The brewery should be a palace of production, safety and innovation.
The brewery is the heart of the craft business, its engine and its many complex systems and processes (from grinders and mash tuns to brew kettles and fermentation tanks) require constant supervision, maintenance and safety.
The path to the perfect brewery is long and full of big decisions. How big is your system, how much space do you have, what kind of beer will you be brewing, how easy should maintenance and cleaning be? So many questions. What will be the source of heat for the brewing vat? Will you have a "Locked - Informed" program to keep workers safe during maintenance?
Leading US craft manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials and equipment share their experience.
Do your homework
Mitch Steele, brewmaster, Stone Brewing Co., (Escondido, California)
When choosing a brewery, you need to properly to do homework and understand what scale of cooking you will have, and how often you will cook. Hardware vendors can help with this, but it's best to have an idea of the numbers yourself.
For example, a lot of quality equipment is made in Germany, but it is designed to brew German-style lagers.
Beer with high gravity and use a large number hops that US craft breweries typically brew, something they don't always factor into their calculations.
Calculate for yourself the volume of the filter vat, the depth of the filter layer for the types of beer you are going to brew, and also decide if you are going to brew 24/7. All of this will influence what size brewery you need.
Second advice- visit several breweries that use the equipment you plan to buy and talk with their owners about the operation of the equipment and the commissioning process. Most brewers are happy to share their experience.
Is it easy to work with suppliers? Did they deliver everything on time? Were there any difficulties in setting up?
In many ways, the choice of equipment will depend on your communication with the supplier. The opinion and experience of brewers who have already worked with these suppliers can help you make a decision.
After you calculate how much power equipment you need, add 50%. Just because in last years all brewers underestimate growth. Much faster than they can imagine, they have reached their limits and are forced to expand or build a new brewery.
Control. My top tip is to make sure you have all the critical parts on hand, especially those that can take a long time to ship. Work with your equipment supplier and service team to develop a maintenance program that includes preventive replacement of valves, filter vane blades, etc.
Another tip- Create an audit trail for your process. Track the beers you frequently brew from start to finish, take notes, and then check back periodically to make sure everything is working properly. Measure things like initial gravity of the wort, final gravity, evaporation and try to keep these values constant from boil to boil.
Understand the Basics
Udo Funk, US Sales Director, Ziemann USA Inc.
The size. What is the final capacity you want to achieve with the new brewery, what are your plans for growth? Are you going to immediately start working in two shifts. The capacity of the brewery determines the size of the brew and the number of brews per day. Modern brewing equipment can make up to 12 brews per day, even when it comes to craft beers.
Flexibility. Consider system expansion options. What degree of automation do you need? Can new vessels be easily integrated into the process? Can the brewery grow with your sales? Consider alternative technologies, such as a strainer tun or a mash filter.
Working out. The craft beer market is growing and becoming more competitive. Raw materials are getting more expensive. In a couple of years, even small breweries will find it difficult to run a successful business if there is a 20% loss in IPA brewing.
Guarantees. The most important of all tips is to make sure you have the manufacturer's yield and performance warranties, and make sure they're written into the contract.
What is best for your beer?
Dean Coffey, co-founder and brewer, Ale Asylum (Madison, Wisconsin)
In 2012, we carried out a massive expansion, which involved a complete overhaul of the entire process. While planning the opening of the brewery, I talked with producers from all over the world.
After some hesitation, I chose W.M. Sprinkman Corp. from our home state of Wisconsin. We supported local businesses and they made us quality equipment that was perfect for our needs.
Two other factors that I took into account when planning a brewery: what better for beer and how can we be more environmentally responsible.
I once heard of a vessel that will remove the dimethyl sulfide that can form in the whirlpool. I spoke to the Sprinkman engineers and asked if they could do something similar. They added a vessel that removes the dimethyl sulfide right before fermentation.
When we did the first brew, I went up to the roof, went to the pipe connected to the vessel, and, of course, I smelled the smell of popcorn coming out of there.
The most environmentally responsible thing in our brewery is the evaporator. Most breweries use direct heat or a steam jacket to heat the wort in the brew kettle.
Our evaporator has 26 inch tubes that feed the wort to the boil. Although it costs a little more, we save 85% energy and reduce our carbon footprint.
When we opened in 2006, many things about the brewery were different. Over time, I compiled a wishlist and made small changes that eventually gave a big result.
It doesn't matter what size your brewery is: research, think and create a system that fits your needs.
Brewery performance and system selection
Gregg Norris, Sales Engineer, GEA Brewery Systems (Columbia, MD)
When choosing an equipment supplier, the brewer must carefully assess their needs before choosing a specific technical solution. What equipment will be purchased is determined by the expected sales and the budget of the project.
