Showing posts with label Getting Started in Homebrewing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Getting Started in Homebrewing. Show all posts
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - What I Learned
Lessons learned are the most valuable part to come out of the educational process of trying something new. From this experiment of My First Homebrew Journey, let's review some of what I have considered to be the most valuable lessons learned to improve upon the results next time. They are my experiences and things that I'll change to suit my preferences, recognizing that they may not suit yours.
- Don't use bleach for sanitizing
- Don't drop the spoon in the boiling wort
- Use steeping grains in a pre-boil stage
- Buy a floating thermometer
- I'd like to make my own wort chiller
- Use liquid yeast and Make a yeast starter ahead of time
- Plan the brewing logistics more carefully in advance
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - The Process in Review
Here's a quick rundown of what I went through for my first homebrewing experience. A quick link to an index is at the top and bottom of this post.
And, one last posting on the topic will be coming tomorrow, focused on 'lessons learned'...just in time for me to get started on my next batch!
Bring 1.5 gallons to a boil - 20 minutes
Boil, then reserve and allow to cool to room temperature; covered - 20 minutes
Bring 3.5 gallons to a boil - 45 minutes
Sanitize equipment with bleach - 30 minutes
Kill flame, Add extract, Stir, Return to heat
Bring back to rolling boil
Add bittering hops
Stir occasionally
Add aroma hops - last 5 minutes
Continue cooking over heat - 5 minutes
Turn off heat
Chill the wort with a wort chiller - 15 minutes
Take hydrometer reading
Pour wort into plastic fermenter
Seal fermenter; add airlock
Place primary fermenter in area where temperature is between 60F-75F
Leave in plastic fermenter - 1 week
Sanitize equipment
Rack to secondary fermenter/glass carboy; add airlock
Cover with blanket or paper bag
Leave in area between 60F-75F - 2 weeks
Sanitize equipment
Move beer from secondary to bottling bucket (with spigot on bottom)
Stir in priming sugar solution
Bottle & Cap
Store in cool, dark place for 1 week
Taste one (for most styles, leave the sediment behind in bottle)
Store at room or slightly cooler temperature for at least a couple more weeks
Taste another one
Optimal drinking for many styles may come as much as a month or two after bottling
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - The Final Step, Tasting!
With all of the cleaning, boiling, cleaning, fermenting, cleaning, bottling, and settling out of the way, it was finally time to taste my first homemade beer. I allowed for one week after bottling and sitting at room temperature (approx. 70F) before popping one bottle into the refrigerator.
The tension grew as I took the bottle out of the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle opener. Would there be sufficient carbonation? That would be the first test. Pffft! Yes, we have carbonation!
A careful pour from the bottle left the remaining sediment on the bottom of the bottle. The very dark-colored beer poured nicely with a medium-sized creamy, white head. (Did I tell you that the recipe was a 'Nut Brown Ale'?) Though, the head dissipated fairly fast, it could easily be worked up again with some agitation and left some draping on the walls of the glass. Not bad, so far...I could breathe.
Next came the aroma. How would this pass the test? The aroma had a very basic roasted malt extract aroma with nothing off putting that I could detect.
Then, the all important taste. It can look good and smell good, but if it doesn't taste good, then I'd have nothing. The taste, let's see how best to describe this. I'm not disappointed, but yet I'm not thrilled. Basically, I described the taste as diluted liquid malt extract. It reminded me of the extract that I poured into boiling water, just thinner and with a bit of hops in the finish. The carbonation is sufficient to carry the beer through the mouth and complement the flavor and texture of the beer.
After two weeks in the bottle, I tried another one. My reaction was still the same as after the first week. I left a bottle with my friend, Mark, in Madison WI. I'll be anxious to get his honest opinion. Perhaps after week three or four, I'll sit down with Adam and sample another one and see how it's come along.
Three down, thirty eight more to go over the next few months. I'll be anxious to see how much the beer changes over time in the bottle and how my impression of it changes too. Net result for my first homebrew....eh, I'd give it a solid 'C'. I'm not disappointed, but I'm not impressed. The important thing, though, is that I got experience with the process and have a lot of excitement for my next attempt.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Bottling Day
I think that it is safe to say that if I was not already sick of sanitation, by the time I reached the end of the bottling stage, I had certainly had enough of it. I was already looking forward to my next batch of homebrew, because I swore never to use bleach again for sanitation. I am looking forward to how much easier I perceive the sanitation aspect to be next time using something like Iodophor. Actually, this is something that made its way quickly to the top of my 'lessons learned' list here in my first homebrew experience....don't ever use bleach again! It's not worth, in my opinion, the aggravation.
