Homebrew

Revision as of 10:32, 25 July 2008

Welcome to the OCAU Homebrew Wiki, your guide to the wonderful world of homebrewing.

Introduction

You are new to brewing beer, we are not. Heed our advice well for your benefit and you will soon be making premium quality beer for a fraction of retail cost.

Black Lips Pilsner by anc001

Essential equipment

• Fermenter (with thermometer sticker on side)
• Airlock
• Hydrometer
• Bottles
  • Glass - Traditional, very good for longer-term storage (your beer WILL get better with age up to ~1 year), but these require capping equipment.
  • PET Plastic - Simple, have screw-top lids (no need for bench capper), they never explode like glass can. However, while they hold CO2 pressure for well over 2 years, the plastic is known to be porous and will leech certain gasses in and out. So be careful storing your beer bottles near strongly odored substances (such as moth balls). Some gas exchanges are known to sometimes impart a "cidery" flavour if left too long before drinking, and the poor unfortunate soul who left his brew next to moth balls was reportedly drinking mothball flavoured beer (this is a slow process though, and can take up to 1 year to occur).
• Bottle capper - Invest in a proper bench-capper for capping glass bottles, where possible.
• Keg Gear
  This saves all the hassle of bottling, and there is nothing more impressive to show off to your friends! You can also (if desired) skip secondary fermentation, and use the CO2 gas to force carbonate your beer. However, kegs are flexible enough to handle a big secondary ferment in the keg also!
  • 18 Litre post-mix kegs are suitable
  • Carbon Dioxide gas bottle - available from BOC, Air Liquide or MyKegOnLegs (http://www.mykegonlegs.com.au) through most homebrew shops around the country
  • Regulator to control the amount of CO2 gas going into your keg
  • Gas/Beer hose to get gas to your keg, and beer out.
    • Clamps to make sure the hoses are on tight.
  • Tap/Beer Gun to dispense the beautiful liquid.

Remember though, to get your keg beer cold, you need to chill down a 60cm high by 30cm diameter keg (for 18 Litre soft drink style). This may require a dedicated fridge, or if you don't want to chill the keg, you can use a fancy in-line cooling system to chill your beer between a room-temp keg and your stein.

The process

1. Thoroughly sterilise all of your equipment.
2. Optional: Mashing/Steeping (soaking grain in hot water) and Sparging (rinsing sugars from mashed grain)
3. Optional: Boiling hops (in liquid extracted from mashing)
4. Mix fermentables (e.g. Tin of malt extract, mash liquid, etc.) with water in your fermenter. This mixture is known as wort (pronounced to rhyme with 'Bert').
5. Optional: Rehydrate the dry yeast in a glass of sterile water, or create a starter in advance from your favourite bottle-conditioned commercial beer (e.g. Cooper's Pale Ale).
6. Pitch (add) yeast into the wort.
7. Stir vigorously for several minutes (dissolving oxygen from the air helps the yeast).
8. Secure the lid and 'airlock' to your fermenter and maintain appropriate temperature.
9. The wort will now be fermented by the yeast which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide.
   1. Fermentation time is dependent on many factors such as temperature, the amount of sugar available in the wort, the amount and strain of yeast used, and so on. Therefore, brewing can be done in as little as 3 days to as long as 2 weeks. We recomend allowing the wort to finish fermentation then Rack the beer as described in the next step and bottle 2 weeks after this.
   2. Fermentation activity can be most accurately determined by measuring the Specific Gravity (S.G.) with a hydrometer. When you have taken 3 identical S.G. readings, each 24 hours apart, the wort is finished fermenting.
10. Optional: Rack (transfer) wort to another container 2 days after fermentation has finished and allow to settle for 2 weeks. (highly recomended as first step to making better beer, requires 2nd container).
11. Bottle or Keg the beer.
12. Preferably wait at least 2 to 4 weeks before drinking. (note: bottles need to be warm enough for yeast to carbonate the beer).
13. Enjoy your homebrew (the most important part).

Sterilisation

Sterilisation is one of the most important parts of brewing. Even the best recipes using the best ingredients will taste horrible if you do not sterilise your equipment properly. Clean everything that will come into contact with your brew and then sterilise it with a sanitiser. Do not cut corners.

