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How to make homemade beer. Beer at home - steps and simple recipes

Many beer lovers often do not know how this drink is produced. The Beer Connoisseur magazine has prepared a brief description of main stages of beer production..

Brewing malt. Photo: Financial Tribune

Malt

Brewing begins with barley, wheat, oats or rye sprouted in a malthouse. The grain is then dried in a kiln and sometimes roasted, a process usually carried out in a separate room from the brewery. In the brewery building, the malt is passed through a crusher to open the shell of the grains. This helps extract more starch during the mashing process. Large breweries also use soaking before crushing.

Combination various types grains in the brewing process are often called grain balance.

Mashing

The first step in the brewing process is mashing, in which crushed malt (grass) is placed in mash kettle. Mashing is the process of mixing grits with water and heating the resulting mixture to a temperature from 40 to 80 ºC. During mashing, natural enzymes found in malt break down starches, turning them into sugars, which later become alcohol. This process takes on average one to two hours. The mash temperature can be increased gradually, or the mash can be left at a certain temperature at the brewer's discretion. At different temperatures, different enzymes are activated, which affects the extraction of proteins and fermentable sugars. Proteins play a less important role, but are important for the formation of foam in the finished beer. Most breweries use steam for heating.

Infusion and decoction mashing method

Water is mixed with grits in one of two ways: infused or decoction. When mashing infused in this way the grain is heated in one container (mash tun); when mashing decoction method, part of the mash is removed from the mash kettle and boiled in a separate container, and then returned back to the original mixture. Some brewers repeat this process twice (two-brew mash) or even three times (three-brew mash).

The resulting liquid, consisting of sugars and water, is called wort.

(Note: When brewing beer from malt extract, you use concentrated malt syrup or powder consisting of crushed grain, which is mixed with hot water for preparing the wort. This method is most often used for brewing beer at home, which allows you to skip the steps required to separate the spent grains from the wort).

Pumping

Decanting or wort filtration is the process of separating the wort from the spent grains as efficiently as possible. It is typically carried out in a separate racking tun, although the mash laundering process is now available to both large and small breweries.

The bottom of the expressing vat has round or longitudinal holes, as well as drainage holes. Solid particles from the mash remain at the bottom and form a filter for the wort.

The pumping process consists of three stages: mashing out, recirculating and rinsing. Mash-out consists of heating the mash to 76 ºC, which stops enzymatic reactions and preserves fermentable sugars in the wort, and also makes the wort less viscous, making further work easier.

Then it is carried out recycling wort and a filter layer is formed, with the help of which grain particles are naturally separated from the wort, which makes the wort more transparent.

Once the wort has cleared, the remaining spent grain, consisting of husks and particles formed during the mashing process, must be rinsed. Washing The grinding of spent grains is carried out with warm water in order to obtain as much sugar as possible from the grains for the wort.

After washing, the grains are usually used as feed for livestock and pigs or used in the production of bread.

Boiling

Having received the wort, it is sterilized by boiling in a kettle. In this case, enzyme activity stops and the liquid evaporates. During the boil, which typically lasts from 60 to 120 minutes, hops are added.

Photo: +Russ

Hopping

The taste, aroma and bitterness that hops will impart to beer depend on the stage at which they are added. Hops can be added at the very beginning of the boil to add more bitterness: the longer it cooks, the more bitter the drink will be. Hops are added mid-boil for added flavor, and at the end for flavor and aroma.

Hops can also be added after boiling through swirling (flavor/aroma), fermentation (dry hopping for aroma), or maturation (dry hopping for aroma).

Vortex mixing

At the end of boiling, vortex mixing is carried out, which makes the wort even more transparent by removing proteins and hop particles that settle at the bottom. These particles are called sediment. You can use a brew kettle for vortex mixing, but many breweries have a special container for this.

