To start your first brew find your nearest home brewing store. We have found that they are very helpful and responsive to any questions you have. Find a recipe online and make a list of the ingredients you need. Compare the list of ingredients to what the store has as there may be some variation in what the store actually carries. Go and purchase your ingredients and ask lots of questions. The guys in the stores are your masters students! Learn what you can!
Below is a flowchart laying out the steps for a typical brew. See logistics for purchasing information.
See the Brewing SOP attached under resources at the bottom of the page.
As mentioned in the workshop cleanliness is close to godliness! Ensure that you use 1 teaspoon per litre of water of SaniBrew and that you rinse with tap water after you sanitize. If any bacteria from the previous brew exists it can spoil your beer!
Mashing: hot water steeping process which hydrates the barley, activates the malt enzymes, and converts the grain starches into fermentable sugars. Wort: a sweet liquid drained from mash and fermented to make beer and whiskey Use a hotplate to warm the grains with water in a heat safe container. Drain mash water and add it to pot with more water and malt extract. After the malt extract is dissolved add in the hops and bring to a boil. Keep the grains to the side and repurpose them if you desire. See the Brewing SOP for a detailed step by step process.
Put yeast into mixture in fermenter and close it up! Place your bubble trap and wait for a week (or two depending on recipe). Once the bubbling has stopped that is a good indication fermentation has finished.
Syphon beer into bottles and add priming sugar. Use capper to seal and wait for 4 week. Do not refigerate during this time.
Resources related to brewing:
- Purchase 7 gallon conical fermenter: SSBrewTech
- Purchase thermowell for thermometer
- A general Standard Operating Procedure for a Pale Ale malt extract and centennial grain brew is found here
- General Brewing Supplies and resources
- Recipes and ingredients