Recommended sanitisers

• Sodium Metabisulfite realistically has no place as a sanitiser in brewing. The only reason homebrew shops still sell it is either through lack of owner knowledge, or the fact that stubborn customers demand it also through lack of knowledge.
• Malt Shovel "No Rinse" Steriliser - oxygen-based sterilising agent, with the advantage that it won't affect your brew's taste if you don't rinse it out, as it degrades rapidly to little more than oxygen and CO2. Not the cheapest option (~$1.50 per sachet), but highly recommended nontheless.
• Iodophor (iodine and phosphoric acid) - highly recommended, can be purchased from any good homebrew supplier.
• Milton Chlorine tablets - As good for sterilising brewing gear as for baby's bottles. Any chemist has these, just be sure to rinse after use.
• Hydrogen Peroxide and silver ion-based sanitisers.
• 'Pink' Steriliser/Cleaner - be sure to rinse this out, as it leaves an aroma.
• 'One Shot' (Ortho-phosphoric Acid). A no rinse sanitiser. Effective as a mild cleaner when warm, or to sanitise at any temperature. Can be reused frequently.
• Bleach - cheap, very effective but must be rinsed VERY thoroughly. Completely toxic to both humans and brewing yeast, so be careful when handling this.

Fermentables

Fermentables are sugar based liquids (or powders dissolved into liquids) and are the source of energy for your yeast, which will provide both alcohol and carbonation (gas) in your beer. Since they are the primary energy source for the yeast in brewing, fermentables are extremely important in the brewing process. They come in many forms, and either are pure sugars, or contain sugars.

Malt Extract

Other than extracting sugars from fresh grain yourself (called mashing) commercial malt extract is the best fermentable to use in homebrewed beer. They come in dried form (Dried Malt Extract/DME) or as a syrup (Liquid Malt Extract/LME). The usual 1.5 kg canned 'homebrew kit' contains a LME along with a bittering agent. Generally, these cans ask for an additional 500-1000g of fermentable material, such as powdered malt or sugar. Therefore most beginers will use 1x can of hopped extract (e.g. Draught, Lager, Stout, Pale Ale etc) and 1kg of additional fermentable material, (preferably dry malt extract).

There are many prepackaged varieties of malt that you can use to give your beer flavour, character, and alcohol content. You might see them packaged as "Brew-blends" or "Brew Enhancers", usually these only contain a small percentage of dry malt extract along with various types of sugars. Don't be fooled into paying more for sugar in this fashion, we suggest you shop for 100% dry malt extract.

The "light" and "dark" on DME labels (e.g. light dry malt) refers to the colour it will give to the finished beer.

Sugar

Also know as Glucose, Dextrose, and Corn Sugar. Virtually identical, these sugars vary only in name and production method, not in extant attributes. Glucose is highly fermentable and will result in higher alcohol content but almost no flavour. Avoid using glucose as a primary source of fermentables for your beer because it does not contribute any flavour or body. Fermentables derived from malt retain compounds that contribute body and flavour to the beer, without malt beer would not taste like beer. We encourage beginers to not use any sugar at all, and to instead substitute light dry malt.

Using glucose as an adjunct to boost alcohol level in a beer is fine, under 10% should usually avoid undesirable flavours. Once you are happy that your homebrew tastes malty enough you can try try 5-15% and experiment from there.

Honey

Honey contains sugars that can be fermented into alcohol, mead is one of the earliest alcoholic drinks. Unlike malt, honey does not contain nutrients for the yeast to use, so if brewing a mead you will need to add yeast nutrient

In beer honey can be used to produce some interesting flavours, but is not as reliable as using a malt extract. Due to its water content in honey 340 grams of sugar has equivalent fermentable material as 450 grams of honey. Honey in beer can be an aquired taste and is not a standard ingredient in most beers. Honey contains fermentable sucrose, fructose, maltose, glucose and undesirable enzymes, wild yeast spores, pollen, insect parts and more. Use shop-bought pasteurized honeys reduce the chance of infection.

