Brewing for Beginners

Last Updated 15 October 1995

Starting to brew can be very confusing. You may receive a lot of advice from well-meaning people, but much of it may seem contradictory. It is very difficult for the first time brewer to sort out what they should or shouldn't do. That is why I've prepared this PROCEDURE VS TECHNIQUE information sheet.

The PROCEDURE for making beer is to allow yeast to eat fermentable sugars. This action produces alcohol and gives off CO2 as a by-product. That is the whole PROCEDURE - yeast eats sugars; produces alcohol and CO2.

All brewers develop their own TECHNIQUES on how they accomplish this. These individual TECHNIQUES can become an almost religious ritual for many brewers. They have developed their own TECHNIQUES and they stick to them. The key for the first time brewer is to understand the PROCEDURE of making beer and develop their own TECHNIQUES that assist the yeast to eat those fermentable sugars, produce alcohol and give off CO2.

In order to understand the PROCEDURE of making beer better, you have to understand how the basic ingredients interact.
Beer is made up of four main ingredients:

Malt, Water, Hops, and Yeast.

• Malt: malted barley provides the fermentable sugars for the beer making process. The keystone of the beer making process is the barley grain. If you smell it, it might remind you of breakfast cereal. The grain is prepared (malted) for you. The barley is "malted" by spreading it out, wetting it down and allowing it to dry and start to sprout. This makes the fermentables sugars available to the brewing process. You will find malt in several different forms.
  • All Grain: You can find malt in it's original form as a grain kernel. All commercial brewers start with their malt in this form. Some home brewers use only this form and are referred to as "all-grain" brewers. They prepare the grain for use by a "sparging" method that pours and holds hot water over the grains and produces a liquid "wort" that contains the fermentable sugars needed for the brewing process. This method is time consuming, but provides a lot of flexibility in brewing style.
  • Specialty Grains: There are also specialty grains that provide particular color, taste, and sweetness to the home brewer. Some of these include: Crystal, Chocolate, and Black Patent Malts. They are used by both experienced and new brewers.
  • Liquid Malt Extract: Malt is also available in a liquid form called "liquid malt extract (LME)". This is malt that has been processed by a company and is put into a form that is easily used by a home brewer. You will hear these brewers referred to as "extract brewers". The LME is usually packaged in 3.3 lb cans or sold in bulk. The 3.3 lb cans may also come with hops added to the LME and include a dry yeast packet; these cans are sometimes referred to as "beer kits". They come in various styles and brands that can be initially confusing, but they will make more sense to you as you gain experience. Initially, determine whether the LME is hopped or unhopped and determine whether it is a light, amber, or dark colored syrup. The kits could have names like bitter, porter, stout, special, export, irish ale etc... The LME is probably the easiest form to use for the first time brewer.
  • Dried Malt Extract (DME): Is a powdery form of malt that is processed by a company and made available for the home brewer. It contains the same type of fermentable sugars as either the whole grains or the Liquid Malt extract. Be careful with this stuff around steam/water; it turns to a sticky mess when it gets wet. Measure out what you need away from the steaming brew pot. It can come in various size packages, but the 3 pound bags seem to be popular and convenient. It may be light, amber, or dark.
  • Corn Sugar: This is a subject of great debate. The yeast needs to eat fermentable sugars in order to produce alcohol and give off CO2. The yeast is not fussy about where those fermentable sugars come from. Many of your beer kits will call for adding "xx" pounds of corn sugar to the Liquid Malt Extract. This approach will make beer, but generally, try to add Dried Malt Extract in place of sugar. As you gain experience, you can experiment with adding some sugar to your recipes, if you want. Corn Sugar will lighten the body of your beer, and there is great debate on whether or not the sugar will change the taste of your beer. Corn Sugar is very handy as a fermentable sugar to use when you bottle your beer. The yeast that is still in the fermented beer will be looking for more fermentable sugars to eat. When you jump start them with some priming sugar at bottling (and then cap the bottle), the CO2 that is given off will be trapped in the bottle and provide natural carbonation for your beer.
  • Other forms of fermentable sugars: The yeast will also eat the sugars contained in corn or rice. These products are much cheaper for large commercial brewers to use. There is not much savings provided to the small-scale (5 gallon batches) home brewers, but the economy of scale for the big brewers allow them to put out a product with around 5% alcohol at a lower cost (lower cost = bigger PROFITS). Pick up a can of Budweiser and you will see that they proudly state that they use rice in their beer. The home brewer will usually avoid these cheaper sources of fermentable sugars (called adjuncts) because they are in search of a nice smooth malt taste for their beer. As you gain experience, you might use these products to produce a lighter beer.

    Wow, that was longer than I expected to talk about malt and fermentable sugars, but since it is the keystone of beer making, it deserved some explanation.

