Slide Set 4
Useful Resources
Zymurgy (zai·mr·jee), American Homebrewers Association www.homebrewersassociation.org
Published six times a year. Each edition contains articles relevant to the home brewing community along with many recipes. A library of recipes and access to back issues are available to subscribers on
their website. A few recent recipes are available free.
How To Brew, 4th Edition, By John Palmer,
Paperback: $19.19, Kindle: $12.29
Covers brewing from basics to advanced techniques. Includes many recipes.
Home Brew Supplies
How Do You Brew
812 Pencader Dr, Suite E, Newark, DE 19711
https://howdoyoubrew.com/
Northern Brewer
https://www.northernbrewer.com/
Williams Brewing
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/
For more resources check our website
Basic Brewing Steps (1)
Making the wort
Made from malted grains, using a process called mashing followed by lautering. It is time consuming and requires attention to details of water chemistry, temperatures, and times.
The alternative is to use malt extracts (concentrated wort) combined with specialty grains that are steeped in a bag.
Boiling the wort
Brought to a slow boil for typically 60 min. (up to 120 min. for some more unique beers)
Sterilizes the wort and drives off some unwanted compounds
Hops and other ingredients are added at intervals during the boil
The types of hops and when they are added contribute to the flavor
Basic Brewing Steps (2)
Cooling the wort
At the end of the boil, the wort is cooled rapidly,
stopping further changes to the flavor
Allows yeast to be added, reducing the potential for
unwanted wild yeast and bacteria to take hold
Pitching the yeast
Pitching
is the brewing term for adding the yeast.
Enough must be pitched to successfully start
fermentation and overwhelm 0ther microbes.
Basic Brewing Steps (3)
Fermentation
The yeast multiply and consume sugars
They give off alcohol, CO
2, and other compounds
When the available sugars are gone, they go dormant
This process may take only a few days to several weeks
Finishing the beer (traditional bottle conditioning)
At the end of fermentation the beer is cloudy and flat
The beer is carefully
racked
to another vessel, leaving behind
the yeast and other solids that have settled
A small quantity of sugar is added to restart fermentation
The beer is bottled and tightly capped
Equipment for Brew Day
Boil Kettle – A 5 gallon stainless steel or aluminum stock pot is a good choice. It can optionally have a valve as shown here. For electric stoves, stick with this smaller size.
Fermenter with Airlock – One option is a 6 gallon, glass carboy with blow-off tube going into a jar of water as shown here.
A common option for beginners is a 6 gallon, food-grade plastic bucket with lid and a bubbler type airlock. Most homebrew
stores sell these.
Other equipment includes a large stirring spoon, thermometer, hydrometer and scale. The spoon and thermometer are required. A hydrometer is the only convenient way to determine if your starting and ending specific gravities are on target. You can probably get by without the scale.
Additional Equipment
Priming Tank – On bottling day, the beer is transferred from the fermenter to the priming tank where priming sugar is added. A bottle filling tube is attached to the priming tank.
Siphon – If your fermenter does not have a drain valve, you will need a siphon.
Other Materials
Sanitizing Agent – Any equipment that comes in contact with the boiled and then cooled wort or beer must be sanitized. Star San is an excellent choice. It does not need to be rinsed and does not impact taste. It comes in 16 and 32 ounce
containers. One ounce makes 5 gallons.
Bottles – on bottling day, you will need about 50 to 52 bottles for a 5 gallon batch. They need to be clean and sanitized.
Caps and a Capper – You will need caps and a capper. They should be sanitized with Star San or another agent.
Palmer’s Top Five Priorities
Sanitation
– Good sanitation is essential to ensure
that the selected beer yeast is the only microbe in the
brew.
Fermentation Temperature
– A relatively constant
temperature in the yeast strain’s preferred range is key.
A basement with a temperature in the range 67
oF to
72
oF is an ideal environment for ales.
Yeast Management
– Pitching a sufficient quantity of
fresh, high-quality yeast is the next most important
Palmer’s Top Five Priorities (cont.)
The Boil
– The ingredients are cooked during the boil
and flavors are developed. If not done correctly, the
beer will not taste right. Beer can be under or over
cooked.
The Recipe
– A good recipe with the correct
proportions of ingredients results in a beer with the
intended flavors. However, a great recipe can be ruined
by poor brewing techniques. Lack of good sanitation
that allows a wild yeast or bacteria to take hold can
result in a truly awful beer.
Standard Full Volume Boil
The standard brewing method is to boil the full
volume of wort.
For a 5 gallon batch of beer the brewer would typically
start with 5.5 to 6 gallons of liquid to account for the
losses during the boil.
An 8 gallon or larger boil kettle is required to reduce the
chance of boil over.
Wort chilling equipment is needed as it is dangerous to
move a pot containing 5 gallons of very hot liquid.
Most electric stoves cannot easily bring 5 to 6 gallons of
liquid to a boil.
Partial Volume Boil Method
A partial boil method adapts to limited equipment.
Perhaps the most used partial boil technique is to boil
all of the malt in 3 gallons of water. This is later diluted
in the fermenter to achieve the desired starting gravity.
Most beer ingredient kits suggest this technique.
It works with recipes that are based on malt extracts
and may include steeping specialty grains. It can use
any combination of Dry Malt Extracts (DME) and/or
Liquid Malt Extracts (LME).
