Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Home Brewing Beer: After [Part 3]
Well, we're all done and it tastes good!After 1 week
of aging my brew I transferred it into a 5 gallon glass carboy for a secondary fermentation. For this batch it was an unnecessary step but on any brews which take longer it's necessary to separate the spent yeast. When doing this, but careful not to agitate the liquid or to pick up any of the byproduct on the bottom of your primary fermenter. While this wasn't necessary for my brew it does help improve the clarity of the finished product. Remember to cap with a plastic airlock which has been half filled with vodka to help sanitize.After another week in the secondary fermenter we were ready for bottling! Again, make sure to sanitize anything that will touch the beer, including your bottles. I had an assortment of various bottles, 12 oz, 22 oz, 26 oz, and 3 growlers (mine are from the Parkville Power Plant - now closed). The larger the bottles the less work for you. This means I was using normal bottle caps and a capper for most of the bottles. For the growlers I still had the reusable caps but one was missing the plastic seal on the inside. Without this plastic seal your beer will be flat (as mine was in that one growler)!
Make sure to take a gravity reading at this stage as you can use it with your original gravity to determine the alcohol volume of your brew. I think in my initial reading there was too much oxygen in the water and that skewed the result. This beer probably ended up around 4%.
Now it's time to bottle. Before doing so we added our priming sugar. About 3/4 cup of sugar was added to 1 cup of boiling water. This was added to our bottling bucket and then we siphoned the beer out of the carboy and into the bottling bucket. Once the bottling bucket was full we used an auto siphon pump and a spring loaded bottle filler which made this task relatively easy.Once done with bottling, like a good home brewer we cleaned out any of the used equipment and stashed it away for next time. Speaking of, I need to get around to brewing the Oatmeal Stout kit I ordered!
After bottling, the beer will need about 2 weeks to bottle condition. Bottle conditioning is where the carbonation comes from. When we sampled the beer prior to bottling it was obvious that it was flat (though still tasty). By adding the priming sugar the yeast will now have something to eat but since we've tightly sealed the bottles the carbon dioxide is unable to escape. This is what carbonates the beer!
The last step of this lengthy but enjoyable process came about 1 month after brew day. That was popping open a bottle, hearing the sound of the carbonate, pouring the beer into a glass, and then proceeding to consume the delicious nectar.I'm looking forward to my next batch! If you want to try my first batch of the Irish Red Ale, invite yourself over before it's all gone. Cheers.
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UPDATE: Posted a video of me capping a beer bottle and the finished product carbonating away. Enjoy
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Home Brewing Beer: During [Part 2]
So, now that you've done your preparations you're ready for your big Brew Day! As a disclaimer, please correct me if I've used any terminology wrong and I'll amend the post. This is my first batch after all, I'm a home brew noob. Thanks!For my first brew day I was lucky enough to have two experienced brewers come over and help (and bring some equipment I don't yet have). Another friend brought over a ton of Rogue beer to help us ensure that the day was enjoyable. I can understand wanting to try your first batch on your own and in privacy (I mean, what happens if I did it wrong and this sucks!) but I strongly suggest involving others in the process. It will be that much more enjoyable and we all make mistakes.
So, as we popped our first top things got underway. Remember that every recipe can be a little different but this should give you a good feel for the process. As mentioned in Part 1 I was brewing an Irish Red Ale from Midwest.
1) First we had to sanitize the equipment. This is very important as any unwanted substances that get into your beer can ruin your batch. Anything that touches the beer should be sanitized, preferable right before you use it.
2) Next we added a couple of gallons of water to our pot. We added as much as we could but tried to leave enough room at the top for a rolling boil and everything else we had to add later. The water was then headed up to 155 (we actually went too high and had to cool it back down) and then the crushed barley grains (in a bag) were steeped similiar to steeping a cup of tea. This adds color and flavor to the brew. After 30 minutes we pulled it off the burner for another 10 minutes of steeping.3) After steeping the grains we added the liquid malt extract. This was slowly poured into the water while stirring to keep it from getting scorched on the bottom of the pot. Liquid malt extract is commonly used by home brewers and can save a lot of time from the brew process. If malt extract (dry or liquid) is not used then the brewer has to Mash the grains in order to get to the same result. This is commonly referred to as brewing "all-grain". Regardless of using all-grain or malt extract the end result is sugars which are later broken down by the yeast to create alcohol. Since I didn't mash I won't go into any details on this topic.
