How to Brew Beer
This is a simple guide to get you started, there are more complicated ways to do each stage of this guide, but keeping it simple still gives decent results!
Brewing beer is part science, part art, and a bit of luck. It’s really useful (and interesting for comparison later) to keep proper notes about every single brew. Record the measurements of malts, which hops you used, and their timings, and also keep a record of the “Alpha” level of your hops.
The 5 main stages
Steep, Boil, Cool, Ferment, Bottle.
Stage 1 - Steep
Steeping the malt releases the sugars into the water (at this stage called the mash)
Heat Water to 70 Degrees. Add the malt to a straining bag, and put into the water, give it a good stir and then put the lid on. I tend to put the bag opening over the side of the pot then put the lid on
Steep the malts for 60 mins keeping temp between 64 and 68 degrees. (some recipes call for longer steeping times).
do not allow it to go too far over 70 degrees, as that will destroy the enzymes, also don’t let it go below 64 degrees as the sugars will not be released (these numbers are based on advice I was given, not actual science
I wrap the pot in towels to hold some heat in, which usually means I don’t need to heat it up again
Remove the bag and allow to drain, then run a little cold water over to release any remaining sugars.
You can leave the mash longer, or standing for a while before you start the boil.
Stage 2 - Boil
Put the bittering hops, and heat the liquid to a rolling boil.
You can put a lid on at the start, to get things going quicker, but DO NOT leave it on, as there are some things that need to evaporate off apparently - I tend to put it on until just before it starts to boil
Keep the heat on for 60 minutes (I tend to turn it down to not such a heavy rolling boil to preserve some liquid) .
Adding the aroma hops
Recipes vary widely, but generally start at the 15 minutes remaining mark, with a weight of hops to add at whatever number of minutes left (e.g. 15m, 10m, 5m, 2m, 0m)
At the 15 minute mark, put 1 tsp of Irish Moss in, which will help clear the haze from the beer (made of seaweed. removes proteins - weird).
Stage 3 - Cool
Once boiled, it’s called “Wort”. It’s really important to cool the wort as quickly as possible, but also really important to keep everything sterile from this point forwards.
I put my pot into the sink with ice cubes, and stir the wart slowly
Once the wort has cooled to about 30 degrees, transfer it to the fermenting tub, straining out the hops.
you can keep the hops in if you like, but it makes it messy at bottling time!
Stage 4 - Ferment
Measure the sugar level with a Hygrometer, it should be around 1.04 or more - keep a note!
Spinkle over the yeast, (about 10-12g for a 15l brew) and put the lid on, put a bubbler in, and allow it to ferment for around 10 days.
Ferment in a dark place ideally at around 22 degrees for 10 days (check your yeast instructions).
you might find bubbling stops after 5-7 days, but best advice is don’t bottle too early!!! never before 7 days in case of explosions
Dry Hopping
This is optional, and adds some hop flavours to the beer. Usually after around 5 days, you can add hops (in a bag if you want to keep them out of the bottles).
Stage 5 - Bottle
Measure the sugar level of your beer, it should be around 1.006 or less.
taste it too! it should taste good!
Syphon off the beer into clean, steralized bottles, leaving a bit of space in the next of the bottle (~3-4cm).
Add about 1/2 tsp of sugar to each 500ml bottle and seal it up, give it a shake, and leave the bottles at room tempreture for around 7 days.
Generally you can drink it after 7 days, but it will taste much better after 2 weeks, and gets better over time!