Make Your Own Beer - The Personal Brewery

If you have bought a six pack of beer from the store lately you probably already know that the cost keeps increasing from week to week. Well, how would you like to make your own beer? Brewing beer at home is not difficult as you might imagine, and cost a fraction of what you would normally pay at the grocery store. Do you want to learn how to make beer at home and never have to pay for it again? Then check out this step by step process that will have you enjoying your own home brew.



Equipment and ingredients

The first thing you will have to do is assemble all of your equipment and ingredients for your home microbrewery. The list includes a 3 gallon brew pot, a standard kitchen strainer, a large funnel, a rolling pin, and a thermometer. Other equipment such as a 3 gallon container of bottled water, a 3 gallon scratch free food grade bucket, two 3 foot sections of 3/8" clear poly-vinyl tubing, and glass bottles with caps for the finished beer. The ingredients for the home brew can be purchased at any brewery supply shop, or ordered through the internet. You will need the following ingredients for each batch of brew, 3 lbs. light dried malt extract, 8 oz. crushed crystal malt, 1 oz. Northern Brewer pellet hops, 1 pkg. brewers yeast, and 3/8 cup of sugar for bottling.

Brewing process

The brewing process begins with crushing the crystal malt with a rolling pin until it is a coarse texture. From your 3 gallon water bottle fill the brew pot to within 3" of the top and add the crushed malt. Set your burner to medium and bring the mixture up to a temperature of 150 to 155 degrees, cover and let stand for 30 minutes, then use a strainer to remove as much of the malt as possible. Return the pot back to the stove and bring the liquid to a boil. You will then add about 2/3 oz. of the hop pellets and let it boil for 60 minutes. Then cover and let it steep for 10 minutes, and let cool to room temperature.

Fermentation

Empty the leftover water from the water bottle, as this will serve as the fermentation container. Using the funnel pour the mixture into the empty container. The next step involves adding ½ of the pkg. of yeast for fermentation. The lid to the water container will need to have a hole drilled into it so that you can insert one end of the poly-vinyl tubing into the cap. A seal at the cap can be made by melting some wax around the tube where it meets the cap for an airtight seal. Place the other end of the tube into a cup of water and let it ferment for 7 to10 days in a cool dark place.

Bottling

Before you bottle the beer, measure 3/8 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water and bring to boil and set aside to cool. Now pour the sugar water into the scratch proof plastic container and siphon the beer from the fermenting water bottle in with it, carefully avoiding the sediment at the bottom. Once this step is completed, you can then bottle the beer and set aside for 7 to 10 days before you drink it.