Fermentation removes much of the sweetness of honey and retains unfermentable compounds, such as the volatile floral essences collected from flowers. This can lead to undesirable results with honeys of certain origins. For example, those made by bees foraging on Eucalyptus flowers may add an undesirable Eucalyptus flavour to your beer (think of vapour rub!). For brewing purposes honey made from clover or alfalfa is recomended due to the subtle flavour of the honey.. Potential exists to use these idiosyncracities to your benefit, for example the subtle citris characteristics of honey from orange blossom make it coveted by producers of mead (an alcoholic drink made like wine with honey instead of grape concentrate). Small amounts of honey can make a significant contribution to the final beer, so start with a small amount if you think you would like to add honey character to your beer. Honey is often used by beginer brewers to mask off flavours and increase the sweetness and palatability of an otherwise ordinary beer.

Molasses

Molasses syrup is made from impurities and uncrystalised sugars removed during the refinement of white sugar. Its fermentability is variable. Molasses can significantly contribute to the colour and flavour of beer, for example the buttery flavour of 'Old Peculiar'.

Brown Sugar

This is merely white sugar with small amounts of mollases added. Small amounts of brown sugar can have a strong effect on the final beer and does not suit most styles but can be good in dark ales for example.

Yeast

Dry Yeast Rehydration and Proofing

You should rehydrate your packet of dried yeast before pitching it in with the wort. Rehydration and Proofing is simple and confirms that your yeast is in working order, otherwise you might wait a few days to find out that no fermentation has occurred. The yeast under the lid in kits might be old and possibly inactive. Good quality dried yeasts can be purchased for around $5 per packet and will result in a much better tasting beer than the yeast that comes free under the lid with your can of extract.

The basic rule of thumb is, ten times as much sterile water by weight as the yeast, e.g. 70ml for 7g kit yeast and 120ml for 12g sachet of yeast. Place as much water as you need into a sterile glass or jug, ensure the water is an appropriate temperature about (35-40c) and sprinkle the yeast over the water. After the yeast has absorbed the water add a small amount of sterile fermentables (like DME added to boiling water then cooled). Place some plastic wrap over the container and place out of the light for 30 minutes. Bubbling or frothing is a sign that the yeast has come to life and started to ferment the sugars you added. Such yeast is ready to make your beer.

Making a Yeast Starter

When you have a small amount of living yeast and need to increase the amount to be suffiecient to ferment an entire brew you will need to make a starter. This is merely a mini wort to help the yeast reproduce prior to pitching it into your batch. Homebrewers frequently prepare starters for their liquid yeast or bottle sediment, neither of which have enough yeast to ferment a batch properly.

In a saucepan add 1 part malt to 10 parts water and bring to the boil. (e.g. 50gm DME in 500mL, 100gm in 1 Litre). With the lid on allow to cool to pitching temperature (~30 degrees). Clean and sanitize a bottle for the starter, this should be fitted with a lid that allows pressure to be relieved without letting any evils into the wort (like the airlock on your fermenter). The easiest option is to use a cap that has a CO2 permeable membrane like available from www.oztops.com.au , another option is to fit an airlock into your bottle lid. The bottle should be shaken frequenlty to encourage yeast activity. Occasionally open the lid and allow air into the bottle and shake vigorously, this will allow oxygen into suspension and encourage yeast to reproduce. You will be able to see the increased amount of yeast in suspension by the increased cloudyness when shaken, and the increased sediment when the bottle is left to settle. For best results the starter should be escalated after it has used up all the fermentables in the bottle. For example, start with the sediment from one bottle, or the contents of one liquid yeast smack pack in 500mL of water with 50grams of DME, then when fermentation is finished add more wort to the bottle as described above, for example several more litres. Consider making the SG of the starter similar to the OG of your planned brew.

Yeast and Temperature

Temperature control is a very important part of making homebrew. As a rule of thumb, ales should be brewed at between 18 - 20 degrees and lagers should be brewed a between 9 - 12 degrees celcius. Higher temperatures will produce unpalatable flavours often slighty acrid or sour, sometimes refered to as 'homebrew flavour'.

The majority of yeasts that come with homebrew tins are ale yeasts, even for lager tins (a notable exception is Coopers Bavarian Lager), due to their ability to cope with the higher temperatures that are common in warmer climates like Australia. Dry yeasts that are sold under the lid of canned extract are chosen to withstand harsh conditions and ferment rigorously at most temperatures, not to make good tasting beer. These yeasts are very unlikely to make a good quality beer. The most imporant part of homebrewing is to choose a good quality yeast (because it is the yeast that makes your beer, not you!), and the most important way to care for your yeast is to maintain an appropriate temperature range so that it does not get stressed.