Irish Stout (Brewer’s Best Kit)
Steeping bag for grains
Bottle caps & priming sugar
Dry Nottingham Ale Yeast
Kit instructions
Malts
3.3 lbs. Traditional Dark LME
2 lbs. Traditional Dark DME
½ lb. Maltodextrin
Specialty grains
¾ lb. Caramel 60oL Malt
¼ lb. Roasted Barley and ¼ lb. Black Patent Malt
Hop Pellets
1 oz. Magnum add at 60 min.
½ oz. Brewer’s Gold add at 5 min.
Plan on 4 to 5 hours, counting preparation, brewing, and
cleanup.
Make Sanitizer Solution
I prefer Star San owing to its unique no-rinse feature
I typically make either a 2.5 or 5 gallon batch
Mix 1 oz. of Star San per 5 gallons of water
I often use my priming tank for this purpose
A spray bottle is handy
It will keep for an extended period.
It turns cloudy when it is no longer effective (note the spray bottle).
Clean and Sanitize
Item Clean Sanitize
Boiling kettle X
Big stirring spoon X
Fermenter X X
Airlock (or blow-off tube and jar) X X
Thermometer X X
Hydrometer X X
Small stirring spoon (if needed for yeast) X X Glass measuring cup (if needed for yeast) X X
Aeriation wand X X
I clean and carefully store all equipment after each use. All that needs to be done on brew day is to sanitize it.
Sanitize the Fermenter
Pour about 1 quart of Star San into the fermenter and
shake.
Turn it upside down to drain. It is okay for a lot of the foam to remain. It won’t effect fermentation or taste.
Organize Hops and Prepare Yeast
If you are using liquid yeast, it is stored refrigerated. Before use, it must be at room temperature.
Remove the package from the refrigerator and allow it to slowly rise to room temperature.
Label each package with the time to add to the boil.
Fill Steeping Bag with Grains
Place the bag in a bowl, pull its sides up and over the bowl’s edge. Pour the grain into the bag.
Leaving room for the grain to expand, when wet, tie a knot in the bag.
Make the Wort
Put 3 gal. of water in the brew pot
and heat to steeping temperature
(about 155
oF)
Lower the grain bag into the wort and
maintain at 150
oF to 155
oF for 30 min.
After 30 min., with heat off, lift the
grain bag and allow it to drain into
the wort. DO NOT squeeze the bag.
Add the malt extracts and stir until
completely dissolved.
The Boil
Bring the wort to a slow boil. Stir to prevent scalding.
When it is boiling, add the first hops (e.g. the hops added at time 60 min.)
Start the boil timer (e.g. set to 60 min.)
Follow the boil schedule, adding hops at the specified point.
When the boil time is finished . . .
Turn off the heat
Cool the Wort
To quickly cool the wort, move the covered brew kettle into a sink or tub.
BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE BREW KETTLE OF HOT LIQUID
Fill the sink or tub with ice water, being careful to not get it into the kettle.
After it has cooled to 74oF or less, it can be
Transfer to Sanitized Fermenter
After it has cooled, transfer the wort to the sanitized fermenter
Add cool water to bring the level up to the batch volume called for by the recipe (e.g. bring the level up to the 5 gal. mark)
Make sure the water and wort are well mixed
By now the wort temperature should be around 72oF or
less. If not, cover and wait for it to cool some more.
Minimize transferring spent hops and hot break material, called “trub”, from the brew kettle to the fermenter.
If you are pouring from the brew kettle into the fermenter, you can pour through a
Measure the Specific Gravity
Use the sanitized hydrometer
Pull enough wort from the fermenter to fill the
hydrometer tube to within 2 or 3 inches of the top (if your fermenter does not have a drain valve, use a sanitized
turkey baster.
Gently lower the hydrometer into the tube
Read the specific gravity (S.G.) on the scale just at the surface of the liquid
Record it as the O.G. in your notes.
Carefully pour the wort back into the fermenter (we don’t want to waste good beer)
This step is optional but without accurate knowledge of the original gravity (O.G.) of the wort you cannot calculate the alcohol by volume (ABV) of the finished beer.
Aerate the Wort
At the start of fermentation, the yeast need oxygen to grow
strong and multiply so that they can completely ferment the
wort. This is the
only time
in the brewing process that you
want to aerate or add oxygen to the wort.
Most kits suggest simply rocking the fermenter to mix in some
oxygen.
Pitch the Yeast
Liquid yeast
Follow package directions
The package should be allowed to slowly come to room temperature before use.
Sanitize the package and scissors
Cut corner of package
Pour contents into fermenter
Dry yeast
It helps to be rehydrated before use
Put 4 oz. of your boiled and cooled water in a sanitized glass measuring cup
Warm the water to 90oF. A few seconds in the microwave
will do the job. Check with sanitized thermometer.
Mix yeast into water using sanitized spoon
Cover and let stand for 15 min.
Fermentation – Leave It Alone
Move the fermenter to a location with relatively constant temperature between 68oF and 72oF.
Fill your sanitized airlock to the correct level with some boiled and cooled water
Seal the fermenter with the airlock
Within 4 to 12 hours, the airlock should begin to bubble, indicating fermentation
For the next 2 to 3 days, the yeast should be very active – a couple of seconds between bubbles
It will slow to a couple of bubbles per min.
Fermentation is complete when all bubbles have stopped for 2 or 3 days.
Up Next
Bottling Day
Preparing the bottles and caps
Priming sugar
