Foo - How to make Beer.

I brought my brewing equipment over a friends house the other day to brew up an IPA. We get together and brew every couple of months. Our mini brewery uses the same principals and ingredients as the average brew pub or micro brewery. We just do it on a smaller scale. But all the ingredients the micro breweries use are available to home brewers. We’ve done some really good beers in the past.
If anybody is interested in the brewing process, this is how it goes.

We used about 11lbs or grain.
First the grains need to be crushed in a grain mill, this cracks the grain allowing the water to enter when it’s mashed. That’s me crushing the grains while my friends dog looks on.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer001.jpg
Once the grains are crushed they go into a “Mash tun”, I use a converted Home Depot cooler. The pot of water on the stove is being heated. The hot water is added to the grain in the HD cooler. Temp will be about 152 degrees. At this temp, the starch in the grain is converted into fermentable sugar. It mashes for about an hour.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer002.jpg
Grains mashing at 152.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer004.jpg
Hops and years waiting to be used.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer003.jpg
Once the mashing is complete. More hot water is added to the mash tun.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer007.jpg
The next step is called “Sparging”. Basically the water is drained from the mash tun. This is a sweet liquid called “Wort”. We collect about 6 gallons in the boil kettle.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer008.jpg
Now we boil it for about an hour. This is when the hops are added. The longer a hop boils the more bitterness is extracted from them. Hops added at the start are bittering hops, hops added later are more for flavor and aroma.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer010.jpg
Once the boiling is done it is quickly brought back down in temp using a wort chiller, basically it’s a copper coil that is attached to a hose, it works as a heat exchanger.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer015.jpg
Once the Wort is cooled, it’s put into a fermenting bucket (some people use glass, I just use plastic). Now the yeast is added. It will ferment in about five days, Then it will be transferred to a secondary fermenter to settle and clarify. After that it’s bottled and priming sugar is added to create the carbonation. It will be carbonated and ready to drink in about two to three weeks :)
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/lastcall12/beer016.jpg

Great process pics. I've been homebrewing for about a year now with some friends, and now my roommate. We still stick to the malt extracts tho. He's an IPA/pale ale guy and I love the stouts and porters, so we get a good mix of beer types. It's been a lot of fun.

That was actually interesting. I'd never taste it, but still quite interesting.

:) All-grain brewing always seemed like too much work to me. I just cheat and buy the syrups and dry malts.

Actually I'm sort of hunting for a good, "authentic" Czech Pilsner recipe at the moment. Saaz hops, light-to-medium body, clean finish. People always seem to want to muck up Pilsners with stuff that doesn't belong in them. :rolleyes: (That's me being a beer snob.)

Thank for that, efrobert! Very jealous over here (Tsingtaoed out :p)... let us know how it turns out!

When I was young we tried to make beer and it tasted like crap. Guess somethings are better left to the experts.

I've always wanted to try this! :)

Some guys I knew in high school brought some home brew to a party one time(this was YEARS ago).......and that stuff was HELLA NASTY!!! Looked like orange soda.

My dad has been making beer for 15 years or so. The most important thing is to have everything clean and sterilized. CLEAN and STERILIZED. Otherwise, you end up with some unwanted bacterial growth and/ or fermentation in the bottles that can be unpleasant.

His beers all taste pretty good. He doesn't do a final filtration though so you better decant slowly or have gastric disturbances later.

Nice stuff!

Once I get my own place, I want to brew my own mead. I love me some mead.

are there any simple single-stage kits I can get a hold of....I don't have the room to boil stuff, etc....I'd love to find a mead kit for a MrBeer if there is one.

Mead is really temperamental stuff, kind of like wine. I've never had "home made" mead (or wine) that was at all drinkable, though there are some good commercial meads beginning to pop up.

Brewing good beer is easy, like bbattle said. You need a good recipe, with good ingredients, and everything that touches the beer needs to be sanitized. A solution of clorox bleach dissolved in water is all you need for sanitation. It ain't hard! I've been brewing since 1987. :geezer: Even got my own hop vines growing in the back yard. :)

I used to make beer from grain-

you are supposed to make a filter column with the grain and sparge carefully by spraying the water evenly and slowly onto the grain filter column to wash out the sugars to make the wort/wart. I had a rotating sparging arm for this. The final beer should be a lot clearer if you do that.

The copper cooler is good. I made a similar one and it speeds up the process a lot and helps with clarifying the beer as the proteins coagulate put better with cooling.

A yeast starter is a good idea as well if you don´t do this (rather than just sprinkling the yeast on). The fermantation gets off to a quicker start and the probability of contamination is reduced.

I used to make beer from grain-

you are supposed to make a filter column with the grain and sparge carefully by spraying the water evenly and slowly onto the grain filter column to wash out the sugars to make the wort/wart. I had a rotating sparging arm for this. The final beer should be a lot clearer if you do that.

The copper cooler is good. I made a similar one and it speeds up the process a lot and helps with clarifying the beer as the proteins coagulate put better with cooling.

A yeast starter is a good idea as well if you don´t do this (rather than just sprinkling the yeast on). The fermantation gets off to a quicker start and the probability of contamination is reduced.

