I bring to your attention an interesting instruction on how you can easily brew delicious beer on your own at home, which will definitely please all your friends. Be sure to read on!
Equipment.
The first thing you need is a pot or a 40-liter tank. It can be enameled, or they can be made of stainless steel. Stainless steel is better, but more expensive. The enamelled container is nothing, but three times cheaper. I bought this miracle for 2000 rubles. Barely found, by the way. For a home, you can do with a saucepan when boiling up to 50 liters. Then you need to buy more serious equipment, since it is difficult and dangerous to carry 50 liters of boiling water with your hands.
In terms of the degree of hardcoreness, home brewing can be divided into two types: concentrate and all-grain.
In the first case, we have ready-made wort, in the form of evaporated concentrate. It's not chemistry. This is what neither is a still-life product. Now the choice of concentrates is very large, you can choose something for every taste. They cost around 800 rubles for a can of 20 liters of finished beer.
In the second, we buy malt and mock it ourselves. There are, however, absolutely perfectionists, they themselves make malt from barley and prepare the water, achieving the desired mineralization. Well, for example, if some beer is brewed in the English village of Fuckthishole, then the mineral composition of the water there is found out and the same is done. This is an over 80 level house. brewing. For amateurs, it is enough to buy good water in the store or draw from a nearby well / spring / tap.
Next, you need to turn a banal pan into a wort mash. You can use two containers, one for mashing, the second for cooking, but in an apartment, the less bulky trash, the less the wife swears. Which is important for a brewer. We go to the nearest construction market and buy the necessary parts:
1. Half-inch brass squeegee plus two locknuts, plus two silicone gaskets, plus two PTFE gaskets.
2. Ball valve with internal thread, also ½ inch.
3. American for soldering with a copper tube.
4. Angle fitting.
5. Three copper tees with a diameter of 15mm.
6. Four corners of 15 mm.
7. Two meters of unannealed copper tubing.
In the pan, we drill a hole as low as possible (whoever has some kind of tool and handshake skill), trying to damage the enamel as little as possible, and we assemble this structure:
To the side of the pan, first put a silicone gasket, and on it a fluoroplastic. Otherwise, the silicone nuts will pick up.
Well, the wort is already ready. Now let's upgrade it to a jam. Here it is necessary to delve a little into the theory.
Mashing is the process of keeping the mash (water + malt) at a specific temperature. This holding is called a temperature break. During this time, the enzymes in the malt break down the starch, which is a polysaccharide, into simpler sugars that yeast can eat. The enzymes involved in this process are the so-called alpha and beta-amylases. In the figurative expression of one of our colleagues, if you imagine starch as a tree, then beta-amylases bite small twigs (fermentable sugars) reach the fork of a branch and freeze, and alpha cuts randomly into random pieces (non-fermentable sugars). The thing is that these enzymes are most active at different temperatures. Beta-amylase at 60-65 degrees, alpha at 70-75. Accordingly, if you let the beta work a little longer, we will get the wort of maximum fermentability, a high amount of alcohol, but an empty taste, because the yeast will turn all the sugars into alcohol and water. On the contrary, if alpha-amylases drive the beer, then the beer will be dense, rich, but very light, because there will be practically nothing for yeast to eat. By combining temperature breaks, they achieve the right balance between the body of beer and alcohol. Here, the theory is rough.
To turn our tank into a mash, you need to assemble a filter element. Here, unfortunately, some handshake is required.
To begin with, we take an American, a tee, a piece of copper tube and solder one to the other.
Soldering copper pipes is easy. You need a solder, always lead-free, and a flux. All of these are freely sold in markets or plumbing shops. We look at the solder Sn97-Cu3. Soldering will not work without flux, the solder will stupidly drain from the copper. If you have a gas burner for brazing, it's good, if not, a gas stove will do. We clean the surfaces, apply a thin layer of flux, put everything together and heat. When small droplets of tin appear on the parts smeared with flux, we bring the solder wire to the joint and the tin will be drawn into it under the action of capillary forces. Cool it down and voila. Just remember that copper has exceptional thermal conductivity, work only with a tool, otherwise a severe burn is guaranteed. Copper cannot, like a coal, be thrown from hand to hand, even a short touch is a burn.
We fasten the resulting crap to the squeegee and determine the length of the tubes to the sides of the pan. The filter must be in place.
So, we are gradually assembling just such a structure.
In the tubes, with a hacksaw, we make cuts by a third of the diameter and about a millimeter in width. We do not solder the tubes in two places, we leave them collapsible so that the filter can be washed.
Together:
Here is such a shaitan-device.