Nanobrewers, restaurant brewers, and just small brewers rarely need powerful automated equipment. It just never pays off on such volumes. Only if money is not a problem at all, the choice of advanced equipment will be justified.
Growing brewers approaching the 100kdl/yr threshold should consider advanced equipment with high throughput and yield. Those producing 100,000 to 400,000 deciliters must weigh capital costs against total cost of ownership.
Is the reliability and automation of equipment important enough for you to wait for its payback within 5-10 years? Here's a question mid-range brewers should be asking themselves.
Brewers that produce more than 400,000 decaliters per year will benefit greatly from investing in powerful equipment.
Build your repair team
Dan Gordon, co-founder and COO of Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. (San Jose, California)
Preventive Maintenance is the key to keeping the brewery running. The equipment consists of thousands of parts, and each of them can fail at any time. You will be doing yourself, your business, and your budget a huge favor if you minimize the risk of equipment failure.
Make sure that all moving parts are regularly lubricated, that everything is checked regularly - for this you need to create the calendar. Replace gaskets and bearings before they leak or make strange noises, which are signs of problems.
Follow the inspection calendar for each part that may break or wear. For all parts that are difficult to find or replace, you need to have in stock spare parts. Also, make sure that you have the necessary fittings and other parts on hand so that the replacement can be carried out as quickly and successfully as possible.
Repairmen- one of the main people in the brewery. We at Gordon Biersch believe that it is easier to teach a mechanic or electrician how to brew beer than to teach a brewer how to repair equipment.
It is extremely important to have a master on staff. Yes, it's not cheap, but serious hardware failures can stop your work.
Priority - chief electrician. This is a person who knows everything about your motors, frequency controllers, sensors. AND mechanic should be able to disconnect, connect or reinstall any piece of equipment literally with his eyes closed.
Risks of Improper Cleaning
Dana Johnson, Sales Representative, Birko (Henderson, Colorado)
Because of the high temperatures, equipment cleaning is often not given as much attention as fermentation and clarification tanks and packaging equipment. This oversight can be short-sighted and result in problems with equipment and beer quality.
Let's look at places where improper cleaning can damage equipment and beer.
- Mash tun filters
- digester
- Whirlpool
- heat exchanger
On mash tun filters often overlooked, but often deposits of proteins remain on them, which are not removed when the usual way cleaning.
Dirty equipment can cause off-flavours in beer. In addition, scale in digester can interfere with heat transfer, requiring more energy to boil the wort.
AT whirlpools micro-organisms can multiply if they are not cleaned properly.
Heat exchangers- usually the first thing they pay attention to if there are problems with the wort.
Remember: good taste beer starts with proper equipment cleaning.
In the filter vat, safety is paramount
Tyler Gleizes, Quality Manager, Short's Brewing Co. (Elk Rapids, Michigan)
Are you using an old lauter vat? Do you regularly have to get up and take out the filters for cleaning? Do you have to work in a confined space?
In breweries with older equipment, cleaning the filter vat means you have to reach in and pull out the filters. And when you are inside the vat, you are exposed to many dangers.
- Turning off the power and jamming the blades so they can't move is extremely important.
- The mash and liquid supply lines must be shut off to prevent accidental supply when a person is inside the vat.
- Required ventilation- not only for cooling, but also to eliminate the possibility of harmful gases.
- The person servicing the equipment must have a properly calibrated and working gas sensor.
- And finally, it is necessary to procedure diaries. Each procedure is different, so there may be other hazards that are not listed here.
Don't Forget About Grain Recycling
Robert Vanathalo, Brewer, The Mitten Brewing Co. (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
You may not pay much attention to this when planning your brewery, but the use or disposal beer grains is an important task that beginner brewers should keep in mind.
Shortly after we opened, we were lucky to find a local farmer who was interested in using our grain as a feed supplement for his cows. He even came for it himself!
Our restaurant-brewery with a capacity of 35 decaliters uses a shovel, 250-liter containers and a grain cart.
On a typical day, we fill two containers, and they are very heavy. Check how much wet grain weighs before purchasing thin-walled vessels.
We store our containers in the backyard until we need them. Our 235 dl brewery produces more grain, so our farmer friend has a trailer ready for us. We fill it up at the end of the day and he comes with an empty trailer and replaces it with a full one.
Grain waste has many uses in agriculture. It is used as a fertilizer high content nitrates and sulfates. They feed them not only cows, but also chickens, pigs, sheep and even llamas. We recently started experimenting with adding brewer's grains to pizza.
