Easy Homebrew Beer: Part 1

Over the weekend I decided to brew up a batch of homebrew beer. I had bought the supplies a few weeks ago and finally had the chance to make it. Let me show you how I brew and why I do it that way

This will be my fifth batch I’ve brewed. All the previous times were liquid malt extract. I decided to try powdered malt extract to see if it was easier to work with. I’m still undecided, but I’m leaning towards the powder. Its easier to our pour out and it wanted to flout. A problem with liquid extract is it wants to sink to the bottom and scorch. So you have to pour and stir slowly. The powdered malt extract had an issue of clumping up when the steam hit it coming out the bag.

The method I use represents the best bang for your buck. The cost per batch usually is around $25-$35 for five gallons. The time spent is about an hour and a half on brew day and about an hour on bottling day. This time I brewed while doing some laundry and some cleaning. The quality is above that of any store bought watered down junk. I made a blackberry Ale once that rivaled an expensive craft beer. My intent was to boil it down the the easiest, cheapest procedure for the most amount of beer. Also not paying “sin” taxes on beer is very liberating.

On to the Step by step process with photos.

The first thing I do is wash all my equipment. I just use a dishcloth and hot water. For the fermentation vessel, lid and airlock I fill the bucket with cold water and add 1tbsp per gallon of regualr unscented bleach. Since this is a 6 gallon bucket I used six tbsps. I let it sit like this the whole time I’m brewing. When I’m ready to pour in the wort (unfermented beer) I dump out the bleach water and rinse out. You could go with a non-rinse formula like a Five Star but I’ve always used bleach since i have it for preps anyway.

For my brewing pot I use a cheap stock pot. I’m pretty sure it holds three gallons. Which is pretty much the perfect size for my brewing my style. I added 2 gallons of store bought spring water. Don’t skimp out on the water and do not use tap water. Better water = better beer.

For this batch I chose to go with six pounds of Amber powdered malt extract. I normally brew dark stouts but decided to branch out and try something new. I used a Coopers dry yeast and Uk Fuggle hops. I’m not a big hop fan so I’m only using 1 ounce.

Once I had a good roiling boil I added both bags of Malt extract. The thing to remember is to pour slowly and keep stirring. I ended up getting clumps once for not stirring well enough. When adding the malt extract I usually turn down the temperature.

You want to really stir in the malt extract to make sure there are no clumps. At this point it looks and smells (taste too) like cereal milk. Technically this is cereal water and is very sweet. I keep stirring until I get a consistent color with no lumps.

From this point on you really need to keep an eye on the wort. You need to get it back up to a boil and make sure it doesn’t boil over. Which has happened to me and it needs to be cleaned up immediately. This stuff is very sticky when dried. Keep stirring for about an hour. The time is not as strict with it being extract brewing. I want to add my hops during the last 15 minutes of boil time for flavor and aroma.

The thing with brewing is you need to go from boiling (212 °F) to optimal temperature for pitching the yeast, 70 °, as fast as possible. In the past I’ve put the bucket in the sink with ice. That method still can take hours to cool. The longer you wait the higher your risk of infecting the batch and ruining it. This time I took a trick from Food Network Host Alton Brown. I poured in 10 pounds of Ice into the fermenter. I should have held some out to get the temp closer.

I add a strainer to pour the wort through to keep the hops out of the finished product. I carefully pour the wort into the bucket of ice. It turned out to be too much ice and brought the temperature down too low. Even when I added the remaining 4 gallons of room temperature water.

Once all the water was in I stirred it to get all the ice to melt. Then I pitched the yeast, put on the lid and air lock and set it into the closet. I was worried the wort had cooled off too much with the ice though so I wrapped an electric heating pad around it and left it on all day. I checked in it when I woke up for work and was pleased to see the air lock bubbling.

I made a mistake on this batch by not adding enough head space. I like to usually only fill the fermenter to five or five and a half gallons. This time I filled it up too much and the pressure caused the lid to pop open and spew out. Twice actually. When I came home from work i knew something was wrong when I smelled the distinct smell of brewing beer throughout  the apartment hallway. This is what i saw when I opened the brew closet. I quickly pushed down the lid and resealed it. About ten minutes after it blew off again then it blew the top off the air lock. This was the most violent fermentation I’ve ever had. I had to keep the top off the fermenter for an hour or two. I am going to hope it did not get infected and let it finish. I mean I have brewed beer in a log and open top fermenter so this is nothing.

That brings us to an end to part 1. I’ll be back in two weeks to cover the bottling and drinking part. I have a unique, easy and cheap bottling method your going to love. In closing I’d like to quote Charlie Papazian the master in homebrew “Don’t worry, Have a homebrew!”

Do you brew? Did you learn anything or have any tricks to share? Let me know in the comments