The last thing you need a handshake for is a cooler, or, as it is called, a chiller. Again we go to the market and buy 10-12 meters of annealed copper tube with a diameter of 10-12 mm and several meters (depending on how far the brewing will be from the point of connection to cold water) of any hose, plus a couple of clamps. The annealed tube, in contrast, is easily bent by hand. So we bend, winding on something that is suitable in diameter. Then, carefully, with a large radius, so as not to bend it, we bring the end up. For rigidity, you can solder the turns to the vertical tubes, but I just wrapped it with copper wire (there must be a "asshole" in the handshake).
Now let's move on to what is problematic to do it yourself.
1. AC-3 hydrometer. This bullshit is for measuring the gravity of the wort. You can do without it, but it's better with it. Many people use refractometers for this, but I myself have not used them, I will not say anything.
2. Capacity for fermentation. Now many online stores offer such 32-liter barrels with a water seal (4) and a tap (5). Also with a scale and a glued-on liquid crystal thermometer. You can buy it, you can separately. But, if in breweries this tank costs 300 - 350 rubles, then in offices selling plastic containers, it also costs 160 rubles. A matter of taste and laziness.
3. Mill for malt. Specifically, this one is called Comfort-500, made at the state farm named after the 47th anniversary of Mao, it looks scary, metal processing is at the level of the Stone Age, but it costs fifteen hundred and performs its function. The same, but made in Belgium costs 3,500 already. Advanced two-three-roll mills cost from 5 to 9 thousand. No grinder, grinder, or blender will work. I'll explain why a little later. A rolling pin will do, but it will not be a grind, but God's punishment and the seven Egyptian plagues.
4. ---
5. ---
6. Precise digital thermometer with external probe. Accuracy is at least within a degree. An absolutely necessary thing. The one in the picture, I bought foolishly for 1500 rubles. Then it turned out that you could buy a good Chinese thermometer for 300 rubles. On avito.
7. Libra. You also need to be more or less accurate. If it is within a gram, then it is ideal. In the picture Energy-403, they weigh up to 5 kg, there is a tare function. Accuracy - grams. Well, it’s written like that ..
The last thing we need is two and a half meters of SILICONE hoses for the fitting on the pan. I didn't draw it, the hose and the hose are so transparent. It is needed to drain hot wort. PVC will not work, it stinks when heated and gives off all sorts of nasty things. What you need is a medical silicone hose suitable for sterilization. Where to get it depends only on your imagination.
That's all. Micro brewery for home, for family, ready. There are also all sorts of small things that make the process easier, but at first you can get by. The budget for all this disgrace ranges from 10 to 15 thousand. Depending on the.
Now, let's move on to the actual brewing of beer. Just want to clarify right away that in addition to equipment and ingredients, you will also need a lot of patience. The cooking process itself takes 6-8 hours, fermentation from 7 to 14 days, aging from a couple of weeks to a year. That is, even in the simplest case, you will try your first one not earlier than a month after cooking. But believe me, it's worth it.
And another important point. The room in which all this devilry is taking place must be clean. No mold in the corners, no dairy products nearby. No animals. Wort is a super-nutritious environment for fungi and bacteria. Therefore, the cleaner the room, the less chance of beer contamination. I will write about the disinfection of equipment later.
So, let's cook the Black Rhino. This recipe, being clearly in a state of enlightenment, was invented by a friend from one club house. brewers with the nickname Rhino. The beer is dark. Therefore black.
We will need, based on 28 liters of finished beer (we are limited to a 32-liter fermentor):
Munich malt, Munich, color EBC 25 (in stores there will be “Munich-25”) - 5.77 kg.
Melanoidin malt, Melano, EBC 80 - 0.87 kg.
Caramel malt, Cara, EBC 50 (Cara-150 can be used, it will be darker and richer) - 0.35 kg.
Traditional hops, aka Traditional - 20 grams.
Saaz or Saaz hops - 40 grams.
Fermentis Safale S-04 yeast - one sachet about 11 grams.
First things first, grind the malt. We get our hellish mill and go. You can twist it with your hands, you can attach a screwdriver, I acted more cunningly and plowed my small one. Six kilos of malt will take half an hour with smoke breaks.
The trick of grinding malt is that you need to get not flour, but grains crushed into several parts and at the same time intact shells. This is why no grinder will work. These shells, settling to the bottom of the mash, form a filtering layer through which the wort is actually filtered. And it flows out through our filter system from copper pipes. The cuts are small enough for the husk to slip through, but large enough for filtration to take a reasonable amount of time. Without this husk, the grain will quickly clog the slots and the wort will be filtered before the onset of democracy in North Korea. This is what the ground malt looks like:
This recipe uses a one-pot mash at 72 degrees. Above, I talked about how temperature affects mash. So this beer should turn out "full-bodied" with a small amount of alcohol. We put a filter in the tank, take four times more water (24 liters) relative to the amount of malt and heat it up to 78 degrees, when filling with malt, the temperature will drop to the 72 we need. By the way, degrees there, degrees here are not fatal. But with more than 75, the activity of enzymes drops sharply. Overheat ninada.
