When I think of brewing beer it involves steeping some grains (in my new cooler box mash tun configuration) and transferring it to my "kettle", usually with some spillage in the process. Then starts the uphill battle to convince my little Defy to break the laws of physics to get a pot nearly bigger than itself to start a rolling boil. After this there are the hop additions to keep track of, sanitation, syphoning and all sorts of messy tasks. Throughout this process there is monitoring temperatures, making sure you keep everything clean both before and after the brewing and of course the idea of bottling will also become a reality a week or two from brew day. All this effort will eventually lead me to sit back a couple of weeks later to a (hopefully) palatable beer that I can be proud of as I think back of what it took to create. To be fair, it is not all that hard and I maintain that this is where part of the fun and at least 50% of the (dare I say) "craft" comes in. Recently two guys over in the U.S of A have devised a new system they call Picobrew. I am not going to elaborate too much as I believe what they have managed to create is pretty incredible, but to be honest I am not so sure about how I feel about the home brewing implications it holds. Check out the video (also available on the site at above link): What do you think about this new system? How do you feel it will affect/change the home brew scene? To me the whole idea of getting messy and hands-on is part of the appeal. I suspect that such contraptions will not hit our shores any time soon, but how fair is that beer compared to a beer brewed by someone using "normal" home brew equipment for a competition? Just saying... Thanks to my friend, Flemming over in Spain for sending me this link.
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After all your hard work and effort you have finally managed to get something that now resembles some kind of beer albeit flat. In this third and final instalment of my mini all grain brewing series we discuss the process of bottling, carbonating and finally enjoying your beer – well, enjoying will come as a seperate post, but you know what I mean...so without further adieu, let's pick up right where Phase 2 left us... Technically, to ensure that the fermentation is definitely complete, one should take a sample and do two separate hydrometer readings over 24-48hours. If the readings are stable it means that all the sugar has been converted with success and that fermentation is overs. This can take anything from five to fourteen days – all depending on your ambient temperature, yeast type etc. etc. but let me not get too nitty gritty. I find I get the best results if I leave my beer for two to three weeks in the primary fermenter. Yeast is a wonderful organism that eventually cleans up after itself so the longer you leave it the more sugar it consumes and the more trub will sink to the bottom leaving you with clear, clean beer. Magic in a bottle if you will...now on to priming and what it means. Priming is basically the idea of adding some more sugar to your fermented beer to allow the remaining yeast cells to start a secondary fermentation – this time occurring in your bottle – which is the cause of the fizz or “carbonation” as the pointy nose among us would quickly point out. Needless to say this needs to be a carefully calculated exercise as too much sugar will cause some WWII re-enactments (from your bottles and your live in lady) and too little will feel like you are just sucking on your grain bag. There are countless stories on forums and other blogs about "bottle bombs", but do not let those guys scare you. From my research I have found the two main methods with which to achieve carbonation, fortunately I have some experience with both:
To succesfully complete this phase of the brewing process using my preferred, batch priming method you will require:
My process for doing a batch prime
Now the impatient wait really starts and the eager need to taste your beer will at times become unbearable and drive you to moods worse than some of the craziest PMS you have ever seen. But be strong young Jedi for the longer you let the beer sit in them bottles, the better! The minimum recommended wait is two weeks for everything to get nice and bubbly and the extra sediment to drop, but I usually do a tasting after week just to see if it will be worth the wait in the end. Before enjoying your pint you want to get it in the fridge at least 24hours before to make sure you lock that CO2 in nice and tight. This concludes the mini-series on mini all grain batch brewing how to. I sincerely hope this has been helpful to you in some way and obviously this is not the only way to go about it, but this is the way that works for me. Drop some comments and let me know what you think or how you go about making your own all grain goodness.
Next up – in what I guess will be part four technically – serving your beer to your mates and getting them to give you some constructive feedback for your next batch. Until then, I salute you! Cheers. All grain brewing – as I have said before – should be the ultimate goal for any aspiring home brewer. What I am out to prove is that you do not need massive equipment and massive garage space to do this – although you do sacrifice a significant quantity per batch. What this means to me though is that you are able to work on many different recipes and experiment with many different styles all the while gaining the benefit of brewing more often which means more practice and ultimately more experience. Going from grain to glass and being able to predict how your brew will turn out is near impossible when you start out, however I imagine this will get much easier once you have gone through a couple of batches and can start identifying what works and what does not. This was my first all grain batch and I had a mate over as he was keen to see how this whole process goes down so after a spot of lunch we spent the rest of our Sunday putting my little Defy through its paces...I am breaking this post up into three parts so herewith Phase 1. Firstly make sure you have all the basic equipment required for all the phases as it would ruin your batch if you got halfway and suddenly realised you are missing a piece - here is a list of the basic stuff you will need for this mini all-grain batch. First off what I like to do is start with my sanitation (probably earlier than I should) so that it does not catch me off guard through one of the later steps. The easiest way to do this is to just fill up a bucket or something you have with some water and then add the recommended dose of no rinse sanitizer. At this point I add my mixing spoon, syphon tube, rubber bung with airlock and funnel - all to be used for Phase 2 later. Handy Tip: the eco-friendly way to get your sanitation bucket filled up is to stick it in your shower and catch that first bit of water that you usually run as you wait for it to warm up anyway - this way it does not run down the drain and go to waste. I use Iodophor as my sanitizer and it comes with a recommendation of 10ltrs water to 15ml Iodophor - you will be surprised to see how quickly you "waste" 10ltrs of water... If you get to this point you have hopefully purchased some grains and