Cheap & Simple Methods to Maintain Correct Temps

Warming up your Brew

Your brew getting too cold? Try these ideas.

• Wrap your fermenter in a towel, the fermentation process itself produces heat, by insulating it better you'll keep your temps up.
• If a towel alone isn't doing the job, try boiling the kettle and wrapping it in the towel with the fermenter, creating a nice hot water bottle for your brew!

Cooling down your Brew

Your brew getting too warm? Try these ideas.

• Most plastic 'bucket' type fermenters has a reasonably sized dish in the lid, try filling this with ice to drop temps, remember a splash tray underneath is always a good idea.
• As with keeping it warm, you can try wrapping your brew in a towel or retired T-shirt, make it wet by adding water and ice to the top of the lid, if this does not provide enough cooling direct a fan at it producing a simple yet effect evaporative cooler.
• Submerge the fermenter in water to reduce the variability of the temperature during the day, your laundry sink or a large tub are ideal for this. By adding bottles of ice to the water at regular intervals and also using the t-shirt trick this method can maintain an active fermenter below 18 degrees in a room with an ambient temperature in the high thirties.

Racking beer off Yeast

Racking is a brewing term that means 'transfering the wort from one container to another'. Some brewers believe that this helps rid beer of the unappealing "home brew" taste by helping to remove as much yeast as possible prior to bottling. While this may be true a much better way to improve beer flavour is to use a quality liquid yeast and to ferment at appropriate temperatures as described elsewhere in this section. There are however other advantages to racking, including its use in removing beer from a yeastcake to be used for a subsequent brew, removing the beer to a second fermenter for either dryhopping, finings or bulk priming.

Racking is an ancient decanting method used to leave most of the brewing yeast in the primary fermenter, while moving most of the brewed beer to a secondary fermenter. Moving the brew from your primary fermenter to the second "racking" fermenter should be done gently so as to avoid allowing oxygen into suspention, which can oxidise the beer. Use food-grade plastic tubing to gently siphon the beer from the primary fermenter (e.g. from the tap)to the secondary creating as little disturbance as possible (i.e. not splashing or making bubbles). The racking fermenter needs to be extremely clean and sanitary, just like all every piece of equipment that touches your brew, and the racking fermenter should also have an airlock on it.

Often, the movement of the beer from the primary fermenter to the rack will "rouse" the yeast, and you may get a small amount of fermentation of remaining sugars happening in the secondary fermenter. This is fine, but after that has stopped (and it should quite quickly), let your beer sit still in the racking fermenter for a few days to let the yeast settle out and floculate onto the bottom of the fermenter. At this stage, bulk prime (in the first fermenter leaving the yeast behind in the secondary fermenter), or bottle the beer as normal - there will always be enough yeast left over in solution to carbonate your beer in bottles.

a)fermenter #1: primary fermentation

b)fermenter #2: rack beer into #2 atleast several days after fermentation has finished and leave for days or weeks, the longer it remains the clearer it will become. Hops can be added at this stage, see Dryhopping. Alternatively finnings or gelatine can be added at this stage to facilitate yeast floculation.

c)fermennter #1: add exact quantity of sugar to bulk prime the beer and rack beer from #2 into #1 and then bottle the beer immediately.

and the end of stage a) or b) a second beer can be prepared and pitched directly onto the yeast sediment left at the bottom of the fermenter when the previous batch is removed. This is more economic and makes good value of more expensive yeasts like liquid yeasts, and also ensures a very quick safe start to fermentation as there will be a large amount of yeast already present.

Bottling

As with your equipment, ensure that all of your bottes have been cleaned and sanitised. The most common type of bottles used are longneck bottles (750-800mL) and stubbies (330-375mL). When bottling homebrew you will need to "prime" you beer by adding a small ammount of fermentables in order to carbonate the beer (a.k.a. make it fizzy). A rule of thumb is to add 6g (or a teaspoon) of sugar per longneck bottle. 'Brewing drops' are a convenient method of priming bottles with a measured amount of sugar. Homebrew shops may also sell scoops for priming bottles, which deliver an accurate dose of sugar for each size bottle.