Let's take it from the top. I arrived home from work determined to bottle since I was pretty comfortable that whatever wackiness occurred in the secondary had subsided (it had been 4-5 days since the last of the bubbling). Henceforth began the sanitation. The bottling bucket, the siphon, the bottling wand, the spoon, and my hands...ok, well, not really. Emptied the dishwasher, loaded it up with 2 cases of empty, pre-cleaned, and de-labeled bottles, and ran it on the heavy duty, hot cycle with heated dry. Oh yeah, and threw the caps into the sanitizing solution too. How happy was I that I take the time to rinse out bottles immediately after drinking the beer from them? It certainly made the cleaning/sanitizing of them much easier on bottling day.
Okay, with the sanitation thing out of the way (yeah, yeah, I know just how very important it is...still doesn't mean I have to like it!), I got started on moving the beer off of the sediment in the carboy and into the bottling bucket. That was after securely attaching the spigot, of course. I had the carboy set on top of the kitchen counter with the bottling bucket on the floor. Actually, it was on top of an old blanket which would protect the floor from spills, splashes, leaks, and other misfires.
I got the siphon action going in the same way as moving into the secondary, by filling the tube with water first, then submerging the racking cane below the beer level, then opening the siphon tube to allow the natural flow. The process of moving the beer didn't take more than 5-10 minutes or so. I got just about all of the liquid out. Some stayed behind with the sediment, but not enough to cry over.
With the beer in the bottling bucket, I first took a little over a cup of beer out of the spigot. A tiny portion was used for the final gravity reading (1.012, by the way...seemed about right), a cup was boiled with the priming sugar, and the remainder was tasted.
I hooked up the tube and the bottling wand to the bottling bucket while I was boiling the solution of fermented beer and priming sugar. It takes around 5 ounces of priming sugar for a 5-gallon batch of brew. After the solution reached a boil, I removed and allowed to set for just a few minutes. Then, using the sanitized spoon, I stirred (enough to mix it throughout, but not vigorously) the solution into the bottling bucket.
At this point, the bottling could commence. I sat on a stool below the bucket and had the prepared empty 12-ounce bottles next to me. Each bottled was filled by inserting the bottling wand into the bottle, touching the bottom to release the beer. I was able to fill the bottle to the top, because when the wand is removed the level goes down to approximately halfway on the neck, just perfect. Too much head space leaves too much room for oxygen to spoil the beer and too little head space leaves not enough room for the bottle conditioning and the carbon dioxide that's created as a result.
Filling one bottle at a time, then placing it on the counter with a cap perched on top, I had 41 bottles filled in less than 30 minutes. With all of the bottles lined up like rows of soldiers on the countertop, it was easy to pick one off at a time and use the capper to secure the bottlecap.
Each bottle was placed into an empty cardboard case of beer, which was then closed up and placed in the coolest place in the house, around 65F-72F. They sat there for about a week until I decided to crack one open to see how the bottle conditioning process was coming along.
p.s. No pictures of the bottling process since I was going at this alone and bottling is kinda a two-handed project.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Racking to a Secondary Fermenter
Racking (in layman's terminology, moving or draining) to a secondary fermenter is not absolutely necessary. But, I figured it didn't involve that much extra effort, bought me a little more time before bottling, and increased the chances for a more clear, stable, and better beer. The jury's out on those last three claims until I pop open the first bottle. But, the big idea is getting it off the sludge of yeast and other matter that had fallen to the bottom of the bucket after the primary fermentation had completed and allowing the beer to condition a bit more.
After a week in the plastic bucket that served its role in the primary fermentation, the frothy crud produced during fermentation (aka krausen) had mostly fallen to the bottom along with other particles (hops, proteins, and other stuff that I'm sure I'm not aware of) that didn't get strained out on its way into the bucket.
How did I know that it was ready to be racked? Well, honestly, I didn't. The fermentation never got up to a vigorous level of activity, but krausen was being produced...and had subsequently fallen. Watching the airlock bubble at a couple of times per minute for a few days, then not at all for a couple of more days seemed to indicate that some level of fermentation had indeed taken place. Plus, when I took the hydrometer reading, the result was 1.020 (down from an OG reading of 1.050). So, even though there may still have been a bit more fermentation yet to take place in the secondary (which, by many accounts, is not surprising), I felt comfortable racking it to the carboy.
Getting the beer into the glass carboy serving as the secondary fermentation vessel started with, you guessed it, sanitation. The glass carboy, racking cane, plastic tubing, and airlock (to be used again on the carboy) were all soaked in the bleach solution to be sanitized.
