Contents
Beer Basics
Types of Beer
Homebrewing Equipment
Homebrewing and Sanitation
Beer Kits
The Basic Beer-Brewing Process
How to Condition Homebrewed Beer
How to Bottle and Age Your Beer
How to Brew Without a Brew Kit
Beer Troubleshooting
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- The homebrewing equipment and ingredients you’ll need
- The entire beer-brewing process spelled out, step by step
- A troubleshooting guide to making your beer taste better
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Beer Basics
Beer is made from five major ingredients: malted barley, hops, yeast, specialty grains, and water. By adjusting the amounts and preparation of each of these ingredients, you can make hundreds of different types of beer.
Malted Barley
Barley is a grain that looks similar to wheat. It is malted through controlled germination, before being dried and roasted. The time and temperature used to dry the malted barley grains influence their final color and flavor. The malting process develops sugars and starches in the barley, which the yeast then “eats” and transforms into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the beer-making fermentation process (see “Yeast”).
Malt Extract
Most brewers leave the malting process to professional malting companies. These companies supply the malted barley to brewers in the form of whole grains or in liquid or powdered form called malt extract. Novice brewers are best off using extracts to brew beer, which is the process this
guide explains.
Hops
Hops are conelike flowers that grow on vines. Hops are dried and processed into whole leaves, pellets, or plugs (also called type-100 hoplets) for use in making beer.
Varieties of Hops
There are many varieties of hops, all of which create different flavors when used to make beer. All these varieties of hops break down into three basic types:
- Bittering hops: Also called kettle hops, bittering hops have high acid content. Brewers use them to provide a bitter contrast to the sweetness of malted barley.
- Finishing hops: Also called aroma hops, these give beer a floral aroma.
- Flavoring hops: These add spice and zest to beer.
Most beers use a combination of at least two different types of hops.
Yeast
Yeast is a live organism that converts the sugars extracted from malted barley into alcohol and carbon dioxide through a process called fermentation. The companies Wyeast and White Labs produce the highest-quality yeasts.
Types of Beer Yeast
Beer yeast is available in two types:
- Ale yeasts: These ferment at room temperature for a shorter amount of time than lager yeasts. They rest on top of the beer during the main fermentation process.
- Lager yeasts: These ferment at colder temperatures and for longer periods of the time than ale yeasts. They settle to the bottom of the beer during fermentation.
Brewers use a wide range of different ale and lager yeast strains. Different strains produce beers with different flavors, colors, and textures (see Types of Beer).
Dry and Liquid Yeast
Beer yeasts are sold in dry and liquid forms.
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Dry yeasts: Dry yeasts are recommended for novice homebrewers because they’re cheaper, less perishable, and easier to use. The downside is that dry yeasts come in fewer varieties than liquid yeasts, and there are almost no lager dry yeasts.
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Liquid yeasts: Liquid yeasts
appeal to more advanced brewers: though more expensive and difficult to work with than dry yeasts, they come in a huge variety of ale and lager strains. A wider variety of yeasts makes it possible to produce a wider variety of beers.
Specialty Grains
Specialty grains are raw or malted grains that enhance and accent the dominant flavors of the malted barley. Popular specialty grains include chocolate malt, crystal malt, roasted barley, black malt, and sour malt.
Water
Advanced homebrewers pay close attention to the purity, pH balance, and even the mineral and metal content of the water they use to make beer. But novices don’t need to worry about that level of detail: any good-tasting tap water can make great beer. If your local tap water tastes bad, you can often get rid of the chemicals or minerals that cause the off flavors by boiling the water or by installing a water filtration system. Another option is to buy bottled water—you’ll need five gallons of water to make most brewing recipes.
How Beer Is Made
The fundamental beer-making process goes as follows:
- In a process called mashing, the sugars and proteins of the malted barley and specialty grains are extracted by steeping them in hot, but not boiling, water.
- The insoluble grain husks are removed from the sugar- and protein-water solution, which is now called wort.
- The wort is boiled and supplemented with hops, spices, and other extras to add the desired flavors.
- After the wort cools, yeast is added to it and it’s stored in a dark place with a stable temperature. Over the following week(s), the yeast converts the wort’s sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide in the two stages of fermentation: primary fermentation and secondary fermentation.
- When the wort has finished fermenting, the beer is bottled and stored for several weeks in a dark place at room temperature before it can be drunk.
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