2. We’re going to talk about...
What exactly is beer, anyway?
What kind of beer can you make at home?
What equipment do you need?
How do you actually make beer?
Cool! How do I get started?
What to do after my first batch?
4. What is beer, anyway?
Besides delicious, beer is...
Malted Grains
• Contribute fermentable
sugars, flavors, and color
• Typically barley, but also
wheat, oat, rye, etc
• Base and specialty malts
Hops
• Add bitterness, flavor
and aroma to beer
• A natural preservative
• Lots of variety in level
of bitterness and
types of aromas
Yeast
• Convert fermentable
sugars to alcohol and
CO2
• Two types, ale (top
fermenting) and lager
(bottom fermenting)
• Ale yeasts can add
flavors
Water
• Cleaner water
leads to better beer
• Home brewers
often opt for bottled
drinking water
5. What is beer, anyway?
In addition to the four main ingredients, you can
brew with... just about anything!
Fruit (raspberries, cherries, watermelon, etc)
Chocolate
Coffee
Spices (vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon zest,
etc)
Sugars (like brown or beet)
Honey
Chili peppers (no really)
6. What kind of beer can you make at
home?
Answer: Anything but Bud Light
7. What kind of beer can you make at
home?
Most home brewers start with ales
They ferment best between 65 and 75 degrees
Some common ale styles:
India Pale Ale
(IPA)
Stout
Porter
Barley Wine
Brown / Red / Amber
Ales
Wheat Beers
(Hefeweizen)
Belgian Dubbel and
Trippel
8. What kind of beer can you make at
home?
Sounds a little intimidating... that’s a lot of
options
Home brew stores sell recipe kits with everything
you need
As a beginner, just decide what you want to brew
9. What kind of beer can you make at
home?
We’re going to talk about
making:
An ale recipe kit using
specialty grains
With a single-stage
fermentation
Using a technique called
Extract Brewing and a
Partial Boil
10. What kind of equipment do you
need?
Hint: Not this much...
11. What kind of equipment do you
need?
Brew Pot
Stainless vs. Aluminum
$40 - $300+
Lots of sizes (4 to 30+
gal.)
Fermenter
Bucket or Carboy
6 gal. min. capacity
Both require an
airlock
12. What kind of equipment do you
need?
Brewing Accessories
Long Handled Spoon
(plastic or stainless)
Strainer
Thief (Turkey Baster)
Auto-Siphon
6 foot hose
Cheap ($11) and
super easy to start a
siphon
13. What kind of equipment do you
need?
Bottling Bucket
Plastic bucket with
spigot
Short length of hose
Bottle filler
Bottling Accessories
Bottles – New or Used
Caps
Bottle Capper
14. What kind of equipment do you
need?
Measurement Devices
Thermometer
Hydrometer
Test tube
Cleaning Supplies
Powdery Brew Wash
StarSan Sanitizer
Brushes
15. How do you actually make beer?
Made (not so) painstakingly by YOU!
16. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 1: Clean Everything
Mix up a solution of your cleaner, per instructions
Thoroughly clean everything that will touch the beer
Step 2: Assemble Equipment and Ingredients
You’ll need the brew pot, fermenter, airlock, long
spoon, strainer, turkey baster, hydrometer,
thermometer
Recipe kit + 6 gallons of bottled drinking water
Set the yeast out at room temperature, up to 24
hours
17. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 2: Assemble Equipment and Ingredients
18. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 3: Soak the Specialty Grains
Bring 2 to 2.5 gal. of water up to approx. 155o
Once heated, place the grain bag in the water
Typically steeps for 20
to 30 minutes, per recipe
When finished, lift in and
out like a tea bag
Let it drip, then discard
Return the pot to the heat
and bring to a boil
19. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 4: Add Malt
Extract
Remove the heat
source and slowly add
the extract
Add slowly, and stir; it
can scorch and needs to
dissolve
Return to heat, bring to
a roiling boil
Watch it! It contains a
LOT of sugar and can
boil over...
20. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 5: Boil the Wort and Add Hops
Once you get to a roiling boil, reduce heat and set
timer
60 minutes: Add bittering hops
15 minutes: Add flavoring hops
5 minutes: Add aroma hops
While the wort boils, sanitize
the fermentation equipment
Bucket, airlock, turkey baster, strainer, ladle
Just don’t go too far...
21. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 6: Cool the Wort
Need to get the wort below 75o as fast as possible
Your Kitchen Sink
• Submerge the brew pot
in an ice bath in sink or
cooler
• Will need to stir the wort
to circulate
• Replace the cold water
as necessary
Wort Chiller
• Passes cold water through a
ring of tubing for heat
exchange
• Connects to faucet with
adapter
• Place into wort for last 15
min of boil to sanitize
Ice Cold Top-Off Water
• Put 3 gallons in the freezer
when you start
• When you’re ready to
ferment, it will be ice cold
• Some brewers frown on it,
and it’s not entirely effective
22. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 7: Strain &
Aerate the Wort
Straining remove
grain and hop
fragments
Aerating introduces
O2 which helps start
fermentation
Check specific gravity
with sanitized
hydrometer
23. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 8: Pitch the Yeast
Shake the yeast vial
and pour into fermenter
Give a good stir with a
sanitized spoon
Seal the fermenter with
sanitized lid, and add
airlock
24. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 9: Clean Everything
Take good care of the
equipment, clean after every
use
Step 10: Wait
Beer ferments for between 2
and 3 weeks
In the third week, take three
specific gravity readings at 24
hour intervals; stable gravity =
time to bottle
25. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 11: Prep for Bottling
Soak and scrub all bottles the night before
Day of, clean bottling bucket, spigot, bottle filler,
siphon
26. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 12: Prime and Transfer
to Bottling Bucket
Sanitize everything, let bottles
drip dry
Boil and dissolve priming sugar
into 2 cups of water
Add sugar water to bottling
bucket
Using the sanitized auto-
siphon, transfer the beer from
primary to bottling bucket
27. How do you actually make
beer?
Step 13: Bottle and
Store
Fill each beer to top and
put sanitized cap on top
Seal all bottles with
capper
Store in a cool dark place
for 3 weeks
28. Cool! How do I get started?
Don’t take my word for it
Keep reading, there’s a ton of info out there
The Complete Joy of Home Brewing
HomebrewTalk.com (Forums)
TastyBrew.com (Recipe Database)
Purchase an equipment kit and recipe
I buy from AustinHomebrew.com
Tons of recipes, $7.99 flat rate shipping
29. What to do after my first batch?
Get another fermenter and try two-stage
fermentation
Transfer from primary to secondary after 7-10 days
Gets away from dead yeast, and allows for
clarification
Come up with your own recipe
Software available to help build recipes
Mini-Mash and All-Grain brewing
Mini-mash is all-grain technique for a small amount of
30. Resources
Equipment / Recipes
AustinHomebrew.co
m
NorthernBrewer.com
Knowledge
HomebrewTalk.com
TastyBrew.com
This Presentation
slideshare.net/mlamb200
5
CHS Homebrew Club?
If interested, email me at:
matthewlamb@gmail.com