Hop separator- This is a container for vortex mixing, in which there is a separate chamber with hops for filtering sediment. This allows you to give the wort a brighter hop aroma. A hop separator is often used when whole hop cones are added during a boil. A standard whirlpool is best used to separate sediment from hop pellets.

Fermentation

The wort is pumped into the fermentation tank and yeast is pitched (added). This stage is called main fermentation- sugars are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The result is an ale or lager, depending on the yeast used. (Hybrid beers also use one of these two types of yeast.)

Once the yeast is added at the correct temperature, the beer is usually kept at 15 to 20ºC (ale) or 10ºC (lager). The process of converting sugar into alcohol by yeast generates heat and this process must be strictly controlled. More high temperature when using yeast for ale leads to more active formation of aromatic organic compounds- ethers.

Maturation

During the aging process, ales and lagers mature into their final flavors, and fermentation by-products are reduced. Dry hopping can also be done at this stage to achieve more pronounced aroma. Greater flavor complexity can be achieved through other methods, including barrel aging.

Cold storage of beer for 30 days, known as lagering, defines the main differences between lager and ale: greater clarity and a different taste.

The method is also used to produce lagers. secondary fermentation which is called German word"kreusening". After the fermented “young” beer is transferred to cold storage tanks, the actively fermenting beer is added with yeast added to it. This extra batch of yeast activates the production of carbon dioxide and helps eliminate the undesirable effects of the main fermentation - diacetyl (or butter flavor) and other compounds.

The aging process can last from one to six weeks, and sometimes longer. Depending on the style, the brewer may filter out any remaining yeast or other particles in the beer and then place it in a maturation tank. To give beer greater clarity and increase shelf life, pasteurization can be carried out.

Fort Point Brewery. Photo: Matthew Ankeny

Bottling and carbonation

After the fermentation process is complete, the beer must be kegged or bottled and carbonated, either naturally or forcefully. During forced carbonation, CO 2 is supplied to a container under high pressure to saturate the drink with carbon dioxide. Forced carbonation is used more often, as it speeds up the process and makes the beer even clearer.

Kreusening can also be used during the fermentation stage for carbonation. In addition, this also involves bottle aging or the addition of a small amount of sugar and yeast during bottling.

Experiments

Experimentation is the soul of brewing, and you can change any aspect of the process - ingredients, mashing and fermentation temperatures, as well as their duration.

Indicators

Key values measured using liquid density meters help brewers monitor the fermentation process.

Density- the ratio of water to other substances contained in water, including sugar
Initial density(OG) - wort density before adding yeast
Final density(FG) - density after completion of the fermentation process
ABV- initial gravity and final gravity are the main variables for calculating alcohol by volume (ABV)

Steve Koenig for Craft Beer & Brewing magazine has prepared an article with ten tips to help beginners home brewers..

Photo: Jon Van Dalen

My first home brewing purchase was a book. Before I even brewed a drop of beer, I read Charlie Papazian's book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. (in Russian translation it was published as “The Brewer’s Big Book. How to brew the perfect beer yourself” - editor’s note) from cover to cover. Looking back, I realize that only a small part of the information from this valuable tome actually stuck in my memory the first time. I've read this book multiple times and have found new details every time, and Charlie's passionate and encouraging style has been a real pleasure. I would also recommend reading Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing and John Palmer's The Art of Homebrewing - they are outstanding books for anyone, no matter how long you've been brewing. But there are some things that books won't tell you about, but which will be extremely important for the beginning brewer. Here are ten tips that will help you.

1. Buy a big boiler

Like most brewers I know, my first major purchase was a beginner's equipment kit. Once I had it, all I needed was a brew pot and the ingredients. So I bought a 5 gallon (20 liter) stainless steel kettle for $35. Fool. After two weeks of brewing, I spent another $70 to buy a 7.5 gallon (30 liter) kettle. If you're ever planning on getting into grain brewing or want to reduce the chance of your wort constantly boiling over, invest in a big kettle now. You will save money in the long run.