Warmed up - add malt, stir. (photographed with Comfort-500, comparable quality). We measure the temperature.
It should be 72 degrees.
We close the lid and wrap the tank in a blanket / quilted jacket as tightly as possible.
We are waiting for an hour and a half. 1 hour, 30 minutes. Patience ... Patience ...
While the malt is mashing, let's prepare the yeast. Dry yeast - it must be rehydrated.
We take a jar, flask or something similar, sterilize it in boiling water and pour about 250 ml of boiled water into it. The water temperature is 20-24 degrees. Pour yeast from a bag into it and plug the neck with a cotton swab. Nutrients are added to the composition of dry yeast for the first time, so you can just do with water. They will begin to wander there in half an hour.
An hour and a half passed. Now it is necessary to carry out the so-called "iodine test". We take a bit of wort with a spoon and add iodine there. If the color has not changed, then there is no more starch in the mash, everything is broken down into sugars. And this is good. If it turns blue, it's not good at all. You can also try holding the wort under the covers, but most likely it won't help. Although I have not yet seen a high-quality imported malt turn blue in the iodine test after mashing.
Now is the time for a mystical process cleverly called mash-out. We put the tank on the stove and stirring constantly - because it will burn, bring the mash temperature to 78 degrees. We turn off the heating and soak it again under the blanket for 15 minutes. This is necessary to stop the activity of enzymes. The breakdown of starch is stopped.
During these 15 minutes we prepare water for rinsing. This is such a special water, which differs from ordinary water only in that it is heated up to 80 degrees. When we drain the primary wort, a lot of sugars will remain in the grain. It is not worth throwing away a good thing, so we will try to wash them out of there.
It's time to filter the mash. We put a silicone hose on the fitting, we drag our plastic fermentation house and open the tap.
What is the hose for. The thing is that hot wort is actively oxidized upon contact with air. And this gives an off-flavor to the beer. A hose is needed to minimize contact with air.
At first, the wort will go very cloudy - the husk has not yet really settled to the bottom, so we return the first drained liters. There is a subtlety here - it is important for us that a filter layer is formed, but pouring the wort back into the tank, we will stir up the sediment again. Whatever it was, we put a large plate on top, let it sink, but everything will now pour on it and will not disturb the grain.
We merge on the sly. As soon as the pure wort has gone, we stop returning it to the mash and start collecting it in the fermentation room.
At the same time, we make sure that the grain is not exposed. As soon as it appears, add rinsing water. So, gradually, pouring-topping, we need to collect 30-32 liters of wort. At the end, we stop pouring the flushing water and simply drain everything that is. The first part of the Marleson ballet is complete. We throw away the grains, unscrew the filter, rinse the tank and pour the clean filtered wort into it. And we set to boil. It will take a long time to heat up 30 liters, you can accelerate it by covering it with a lid. But keep in mind, if you miss the boiling point, the wort will run away, and washing the stove of burnt sugar is hell and Israel. You will also hear from your wife a lot of interesting things about yourself, about beer and about the universe as a whole.
As soon as it boils, weigh 20 grams of traditional hops and toss it in there. These are bitterness hops. Timed 50 minutes, let it boil. In total, we need to cook for 90 minutes or an hour and a half. During this time, about 3-4 liters will boil away, any unnecessary will evaporate with steam, some of the sugars will caramelize and the walls of the room will be covered with droplets of condensate.
Thoroughly wash the fermentation room, fill it with water and pour a bottle of 5% pharmaceutical iodine into it. We also throw the water seal with the cork there and push the fermentation lid. This is disinfection. Iodine decomposes quickly, so it does not leave foreign smells and tastes. Instead of iodine, you can use special disinfectants; specialized stores sell them in disastrous quantities. We leave it to stand.
After 50 minutes, we weigh 20 grams of ateck and add to the wort. These are flavor hops.
15 minutes before the end of cooking, connect the chiller to cold water and lower it into the wort. This is so that he has time to be sterilized with boiling water.
Five minutes before the end of cooking, add the remaining 20 grams of ateck. These are aroma hops. In total, we will get about 20 IBU (bitterness units). This is such a slight, pleasant bitterness.
We pour part of the wort into a 100 ml beaker, which I forgot to write about in the equipment, and separately cool it strictly to 20 degrees to measure the density. We put the hydrometer in there so that it floats and we look at the value of the initial density (NP). In this recipe, we need to get 13.5% IR. If there is more, you just need to add boiled water. If less - boil more. Although less is unlikely. In general, the output should be 28 liters.
