After beer has been brewed; that is, sugar has been extracted from grain, the resulting sugary liquid (wort) has been boiled, and then yeast has been added and fermentation has taken place, the result is essentialy beer.  One ingredient is missing, however;  carbonation. This is a favorite element of beer, not only making it quite drinkable (speaking here of the light and refreshing feel in one's mouth) but enhancing the aroma and flavor.  But how is beer carbonated?  Like many things in life, consumers often take this for granted.  A few curious beer drinkers have asked me--being a home brewer--how I carbonate my beer.  Most are clueless. One individual guessed that I added carbonated water to my fermented wort.  This isn't the case. Typically, there are two methods for carbonation:  forced and natural. Forced carbonation inserts the CO2 into the beer.  The beer is place into a sealed (or soon to be sealed) container and carbonation is rapidly added.  Under high pressure, the CO2 is absorbed into the beer. This is actually the preferred method for most breweries, as the turn around time for a finished beer is quicker, and the bottle contains little to no sediment, as the beer has been ...

If you are a home brewer, you are already a do it yourselfer to a degree.  I mean, you are making the beer you drink.  But maybe you are still using extracts.  Simply said, extracts are primarily made of maltose, which is the byproduct of saturating grains at set temperatures to convert starches (complex sugars) into simple sugars (mostly malt sugar).  When you are using extracts, the process of that conversion has already been done for you. The choices are really pretty scant.  You can buy light, amber, dark and wheat malt...which is pretty much it.  Any character that you wish to add to your beer must be done through the purchase of specialty grains, sugars, or other adjuncts.  Often these can be found via kits or fairly simple recipes.  Let me say, without equivocation, that there is nothing wrong with extract brewing.  However, you are able to maintain more control, better quality, and more creative spirit in the world of all-grain brewing. How do I know this?  I started with extract brewing. All grain brewing is easier than you might believe.  The description of the process sounds harder than the practice, so don't be discouraged by terminology.  Remember that if you ...

Having posted a series on how to brew that dealt mainly with extract brewing, we thought it was necessary to expand the horizon a little bit.  There are a multiplicity of reasons for including instructions on all grain brewing.  First of all, we have gotten enough response to the initial series that it seems appropriate to write further on the subject (i.e., you asked for it).  Second, I have personally noticed a marked difference in the quality and complexity of my brews since I switched to all grain.  The brewer has far more control over the end product.  Is it impossible to make great beer with extract brewing? Absolutely not. Is it easier to make a better beer with all grain brewing?  Absolutely.  Third, it doesn't require a whole lot more equipment to do all grain brewing vs. extract.  Fourth, and best of all, it's cheaper to do all grain brewing.  Why not get started today? Here is a brief outline for the series:  We will talk about constructing a mash tun and something to sparge with.  We will talk about the process of conversion and how it all works.  We will define, clarify, and spell out clearly a step by step ...

Now that you have carbonating beer and are itching to drink it (I know that you are), let's just briefly mention a few ways to store your beer. If you have room for 50 or so bottles of beer in your fridge, you can put it in there after a week or two of ambient storage. Lagering your beer post-bottling can help to improve, mature, and smooth out your beer (even if it is an ale). Hopefully, you have been able to keep your beer at consistent temperatures throughout the fermentation process. It is also important that you remain consistent in you storage of bottled beer. Here is a picture of my fridge that contains home and commercial brew. As I mentioned in the last article, you really must keep your beer away from too much direct light, especially sunlight. It is imperative to use a dark place or box that keeps the beer away from light. A homebrew can keep for quite some time. Of course, alcohol level, hop level, and darkness of the beer are all factors that impact the storage life of a beer. Chances are that most of your ...

Now that your beer is fully fermented, you should be ready for bottling. Always sterilize your bottles. This can be done numerous ways. You can clean it just the same way that you cleaned your fermenter. You can also run the bottles through the sanitary cycle of your dishwasher (detergent free), if you have one. It is also important that you have sanitized your caps for capping your beer. Is your capper ready? Have you sanitized your bottling bucket or bottle filler? If you have done these things, then you are ready. By the way, this is a good time to take your second hydrometer reading. Do this before you put new sugar into your beer. One of the first things that you need to do is to get about a pint or so of water (or beer) and put it in a small pot. Bring it to a boil. Now take your 3/4 cup of corn sugar (a.k.a., dextrose) or 1 1/8 dry light malt extract or 1 1/4 cup dry amber extract and dissolve it in the water. Once it is dissolved and has boiled briefly, ...