Cap your glass bottles with a crown seal using either a hammer and hand capper or preferably a bench capper. New caps are available for plastic homebrew bottles also and are inexpensive enough to not need to reuse old ones.

Bulk Priming

Come bottling time rather than adding individual measures of sugar to each bottle, which can be time-consuming and give inconsistent results, why not try 'bulk priming'?

Weigh out the amount of sugar necessary for the entire batch, using ~8g per litre of dextrose (or ~11g/L malt)*, then place in a sterile container and dissolve in a minimum amount of water. Open the top of your fermenter, and using a sterile spoon, gently stir in the sugar solution being careful not to splash. If you have a second fermenter handy, or a dedicated 'bottling bucket', an alternative is to put the sugar solution in this and 'rack' your beer on to it.

Now you can bottle your beer, as per usual, confident in the knowledge every single one will have a equal measure of sugar.

* You can use down to 4-5g/L dextrose (6-7g/L malt) if you desire less carbonation, such as for a Stout/Guinness styled beer.

Tips and Tricks

Santised Air-Lock Water

Consider putting a little of your sanitser of choice in the air-lock water, that way you know for sure nasties can't grow in it and make their way in to the fermenter, it certainly doesn't hurt (Unless of course while you're shifting the keg, some of that water sucks through the lock into the brew).

Sterilise the Bottle Caps

Easily overlooked in the bottling process, don't just make sure your bottles are clean but your caps too, just because they came in sealed bag doesn't make them sterile.

Recipes

There is a Homebrew Recipes page, but it's currently very much a work in progress.

Ales

For a decent imitation of "Little Creatures Pale Ale", try the following ingredients:

• Black Rock Pilsner Blonde (or other pilsner/blonde premixed LME)
• Brewcraft Brewblend #15 (500g Dextrose, 250g Maltodextrine, 250g Malt Extract)
• 150g light malt
• 10g Willamette hops (1 sachet)
• 20g Cascade hops (2 sachets)
• US-56 Safale yeast

Make your final volume 20-21 litres only for this brew. A nice, strong, flavoursome ale.

Lagers

Procedure Guide

Days leading up to brewing

• Plan your brew and purchase appropriate ingredients and required apparatus. Plan to use a quality yeast!
• Remember to store yeast in your refrigerator, and hops in the freezer in oxygen barrier bags to keep it fresh.
• If using a yeast starter or recultured yeast from the residue of a bottle-conditioned beer (e.g. Cooper’s Mild/Pale/Dark/Sparkling Ale/Stout/Vintage) remember to time the production of your yeast to be ready on your planned brewing day, e.g. about 4 or so days.
• Several steps in brewing require sanitary water, i.e. water that has been boiled then cooled, consider boiling a pot of water the previous day for this purpose and allowing it to cool with the lid on.
• If you are concerned about the quality of your water supply boil the water before using it or source different water before brew day.

Brew day

• Consider inviting a mate around to have a few brews and assist, an extra set of hands and eyes are valuable and you might be able to convert your friend into a brewer and make it an enjoyable regular event.
• Brewing is a rewarding pastime, so do everything you can to not make brewing day a chore, send the Mrs out to the salon, put on some Pink Floyd, have a couple of brews and enjoy your hobby!
• I will mention this only once: dedicate yourself completely to hygiene-. Every piece of apparatus should be sterilised and even the outside of containers, cans and bottles.

DO NOT CUT CORNERS IN SANITATION, CLEANLINESS OR HYGIENE!

The following is a simple and general guide based on the steps I take in brewing and those I have read elsewhere for my own use, it is not designed as a recipe or instruction guide, but more of a reminder so new brewers don’t forget any steps that they intend to make. Many steps will not be needed for your brew, I have tried to include everything I could think of for a “Kit plus” brew for people who are not entirely satisfied with the “kit and a kilo of sugar” method of beer production and want to adopt simple extra methods to improve the quality of their home-brewed beer.

Input is warmly welcomed and corrections desired for any step that is erroneous.