(Here, unfortunately, a photo from another brew, the hydrometer shows 14.5%)
Upon completion of cooking, turn on the water in the chiller, turn off the heating. The point of the chiller is that the wort must be cooled as quickly as possible from 100 to 20-24 degrees suitable for yeast. This copper coil will cope with this in 15 minutes. If you take the tank to the bathroom and put it in cold water, it will take 40-50 minutes. And the longer the wort stands and comes into contact with the air, the more likely it is to infect it with "wild" yeast or bacteria that fly around in abundance.
During these remaining five minutes, we run to the fermentation room, pour out the iodine solution from there. Anyone who wants to can rinse with boiled water, but, in principle, it will do. Drain the cooled wort into a clean, disinfected fermentation tank. From a height of at least one meter.
The point of this action is that the wort, falling, is saturated with oxygen. Yeast, they are living creatures, they also need to breathe. For beers with low starting gravity like this, this method will work, but high gravity beers also need additional aeration.
We take the yeast in a flask, by this time they will already give abundant foam and pour it into the wort.
We close the fermentation lid, insert a water seal (without pouring anything into it yet) and, for another five minutes, shake it for greater aeration. Again, shaking a 30kg container is a good exercise. We take the fermentation room to a dark and cool place and only then pour either vodka or boiled water into the water seal. If you immediately pour the liquid, then at the first attempt to raise the fermentation tank, this liquid will be sucked in at a moment.
Everything. Now wait 14 days. And, one more clarification: S-04 yeast requires a fermentation temperature of 18-25 degrees. If less, fermentation will be sluggish. If more, during fermentation they will release a bunch of esters, which will have an unpredictable effect on the taste and aroma of beer. Therefore, it is advisable to maintain this interval during fermentation.
Here, they are wandering around. Below - the previous brew is standing, carbonizing.
Two weeks passed….
By this time, we went to the store and bought a pack of 1 liter PET bottles with corks and a pack of glucose / dextrose. This sugar is better absorbed by yeast than we are used to and does not give a brewed aftertaste. Now is the time to bottle the "green" or "young" beer.
To begin with, pour a little from the tap into a beaker and measure the final gravity of the beer (CP). I got 5%. Which, considering the temperature at which we mash (more non-fermentable sugars) is quite normal. According to the table, we find the alcohol content - 4.5%. Light and full-bodied beer as expected.
In order for the beer to be saturated with carbon dioxide, you need to add a little glucose to each bottle, since everything in the wort has already been eaten. Having devoured this sugar in a closed bottle, the yeast will just saturate the beer with gas. This is called “natural carbonation,” as opposed to artificial carbonation under pressure in kegs. In fact, there is no difference. In this recipe, comrade Rhino indicated 7 g / liter, so add 7 grams of dextrose or glucose to each bottle.
We open the fermentation room, bastard from the smell for a couple of minutes. Then we take our silicone tube (previously disinfected) or a special siphon, fill it with boiled water and, pinching one end with our finger, dip the other into the beer. The principle of the siphon, yeah, the fermentation should be higher than the bottles.
By the way, here, if you still use a pipe, you need the help of another person, better homo sapiens. All these body movements are in order to take beer from above, without touching the sediment, which will be 2-3 centimeters at the bottom.
Well, we remove our finger, wait for the water to pour out somewhere and the beer will go, and lower the tube to the very bottom of the bottle. Again we avoid unnecessary contact with air. We fill the bottle. When three or four centimeters remain to the neck, squeeze the bottle, squeezing out the air and close the lid. And so many times.
When everything is spilled, leave these flounder-like bottles also in a dark and not necessarily cool place. A week for carbonation. During this time, the yeast will eat up the glucose, the bottles will puff and turn to stone. By the way, this will also be natural preservation. There is nothing to eat there, there is no oxygen either, there is no contact with air. Beer in PET bottles can be stored calmly for six months (it is not necessary longer, after all, gas exchange takes place through the pores of the plastic), and in glass for several years. After carbonation, the beer needs to be aged for another month, but I started to open it after a week. I'm not made of iron. Although after a month of exposure, it undoubtedly became better. True, by that time half of the cooked was left ...
Well, actually everything. This method does not claim to be the only correctness. I wrote the way I did it myself. There are a lot of options. But with this set of pans you can cook whatever your heart desires. And my soul is capricious and restless.
There are many ways to brew beer at home using your own technology. Due to the fact that the product is quite multifaceted, a large number of different components are presented on the market to obtain it.
But in the classic version, most often used yeast, malt, hops, water.