• Water: If your tap water tastes OK, and you would drink it straight from the tap, then it should also make good beer. If your tap water is not OK, then investigate bottled water sources.
• Hops: Hops are the flower of a plant. They provide bittering, aroma, and some preservative properties to the beer. The bitterness, although that sounds bad, helps to off-set the sweetness of the malt. Darker beers need more hops that lighter beers (generally). Hops are rated in bitterness by IBUs or HBUs (international or homebrewing bitterness units) or AAUs (alpha acid units). They usually come in either whole hop, pelletized, or plug form. It is the same stuff in different forms. Some common hop varieties are Cascade, Brewers Gold, Chinook, Fuggle, Hallertau, Northern Brewers, Saaz, Tettnang, or Willamette.
• Yeast: If Malt is the keystone of brewing, then yeast is the engine that makes it go. Yeast comes in two types: Ale and Lager.
  • Ale Yeast is top fermenting and works best between 65-75 degrees F. Most brewers start with Ale yeasts (and brew Ales) because of the temperature range and also because Ales can be completed and be ready for drinking in a quicker period of time.
  • Lager Yeast is bottom fermenting and works best between 45-60 degrees F. Lagers also ferment/age longer at these cooler temperatures and provide a clarity and crisp taste that is unique to Lagers. Either a refrigerator or cool basement is needed to produce lagers.
  • Yeast can come in dried or liquid form. Use only brewers yeast (not a packet of yeast you stole from your spouse's bread machine!). Liquid yeasts are generally thought to be better than dried yeasts, but it needs to be prepared several hours or even days in advance of brewing. The dried yeasts can be used a little easier on the spur of the moment, but your results might be better if you prepare a yeast starter (a solution of fermentable sugars to get the yeast population growing). The idea is to add a thriving yeast population to your cooled wort in order to get the yeast firmly established in your wort as soon as possible. Other micro-organisms might find your wort as a happy home, so the sooner that the yeasties take over the neighborhood, the better.
  • Advanced brewers may even maintain their own yeast culture. Once they find a strain that produces a good beer, they will maintain that strain of yeast and keep it available for future batches.

• CLEANLINESS: You want to have all of your equipment clean and sanitized for brewing. If you are boiling part of your recipe, this should suffice for sterilization of that portion of your batch (ie... Warning: this is a statement about TECHNIQUE; I boil my wort in a 20 qt stainless steel cook pot; I ensure the pot is clean, but I allow the boiling process to sterilize my brew pot). Anything that is not boiled should be sterilized with a bleach solution or some other sterilizing solution. There are FAQs that examine various cleaning compounds in detail.
• BOILING THE WORT: Some beer kits will direct you to dump the LME in a clean fermentor, add sugar and water, add yeast and cover. This "will" make beer, but you want to make great beer, so plan on boiling at least a portion of your wort. Now, you think for a minute and tell me why you would want to boil your wort?...... 1. You can boil away any nasties that may be hanging around in the LME. 2. Just like in cooking, some flavors "meld together" better when heated. Depending on how big your brew pot is, boil as much wort as you can and still allow room for the addition of ingredients, boiling and foam up. (TECHNIQUE Warning: I put 10 qts of water in a 20 qt brew pot. I use two gas burners on the stove to try to get the heat high enough to reach a steady boil eventually. I initially tried boiling 16 qts of water, but it just took too much time.) In general, try to boil at least a portion of your wort.
• TOPPING WATER UP TO 5 GALLONS: Add the balance of the water that doesn't go into the brew pot into your fermentor. Some brewers will boil this water to ensure it is "bug free". Some use COLD tap water, so the temperature is not inviting to many airborne beasties. After a few batches, you will decide on a standard amount of water to add to the brew pot and a standard amount to add to the fermentor. You could make a marker line on your fermentor for ease of measuring for future batches.
• COOLING THE WORT: Prior to adding ("pitching") the yeast to the 5 gallons of wort, the temperature needs to be brought down to around 85-90 degrees F. The yeast can't operate at high temperatures, so it is critical to cool the wort prior to pitching. Some brewers use a wort chiller; others allow the covered pot to sit for 4-8 hours to cool naturally. Some general guidance is you want to cool the wort as quickly as possible and get the yeast growing and working quickly. The vitamin-rich wort is a great home for other things to grow, so we want to establish the yeast growth as soon as possible. (TECHNIQUE Warning: The brew pot can be placed in a sink full of water with ice cubes. If the water is circulated around the pot, you should be able to cool the wort within 20 minutes with 3-4 changes of the water. A double sink works well.)
• FERMENTING: The wort likes a cool (65-70 degree F) and dark place to ferment. Some brewers use basements, closets, spare rooms, porches, or garages. A simple box placed over the fermentor can help provide the darkness. The Hardware for fermenting varies from brewer to brewer, but some common set ups may include a 7 gallon plastic bucket with a plastic sheet or plastic lid and air lock as a cover; or a glass carboy with a blowoff tube. Some brewers use a primary and secondary fermentor. During fermenting, the yeast will eat the available sugars, produce alcohol and give off CO2. This process should visibly start within 4-6 hours after pitching. The most active fermentation should subside with in 2-3 days, but slow, steady fermentation may continue for several more days. Using a hydrometer to check specific gravity is the best way to know when a batch is done fermenting. For beginners, if you wait 2 weeks from the time you pitch the yeast, the beer should be ready for bottling. Don't try to bottle too soon; you must ensure that the beer is done fermenting first. Also, a 2 week period in the fermentor allows for the beer to settle and clear.

Brewing for the first time can be confusing. Various directions and instructions seem to be contradictory. Try to understand the brewing process and make your own judgements on what to do and what not to do. Understand the difference between PROCEDURE and TECHNIQUE; examine what the directions tell you to do and evaluate WHY they recommend a certain way of doing things.

Lastly, brewing is not a difficult process. The Monks have been making beer for centuries. When I get stuck in a brewing step, I ask myself what would the monks do in this case. Allow common sense to guide you and you will do fine - and make great beer too!

Now excuse me while I slip on my heavy wool robe and prepare for a little monk brewing.
Feel free to e-mail me with questions.

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