Mashing procedure (using grain in brewing)

• Purchase 1 KG Pale Malted Barley and have it crushed for you, or use grains specific to the recipe you are using.
• Place grains into a 'picnic cooler' (e.g. Esky).
• Add 2 litres of hot water for each kilo of grain. 75degree water should bring the temp of the mixture to the ideal 65 degrees.
• The cooler should maintain the temperature at this level for the 90 minutes required. At 70 degrees enzyme activity favours body, at 60 degrees it favours alcohol production, 64 is a good target temperature for most circumastances.
• after 90 minutes ladle the grain into a colander (or a lauter-tun) and pour hot but not boiling water (~70 deg) slowly through to extract the sugars. Use twice as much water as you included in the mash. (this is called 'sparging').
• Recycle the first litre collectedback through the grain bed to ensure good filration.
• Avoid stiring the grainbed while sparging.
• All the extracted liquid is then added to a pot and boiled with hops to prepare the wort in the next section.

Preparing the Wort

• In a large pot boil several litres of water (or the liquid derived from the mash and sparge).
• Add your fermentable materials, (eg Can of hopped extract: light dry malt: liquid malt extract: honey)
• To add bitterness, add some ‘bittering’ hops to a rolling boil and continue for up to 60 minutes.
• To add hop flavour and bouquet, add ‘finishing’ hops and boil for 5-10 minutes or at the moment you turn off the heat.
• Put the pot in a sink of ice and water and stir to cool it down, (or use an immersion chiller if you have boiled the entire wort, ie. about 20L).
• Empty the mixture into the fermenter (strain it if it contains grains)
• Add water to your recipe’s specifics (19-22 L is a nice rule of thumb)
• Mix and splash the water as much as possible to facilitate oxygenation for yeast reproduction. Stirring with a paddle or electric mixer is ideal.

Rehydrating, proofing and pitching the yeast

• Ensure wort is at temperature appropriate to pitch yeast.
• Test the specific gravity of the wort, this is the Original gravity.
• If using dry yeast rehydrate it in sterile water of about 30 degrees.
• When the yeast has expanded add a pinch of malt
• Frothing or bubbling indicates the yeast is alive and has started activity.
• If you plan to prime your beer with the Geil method remove the required amount of wort now prior to yeast pitching.
• Pitch your rehydrated yeast or previously prepared starter to the wort
• Place the lid on the fermenter with the airlock securely fitted.
• Ensure temperature is retained at appropriate level, i.e. 18-20 for Ales 10-13 for Lagers

Fermentation

• Allow fermentation at desired temperatures, when airlock activity decreases markedly start taking specific gravity readings each 24 hours.
• When a Lager’s SG reaches 1.015ish raise the temperature to 20 degrees.
• 3 consecutive identical readings indicate fermentation has stopped, (ensure final gravity is as expected and that fermentation is finished rather than stopped partway).
• Rack the beer (no sooner than 48 hours after final gravity has been reached) into a secondary carboy which has some ‘bouquet’ hops (prepared like making a cup of tea with the hops) and any finings or gelatine to be used.
• Allow to sit for 2 weeks or for yeast to flocculate and make your beer clearer. Lagers should be lagered at 0 degrees for 2 to 4 weeks.

Bottling

• If wort was removed prior to yeast pitching to be used as geil add it to the finished wort and do not add any other fermentables.
• If bottles to be used are all 375mL or 750mL carbonation drops can be used, 1 per 375mL bottle, 2 per 750mL bottle.
• If irregular bottles are to be used (e.g. 330mL. 500mL) calculate desired carbonation level and bulk prime the entire wort with the calculated amount of sugar.
• Gently mix in the geil or bulk prime sugar avoiding oxygenation.
• Fill bottles.
• Store in cool dark location for 2 weeks.
• Try beer after this 2 weeks or more a month is recommended.

Useful Links

• OCAU Homebrew Thread Discussion thread about everything homebrew.
• Aussie Home Brewer Dedicated Australian homebrew forums.
• How To Brew Brilliant resource for all levels of brewer.
• Grumpy's Brewhaus Contains recipes and lots of other information!
• Brewiki Australian Brewing Wiki (for the more advanced brewer).
• Home Brew Talk Forums with plenty of info about brewing beer, wine and cider.
• Jovial Monk Homebrew Shop Contains indepth information about homebrew, also a forum. Adelaide based to boot!
• Oliver and Geoffs homebrew and beer Contains lots of information about homebrew and a popular homebrew forum. Australian Site.
• pint.com.au A newish Australian homebrew site that already contains lots of useful information. Also has a breweries directory and home brew shop directory that both use google maps.