If you use a good recipe, then homemade drink will turn out to be tasty, rich, with a dense thick foam. No pasteurization or filtration is required here. Only natural ingredients are used.
Few lovers of the noble potion dare to brew good beer at home. Most people in the street believe that it is much easier to buy a ready-made bottle in the nearest store. Therefore, all recipes are mainly designed for those people who are loyal fans of this product. As a rule, such people prefer pure and original taste.
Main ingredients and components for brewing beer
Yeast
Before making a beer at home, you need to buy good yeast. The positive outcome of home brewing largely depends on their quality.
Yeast is desirable to buy exactly beer... They must be dry and alive.
Malt
To make the liquid light, the malt must be dried naturally. The dark color is achieved by using a special caramel variety added to the bulk. The proportion of the additive is about 10% (see:).
Since malt is dried barley grains wrapped in hard husks when brewing at home the husk serves as a natural filter.
These ingredients should have a white color, a pleasant smell and a sweetish taste. Before using the malt kernels, they must first be ground so that the husk remains intact.
Hop
It usually comes in two flavors: fragrant / aromatic and with a bitter aftertaste... One or another type is used depending on what needs to be achieved: a pleasant aroma or bitterness.
Hops must be of good quality, as this is reflected in the gravity of the home-brewed beer. The hop cones should be slightly reddish with a yellow tinge.
Water
To make good beer with your own hands, water is best used spring... If it is of poor quality, the drink will not taste good.
To saturate beer with carbon dioxide, it is necessary add a little sugar in this proportion: 1 liter of liquid is filled with 8 grams of granulated sugar. Common kitchen utensils are used as inventory.
To boil the wort, you need a 30-liter enamel pot. It also requires another container in which the liquid must ferment.
Thermometer
To observe the temperature regime, a thermometer is needed. You can cool the beer wort in your home bath by filling it with cold water.
Usually home brewing starts with the preparatory stage... All utensils and necessary equipment should be thoroughly washed. You need to get started with well-washed hands. Otherwise, the dirt can infect the wort with some microbes. Because of this, instead of a pleasant product, you get a sour wash.
Step-by-step recipe for making a drink
Initial data: 32 liters of water, 5 kg of malt, 45 grams of hops, 25 grams of brewer's yeast and granulated sugar... Typically, the beer brewing technology consists of from the next steps:
1. Take a 25L pot and fill it with water. Then it should be heated to about 80 degrees. After that, drop the ground malt into the water. It should be immersed in a special bag made of several pieces of gauze.
Then the lid of the pot is closed and a pause is made for two hours. The temperature should be kept around 70 degrees. It is at this value that the desired reactions in the malt flow best. As a result, the wort becomes sweet and aromatic.
2. After two hours, the temperature should be increased to 80 degrees. We do the exposure for about five minutes. After that, remove the bag of malt from the pan and rinse in the remaining water, which is then poured into the wort.
3. Then the wort is brought to a boil, remove the foam and pour about 15 grams of hops into it. After 30 minutes of boiling, the same hop portion is added. After that, the wort must be boiled for an hour, then add the last portion of hops. The total time for the procedure with the addition of hops is an hour and a half.
4. Now the liquid needs to be quickly cooled in a bath of water. The faster this procedure is performed (20 - 30 minutes), the lower the risk of contamination of the prepared product with harmful bacteria. After the wort has completely cooled down, it should be poured into another container. During transfusion, it is advisable to filter through cheesecloth.
6. After that, the container is transferred to a dark place and left to ferment. The room temperature should be about 20 degrees. The boiling process will take about 3 days. At this time, carbon dioxide will be released from the liquid.
At the end of the process, the product will become significantly lighter. When gas bubbles stop coming out, the fermentation process will be completed.
7. For a thick and dense foam to appear, the drink must be refilled with carbon dioxide. It will also help to improve the palatability. This is done as follows. 8 g of sugar are poured into liter bottles.
After that, using a silicone hose, the house beer is bottled. Do not touch the sediment at the bottom of the pan. If it gets into the drained liquid, the beer will turn out to be very cloudy and unpleasant in taste.
8. In filled bottles, a secondary fermentation process will take place. In this case, the liquid will be saturated with the required amount of carbon dioxide. The filled bottles are also placed in a dark place for 2 weeks. After this time, the product will be ready for use.
It can be moved to the cellar or put away in the kitchen fridge. At this point, the drink will be tasty and aromatic, with a thick white foam. After a month in the cellar, the beer will become even tastier.
A 25 liter saucepan makes 15 liters of an excellent homemade drink. Its strength will be about 4.5%. The shelf life of such beer is 8 months.