Copper immersion chiller for home brewing. Photo: the babbling botanist

2. Chiller is most important

One of the best ways Reduce the chance of contamination of your beer by cooling the wort as quickly as possible. Many new homebrewers achieve this by submerging the brew kettle in a bath of ice or cold water. Depending on how many bags of ice you bought (which is an additional cost), this process can take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour or more. You can save a lot of time, hassle and reduce the risk of infection by purchasing a chiller. They happen different forms and sizes, but the most common is the immersion chiller made of copper or stainless steel. Immersion chillers typically cost $50–$70 and can cool a 20-quart boiler in 20 minutes or less. You just connect the source cold water to the chiller, put it in the kettle 10 minutes before the end of the wort boil to disinfect it, and then run the water after turning off the kettle. The chiller will do the rest. There are also plate chillers, but they are a little more difficult to use and cost significantly more.

3. Buy an automatic siphon

If you are transferring wort from the kettle into a fermentation tank or keg, you need a siphon. Most beginner brewing kits include a 5/16-inch (8mm) siphon. They usually cost around $10, but if you pay an extra $4 you can buy an automatic siphon (with a telescopic system and “auto-suction” - ed.) half an inch (12 mm). It will save you a lot of time when transferring liquids from one container to another.

Yeast starter. Photo: Brülosophy

4. Make a yeast starter

When I ask experienced homebrewers about the most important things they do to make their beer better, one of the most common answers I hear is “I pay close attention to the yeast now and always make a yeast starter.” It doesn't matter whether you buy liquid or dry yeast, but by making a yeast starter you can ensure that fermentation begins and proceeds faster. Preparing the starter only takes about 20 minutes, but it greatly increases your chances of achieving an active and quality primary fermentation phase. also reduces the chances of infection because the conversion of sugar into alcohol occurs much faster when the yeast is healthy and abundant.

5. Aerate the wort

After you have boiled and cooled the wort, there is relatively little oxygen left in it. Yeast requires oxygen for active fermentation to begin. There are several ways to oxygenate your wort. For example, you can add water, but this will dilute the mash, reducing the gravity and changing the flavor of your beer. It's best to use a compressor with an aeration stone (the kind you may have seen in an aquarium) or an oxygenation kit. They will cost you between $35 and $50 (without oxygen tank). But trust me, it's a wise waste of money.

6. Buy a bottle holder

Carboy holders seemed like unnecessary accessories to me when I first started brewing. But since then I have purchased them for almost all fermentation containers. The handles are very convenient, especially if you use large glass bottles (in the USA, many home brewers prefer glass containers for fermenting beer - editor's note). For the ability to easily lift the bottle and move it, you won’t mind $6.

Photo: Jeremy Ricketts

7. Use a carbon dioxide drain tube

Before I started homebrewing, I read a ton of literature about using blow-off tubes instead of water seals. I should have paid attention to this. It didn't matter whether I used plastic or glass containers, the foam during fermentation often came out through the water seal. Using a carbonation wand instead of a water seal doesn't mean your beer won't foam, but it will prevent a mess in your apartment. Place one end of the tube in top part plugs, and immerse the other in a solution with a disinfectant. Some of the actively fermenting beer may overflow through the tube into the solution container, so check it a couple of times a day and replace the solution if necessary.

8. Use... a sleeping bag

It's hard to decide to buy a mash tun when you're just getting started with home brewing, as it can be quite an expensive purchase. Some newbies believe they can't get into grain brewing without real mash. Not true! If you have a good quality sleeping bag, you can mash the malt in your kettle and leave it wrapped in the sleeping bag for 60 minutes. You'll be surprised at how well it can hold temperature. And if after 15 minutes the temperature drops a little, just add hot water.