After a thorough rinsing and drying of these parts, I started the process of moving the beer. I filled the plastic tube with water, attached it to the racking cane, submerged the racking cane in the plastic bucket full of beer, and allowed the siphoning to begin. I ran the water out of the tube into a plastic cup until the beer started running through, then took a sample from the tube for a hydrometer reading, then shoved the tube to the bottom of the glass carboy. I was careful to minimize the splashing, or aerating of the beer, as it siphoned over from the plastic bucket. With the fermentation mostly completed, there was no need to get more oxygen into the beer.
If I thought this whole process of making beer required patience, then the secondary fermentation was the true test. The plan was to leave it in there for two weeks before bottling it. I kept the carboy covered with a brown paper bag (with a hole cut in the top for the airlock and neck to stick out) and kept the temperature regulated between 68-75F (best I could do in the northeast's summertime). After 8 days, things got interesting. Days 9-12 all of sudden brought more vigorous bubbling in the airlock than it had experienced in the primary. It coincided with a dramatic shift in the weather...cool, damp, rainy conditions. Approximately 3/4" of loosely packed bubbles sat on top of the beer for almost 2 days as it bubbled through the airlock several times a minute. Then, it began to subside and the bubbling slowed.
Days 13-17 saw no activity whatsoever. This led me to believe that it may be ready to bottle. Adam loaned his "beer thief" to me so that I could taste the beer and take a hydrometer reading. I did not, but planned to do so before making the decision to bottle the beer.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Chilling the Wort
Without having a good brewing setup at home, I needed to move the 3.5 gallons of wort to the laundry room to be chilled and incorporated with the reserved 1.5 gallons. I set the kettle on top of the washing machine, rigged up the wort chiller to the laundry basin, and began the chilling process. Surprisingly, for one of the hottest weeks of the year, it took barely 15 minutes to bring the wort down to around 70F-80F.
I then set a strainer over the top of the plastic fermenting bucket and vigorously poured the wort into the waiting 1.5 gallons of reserved water. I took a small sample for a hydrometer reading (1.050, by the way), then pitched the dry yeast from the supplied packet.
I then sealed the lid on top of the bucket and, covering the airlock hole, shook and rocked it around for about 30 seconds. Lastly, the airlock was put on and filled with vodka. Water can be, and is often, used in the airlock. Alcohol further provides for assurances for a sanitary environment, but in some opinions is hardly necessary.
That's it. I placed the bucket in area that wouldn't go above 75F and let it sit for a week.
Over the following week, the fermentation began. Check back again soon for more about the primary fermentation stage.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Boiling the Wort
After adding the extract and returning to a boil, the dark extract was now officially "wort" and on its way to becoming beer. Nothing too exciting happens during this boil. I stirred occasionally, perhaps just out of boredom.
I've heard people talk about hot-side aeration and its potential to introduce off-flavors. Although this seems to be more of a topic for all-grain brewing, I took care not to stir too often or too vigorously. But even though I tied a good luck goat (the Ayinger goat to be exact) to the spoon, maybe I was a bit too vigorous as the spoon fell into the boil!
Near the beginning of the hour-long boil, I dropped the bittering hops in from the prepackaged bag. The good thing about kits is that everything is nicely measured out with clear instructions. The bad thing is that for people like me who want to know as much as possible about every ingredient and every step, some of those details are omitted. Like, in this case, what type of hops were used for bittering and which type for aroma. But, no worries, as I progress through my brewing experience I'll have plenty of opportunity to get intimately familiar with probably more than I ever thought I might.
During this almost 60-75 minutes of boil time, I read through the directions again and made sure that the wort chiller and fermenting bucket were ready for their next step. I cracked open a beer and took a breath. Maybe this wasn't as difficult as I first thought. Ah, but we've only just begun.As the boil stage neared completion, following Adam's advice I placed the wort chiller in the boiling pot approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled end of the boil. This was a way to sanitize the wort chiller, which I had already given a once-over in the sink. With about 5 minutes remaining in the boil, I dropped in the aroma hops.
Check back again soon for the next stage of chilling the wort.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Sanitizing & Boiling
After laying out the ingredients and equipment, I figured my first step was sanitation. It was, but I quickly learned that this can be done while bringing the water to a boil. See, this much water takes a while to boil and you know that thing about a watched pot, right?
Since I used a 24 quart stock pot, I didn't feel comfortable trying to do a full 5 gallon boil in one pot. Adam advised that I do a partial boil. I used a smaller pot to boil 1.5 gallons, then set it aside for incorporation later. In the large stock pot, I brought a little over 3 1/2 gallons to a boil.