Wort preparation
Mashing the wort is called the process of grinding malt and mixing it with hot water... Due to this, the starch contained in the grains is broken down into sugar and other soluble substances.
On the market, you can buy ready-made malt, which is specially designed for brewing. As a rule, it is skillfully and well detailed enough, thanks to which the task of making your own drink is greatly facilitated.
If you purchased whole grains, you can grind them yourself. For this, a conventional mechanical meat grinder is used. However, when grinding the beans, they should not be turned into flour. They should be broken down into small pieces.
Beer quality
If the question arises, how to check the quality of beer, then you can use the following advice. Before directly brewing the drink, it is necessary to check whether starch remains in the ingredients used.
To do this, pour a little wort into a clean white plate, then add a few drops of iodine there. If the solution turns blue, you need to boil it for another 15 minutes. When iodine stops changing its color, we can assume that the wort is completely ready. This means that the beer will be of good quality.
We look forward to your advice on how else you can check the quality of home brew in the comments below.
Home-made beer compares favorably with cheap store counterparts with a richer taste, thick foam and no preservatives. It turns out a drink that does not contain anything superfluous. I will show you how to brew beer according to the classic recipe using only traditional ingredients: hops, malt, water and yeast. To preserve the original taste, we will not resort to filtration and 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, they will gladly sell you a ready-made beer concentrate, which you just need to dilute in water and ferment. As a result, you will pay exorbitant prices for beer, the quality of which, at best, will be slightly higher than the store one.
In fact, you can make homemade beer by using the means at hand: a large saucepan, fermentation vessel, bottles and other available items, a complete 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 wide enough, you can purchase any material you like.
In theory, malt and hops can be grown at home. But these processes are beyond the scope of the current material. From now on, I will assume that you have all the necessary ingredients, whether they are homemade or purchased, it does not matter. The only thing: I do not advise experimenting with brewer's yeast, but immediately buy the best strains of them in the store, since beer differs from grain mash precisely in its special yeast.
Homemade beer composition:
- water - 27 liters;
- hops - 45 grams;
- barley malt - 3 kg;
- brewer's yeast - 25 grams;
- sugar - 8 grams per liter of beer (needed for natural saturation with carbon dioxide).
Necessary equipment:
- enameled saucepan for 30 liters - wort is cooked in it;
- fermentation tank - needed for fermentation;
- thermometer (required) - if moonshine or wine can be made only by approximately controlling the temperature, then with beer this is initially a failure;
- bottles for bottling finished beer (plastic or glass);
- small diameter silicone hose - for removing beer from sediment;
- a bathtub with ice water or a cooler for beer wort;
- gauze (3-5 meters) or cloth bag;
- iodine and white plate (optional);
- hydrometer (optional) - a device for determining the sugar content of the wort.
Making homemade beer
1. Preparation. The first stage, during which the brewer checks the availability of the right ingredients and the readiness of his equipment for operation. I also advise you to pay attention to the following points.
Sterilization. All used containers and accessories are well washed with hot water and dried. Before working with ingredients, the brewer thoroughly washes his hands with soap and wipes his hands dry. It is very important not to infect the beer wort with wild yeast, otherwise mash will turn out instead of beer. Neglecting sterilization negates all further efforts.
Water. Better to use spring or bottled water. As a last resort, a regular tap will do. Before brewing beer, tap water is defended 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. In the future, the settled water is carefully poured from the sediment into another container through a thin tube.
Yeast. For normal fermentation, brewer's yeast is activated with a small amount of warm water 15-30 minutes before adding to the wort. 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. Grouting 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). Malt is sometimes sold in a brew-ready, crushed form (called "mash"), which makes the task a little easier. If not, you need to grind it yourself, using a grain grinder or a mechanical meat grinder.
Attention! Grinding does not mean grinding into flour, you just need to grind the grains into small pieces, always preserving the particles of the grain rind, which will then be needed to filter the wort. The correct grinding option is shown in the photo.
correct grinding
Pour 25 liters of water into an enamel pot and heat it on the stove to 80 ° C. Next, the milled malt is poured into a cloth or homemade bag measuring 1 by 1 meter, made of 3-4 layers of gauze. The bag of malt is immersed in water, covered with a lid and cooked for 90 minutes, maintaining a stable temperature of 61-72 ° C.
Mashing the malt at a temperature of 61-63 degrees promotes a better yield of sugars, increasing the strength of home-brewed 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 the 65-72 ° C temperature range, which results in a tasty, dense beer at 4% ABV.
bagging malt
After 90 minutes of boiling, an iodine test is made to make sure that there is no starch left in the wort. To do this, 5-10 milligrams of wort is poured onto a clean white plate and mixed with a few drops of iodine. If the solution turns dark blue, cook the contents of the pot for another 15 minutes. If the iodine hasn't changed the color of the wort, it's ready. You can skip the 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 raised sharply to 78-80 ° C and the wort is boiled for 5 minutes to completely stop the fermentation. 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 is how the residues of extractive substances are washed out. The wash water is added to the wort.