Using a dishwasher in home brewing. Photo: Beer Syndicate

9. Use the dishwasher

Bottling beer takes a long time. The journey from sanitizing the bottles to cleaning the fermentation tank can take as much time as actually brewing the beer, especially if you have problems with bottling. (I once poured 15 liters of disinfectant liquid onto the kitchen floor because I didn’t notice how the end of the tube quietly slipped out of the bucket). The following little trick can help you get rid of clutter: spill bottled beer on the open dishwasher door. Place the beer container on top of the dishwasher and the bottles on the open door. If something spills, the liquid will not end up on the floor, but inside the dishwasher. In addition, you can wash bottles in it before bottling.

10. Cover the stove with foil

If you've ever brewed beer on the stove and your wort has boiled over, then you know how difficult it is to clean the stove afterwards. Of course, it is best to stop the boiling, but you may not have time. Then spend a couple of minutes preparing the stove to save a lot of time later while you clean it. Remove the burners and place a layer of aluminum foil over the entire area of the stove, then return the burners to their place. If your wort boils over, you just need to remove the foil and throw it away.

Some people don't like store-bought beer. They enjoy brewing beer at home. Companies and enterprises are engaged in brewing. There is a wide range of brands and varieties on store shelves. People love this drink.

Beer is a low-alcohol drink characterized by a bitter taste and hop aroma. This is the first drink created by alcoholic fermentation. The ancient Sumerians, who lived 9,000 years ago, brewed a drink from barley malt. According to assumptions, the predecessor appeared in the Stone Age. In those days, people made it by fermenting cereals.

Home brewing is popular today, because a homemade drink tastes better than a store-bought one.

I'll tell you about the intricacies of cooking at home. Following these tips, you will prepare a treat in the kitchen. The main thing is to take the necessary ingredients: brewer's yeast, malt, hops and water.

Some people buy special hops, I use homemade ones. I have “female” hops growing in my dacha, which I collect and prepare. Hops ripen in August. The collected raw materials are dried and crushed.

Malt represents sprouted grains of wheat, barley or rye. I use barley. I brew beer from grain or malt extract. It’s not easy to grow malt; I buy it at the store.

Video tips

How to make beer from bread

European monks began brewing beer in the 12th century. Later, their Russian colleagues borrowed the cooking technology. For a long time, home brewing was prohibited in our country, but with the advent of democracy, this opportunity became available to everyone.

I’ll look at two time-tested methods of making homemade beer, and you, choosing a convenient option, will prepare a wonderful nectar.

Preparation is divided into 3 stages: cooking, fermentation and ripening.

You can buy a mini-brewery and special beer wort to simplify the brewing procedure.

Ingredients

Servings: 10

sugar 200 g
malt 400 g
crackers 800 g
hop 200 g
yeast 35 g
water 13 l
peppercorns to taste

Per serving

Calories: 45 kcal

Proteins: 0.6 g

Fats: 0 g

Carbohydrates: 3.8 g

4 hours 30 min. Video recipe Print

In a large bowl I mix 100 grams of sugar, 400 grams of malt and twice as much breadcrumbs.

I pour boiling water over two hundred grams of dry hops and add a few peppercorns.

I dilute 35 grams of yeast in 6 liters of heated water and add a mixture of pepper and hops. I stir.

I leave the container with the resulting pulp in a warm room for a day. I don't cover it with a lid. Then I add 100 grams of sugar and pour in 4 liters of heated water.

I put the dishes on low heat and cook for 4 hours. It shouldn't boil.

The next day I repeat the cooking. Afterwards, I drain the liquid and add 3 liters of boiled water to the slurry.

After 60 minutes, I drain the liquid again and add it to the first decoction. Then I boil the wort, skim off the foam and strain.

I bottle it and seal it tightly. Two weeks of aging in a cool place and homemade beer is ready.

Classic recipe

To prepare beer, you will need a spacious vessel for wort, a fermentation container, a thermometer, a water doser, a wooden spoon, a siphon tube and, of course, bottles with corks.

