8/12/2019 Home Brewing

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Hydrometer

Measures the gravity, or concentration of maltsugar in your wort. This allows you to monitorthe progress of your fermentation and estimatealcohol content.

Fermenter bucket

A plastic bucket or glass carboy can be usedto ferment the beer. Some kits include asecondary fermenter, which gives beer extratime to condition and clarify before bottling.

AirlockLets gases escape from the fermentingbeer while keeping air out. The airlockfits into the lid of the fermenter bucketor a stopper in the carboy.

Yeast

Yeast is made up ofmicroorganisms thatconsume sugar in thewort and emit alcohol andcarbon dioxide. Yeast issold in dry or liquid form.

Measure the gravityUse the hydrometer in a tallglass or test jar to determinethe original gravity.

Pour liquid or rehydrated dryyeast into the fermenter.

Pitch the yeast

Pour vigorously, allowing itto splash, adding oxygen.Strain hops as you pour.

Pour wort into fermenter

■ Seal your fermenter with lidor stopper.■ Put the airlock in place andfill it with clean water orsanitizer solution.■ Leave in a safe locationwhere the beer can fermentundisturbed at a temperturebetween 65 and 70 degreesfor up to two weeks.

Seal and store

Ale: Beer brewed from a top-fermenting yeast,

with a relatively short, warm fermentation.Hot break: The stage at which proteinscoagulate and settle out during the boil.Kraeusen (pronounced “KROY-zen”): The foamy head that builds on the top offermenting beer.Lager: Beer brewed from bottom-fermentingyeast and given a long, cool fermentation.

Carboy

F

D

E

E

F

D

G

G

Brew kettle

Long-handled plastic or metal spoon

Thermometer

Measures the temperature of your wort.Use the dial kind that clips onto yourbrew pot or a digital kitchen model.Avoid glass, which can breakand ruin your batch.

For extract brewing, you’ll need somethingthat holds at least 3 gallons of boiling wort.Got a turkey fryer? You’re in business. Largecanning pots work well, too. Whole grain Dried extract Liquid extract

Malt

Grains such as barley are allowed to germinate andthen quickly dried. These malted grains provide thesugar for the yeast to feed on and ferment the beer.

Whole PelletsPlugs

Easy to strain from thewort; often used in dryhopping. These soak upmore wort than pellets.

Hops

The cone-like flowers of a climbing vine; used toprovide bitterness, aroma and flavor to beer.They also act as a preservative.

Pellets dissolve and aredifficult to strain fromthe beer, but storefresh for a long time.

Brewing

Bring 2 to 3 gallons of waterto a boil in the brew kettle. Ifspecialty grains are includedin the recipe, you'll need tosteep them first.

Boil water

Add finishing hops, duringthe last 15 minutes (if calledfor by recipe).

Boil for one hour

A

B

■ Turn off the heat.■ Stir in extract until it’scompletely dissolved.

Add malt extract

C

Immerse the kettle in a coldwater bath and cool tobetween 65 and 90 degrees.

Cool the wort quickly

Some recipes call for laterhop additions.

Add bittering hops

The wort will form foamand may easily boil overduring this stage until itreaches a hot break, whenthe foam recedes.

Return to a boil

A

C

B

Grains are crushedand soaked to drawout the sugars.

Extracts are the concentratedsugars extracted from maltedgrains.

Fermenting

Homebrewing glossary

How to brew beer A brief guide to get you started making your own home brew

Add waterAdd bottled or boiled waterto make a total of 5 gallons 

in your fermenter.

Original gravity: The concentration ofsugar before fermentation. The final gravitydetermines how much of the sugars have

been converted to alcohol.Trub (pronounced “troob” or “trub”): The stuff that settles to the bottom of thefermenter; includes hops bits, coagulatedproteins and dead yeast.Wort (pronounced “wert”): Themalt-sugar solution that is boiled with hopsprior to fermentation.

Photos by KELLY JORDAN, Research by ED STANSEL, Graphic by ANNA BERKEN /The Times-Union

Bottle brush

Bottlecapper

Bottle caps

Plastic tubing

Racking cane

Auto-siphon

For transferring beerfrom one container toanother. An auto-siphon makes the job alot less messy.

Spring-loaded openingallows you to easily fillbottles without overfilling.

Priming sugarAdded before bottlingto spark the second-ary fermentation thatgives the beer its fizz.

Non-twist-off Grolsch-style

You’ll need 40 to 50 bottles, depending onthe size, cleaned and sanitized. You can raidyour neighbors’ recycling bins or buy newbottles. Swing-top Grolsch-style bottlesare great as long as the gasket is intact.

Bottling bucket

Bottling

■ Boil 2 cups of water with sugar and allow to cool.■ Pour into bottling bucket.

Prepare priming sugar

Use an auto-siphon or racking cane and tubingto transfer beer to bottling bucket; make surenot to splash.

Siphon beer intobottling bucket

■ Fill bottles using the bottle filler attached tospigot on the bottling bucket (or use siphon ifspigot not provided).■ Seal on bottle caps with capper.

Transfer to bottles

Store bottles out of light at 65 to 75 degrees fortwo weeks.

Carbonate

Source: How to Brew  by John Palmer