This mashing method is called "in the bag". It allows you to do without filtration - separation of grains (not dissolved malt particles) from the main wort. In turn, filtration requires specific equipment (purification systems) and multiple transfer of wort from one container to another. Grouting in a bag does not affect the quality of the brewed beer in any way and takes several times 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 15 grams. After 30 minutes of intensive boiling, add the next 15 grams, and after 40 minutes the remaining 15 grams of hops and boil for another 20 minutes.
Depending on the selected beer recipe, the time intervals and the amount of hops may differ. But, adhering to the specified sequence and proportions, you are guaranteed to get a good result.
Boiling takes an hour and a half, during this time it is important to maintain intense heat so that the wort gurgles.
adding hops
4. Cooling. Beer wort should be quickly cooled (within 15-30 minutes) to 24-26 ° C. The sooner this is done, the less the risk of infecting the drink with bacteria harmful to fermentation and wild yeast.
You can cool the wort with a special immersion cooler (one of the possible designs in the photo) or carefully transfer the container to a bath of ice water. Most budding brewers use the latter method. The main thing is not to accidentally turn the hot pot over by scalding yourself with boiling water.
cooler design
The cooled wort is poured through cheesecloth into a fermentation tank. To saturate the future beer with the oxygen necessary for the normal development of yeast (after boiling it is almost gone), pouring is done 3 times.
5. Fermentation. Diluted brewer's yeast is added to the wort and mixed well. In this case, it is very important to observe the temperature and proportions indicated in the instructions on the sachet label. Yeasts are top-fermented, which is brought in at a temperature of 18-22 ° C, and bottom-fermented, operating at 5-16 ° C. The two make different beers.
Transfer the filled fermentation tank to a dark place at the temperature recommended by the yeast manufacturer. In our case, it is 24-25 ° C. Then a water seal is installed and left alone for 7-10 days.
fermentation vessel example
After 6-12 hours, active fermentation will begin, which usually lasts 2-3 days. At this time, the water seal is intensively blowing bubbles, then the frequency of the release of carbon dioxide slowly decreases. At the end of fermentation, the young home-brewed beer turns light. Its readiness is determined by two methods: a sugar meter (hydrometer) and a water seal.
In the first case, the readings of two hydrometer samples for the last 12 hours are compared. If the values differ slightly (by hundredths), then you can proceed 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. Plugging and carbonation. Carbonation of beer is its artificial saturation with carbon dioxide, which improves the taste and the appearance of a 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. Then the beer is drained from the sediment through a silicone tube, filling the prepared bottles with it.
spill completed
One end of the tube is lowered into 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 species, can settle at the bottom or accumulate on the surface, otherwise the beer will turn out cloudy. Bottles are not topped up by 2 cm to the neck and are tightly sealed.
The easiest way is to use a plastic container, since the lids can be tightened to it by hand. For glass bottles, you need drag corks or a special device for capping regular beer corks (pictured).
bottle with drag cap
device for closing ordinary plugs
Bottles filled with beer are transferred to a dark place with a temperature of 20-24 ° C and left for 15-20 days. To dissolve the yeast sediment, shake well once every 7 days. After that, the drink is transferred to the refrigerator.
7. Maturation. Homemade beer is ready and ready to drink. But if you let it stand for another 30 days, then the taste will improve significantly.
Beer can be stored in the refrigerator for 6-8 months, an open bottle - 2-3 days.
home brewed beer (ale)
Any hop beer recipe can be used in home brewing. You can cook it in the most ordinary saucepan. The volume of the container should be at least 10-20 liters. The inherent bitterness of the drink is regulated by the dosage of hops. Only dry buds are used for its preparation. They are inflorescences of female plants that contain essential oils, as well as bitter resins that form a specific bitter taste of the drink.
Why do you need hops?
At home, most often, they brew a drink from natural raw materials. In industrial production, granulated hops are used. It acts as a stabilizer in the product. It influences the color of the beer and the degree of clarity. In folk medicine, hop broth is used to treat angina. This is due to the plant's antibacterial properties.
The classic homemade hop beer recipe is an express brewing method. The traditional dosage of the plant's cones is 20 grams per 10 liters of beer.
Attention. Hops are a natural antiseptic and preservative. It has a direct effect on the degree of foaming of the intoxicated drink.
A hop beer recipe is usually made up of simple, affordable ingredients.