While boiling the water, I mixed somewhere around 1/2 cup of ordinary (unscented) household bleach with approximately 5 gallons of water in the plastic fermenting bucket. Into the solution, I put any equipment that would touch the wort after it begins the cooldown from its boil. This included the plastic bucket (obvious, right?), the airlock, the strainer, and the thermometer.While bleach worked just fine, I may consider using something else to sanitize in the future. With bleach, I needed to very careful to control splashing. Also, thoroughly rinsing after soaking the equipment was mandatory so not to leave any bleach behind. And, while time wasn't a factor, when using bleach to sanitize, it's recommended to allow the equipment to soak for approximately 30 minutes. Using an alternative like Iodophor would require less time soaking, less care in handling, and no rinse cycle.
After a few good rinses and drying, the equipment was sanitized. In the meantime, the 3.5 gallons came to a boil around 45 minutes after lighting the flame on the cooktop. Time to add the malt extract. Also concurrently, I had placed the bag of liquid extract in a sink of shallow warm water to help soften the liquid a bit more. I added the extract slowly, stirring it around to prevent scorching on the bottom. This obviously lowered the temperature, so I needed to return the mixture to a boil. I kept the rolling boil for a little over 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Check back again soon for more information about the boil, the malt, and adding hops to the boil.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Setting Up
"Buy a man a beer and he'll waste an hour, teach a man to brew and he'll waste a lifetime."
Let's get this all setup and the party started. Brew Day is tomorrow. I've got my AHA membership card. The Homebrew Song (from The Brewing Network) is playing in the background. And, I've got my homebrew gear all laid out in front of me. Alright now, I realize that only the equipment and ingredients are necessary. Oh right, and a good quality beer to drink while making the homebrew. Before this first brew day of mine, I've re-watched the extract homebrewing DVD from Basic Brewing Radio. I've talked over the process with Adam, and he's gonna join me to give pointers along the way. And, I've read through the recipe and brewing notes again, just like I would do with a food recipe. Now I need to ask all of you homebrewers out there: "What is the one thing that I should be mindful of during my first homebrew experience?" "What is the most likely thing for a newbie to screw up?" In coming posts, I'll describe the various stages of my first homebrewing experience. Maybe throw in a few pictures too. First up, sanitation...oh, how important is this step? Oh, so very important!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Buying the Equipment
In the last episode of my maiden homebrew voyage, I discussed my decision to go with the malt extract approach and a nut brown ale recipe. While I was at Home Sweet Homebrew getting the recipe ingredients, it would make sense to get the equipment too, now would it not?
George and Nancy turn over quite of few of these startup kits as they've helped countless first-time brewers get started over the 20 years they've been in business. In no time, George gathered up the various pieces of equipment that I would need to brew my first batch. For $49.95, the kit includes: a 7 gallon fermenting bucket; a racking tube and siphon hose; an airlock and stopper; a hydrometer; a capper; bottle caps; a bottle filler; recipes and brewing instructions. For an additional $10, I purchased a 5 gallon glass carboy. A boil kettle, spoon, and thermometer were not included.
As far as additional equipment goes, I think I'd like to have a dedicated oversized brewpot (I'm not really big on cleanup!), a wort chiller (to help speed along the cooldown process post-boil), and whatever other must-haves any of you might think to recommend.
I don't think it will be long before I make two advances. One is to go to an all-grain process. Not because I'm convinced that it's a better process, but more because I like to get more in touch with all the raw components of brewing. The second is to keg my finished product. Not that having portable bottles of homebrew isn't nice; this is primarily because there's nothing like having a keg of homebrew in the refrigerator at the ready to tap of a fresh glass of beer.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Choosing the First Recipe
It's been a while since I last visited my maiden homebrewing project here. My next steps I said would be to decide on a recipe and a process. In other words, would I go for the extract or the all-grain approach to brewing right out of the gate? Then, which recipe would I choose as my first?
The first decision was the more difficult one and one that I still wrestle with. I chose to start with extract brewing just to get started and as a way of cutting my brewing teeth. Not that it's all that big of a deal, because to move to all-grain after a few batches will simply require additional equipment and more time.
The reason I say that I wrestled with the decision is that, in the kitchen, I'm the kind of person who wants to take as few shortcuts as possible. I like making food from the most raw ingredients possible. If a meal takes several hours, even prepping the day before, to make then that is fine with me. To include some homegrown ingredients is even better. So, it might make sense that I would enjoy crushing and mashing my own grains (okay, okay not really my own grains...I'll leave the growing of the grains up to someone else).
So, I've chosen to begin my brewing journey with the extract process. Next is to determine my first beer style. While it sure is tempting to go after something like a Belgian Strong, English Pale, or American IPA, I chose the Nut Brown Ale recipe for two reasons. First, it's one of the advertised prepackaged kits at Home Sweet Homebrew. So much for not taking shortcuts, eh?! Second, one of my friend Mark's good ol' standby recipes that he has down to perfection is the nut brown recipe. While he said this was an all-grain recipe that he crafted himself, I still thought I should give this tried and true style a shot.
The ingredients package includes: malt extract; priming sugar; bittering hops; aroma hops; and yeast. Water was not included, oh well!
I'm anxious to get brewing, so for less than $100 I bought the start-up equipment and the ingredients that I need for extract brewing. Next posting, I'll discuss more about the equipment that I purchased.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Gathering Information
Now that I've declared the beginning of My First Homebrew Experiment, it's time to figure out how to gather all of the information that I need to in order to make some well-informed decisions. What tools do I need? Where do I buy them? Do I take used equipment from fellow brewers (are they "fellow brewers" before I ever brew my first? probably not!) What style will be my first? How complicated is it? What are the things I need to keep in mind throughout the project?
Questions, Questions, Questions. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information out there for newbies like me. You just need to know where to look. Plus, I have the benefit of several friends (and even all of you out there, too) that can provide first-hand experience and guidance to me.
So, what have I done so far? Let's see, here's a quick list of resources that I've utilized thusfar, or plan to use as I get further into this. They are in no specific order, just a random list of resources I've come across. If you have more, please feel free to add to my list.
Zymurgy magazine
- Free copies from beer festivals
- Subscription copies borrowed from Adam
- Online website resources
- Provides much written word on the subject of homebrewing
Basic Brewing's
- "Intro to Homebrewing" DVD
- "Stepping into All-Grain" DVD
- Helps to visually set expectations for what's going to (or should) happen during the process
Professional & Shopping Websites
- AHA (American Homebrewers Association)
- Beer Beer & More Beer
- Wyeast Labs
- Brew Your Own magazine
- White Labs
- All About Beer
- NorthernBrewer.com
- Freshops.com
Homebrewer websites & blogs
- Ben, aka Bad Ben
- A Good Beer Blog
- BUZZ
- Nate
- Eli
- Brew-Monkey
- Jamil Zainasheff
- And, perhaps most valuable, first-hand experience from two of my closest friends, Adam & Mark, who have combined homebrewing experience of over 20 years
I've digested much of this already and will, of course, continue to research as I go along. But, for now, it's time to take all of this information and get some brewing equipment to do the job. That's next up in this wonderful journey called My First Homebrew Experiment.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Getting Started in Homebrewing - Why?
Why am I telling you this story in this space? Two reasons. First, I hope that writing about my first homebrewing experience will enhance the process in two ways...I'll be more "in touch" with what I'm drinking and what I'm writing about and those of you with homebrewing experience will feel free to chime in with tips, tricks, and guidance to keep me on the right path. Second, as I'm learning this process and documenting it all, hopefully it will become somewhat of a guide for others who may also wish to embark on this wonderful trip.
One warning, this will play out over many weeks, several months. I'll jump into this carefully and plan things out over the next several months. Hopefully, you'll be patient with me...unfortunately, it's not the only thing going on! Let's get started...
Friday, December 01, 2006
My First Homebrew Journey
Follow along with Bryan as he begins his First Homebrew Experiment in 2007. It'll take several months to bring this project to fruition, so be patient, feel free to provide feedback, and enjoy!
Step 1 - Why do it?
Step 2 - Utilizing Available Resources & Information
Step 3 - Choosing the First Recipe
Step 4 - Buying the Equipment
Step 5 - Setting Up to Get Started
Step 6 - Sanitation & Boiling
Step 7 - Boiling the Wort
Step 8 - Chilling the Wort
Step 9 - Primary Fermentation & Racking to Secondary
Step 10 - Bottle the Beer
Step 11 - Tasting the Beer
The Process in Review
Lessons Learned
Step 1 - Why do it?
Step 2 - Utilizing Available Resources & Information
Step 3 - Choosing the First Recipe
Step 4 - Buying the Equipment
Step 5 - Setting Up to Get Started
Step 6 - Sanitation & Boiling
Step 7 - Boiling the Wort
Step 8 - Chilling the Wort
Step 9 - Primary Fermentation & Racking to Secondary
Step 10 - Bottle the Beer
Step 11 - Tasting the Beer
The Process in Review
Lessons Learned
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