With no prior experience, what steps should be taken to initiate the rookie beer maker into the fascinating but sometimes complicated world of homebrewing?
So, you want to brew your own beer? You have enjoyed the taste of fine malt beverages for years. You want to experience the satisfaction associated with a successful batch of beer. You want to fill and cap dozens of bottles of cold brew and enjoy them later with friends and family. But how does one get started? With no prior experience, what steps should be taken to initiate the rookie beer maker into the fascinating but sometimes complicated world of homebrewing?
Plenty of advice exists for brewing beer and most people agree that the rookie homebrewer should initiate himself/herself by visiting a brew shop and purchasing a beer kit. These kits are offered for various styles of lager or ale and they have all of the necessary ingredients to produce your first batch of beer, eliminating the need to buy separate ingredients and wiping out any worries associated with purchasing proper quantities and ingredient compatibility. A kit already contains the basic ingredients needed to produce a batch of beer, including malt extract (almost always in liquid form when purchased as part of a kit), hops (sometimes two varieties, if boiling and finishing hops are necessary), and dry yeast. All you need to do is supply the water and the stovetop to brew the beer, as well as the necessary equipment to complete the batch all the way through the bottling and aging phases.
Once you have your kit, it is time to get organized. All equipment should be cleaned and sanitized (brew shops sell special sanitation and other cleaners) before use and it is important to think through the process from start to finish to make sure you already have the necessary equipment to complete the brewing cycle. You don’t want to get halfway through the boiling process only to discover that you are missing one of the important pieces of equipment needed for the next phase of the brewing cycle. Make sure you have what you need and make another trip to the brew store, if necessary, to purchase additional equipment and/or ingredients before you begin.
Water is the most abundant ingredient in beer and since different parts of the U.S. and world have varying degrees of water quality, it can have a noticeable impact on the final product. Most tap water is fine for homebrewing use, and that includes some tap water that has greater mineral content. In most instances, you don’t need to worry about the mineral content. In fact, depending on the minerals and their concentration, they can actually add to the flavor of the finished product. If your water is exceptionally poor in quality, then you may need to purchase distilled water. Otherwise, ordinary tap water should be fine.
Homebrewing kits are designed to produce a 5- gallon batch of beer. Thus, you need to make sure you have a large enough pot to handle such a large amount of liquid. However, you do not need precisely five gallons of capacity. Only about 2 gallons of water is used for the boil. The remaining water is added to your glass carboy in the next step of the brewing process. This division of water is good for several reasons. First, it makes the boil much faster. Second, since the mixture will boil faster and hotter, it lessens the chance for contamination. Third, the fact that the remaining water is at a lower temperature means it will take less time for it to cool down.
Once the boiled wort has been combined with the cooler water in the carboy (or other fermentation vessel), it must be allowed to cool. Once the temperature drops below 78 degrees fahrenheit, it will be cool enough to add the yeast. This will begin the fermentation process. Once the fermentation process has completed, the beer can be bottled and aged. After a couple of weeks have passed, your first batch of homemade beer will be ready for consumption.
More detailed instructions will be found in your beer kit. There are also some good books on homebrewing, such as The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian and Homebrewing for Dummies, by Marty Nachel. Click the link in this site for Beer Store and you will find information on these and other good homebrewing books.
Don’t worry if your first batch of beer isn’t as tasty as you hoped. Homebrewing is a learning experience and in due time, you will be brewing better, tastier batches of homebrew. It takes practice and patience, but the rewards are worth the effort.
Take notes on what you do and consider ways to improve. In the meantime, enjoy your first batch of homemade malt beverage!
This site looks great! I definitely want to do something with this site in the future…maybe a review is in order? Also, I wanted a add a small note about water use in brewing….where I currently live, I have exceptionally hard water (probably because I’ve never learned how to use the water softener? hmmm!). So, I buy my water in gallons. For a long time I was buying spring water, and it worked great…then I started learning about how you need an acidic environment to really draw out the flavors from the grains (try making tea in spring water- you hardly pull any color out!). So now I’ve been drawn over to the distilled water side of brewing. I will see how this works out for me in my upcoming batch of blueberry wheat.
In any case, thanks again, and I’m looking forward to doing a nice review of this site.