Learn to Brew - Part II

Learn to Brew!

This is the second in a series of posts about how to break on to the homebrewing scene. For Part I, click here.

Part II: Your First Brew Day

Now that you have all of your supplies and ingredients for your first brewing creation, it’s time to walk through the first brew day. I’d like to give some serious props to John Palmer and his How to Brew for teaching me when I started out. He goes in to much more detail, and it’s a great read if you want to know more about the science and the “why” involved in brewing. Hacksaw read The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by the infamous Charlie Papazien before starting his homebrewing adventures. John Palmer is the preferred read but Charlie’s work – while dated - is still a classic and very helpful.

From others I've talked to, and my own experience, the brew day really is a bit daunting when you first set out. Am I going to spoil the beer? Am I going to make a mess? Will it even be good? So, with that in mind, we’ll fast forward to step 1.

Relax! As I said before, if I can do it, anyone can do it. Brewing is actually a pretty forgiving process. So with that in mind, grab a craft brew (or maybe some friends’ homebrew), block off a couple of hours, and get ready to brew your own.

Start Heating: At this point, use your primary fermentor (which should be clean) to measure out the water for your boil. The size of the boil is really a function of your brew pot, and basically as much as you can fit with a few inches of room at the top is the way to go. Once you've measured out the right amount, go ahead and put it to the heat. The stove top will work fine – but an outdoor propane burner is even more efficient if you've got one.

Sanitize: This is one of the most important steps in your brew day. Failure to sanitize could lead to contamination of the beer, which might spoil it. I've found the easiest way to sanitize is to fill your primary fermentor bucket with 5 gallons of solution (follow the instructions for ratio of sanitizer to water on your particular brand).

Here are the things you’ll need to sanitize for brew day:
Fermentor
Lid
Airlock
Hydrometer (or test tube to hold wort)
Thermometer (not necessary at first, but good to do before you put it in the cooling wort)

Steep: While the water is heating, put your steeping grains in a grain bag and tie off the top. Keep an eye on the temperature of your water until it gets to about 160F. At this point, turn off the heat, add the bag of grains and swirl around (like a giant tea bag). You want to try to keep your temperature as close to 160F as possible (and not over 170F). Adding heat and stirring is perfectly okay, and if you have an electric stove, it may be necessary to remove the pot from the hot element to prevent it from passing 170F. Hold the temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Boil: There are multiple facets to this step, so we’ll go through them one at a time.

Add Heat and Extract: Remove the bag of steeping grains, letting the water drip back into the pot and squeezing gently. Add heat and the malt extract that your recipe calls for. Stir until extract (dry, liquid, or both) is fully dissolved and keep an eye on things until you get to a boil (Mr. Thermometer is a friendly helper for this task). They say a watched pot never boils, but a watched pot never boils over either, so there’s that.

Add Hops and Start Timing: Once you see the first bubbles starting to break the surface of the wort, go ahead and toss your first hop addition in (your recipe should have it broken out by times) and set your timer for an hour. This is the point for constant vigilance. The green monster, known as the hot break, rears up at this point. The frothy layer on top of the wort will start bubbling up pretty quickly, so you’re going to want to control the heat and stir vigorously until the frothing stops. You can actually see the foam “break”, and once you get to a nice, rolling boil with no thick foam, you’re free and clear. Note: if it does boil over on you, it’s okay! It does make a mess, but I've made some excellent beers that ended up beating me in the hot break battle.

Follow the Hop Schedule: Add hops at the times called for by your recipe. If you’re not adding any more extract, you won’t have to worry about any more hot breaks or boil overs (as long as you don’t have it rolling too hard). Also, if you've forgotten about your beer in all the excitement, go ahead and get back to that little guy. He misses you.

Ready the Ice Bath: With about five minutes left in the boil, go ahead and prepare your ice bath (in a sink, plastic tub, whatever will fit your pot). I recommend ice water (with some salt if you've got it). If you can, save some ice to add back to the bath once the first wave melts.

Cool the Wort: When an hour is up, turn the heat off, put the lid on your pot, and set the whole pot in the ice bath. This is a good time to rinse off your thermometer and throw it in the sanitizer solution (unless it’s been in the boil the whole time, in which case it’s fine). You can leave the lid on, or you can crack it a little to let some of the extra heat escape. The faster you cool the wort, the better cold break you get. This is where certain proteins in the beer get dissolved. If you don’t get a good cold break, it can cause chill haze, but this is merely an aesthetic issue and does not affect the taste of the brew. Add more ice after the first set melts if you've got it.

Aerate the Wort/Measure OG: Once the wort gets to about 80-90F, it’s time to pitch the yeast. If you have less than 5 gallons in the boil, you will be adding cold tap water to top off the fermentor (the amount needed to get to 5 gallons total). (Note: Some folks suggest boiling this volume of water first and setting it aside to cool so that it is guaranteed to be sanitized. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but I never had a problem with my tap water, and it saved a ton of time. Pour the cooled wort into your fermentor, letting it splash, slosh, and bubble as much as possible. Then top off with the cold tap water. Take your sanitized hydrometer and ease it in to the 5 gallons of wort or collect some wort with a test tube. Grab your original gravity reading and record for later.

Pitch the Yeast: Finally, sprinkle/dump the yeast in, put the lid on, and seal it up with the airlock. You’re welcome to give the bucket a shake here if you want a little extra aeration. Put the bucket somewhere fairly cool (basements work great), and forget about it.


Congratulations, you just brewed your first beer! See, I told you it wasn't that hard. Now, the hard part is waiting for the yeast to do its thing and turn your wonderful creation into beer. Relax for a week or two, save the bottles from all the beer you drink in between, and stay tuned for the next post on bottling your beer.