Recipe number 1
The simplest and most accessible recipe for homemade hop beer for everyone includes:
- 50 grams of yeast;
- 10 liters of boiling water;
- 100 grams of dry hop cones;
- 600 gr granulated sugar;
- 200 grams of caramel syrup;
- flour.
The preparation of the drink begins with mixing and grinding the hops, flour and sugar. The resulting mixture is poured into an enamel pan and poured with boiling water. The raw materials brewed in this way are mixed and left to infuse for 3 hours. At the end of this process, the liquid is filtered, cooled and poured into a special barrel. Yeast and molasses are added to it. The resulting extract is mixed and left to ferment for three days.
The fermentation process takes place under a closed barrel lid.
At the end of the fermentation process, the drink is bottled, corked and sent to a cold place for maturation for one week.
Recipe number 2
The brewing method is suitable for those who want to learn how to prepare 
a quality drink at home quickly and without special equipment. The cooking process begins with boiling 16 cones in 5 liters of water for 1.5 hours. After that, 250 grams of sugar dissolved in water is added to it and all this is boiled for another 20 minutes.
The brewed drink is filtered and cooled to room temperature. Yeast is added to the cooled product, after which it is sent to fermentation. Fermented beer is filtered, bottled, corked and sent to maturation.
The advantage of this method of brewing beer is its simplicity. This is one of the ways to brew home-brewed hops without malt.
Hopping beer
Traditional technology provides for the process in 3 stages. When used to prepare a hop drink of natural malt, hops are added at the very beginning of the wort boiling.
The first hopping of the wort is done to add bitterness to the beer.
The second time hops are added to the drink 20-30 minutes before the end of the wort preparation. It gives the drink a hoppy flavor. The third stage of adding hops occurs 5 minutes before the end of the cooking process. It enhances the hoppy aroma of the drink.
How to properly procure raw materials?
Only cones are brewed beer. Experienced brewers determine when to pick them by rubbing 
fruits between the palms. If a trace of green-yellow resin remains on them, having an unpleasant odor, then this means that the cones can be collected. It is very important that the plant intended for collecting beer material is at least 1 year old.
Home-brewed beer lovers grow hops in their summer cottages. Every year this climbing plant is cut at the root by them. Plant cones are picked by hand or cut with scissors. Drying should take place within a very short time. To do this, they are laid out in a thin layer on a burlap, which is placed in the shade.
Store raw materials in canvas bags. In such a container, hops are able to retain their properties for 3 years. The storage area must be dry and well ventilated. Hops that have black spots or streaks cannot be used in brewing.
Why is beer maturing?
During the maturation process, the beer extract is enriched with carbon dioxide. The fermentation of the sugars and the end of the ripening process do not coincide in time. At the stage of maturation of the product, the amount of aromatic substances in it decreases, the yeast precipitates.
The optimum temperature of the product during the maturation of home-made beer is 18-22 0 С. The best container for fermentation is a wooden barrel or an enamel saucepan. The ripening process takes place under a closed lid. The container is filled with extract to 4/5 of the total volume. The average duration of the ripening stage is 1 week. Then the product is filtered, bottled, corked and sent to storage.
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18 05 2015This section has been prepared especially for all lovers of this foamy drink. Recipes for making beer appeared a long time ago and until now it is not known for certain where this drink was first made. According to historians, the first ways to brew beer appeared 9,500 BC, exactly when people learned to grow crops. There is an opinion that cereals were originally intended for making home-brewed beer and only then, much later, they began to make bread from them. Now it is no longer possible to establish what appeared earlier, bread or beer. At the same time, all lovers of a foamy drink know very well that beer is called liquid bread.
Be that as it may, homemade beer recipes have survived to this day practically unchanged, and we have a wonderful opportunity to taste the drink that our ancestors prepared. This drink gained particular popularity in the 18th century, when monks living in Germany started brewing. It's no secret that even now, German beer is famous all over the world, thanks to its amazing taste.
You don't have to go to Germany to taste real good beer - you can make this drink yourself. In this section, we have collected all the most popular beer making recipes that are suitable for home use. Since the brewing process is not very simple and requires certain knowledge, in each recipe you will find useful tips from professionals that will help you avoid elementary mistakes and make this process not only easier, but also more interesting.
The homemade beer recipes collected in this section will help you, even without experience, to make this wonderful drink with your own hands. Thanks to a special technology, good quality beer has a special aroma and taste. It is very important not only to follow the sequence of actions, but also to choose the right ingredients.
Making beer at home requires patience and strict adherence to all the recommendations that are described in the recipes. Despite the complexity of the technology, it is enough to prepare this drink several times on your own and you can not only cook it without professional advice, but also make your own recipes.
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