and cap 12 at a time, if like me you need a break in routine now and then.
20. Put the bottles in boxes and in a shady place at 60 to 80 degrees for ales, 40 to 60 degrees for lagers. Allow a minimum of two weeks for clarifying and carbonation to complete, three weeks for stouts and porters.
21. Have one of your favorite brewskis - you've earned it!
22. Fill your fermenter completely with a TSP or ONE-STEP cleaning solution and soak for a couple of days to free residue and debris. Use the angled cleaning brush to scrub the inside of the bottle. Rinse thoroughly, drain upside down, and store for the next batch. Clean your gas trap thoroughly, too.

Serve

Presenting, serving and tasting your homebrew is nearly as important an experience as brewing it. Here are some guidelines:

1. Aging: The darker the ale the longer it will take to fully develop complex flavors. My "lawnmower" ales are usually pretty good after two weeks, but the porters and stouts I let bottle-condition for at least three weeks to a month. In order to do this and not have to (shiver) buy any beer, I brew often; about every other week or so (I have three carboys.)
2. Store and serve your brew at the correct temperatures. I have two basement refrigerators dedicated to beer that are set for 40 degrees F (4 deg. C). Pouring into a room-temperature glass raises the temperature of the beer to about 45 degrees, the correct serving temperature for most ales. Generally, the darker the beer, the warmer it should be served to release the more complex flavors. Stouts are best at 50-55 degrees F.
3. Homebrews are frequently drinkable up to a year, even though they aren't pasteurized, depending on the care exhibited during bottling and storage. Exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun or flourescent lights can impart a "skunky" flavor. This is most commonly encountered in commercial brands using less expensive clear or green bottles. Brown glass bottles tend to reduce this effect significantly.
4. Beer glasses should not be washed in soap or detergent but rinsed soon after use in warm water and air-dried. Run them separately through the dishwasher without soap.
5. Always pour into a glass. This is fundamental gourmet beering; drinking from the bottle is for sports events and boating, where it is likely your arm may be jostled, wasting the beer. Also, some ales have considerable sediment in the bottle, which may be objectionable. I find they often impart a strong doughy flavor to my porters, and so are better left in the bottle.
6. Most homebrew "real" ales or "cask" ales will have a sediment in the bottom. If you are drinking someone else's, ask whether it should be gently agitated before pouring, as you would do with, for instance, Cooper's Bitter Ale from Australia (a fine example of comercial "real" ale).
7. Experiment with your own ales in this regard; try with and without gentle agitation to include or exclude any flavors borne by the sediment.
8. To pour, just tip the bottle into the glass so the brew quickly dumps out against the far side of the glass and produces a good thick head. The head lifts excess carbonation bitterness from the body of the beer. Try letting the head overflow or blow the froth off, or flick the head off with your fingers to dispose of the bitterness. Let the remaining head dissipate prior to drinking.
9. Observe the head; Are the bubbles fine or gross? Uniform or different sizes? Does the head leave a "lace" on the inside of the glass? Is it white, creamy or tan?
10. Sniff the effervescing brew; can you detect hops? More than one? Sugars and deeper aromas? Suggestions of other flavors (toast, chocolate, coffee, nut, flower or fruit essences)?
11. Observe the beer; Is it clear? Cloudy? Active or light carbonation? Uniform color or highlights near the bottom? Is there a sediment?
12. Take a sip, tasting with the tip of your tongue first. How sweet is it?
13. Take a mouthful and swish it around before swallowing. Try to categorize different flavors as fruity, nutty, toasty, tangy, sweet, bitter, etc.
14. Does the beer leave an aftertaste? How is it different from the taste of the brew itself?
15. If serving two or more beers, use new glasses or rinse glasses for each new beer.

Above all, enjoy the fruits of your labors with responsibility. Remember that alcohol inhibits or distracts decision-making. Don't drink and drive or operate machinery or firearms while drinking. Pregnant women should not imbibe.

CHEERS!