Home brewing for beginners. Anyone can do it.

Do you love beer and simply cannot imagine living without a cold one? Totally understood. If you decide to make your own beer, you will no longer find the plain tasting supermarket beers appealing. These watered down beers are only good to quench your thirst after a long biking trip. Full-bodied beers, both top-and bottom-fermented are much better and tastier. Making a great beer at home does not have to be complicated. We shall tell you what you need and how is it done and also explain some of the specific details of home brewing. We cannot cover all in this article because the topic is rather extensive, but we are preparing several articles and home brewing videos that can help you.

Good equipment is a must

In order to brew a good beer, you need a quality boiler, strainers and a cooling spiral. Wort must be cooled to the required fermentation temperature within two hours of brewing. You can brew beer in a classic canning pot, but a brewing pot is much better and you can buy one for €400. It may sound little expensive but a brewing pot is equipped with a circulation pump, so no manual mixing. You will appreciate that.

Raw materials

Malt s is the base of beer. There are many different malts to choose from, for example Munich, wheat, caramel malt and others. They are often mixed together. You can also buy a regular malt and grind it. But the best way is to buy a “ready-made” malt, which is available in various beer stores. You will also need hops, which are either vacuum packed or in the form of granules. There are many types of hopsand last but not least, you also need brewer’s yeast which you can get dried or regular.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Mashing, separation, boiling and fermentation

These are the basic four stages of the beer making process. First you need to boil the malt to become a wort. Malt is cooked at different temperatures, but mainly above 70 degrees Celsius and the temperature changes once or twice during this process. When this process is finished you need to “separate” it. This is done by pouring more water into the boiler. Now the mixture is cooked at 100 degrees Celsius. This the actual brewing process. Hops in a basket or canvas are added to the boiler. Hops give the typical aroma and bitterness. When done the wort is cooled to the fermentation temperature, traditionally around 20 degrees Celsius.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Fermentation

Home beers ferment in fermentation vessels for 7 to 10 days. Bottom fermentation temperature ranges from 11 to 15 degrees and top-fermentation ranges from 18 to some 23 degrees Celsius. The finished product is bottled. Dextrose (about 3 g per half a litre) is added during this process and the beer is left to ferment. There are various fermentation recipes but in general, the maturing process should last one month at least.

Source: Domovarnik.cz

Preview photo: Radek Štěpán