I used to sparge like that but I read alot about batch sparging (Just filling the mast tun, draining then filling again) and I've had good results doing it that way. I actually add Irish Moss at the end of the boil to help clarify the beer.
Never needed a starter with White Labs yeast, Fermentation on this batch was so active it blew the airlock right off the next day.

Looks like a Meth Lab that I busted once. Just kidding. My neighbor makes beer that way and it is goooooood!

are there any simple single-stage kits I can get a hold of....I don't have the room to boil stuff, etc....I'd love to find a mead kit for a MrBeer if there is one.

You will at least need to be able to boil 2 - 3 gallons to make beer. That means you need a pot big enough to hold 5 gallons or so, to give some wiggle room.

Check this place out:

www.morebeer.com

Lotsa quality stuff at good prices. Keep in mind that you can probably get some/most of the equipment you'll need locally at kitchen supply houses, too.

Your dog looks like Rowdy (the dead/stuffed dog) from Scrubs. Same pose...same dog.

Im an extract brewer as well, looking forward to collecting the gear for all grain. One small correction though its Wort not Wart. lol

And yes who ever had the nasty beer someone didn't pay enough attention to keeping things clean, that is the number 1 enemy of brewing.

homemade beer is good, if done well. I had some friends that made beer in their apartment and it went really well. I made lemon wine once - about 1/4 of it was actually pretty good, but the filtering was a failure, so most of it was unusable.

Im an extract brewer as well, looking forward to collecting the gear for all grain. One small correction though its Wort not Wart. lol

And yes who ever had the nasty beer someone didn't pay enough attention to keeping things clean, that is the number 1 enemy of brewing.

Wart, lol, I fixed that... Too much homebrew when I posted.
Temp control during fermentation is also very importaint. That's why this is the perfect time to brew, it's easy to keep fermentation temps cool.

Hmmm yes. We could always do with more drunk drivers on the roads...

Fact: Do you know why drunk drivers get in so many accidents? 'Cause they don't learn to drive drunk.

- Chainsaw

Wart, lol, I fixed that... Too much homebrew when I posted.
Temp control during fermentation is also very importaint. That's why this is the perfect time to brew, it's easy to keep fermentation temps cool.

Oh yes that is very important, I had a batch go funky on my last summer because I was trying to brew it in the summer and couldn't keep it cool enough. Made a Blueberry Wheat and a Amber Ale the Amber got to warm but the Blueberry Wheat behaved itself and could not be poured fast enough at my dads retirement party (the reason I was brewing at the worst time of year).

I live in a 200 year old house with a dry stone basement that's about 58 year-round at waist level, and 50 at floor level. Rock solid stability in a perfect temperature range. If I need to brew something warmer, I keep it up in the kitchen.


Hmmm yes. We could always do with more drunk drivers on the roads...

Stop being a troll.

I live in a 200 year old house with a dry stone basement that's about 58 year-round at waist level, and 50 at floor level. Rock solid stability in a perfect temperature range. If I need to brew something warmer, I keep it up in the kitchen.
:mad: I hate you. :p Sounds like my mom's house. (1790.) Maybe I could lager something there, although it would be easier to just use my spare fridge. One of these days...


Stop being a troll.
Everyone who gets drunk goes out and drives, mowing down children (the younger the better), cyclists, and kittens. Didn't you know that? MADD tells us so. :rolleyes:

If I put a carboy right on the floor, it'll hit good cold lagering temps. Keep it up just a few inches on some wood blocks and it's warm enough for California common. Up near the top it's good for a super-smooth ale. :D

Okay, I'll stop bragging now. :D

my roomate and I are making some beer now; hopefully it'll be good when the carbonization is done..

I've really wanted to make some good 'ole white lightning.. gotta find out how to do that one...

Distilling is a pretty legally controlled process. Be careful.

Distilling is a pretty legally controlled process. Be careful.


i think only if you make alot of it (intent to distribute or something) or sell some (b/c of the whole taxation issue)...

another goood question..

has anyone ever made beer without Hops??? What would the result be?

I have. For some styles, it's OK and appropriate. Since we do a pretty good job at protecting our beer these days, their preservative qualities aren't really required.

On distilling... Stick with beer. :beer:

Everclear is much better than anything you'd boil up in your kitchen anyway. :p


"You cannot produce spirits for beverage purposes without paying taxes and without prior approval of paperwork to operate a distilled spirits plant. [See 26 U.S.C. 5601 & 5602 for some of the criminal penalties.] There are numerous requirements that must be met that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal or beverage use. Some of these requirements are paying special tax, filing an extensive application, filing a bond, providing adequate equipment to measure spirits, providing suitable tanks and pipelines, providing a separate building (other than a dwelling) and maintaining detailed records, and filing reports. All of these requirements are listed in 27 CFR Part 19.

Spirits may be produced for nonbeverage purposes for fuel use only without payment of tax, but you also must file an application, receive ATF's approval, and follow requirements, such as construction, use, records and reports."

Everyone who gets drunk goes out and drives, mowing down children (the younger the better), cyclists, and kittens. Didn't you know that? MADD tells us so. :rolleyes:

You forgot about beating wives and doing stuff they regret later :D ...

Oh right. I'll inform my wife. :D :eek: