This is part two of a multi-part series on homebrewing. Part one is here.
Today we’re going to talk a little bit more about the hardware and software of the brewing equation, to borrow Alton Brown’s terminology. We’ll talk about how the ingredients in your basic homebrew combine to create different flavors; we’ll explore the stages of the brewing process, and we’ll tell you why cleanliness is so important in brewing. If you wonder who this mysterious “we,” is, by the way, it includes my husband, who helped to edit this blog series.
1. Understand the ingredients. One thing I didn’t understand before Matt began brewing was the ingredients. Sure, I knew hops and barley and yeast were in there, but I didn’t understand what they did.
Barley - in the form of malt (barley that’s been dampened and allowed to sprout) - is a fermentable sugar, and it’s the first ingredient in beer. It’s what the yeast eats. It also effects the darkness/thickness/chewiness of the brew. Guinness “drinks like a meal” because it’s heavy on the malt. Typically the homebrewer buys this ingredient in one of two ready-to-brew forms: cans of malt extract syrup, or dried, powdered malt extract. It is labeled by the level of color it will add (light, amber, dark). Homebrewers often also crush some whole malted barley to add flavor. It is also possible to extract one’s own malt syrup from barley, but increases the cost and equipment significantly.
Hops are a bittering agent that also adds floral notes. They’re irrelevant to the actual chemical process of converting starches to alcohol, but they were traditionally used a preservative, and have become integral to the taste we associate with beer. For example, India Pale Ale (IPA), one of the hoppiest brews out there, is named after the type of pale, hop-fortified brews that Victorian England would send to its troops in India - the hops were used to prevent spoilage on the long journey. Some connoisseurs of homebrewing love hoppy brews, but I am not such a fan.
Different types of hops have differing bitterness, or “alpha” levels. In some brew pubs you’ll notice that beers are listed with an “IBU” number beside them. This is the bitterness of the beer as measured in “International Bittering Units.” (Lower = less bitter). Keep in mind that you’ll notice hoppiness more in a lighter (less malty) ale.
Yeast eats the sugars and poop out alcohol and CO2. Different types of yeast, over the years, have been adapted for different types of brews. The homebrewer will often be using some type of ale yeast, which is a top-fermenting yeast. Lager yeast, a bottom-fermenting yeast, can also be used, but that won’t make the necessarily make the brew a lager - lagers are made in cool (refrigerated) conditions where they can age slowly. Not all homebrewers can replicate that.
Liquid pitchable yeast, purchased in a vial from a homebrew supply, is the best bet for the beginning brewer - dry yeast can be problematic.
Don’t forget water. Alton Brown recommends using distilled water; we use our own well water for our beer, with good results so far. If you have city water, you probably want to use bottled water of some sort.
You can use other ingredients, too - fruits, spices, different types of fermentable and unfermentable sugars, water conditioners, etc - but that’s beyond the scope of this article. Once again, I’ll refer you to Charlie Papazian’s amazing book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.
2. Understand the process. The first step in brewing beer is sterilizing everything - see “Keep It Clean” below. Once that less exciting bit is over, the first step is the wort (pronounced “wert”). The wort is basically a soup of all your brewing ingredients but the yeast - your canned mash, your crushed malt, your hops, and any other flavoring agents. Once it’s boiled for a while, you will add it to the fermenter - usually a large bucket with an air lock - and cool it to 90 degrees before adding your yeast.
The brew stays in primary fermentation for about a week before it’s moved to a secondary fermenter - usually a glass carboy with an airlock. Throughout these first two stages, I guarantee you’ll be watching that airlock like a protective babymama to make sure it keeps bubbling - a sign that your yeast is alive and working. It stays here another 10 days to two weeks before you move to the bottling stage.
It is also possible to do a single-stage fermentation, moving directly from wort to carboy to bottling (cut out the plastic bucket phase, as a carboy has superior airtightness).
At this stage your beer will be flat. Before you bottle it, you will need to introduce a new source of fermentable sugar to produce CO2, i.e. carbonation. If you don’t measure carefully, it will produce too much CO2, which is the leading cause of exploding beer bottles. You can reuse your own spent beer bottles for this step, but you will need to buy new caps and a hand tool to cap the bottles. Usually a beer will sit in the bottling stage for about 10-14 days, or as long as you can stand to go without tasting it.
3. Keep it clean. One of the most important, and yet most mundane aspects of brewing is dealing with the fact that you want SOME organisms to live in your brew, but not others. Yeast? Good. Other living things? Bad. Rest assured that no pathogens will grow in beer, but you can develop infestations of bacteria or competing yeast that will ruin a batch. This is why it’s important to sterilize everything that comes in contact with the beer (or at least everything that comes in contact with the beer after the boiling of the wort). Bleach solution is the best for sterlizing big items, like the the fermenters or bottles; vodka is usually recommended for small things like bottle caps.
You also need fermentation locks on your brew when it’s in primary and secondary fermentation. This allows CO2 from the fermenting sugars to escape, but a water barrier keeps air from getting in. Making sure that the fermenting containers are no larger than needed - thus reducing the amount of air in the container - also helps to keep unwanted critters under control.
All together now, I think I’ve outlined the basics of homebrewing - enough, I hope, that you’ll be able to decide if this DIY opportunity fits into your frugal lifestyle or not. In a follow-up article I’ll share some recipes for successful beers we have brewed and price them out accordingly.
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