Preparation:

I pour three liters of water into a saucepan, add a kilogram of sugar, stir and bring to a boil. Place the container with malt extract in heated water for 15 minutes.
Upon completion of the procedure, pour malt extract and sugar syrup into the fermentation vessel. I stir.
I pour 20 liters of pre-filtered water into the same vessel. The main thing is that the temperature of the solution is suitable for fermentation. It's 20 degrees.
I add yeast. The procedure is very responsible; the quality of the homemade drink depends on the quality of fermentation of the wort. Brewer's yeast is sold together with malt extract.
I pour the yeast into the container with the wort evenly and as quickly as possible. It is not recommended for the future drink to come into contact with air for a long time.
I close the lid of the fermentation vessel tightly so that air does not get inside. Then I install a water dispenser - a rubber stopper that closes the hole in the lid. I pour chilled boiled water into the device.
I move the closed vessel into a dark room with a temperature of 20 degrees. I age the wort for a week. I do not open the lid during fermentation.
After the specified time has passed, I bottle it and add hops - a natural flavoring agent. I put a few hop cones in each bottle, and only then do I fill the bottles.
I add sugar to each bottle at the rate of two teaspoons per liter. After the bottle, I cork it, shake it and leave it in a cool place for 14 days to ripen.
After this period, the homemade foamy drink is suitable for consumption.

If you're tired of store-bought beer or don't trust modern producers, use my recipe. By the way, you can give a glass of homemade beer to your guests as a New Year's gift.

Recipe for brewing beer from hops

The taste of homemade beer will surprise you, since it differs from store-bought beer; homemade beer has a different level of quality.

Ingredients:

yeast - 50 gr.
boiling water - 10 liters
dry hops - 100 gr.
sugar -- 600 gr.
molasses -- 200 gr.
some flour

Preparation:

I grind hops with flour and sugar.
I pour the resulting mixture into a vessel with 10 liters of boiling water, stir and leave for three hours.
I filter the liquid and pour it into a barrel. Add yeast and molasses to this and mix.
I leave it to wander. No more than three days.
Then I pour it into clean bottles and seal it.
All that remains is to send the beer to a cold place for one week to ripen.

Homemade instant beer

Ingredients:

malt - 200 gr.
hops - 200 gr.
yeast -- 35 gr.
water -- 10 liters

Preparation:

I mix two hundred grams of grated hops with the same amount of ground malt. I pour the resulting mixture into a linen bag.
I pour boiling water in a thin stream through the bag into a large container. I mix the grounds in a bag, filter and cool 10 liters of solution.

Beer is a low-alcohol drink characterized by a bitter taste and hop aroma. This is the first drink created by alcoholic fermentation. The ancient Sumerians, who lived 9,000 years ago, brewed a drink from barley malt. According to assumptions, the predecessor appeared in the Stone Age. In those days, people made it by fermenting cereals. Home brewing is popular today, because a homemade drink tastes better than a store-bought one.

Some people buy special hops, I use homemade ones. I have “female” hops growing in my dacha, which I collect and prepare. Hops ripen in August. The collected raw materials are dried and crushed. Malt represents sprouted grains of wheat, barley or rye. I use barley. I brew beer from grain or malt extract. It’s not easy to grow malt; I buy it at the store.

I pour three liters of water into a saucepan, add a kilogram of sugar, stir and bring to a boil. Place the container with malt extract in heated water for 15 minutes.
Upon completion of the procedure, pour malt extract and sugar syrup into the fermentation vessel. I stir.
I pour 20 liters of pre-filtered water into the same vessel. The main thing is that the temperature of the solution is suitable for fermentation. It's 20 degrees.
I add yeast. The procedure is very responsible; the quality of the homemade drink depends on the quality of fermentation of the wort. Brewer's yeast is sold together with malt extract.
I pour the yeast into the container with the wort evenly and as quickly as possible. It is not recommended for the future drink to come into contact with air for a long time.
I close the lid of the fermentation vessel tightly so that air does not get inside. Then I install a water dispenser - a rubber stopper that closes the hole in the lid. I pour chilled boiled water into the device.
I move the closed vessel into a dark room with a temperature of 20 degrees. I age the wort for a week. I do not open the lid during fermentation.
After the specified time has passed, I bottle it and add hops, a natural flavoring agent. I put a few hop cones in each bottle, and only then do I fill the bottles.
I add sugar to each bottle at the rate of two teaspoons per liter. After the bottle, I cork it, shake it and leave it in a cool place for 14 days to ripen.
After this period, the homemade foamy drink is suitable for consumption.