Now that you've made a recipe and gotten your beer into the fermenter, what should you do? "Why would I need instructions about that?" you might be thinking. One might think that it just needs to sit. But even doing that can be hard. I know that I was very anxious to taste and get my first beer finished; it can actually be a chore to do nothing about your beer. The focus of this article is manifold.  Above is a picture of my glass fermenter with a towel that I wrap around it. First off, watch for signs of activity. Your airlock should be active within 12 to 24 hours. In fact, it ought to be pretty active between 12 to 36 hours. Your airlock is your signal that all is well with sugar, yeast, and oxygen: fermentation is happening. The temptation to peak in on your glass fermenter is great. Okay! Remove the towel and take a quick peak at how crazy the beer looks in the glass vessel--because it is neat to watch. Just make sure that you are not letting a ton of sunlight hit your beer. ...

Is retrospect, as a home brewer neophyte, this was by far the most intimidating step on the journey towards a bottle of homemade beer. The first time I put the first pot to boil, I never left the side of my stove...and for good reason. As with many other aspects of life, I agree that a dose of respectful fear goes a long way. In the last post, we discussed ingredients. For this post , as it discusses the brewing process, I am going to employ intentional generality, for depending on your ingredients, recipe, personal preference, etc. the process may change up a bit here and there. I just want to give you a basic road map toward a finished product. After a few brews, you may go on a detour: Adjust a temperature, change a boil time, steep longer, etc. The first thing you'll want to do is sterilize everything. I suggest a no rinse cleanser, but there are other methods. Including rinsing with hot water, which will keep sanitary conditions.  Water from the hot water heater is very low risk.  Clean everything you will be using. This includes your thermometer, hydrometer, ...

In this post, we're going to offer some possible beers that you can brew. We can't do them all, so we're posting just a couple of styles. The other thing that we're going to do is stick to ales, since lagers are a bit of a different animal. Additionally, we are assuming that you've decided to do a partial grain-type recipe, so you will get need some specialty grains if you want to use these recipes. Seeing as how our next post is about what to do on brew day, we thought that you might like something with which to brew. There are plenty of homebrewing recipes out there, so you can always dig something else up. We have also avoided giving instructions on how to do this because it is posted in the next articles, so these are strictly ingredients lists. Also, we're not giving any gravity readings on these brews. These are two recipes that I made up, so enjoy and feel free to use them if you like how they come out. Mike's Milk Stout 16 ounces Chocolate Malt 8 ounces Roasted Barley 16 ounces Caramel Malt (medium to dark) 3.3 pounds Dark Malt Syrup (no hops ...

Now that you know what equipment you need in order to brew, you need something to actually make in it. As I've said before, beer can be done numerous ways. What sort of ingredients do you want to get? Like equipment, ingredients can be bought as a kit. These are pre-made styles that are intended to have no variation from package to package. These are easy to use because they include everything for the brew that you want to make. I'm also going to include some other options. But you will want to read over this article to have a little more information about what you are getting into. Pre-made kits: These kits (pictured above) can be done a few ways. They may or may not include actual grains for brewing. The former is what I called partial-grain brewing in my previous post. The latter is pure extract brewing. At a minimum, these kits will include malt extracts (in the sprayed powder form; i.e., they will not be liquid, which is not a big deal at all). The kits also include hops, whether inside the powder or in a separate ...

Now that we've discussed what types of brewing you can do, what are you going to need in order to do it? I've tried to highlight what you will need. This picture has some glass fermenters, airlocks below, racking canes and wort chillers (both upper left) A Kit: Brew supply stores almost always have ready-made kits that you can buy. This is obviously the most simple thing to do when you get stuff to brew with. Some stores will allow you to substitute glass fermenters for plastic for a fee. This and other up-grades are optional. I know that Nate has a great deal of success using a plastic bucket, but I prefer to use glass. Brew kits are usually minimalistic in approach and don't include a spoon and other things that you will actually need. Below I have given a list of what you need (and some optional things) for brewing beer. Each item will be mentioned and explained. At the end, I will give a simple, itemized list that will be easy to write down (or copy) rather than having to skim back through the whole article. I'm ...