4) Now that we have our mash (with the addition of the malt extract) we brought the pot back to a boil. As soon as it began boiling we added our Cascade Hops (in a bag) to steep similar to the barley grains. There's a lot of history to the usage of Hops in beer but most brewers today use it for bittering and/or aroma. We let this boil for 60 minutes, adding some irish moss (to help clear the beer, not neccessary) at 45 minutes and Fuggle Hops at 58 minutes for aroma.
5) Now that we had our wort (pronounced wert) it needed to be cooled quickly. This is where the borrowed equipment came in as my friend had brought his Wort Chiller
. We flushed cold water through the copper tubing and quickly brought the wort down to about 80 degrees.6) The cooled wort was then poured into the initial fermenting bucket. I poured it quickly and moved it around when pouring to aerate the wort. This is necessary for the yeast. I also left a little bit at the bottom of the pot where you could see sediment. Then the bucket was filled up (leaving room at the top) with some additional luke-warm water so that we had about 5 gallons. This was also done to aerate the wort.
7) Before closing the bucket you should take a reading with your hydrometer
to determine the specific gravity. This tells you how much sugar is in the water which can then be used to calculate the alcohol content (since the yeast eating the sugar is what produces this) once you have a final gravity reading. Make sure to sanitize anything that will touch the brew!8) Now I took the packet of yeast and sprinkled it over the top of the wort. Then we placed we placed the sanitized lid on the bucket and after filling the plastic airlock
half full of gin (vodka is often used, we didn't have any - helps to disinfect) we popped it into the hole in the bucket. The yeast will eat the sugars, causing fermentation. In feasting on the sugar the yeast has two byproducts. The first is alcohol, yay! The second is carbon dioxide which will flow out through the airlock.
9) The last thing to do was to tuck the bucket away in a spot where it'd keep around 65 degrees Fahrenheit and was dimly lit. Oh, and to keep drinking the other beer.The next day I could see the airlock bubbling away! A brief video is posted on my YouTube channel! This is a great sign that the yeast is hard at work devouring sugar and leaving behind alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Now, a fairly common question I've gotten is "So, how was the beer?!". Well, we won't know that until about 4 weeks down the line. Different beers take different amounts of time to get to a drinkable state and 4 weeks is pretty minimum. For mine we still have to wait a week and move it to the secondary fermentation in my glass carboy
. Then in another week we'll be able to bottle it. Then another two weeks go past before I'm able to enjoy. I'd be happy to have you over for a beer at that time.You'll be able to hear more about these last steps (particularly enjoying the beer) in about a month when I blog - Home Brewing Beer: After [Part 3].
Home Brewing Beer: Before [Part 1]
As I initially set out on this Blog I'd decided to deviate from standard guidance that a blog should be focused on a subject, lest you'll potentially deter readers. In going against the grain I wanted to focus on 3 big areas of my life, Real Estate, Family (Personal), and Web Development. I've mostly trended on Real Estate so far but that's all been very important information that needed to be in your hands sooner than later. I'm venturing into my first Family/Personal post by introducing you to my new hobby of Home Brewing.I'm going to break this post up into three pieces to keep the length down: Before, During, After. Also, if I'm going to try to keep this simple for my friends who've never brewed. I'm open to feedback from you professionals but please keep that in mind while reading this blog!
Before brewing my first batch there were a few things I did to help get prepared which you may or may not want to consider.
1) Attend some brew days (where people get together to brew and drink beer) and watch people who knew what they were doing talk about the process. You'll find most people who brew are incredible helpful, knowledgeable, and genuinely interested in getting other people involved in the hobby.
2) Read a book or online articles about home brewing. A book I started on was The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing
(because it came with my equipment).3) Buy home brew equipment! Some thoughts:
- Try to pick up used to save money if you can, but make sure you're getting quality (that's what I did).
- Start out small, you can get along without some equipment until you decide to commit to the hobby.
- Ask other people you know who brew for their opinions and do some research online. The more serious brewers I know recommend staying away from the Mr. Beer Kits
. While they are cheaper apparently the quality isn't as good and you're less likely to keep brewing. Here are a couple of kits to look at to get an idea when you start researching: The Home Brewery Equipment Kit
and Superior Home Brew Beer Kit
.
- If your equipment doesn't come with sanitizer, buy some. Per recommendation I bought some One Step.
. I ended up buying an Irish Red Ale from Midwest Supplies. I'd heard good things about them from multiple brewers and this was supposed to be a good kit for a first-timer. Most basic kits will include: Liquid Malt Extract, Roasted Barley Grains, Hops, Yeast, and Sugar. Make sure to read the instructions as you may need to refrigerate the yeast prior to brewing. I'll mention more about these ingredients in the next installment.
Keep an eye out for - Home Brewing Beer: During [Part 2]
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