If you're tired of store-bought beer or don't trust modern producers, use my recipe. By the way, you can give a glass of homemade beer to your guests as a New Year's gift.

Recipe for brewing beer from hops

The taste of homemade beer will surprise you, since it differs from store-bought beer; homemade beer has a different level of quality.

Ingredients

yeast - 50 gr.
boiling water - 10 liters
dry hops - 100 gr.
sugar - 600 gr.
molasses - 200 gr.
some flour

Preparation

I grind hops with flour and sugar.
I pour the resulting mixture into a vessel with 10 liters of boiling water, stir and leave for three hours.
I filter the liquid and pour it into a barrel. Add yeast and molasses to this and mix.
I leave it to wander. No more than three days.
Then I pour it into clean bottles and seal it.
All that remains is to send the beer to a cold place for one week to ripen.

How to make beer from bread

I’ll look at two time-tested methods of making homemade beer, and you, choosing a convenient option, will prepare a wonderful nectar. Preparation is divided into 3 stages: cooking, fermentation and ripening. You can buy a mini-brewery and special beer wort to simplify the brewing procedure.

Ingredients

sugar - 200 gr.
malt - 400 gr.
crackers - 800 gr.
hops - 200 gr.
yeast - 35 gr.
water - 13 liters
peppercorns

Preparation

In a large bowl I mix 100 grams of sugar, 400 grams of malt and twice as much breadcrumbs.
I pour boiling water over two hundred grams of dry hops and add a few peppercorns.
I dilute 35 grams of yeast in 6 liters of heated water and add a mixture of pepper and hops. I stir.
I leave the container with the resulting pulp in a warm room for a day. I don't cover it with a lid. Then I add 100 grams of sugar and pour in 4 liters of heated water.
I put the dishes on low heat and cook for 4 hours. It shouldn't boil.
The next day I repeat the cooking. Afterwards, I drain the liquid and add 3 liters of boiled water to the slurry.
After 60 minutes, I drain the liquid again and add it to the first decoction. Then I boil the wort, skim off the foam and strain.
I bottle it and seal it tightly. Two weeks of aging in a cool place and homemade beer is ready.

Home-brewed beer compares favorably with its cheap store-bought counterparts due to its richer taste, thick foam and lack of preservatives. The result is a drink that does not contain anything extra. I'll tell you how to brew beer according to classic recipe using only traditional ingredients: hops, malt, water and yeast. To preserve the original taste, we will not resort to filtration or pasteurization.

It is believed that to make real beer you need to buy a mini brewery or other expensive equipment. This myth is imposed by manufacturers of such products. Together with the brewery, such offices will happily sell the finished concentrate, which only needs to be diluted in water and fermented. As a result, a novice brewer pays exorbitant prices for beer, the quality of which, at best, is slightly higher than that of cheap store brands.

In fact, you can make homemade beer without special equipment, using available tools: a large cooking pot, a fermentation container made of plastic or glass, any bottles and other available equipment, a full list of which is published below.

You will only have to buy hops, malt and brewer's yeast. I do not insist on choosing a specific company or brand. The assortment is quite wide, purchase any product you like.

In theory, malt and hops can be grown at home. But these processes are beyond the scope of this article. We will further assume that all the necessary ingredients are available: homemade or purchased. The only thing is that I don’t recommend experimenting with brewer’s yeast, but immediately choosing the best strains in the store, since beer differs from grain mash precisely because of its special yeast.

