Brewing Beer at Home
The original reason why I started in this business, (brewing), was economic; it works out as the following: I like beer, but beer cost money. How to get cheap/free beer? Work in a brewery. It worked out for me as: Worked in brewery, fell in love with brewing, I made brewing my career. There are some things that I have to call attention to about brewing beer. Charlie Papazain says, “Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew.” I, on the other hand, am cut from a different clothe, I say, “Pay attention to the details, know your equipment, and always enjoy what you are doing.”
There are several things that I have inherited from my father and two of them are frugality and good looks,(modesty, sometimes), and I thank him for both. I hate to spend money when it is not necessary, “A true craftsman relies on his skills and not his equipment.” A great example of this can be found on the road, have you ever see the person behind the wheel of a Hummer? Enough said.
First thing we should go over is how much is this gonna cost? Look to spend around $250 to $300 for the initial ingredients and equipment. Now if you are going to brew once, decide you don’t like it and put the equipment in the corner of your garage or basement until your wife either throws it out or puts a price tag on it during a rummage sale. Your first batch would run around $5 to $6 per bottle of beer, so think about it before you start. If you imagine brewing at home in terms of just ingredient cost you are looking at 42 cents per bottle of beer, Hmmm, not bad for something you made yourself.
THE EQUIPMENT
2 Five Gallon Food Grade Plastic Buckets $10.00 1 Five Gallon Glass Carboy $20.00 1 Turkey Fryer $70.00 1 Large Spoon $5.00 20 Feet ½ Inch Clear Beer Hose $10.00 20 Small Hose Clamps $5.00 10 Feet Copper Coil Tubing $30.00 1 Five Gallon Glass Carboy $20.00 1 Funnel $3.00 1 Fermentation Lock $5.00 1 Bottle Filler $5.00 1 Bottle Brush $3.00 1 Carboy Brush $3.00 1 Bottle capper $15.00 1 Gross of Bottle Caps $5.00 1 Thermometer $8.00 1 Hydrometer $8.00 2 Cases of Returnable Glass Beer Bottles $12.00 Cleaner and Sanitizer $10.00
Now you won’t need the burner unit of the Turkey Fryer if you intend to boil the wort on the stove top. I personally like using the burner unit outside, brewing beer in front of God and everyone. If you are looking to save a little money check out either a used restaurant equipment store or rummage sales for turkey fryers. My sister found three nice fryers that had not been use for the most part. The two things you want to use the Turkey fryer for is the burner and the kettle. Make sure that the kettle is STAINLESS STEEL and not aluminum. Why? Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer's Disease, check the link below. And make sure that the volume of the kettle is more than five gallons, (24 quarts is perfect).
www.laleva.cc/environment/aluminium_alzheimer2.html
The easiest way for me to learn and to teach is “hands on” so I am going to try my best to do so via this web site, it will be a learning process for everyone. The other day my cousin sends me an email, (this is us fishing up north), and tells me that he is going to take a course up at the local tech school on how to home brew. My reply to him was, WHISKEY, TANGO, FOXTROT! I’m a professional Brew Master I can teach you how to make beer!” In hindsight I think he was using it as a ploy to get me to show him the ropes, he’s slick like that. So I am going to take this opportunity to teach you and my cousin at the same time, sound like fun?
So I have put a lot of thought into how I was going to introduce you into the world of Home Brewing, people have started out in Home Brewing using Malt Extract, (Extract is condensed wort. The brewer who uses Malt Extract skips a step in the process but in doing so you looses some control of your beer character and it is more expensive.) So I think the best way to brew is All Malt, if you are going to jump, jump feet first.
The malting process can be fully explained in the Sweet Mullets page “Everything you wanted to know about beer.” What happens in the mash tun during CONVERSION is pretty cool, starches getting split up into sugars. In my replication of this process I have our enzymes represented as little Pac Men and the starch are chains of Soccer Balls. A starch is a long chain of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen and a sugar is a smaller chain of the same. The two types of enzymes are Alpha Amylase and Beta Amylase. Alpha goes in for the big stuff, chopping off large sugars or long chains of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen such as maltose. The Beta trims around the edges and creates smaller sugars such as glucose. Why do we need to know this? We can control the action of these enzymes to alter the Body, Sweetness and Mouthfeel of the finished beer. How do we do this? Through the Mash Temperature, Alpha works best at temperature between 154°F - 162°F and Beta works best between 131°F - 150°F, above 151°F the Beta molecule falls apart. In essence if you are looking for a thin bodied beer with less residual sugars giving it a dryer finish you would point you mash temperature to the lower end of the scale to let the Beta do the majority of the work. They create more fermentable sugar, the yeast consumes those fermentables and leaves behind less residual sweetness in the finished beer. For a beer with more body you would point you mash temperature to the higher end of the scale, creating more complex sugars that the yeast has difficulty consuming leaving them behind in the finish beer.
MALT EFFICIENTCY Each system provides different efficiency. Over the years systems that I have used and build have ranged dramatically in efficiency levels but I have found that the average Home Brew System has about 70% efficienct. BITTERNESS FORMULA IBU’s = WEIGHT in ounces * boil UTILIZATION * ALPHA ACID PERCENTAGE * 7462 divided by the VOLUME in gallons EXAMPLE 1 ounce of hops at 6% Alpha Acid in the boil for 60 minutes for a five gallon batch would give you 28.65 IBU’s (1 * 0.32 * 0.06 * 7462) / 5 = 28.65 Of course this formula is not totally accurate but it is close enough and it is the same one I use in the brewery. Also, you will get less utilization the higher the gravity of the beer. This formula works best for beers with an Original Gravity between 1.040 and 1.055. With higher gravity beers your utilization will drop but it is nothing to worry about, this formula works good with beer upwards of 1.090.
UTILIZATION CHART 60 Minutes = 32% 55 Minutes = 29% 50 Minutes = 27% 45 Minutes = 24% 40 Minutes = 21% 35 Minutes = 19% 30 Minutes = 16% 25 Minutes = 13% 20 Minutes = 11% 15 Minutes = 8% 10 Minutes = 5% 5 Minutes = 3%
While we are on the subject of hops I will share a little secret with you. Hops not only provide hop bitterness, hop flavor and hop aroma they also contribute to head retention. There is the myth that adding certain grains to the mash will create the desired crown of foam on top of the beer. The grain is only part of the equasion, it needs the hops to make it happen well. In light of this I use hops in the boil that range between 3 to 6 percent Alpha Acid, more hops more head, and better head! Who doesn't like good head? I could use a higher Alpha Acid hops to get my base bitterness but I have found that using the lower Alpha Acid hops gives me a much more pleasant and round bitterness along with the added bonus of a rich and rocky head with plenty of lacing on the glass.