most likely had them milled at the same time and you are now looking at this little bag wondering how do I turn this into beer? Well, allow me to introduce you to mashing – based on the same principle as turning your little teabag with the ground up leaves into your favorite mid morning work break this process will turn all those goodies into the first phase of your beer. To get started you will need to measure out and then heat up some water in the big pot to around 73-75 degrees to prepare it for the addition of the milled grains. Once the water reaches the correct temperature remove from heat, insert the grain bag and then slowly add the grains bit-by-bit stirring it between additions to ensure that it gets wet throughout. As soon as all the grain has been added, make a knot in the bag and then cover the pot with the lid. Now you want to set your “mash tun” aside covering it well with an old blanket to ensure you try your utmost to retain the ideal mashing temperature (around 65-67 degrees). This needs to sit for an hour and can be checked every 15 to 20 minutes to ensure the temperature does not drop below 60 as this will affect the ability to extract the maximum sugars and starches from the grains. ***Update - I have started using a cooler box as a mash tun with far greater results - read about it here. From here you are not out of the woods yet as I recommend you use that second pot to start heating up some sparge water. If the temperature of your mash starts to dwindle you can simply use some of this heated sparge water to bring it up a little, but be sure to leave enough to run through the grains later. The final step in this phase completes the mashing element with something called sparging. In my case I am going to boil my wort in the same pot I mashed in so fortunately I can just rest my grain bag in my strainer on top of the same pot (I find my mixing spoon comes in handy here). Now you can start scooping the heated water from the second pot with your measuring jug and slowly start pouring it over the grain bag allowing it to run through the strainer and down into the pot with the rest of the wort. Make sure that you pour it all over the bag to ensure that you extract as much from the grains as possible. Once you have drained the bag with all the hot water you can set it aside - I usually just take the strainer with grain bag and just place it in the now empty sparge pot as it will still capture a couple of milliliters that you can add to the boil later - every bit counts! Just in case you are like me and you need some visuals, I have posted some pics in the gallery section showing exactly what has been discussed here in phase one. Now be sure to look out for the next phase where I will discuss the boiling process and ultimately getting the wort into your fermenter.
Brewing your first batch of beer does sound so cool and so appealing, but it does feel a little daunting when you know absolutely nothing. I had no idea where to start, what to do or even what an airlock was although now I am really glad I started taking this journey. I researched the process and the equipment for weeks – sadly I do have a mild case of OCD and I am known to be a classic “overthinker” at the best of times – and finally took the first step after purchasing my basic bit of equipment from A White chemists on Plein streen in town (unfortunately they have since permanently shut their doors). The first beer I “brewed” was a kit beer from Coopers – the Canadian Blonde I called Candy...well, secretly. Now that I have you all excited let me show you the steps I took that lead to me eventually sipping on my first home-made batch while sharing it with friends over dinner. Looking back on the whole process of my first brew, it can get broken down into four main phases: Cleaning/Sanitizing all your equipment it is quite important at this stage to get in the habit of sanitizing and keeping all the things that touch your fermenting brew cootie-free. The easiest way to achieve this is to use a bleach solution (which needs to be rinsed really well) or a rinse-free sanitizer like Iodophor. Mixing up the brew Start by heating up the contents of the can whilst dissolving the brewing sugar in some boiled water to allow for easier mixing. Now open and add the heated can contents to the dissolved sugar and stir it well. Once mixed through, top the bucket up with about 19-20 liters of good quality water - this can be room temperature as ideally you need this brew to sit between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius before pitching the yeast. Fermentation Add your little sachet of dry yeast and then set your fermentation vessel down somewhere safe specifically out of direct sunlight and in a stable temperature environment – I put mine next to the TV so Candy and I could bond over Call of Duty and series... Bottling and Conditioning When it was time for bottling I first sanitized all the bottles and caps I intended to use and then started tapping off some beer through the tap with the bottle tube attached. To allow for carbonation I used some Coopers carbonation drops which I had to chop up a bit to ensure I have the right amount of carbonation sugar for the bottle size I was using (I have heard before that you can just add a little bit of white sugar to the bottle). These have to sit around for two weeks - if you are able to resist - and then need to be chilled and enjoyed with pride! I must admit it is rather satisfying to get tipsy off your own brew that has been sitting in a bucket next to your TV for a couple of weeks. Oh, and don't worry about the girlfriend that keeps moaning about the “damned smelly bucket” in the lounge she will be happy to try some of the brew herself and trust me, its not smelly at all!
You can find all the pictures and commentary on this process from mixing to bottling to enjoying here. Now that you see how easy it is there are no more excuses so get brewing soldier! Now that's an order! As with most hobbies in life one does require some kind of hardware at the outset to get going and nothing changes when entering the world of home brewing. The type of equipment needed varies depending on the type of brewing (of the main three styles) you wish to pursue. In this post I will delineate the absolute minimum that will get you started, some suggested extras and ultimately up to the step before going into a more production craft beer environment.
When I started brewing I started with kit beer and this is the basic equipment which I had to purchase:
You can read my post with explanation here and see all the pics of the process here. To obtain your own set of goodies to get you going you can buy the complete kit online (or in person if you have some questions) from beerlab.co.za or from beerguevara.com. These guys are all very friendly and very keen to get you going with your first batch. Once you have it all, check out my post on storing your equipment. Good luck! |
About me
Recently enlightened by the exciting world of craft beer I have been falling in love with new flavors, colors and smells. I do not consider myself a professional brewer (yet), but I am an enthusiast and passionate about beer and that is all that matters... Archives
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