Ingredients:

water – 27 liters;
hops (alpha acidity 4.5%) – 45 grams;
barley malt – 4 kg;
brewer's yeast – 25 grams;
sugar – 8 grams per liter of beer (needed for natural saturation with carbon dioxide).

Required equipment:

30 liter enamel pan - for boiling wort;
fermentation tank - for fermentation;
thermometer (required) - if moonshine from sugar or wine can be made only by approximately controlling the temperature, then with beer this is initially a failed idea;
bottles for dispensing finished beer (plastic or glass);
small diameter silicone hose - for removing beer from sediment;
ice water bath or beer wort cooler;
gauze (3-5 meters) or a fabric bag;
iodine and white plate (optional);
hydrometer (optional) – a device for determining the sugar content of wort.

Making homemade beer

1. Preparation. The first stage, during which the brewer checks the availability of the necessary ingredients and the readiness of the equipment for operation. I also advise you to pay attention to the following points.

Sterilization. Wash all containers and equipment used well with hot water and dry. Before working with ingredients, the brewer thoroughly washes with soap and wipes his hands dry. It is very important not to contaminate the beer wort with wild yeasts and pathogenic microorganisms, otherwise instead of beer you will get mash. Neglecting sterilization negates all further efforts.

Water. It is better to use spring or bottled water. IN as a last resort, regular tap water will do. Before brewing beer, tap water is left to sit for 24 hours in open containers. This time is enough for the chlorine to disappear and heavy metals and salts to settle at the bottom. Subsequently, the settled water is carefully drained from the sediment into another container through a thin tube.

Yeast. For normal fermentation, brewer's yeast is activated 15-30 minutes before adding to the wort with a small amount of warm water (temperature no higher than 28 degrees). There is no universal method that allows you to properly dilute any brewer's yeast. Therefore, you need to follow the instructions on the package.

2. Mashing the wort. This term refers to the mixing of crushed malt with hot water to break down the starch in the grains into sugar (maltose) and soluble substances (dextrins). Sometimes malt is sold ready for brewing, crushed, which makes the task a little easier. If not, you need to grind the dried sprouted grain yourself using a grain crusher or mechanical grinder.

Attention! Grinding does not mean grinding into flour; you just need to crush the grains into small pieces, making sure to save particles of the grain skin, which will then be needed to filter the wort. The correct grinding option is shown in the photo.

Correct grinding

25 liters of water are poured into an enamel pan and heated on the stove to 80°C. Next, the ground malt is poured into a fabric or homemade bag measuring 1 by 1 meter, made of 3-4 layers of gauze. The bag of malt is immersed in water, the pan is covered with a lid and boiled for 90 minutes, maintaining a stable temperature of 61-72°C.

Mashing malt at a temperature of 61-63 degrees promotes better release of sugars, increasing the strength of homemade beer. At 68-72°C the density of the wort increases, although the alcohol content in the drink will be slightly lower, but the taste will be richer. I recommend sticking to a temperature range of 65-72°C, which results in a tasty, dense beer with an ABV of 4%.

Cooking malt in a bag

After 90 minutes of cooking, an iodine test is done to ensure that there is no starch left in the wort. To do this, 5-10 milligrams of wort are poured onto a clean white plate and mixed with a few drops of iodine. If the solution turns dark blue, you need to cook the contents of the pan for another 15 minutes. If the iodine has not changed the color of the wort, it’s done. You don’t have to do an iodine test, but simply increase the mashing (cooking) time by 15 minutes; the quality of the drink will not suffer from this.

Then the temperature is sharply raised to 78-80°C and the wort is boiled for 5 minutes to completely stop the enzymes. Next, the bag with the remaining malt is removed from the container and washed with 2 liters of boiled water at a temperature of 78 degrees. This way, the remaining extractive substances are washed away. Wash water is added to the wort.

