How to Start Home Brewing – Your Easy Guide to Crafting the Perfect Pint.
As the current craft beer industry continues to grow, more and more people are looking in to home brewing as a way to explore further. Home brewing can be as simple and cheap or as complex as you’d like it to be, and can open up a whole new world of beers for you to create and explore from the comfort of your own home.
If you’re just getting started in home brewing, then you’ll find there are some basic tools, equipment and supplies you will need to get started. Once you have these pieces, you can then focus on creating an array of beer styles ranging from pale ales, IPAs, porters, stouts and more. To help you along your home brewing journey, here’s a look at some of the basic tools and processes involved in getting started.
Let’s start with the basics – the equipment you will need before getting started. The most basic item you’ll need is a fermenter. A fermenter is a large vessel with an airlock, where you will place your mixture of grains and water to create the beer. You can purchase fermenters in metal, plastic, glass and other materials and can typically find them in sizes ranging from 5-7 gallons. A 5-gallon fermenter is great for the beginner, as it will provide enough room to create a good batch of beer while still leaving room to add different flavors.
Next up, you’ll need a spoon, preferably wooden, as well as a hydrometer and glass bottle for testing the beer. The spoon will help stir your mixture as you make it, and the hydrometer and glass bottle will help you measure the alcohol content as the beer ferments. You will also need a siphon hose and a short length of plastic tube, which will be used to siphon the beer off the sediment and into a bottle.
In addition to this equipment, you will also need a few other supplies like grain (usually barley and wheat, depending on the beer style you want to prepare), hops (for flavor and aroma), yeast (to convert the sugar in the grain to alcohol), priming sugar (which will provide the initial carbonation in the beer) and a source of clean, filtered water.
Now that you have your equipment and supplies gathered, it’s time to start brewing. The process of brewing beer can be broken down into three main stages. The first stage is called mashing and involves soaking the grain in hot water for an hour or more. In this stage, the starches in the grain are converted to sugars, which will then be converted to alcohol in the fermentation stage.
The second stage is the lautering process, which is when the grain is filtered out of the water. During this step, the water, known as wort, is drained off and then the grains can be spread out in the fermenter to cool.
Finally, the last stage is the fermentation stage. Here, the yeast is added to the cooled wort, which will then begin to convert the sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide. You’ll want to aim to keep the temperature of the beer between 65 and 75 Fahrenheit. During this stage, the beer will develop its flavor and clarity, so it’s important to keep an eye on it.
Once the fermentation is complete, it’s time to get ready for bottling. First, you’ll need to prepare the bottles and caps, and then add your priming sugar which will provide the carbonation for the beer. You’ll then use the siphon hose to transfer the beer from the fermenter to the bottles, being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the fermenter. Finally, you can cap off the bottles and leave them to condition for a few weeks, giving the beer time to fully develop.
And there you have it – that’s all the basics you need to know to get started in home brewing. So get your supplies together and start crafting the perfect pint today!