Hemihead
Well-Known Member
Welcome, dear reader, to a thread where you will see my first fumbling steps into the land of home-brewing! Here I will try to cover any progress (and failure) I encounter while trying to make my own beer.
Q: Why brew your own beer? The store is full of all kinds of beer.
There are a few reasons to this. 1: I have a great interest in beer. Each month I special-order all kind of odd bottles that is either sampled or put on a shelf in my basement to mature. 2: People should drink more locally produced brews. Each bottle of beer that is produced and sold locally is one bottle less that the big brewery dragons can't sell. 3: I am probably a bit odd.
Q: Isn't it hard to brew your own beer?
Not really. You can take a short-cut and buy ready-made beer kits, Cooper is a big producer of those, but they rarely produce good beer. I'm aiming for what's called whole-malt brewing where you make the whole process from scratch. More about that later.
Step 1: Getting the hardware.
You need a few special things to start brewing but most of them can be found in supermarkets, hardware stores or shops specialized in home-brewing. I spent a few hours around town and on the internet and I racked up most of the things i need.
4 large fermentation containers: I bought 4 30-liter plastic containers from a website specialized in wine and beer-making, one will be converted to a malt sift. Glass demijohns might be traditional and pretty to look at but they are heavy to handle and I have seen one shatter due to a plugged up fermentation lock. That brings me to...
2 fermentation locks: Looking like a twisted plastic pipe, a fermentation lock is a device used in beer brewing and wine making that allows carbon dioxide released by the beer to escape the fermenter, while not allowing air to enter the fermenter, thus avoiding oxidation. They also keep most of the smell in the container.
One 25-liter stainless steel pot: For water boiling and heating of the wort.
One cheap plastic cooler: This will not be used to keep beers cold, it will be used to keep the malt warm while making the raw wort.
One hydrometer: This will be used to measure the density of the finished sweet wort and finding out how much sugar it contains.
One cooling spiral: This is one thing I have to make from scratch. A 5 meter length of 10mm copper tubing will be made into a coil and fitted with connections to the water tap. This will be used to cool down the wort when it's time for fermentation so we don't kill the yeast.
Most of the things will arrive in a week, then I will put them in a pile a take a picture so you can see what I am rambling about. Next step, finding and modifying a recipe!
Q: Why brew your own beer? The store is full of all kinds of beer.
There are a few reasons to this. 1: I have a great interest in beer. Each month I special-order all kind of odd bottles that is either sampled or put on a shelf in my basement to mature. 2: People should drink more locally produced brews. Each bottle of beer that is produced and sold locally is one bottle less that the big brewery dragons can't sell. 3: I am probably a bit odd.
Q: Isn't it hard to brew your own beer?
Not really. You can take a short-cut and buy ready-made beer kits, Cooper is a big producer of those, but they rarely produce good beer. I'm aiming for what's called whole-malt brewing where you make the whole process from scratch. More about that later.
Step 1: Getting the hardware.
You need a few special things to start brewing but most of them can be found in supermarkets, hardware stores or shops specialized in home-brewing. I spent a few hours around town and on the internet and I racked up most of the things i need.
4 large fermentation containers: I bought 4 30-liter plastic containers from a website specialized in wine and beer-making, one will be converted to a malt sift. Glass demijohns might be traditional and pretty to look at but they are heavy to handle and I have seen one shatter due to a plugged up fermentation lock. That brings me to...
2 fermentation locks: Looking like a twisted plastic pipe, a fermentation lock is a device used in beer brewing and wine making that allows carbon dioxide released by the beer to escape the fermenter, while not allowing air to enter the fermenter, thus avoiding oxidation. They also keep most of the smell in the container.
One 25-liter stainless steel pot: For water boiling and heating of the wort.
One cheap plastic cooler: This will not be used to keep beers cold, it will be used to keep the malt warm while making the raw wort.
One hydrometer: This will be used to measure the density of the finished sweet wort and finding out how much sugar it contains.
One cooling spiral: This is one thing I have to make from scratch. A 5 meter length of 10mm copper tubing will be made into a coil and fitted with connections to the water tap. This will be used to cool down the wort when it's time for fermentation so we don't kill the yeast.
Most of the things will arrive in a week, then I will put them in a pile a take a picture so you can see what I am rambling about. Next step, finding and modifying a recipe!