This mashing method is called “in the bag” and allows you to do without filtration - separating spent grains (undissolved malt particles) from the main wort. In turn, filtration requires specific equipment (purification systems) and repeated transfer of wort from one container to another. Mashing in a bag does not affect the quality of the brewed beer in any way, and takes much less time.

3. Boiling the wort. The contents of the pan are brought to a boil and the first portion of hops is added, in our case it is 15 grams. After 30 minutes of intense boiling, add the next 15 grams, and after 40 minutes, add the remaining 15 grams of hops and cook for another 20 minutes.

Depending on the chosen beer recipe, the time intervals and the amount of hops may vary. But by adhering to the specified sequence and proportions, you are guaranteed to get a normal result.

Boiling takes an hour and a half, during which time it is important to maintain intense heat to keep the wort bubbling.

Adding hops

4. Cooling. Beer wort must be cooled quickly (within 15-30 minutes) to 24-26°C. The faster this is done, the less the risk of contaminating the drink with bacteria and wild yeast that are harmful to fermentation.

You can cool the wort with a special immersion cooler (one of the possible designs in the photo) or carefully transfer the container into a bath of ice water. Most beginning brewers use the second method. The main thing is not to accidentally turn the hot pan over, scalding yourself with boiling water.

Cooler design

The cooled wort is poured through cheesecloth into a fermentation container.

5. Fermentation. Diluted brewer's yeast is added to the wort and mixed well. In this case, it is very important to follow the temperature and proportions indicated in the instructions on the bag label.

Yeast can be top-fermenting, which is introduced at a temperature of 18-22°C, and bottom-fermenting, which works at 5-16°C. These two types make different beers.

The filled fermentation container is transferred to a dark place at the temperature recommended by the yeast manufacturer. In our case it is 24-25°C. Then install a water seal and leave it alone for 7-10 days.

Example of a fermentation container

After 6-12 hours, active fermentation will begin, which usually lasts 2-3 days. At this time, the water seal intensively releases bubbles, then the frequency of carbon dioxide release slowly decreases. At the end of fermentation, young homemade beer becomes light. Readiness is determined by two methods: a saccharometer (hydrometer) and a water seal.

In the first case, the readings of two hydrometer samples over the last 12 hours are compared. If the values differ slightly (by hundredths), then you can move on to the next stage. Not everyone has a sugar meter, so at home they often just look at the water seal. The absence of bubbles within 18-24 hours indicates the end of fermentation.

6. Capping and carbonation. Carbonation of beer is the saturation of the drink with carbon dioxide, which improves the taste and the appearance of thick foam. Despite the complex name, the process itself is very simple.

Sugar is added to bottles for storing beer (preferably dark) at the rate of 8 grams per 1 liter. The sugar will cause a slight secondary fermentation, which will saturate the beer with carbon dioxide. The beer is then drained from the sediment through a silicone tube, filling the prepared bottles.

Spill completed

One end of the tube is lowered to the middle of the container with beer, the other to the very bottom of the bottle, this minimizes the contact of the drink with air. It is important not to touch the yeast, which, depending on the type, can settle at the bottom or accumulate on the surface, otherwise the beer will turn out cloudy. Bottles are not topped up 2 cm from the neck and are tightly sealed.

It is easiest to use plastic containers, since the lids can be screwed on by hand. Glass bottles require yoke stoppers or a special device for sealing regular beer stoppers (pictured).

Bottle with yoke stopper

Device for closing conventional plugs

Bottles filled with beer are transferred to a dark place with a temperature of 20-24°C and left for 15-20 days. Once every 7 days, the containers should be shaken well. After this, the drink is placed in the refrigerator.

7. Maturation. Homemade beer is ready. But if you let the drink sit for another 30 days, the taste will improve significantly.
Beer can be stored in the refrigerator for 6-8 months, an open bottle for 2-3 days.

Another method of brewing beer without special equipment is shown in the video.