December 16th, 2015
Home brewing in Russia has been actively developing since the late 90s, when beer concentrates and simple fermentation equipment first appeared on the market. Although a real breakthrough in the business of brewing beer at home occurred several years ago (and perhaps coincided with the "craft" revolution ;-) In addition to a significant range of beer blends, a wide variety of malts, hops, yeast began to appear on sale (recently , including liquid), more serious equipment for brewing beer at home began to appear - up to ready-made microbreweries for 30-50 liters and CCT of the same capacity. But such brewers, which are very expensive and also have some limitations, are much cheaper and in some ways more versatile, is to purchase a mash kettle with a false bottom. Here is such a 35-liter boiler (as well as a chiller and a fermentation tank of a comparable volume) that fell into the hands of the Union of South Moscow Brewers thanks to MirBir, the undisputed leader among stores for home brewing.
What is a similar boiler? It is made of stainless steel, with a very thick bottom (so that the pellet does not burn when heated), a threaded pin is welded to the bottom, to which the mesh is attached with a nut (it can be easily removed for washing), occupying only part of the bottom area, a silicone tube comes out from under the mesh connected to a faucet. Another silicone tube is attached to this tap from the outside, through which the filtered wort will be poured into another container. Such a system allows the mash to be filtered through the grains, just as it is done in large breweries. There is a built-in thermometer to control the temperature. For heating - you can use gas and electric stoves(instead of electric, it is better to use more powerful induction). You can not heat the boiler at all, but simply add hot water, temperature pause at the same time, keep it at the expense of a thermal jacket, which can be put on top of the boiler and the lid. At first glance, it seemed to me that this thermal jacket was superfluous, but as it turned out, there is double benefit(read below). Mash-boiler.Mesh false bottom.Thermal shirt.
So, on Monday, beer brewing took place on new equipment, which was held at Oleg Fomin's home brewery NakhBir, Mikhail Venevtsev (Zdechly vrabec) and I (Ch2DP2E) were also present from SYUMP, Igor Osanov also took part in the brewing ( home brewery Outfield Brewery. The NakhBir brewery is located on Nakhimovsky Prospekt and Oleg has long wanted to brew beer with the name of Nakhimov, so the beer is tentatively called "Nakhimov APL", where Nakhimov can be deciphered either as "nuclear submarine" or as "American pale lager". It will indeed be a lager (bottom and cold fermented beer), quite dense, dark amber or even red (only pale malts were used, although some of them are quite high in color - Vienna and two types of Munich), hopped with American hops (as in the brew , and on "dry" hopping).
Mikhail Venevtsev, Igor Osanov, Oleg Fomin.Oleg Fomin.Mikhail Venevtsev.Igor Osanov.Pavel Egorov.Malt, yeast and part of the hops were also from Mirbeer. I also bought a malt crusher there, but for a long time, it grinds malt perfectly, although for mashing in a new mash, a roller crusher is probably the best solution, it preserves grain shells better, which means filtration will be better. Malt grinding.
The mash kettle took up exactly 2 burners gas stove, so that the heating was carried out quite quickly. We didn’t have a normal stirrer (spar ;-) we’ll have to look for the largest table scoop on sale, but for now we’ve limited ourselves to connecting two wooden spoons together ;-) The built-in thermometer shows the temperature correctly, but has a lot of inertia, so catch the desired temperature the pause was difficult (besides, we had heating from the side, almost under the thermometer inlet, this also affected the accuracy). It will still be necessary to additionally use a conventional thermometer to more accurately control the temperature. A thermal jacket turned out to be not superfluous, having caught the necessary temperature pause, they turned off the heating and wrapped the mash, the temperature still fell, but not so quickly. The malt was German (Weyerman) and everything was wiped out very quickly - after 50 minutes the iodine test was normal (for 8 kg of malt, we added 25 liters of water and the mash was not very thick). Wort.
After saccharification, filtration began. Filtered into a fermentation tank that can withstand this temperature. The first cloudy liter of wort was returned back to the mash, the filtration itself went very quickly and the wort was quite transparent. True, we only had light malts, with dark ones it might not be so chic, but we’ll check. After draining the first wort, 12.5 liters were added to the mash hot water, mixed, allowed to settle and began filtering the second wort (the first drained liter was also returned to the mash). In order not to lose heat, they now wrapped the fermentation tank into which the wort was poured into a thermal jacket. Fermentation capacity.Wort filtration.At the same time, we heat water for washing the pellets.Drobina.
As a result, we got about 28 liters of wort, which was returned back to the mash (after removing the grains from it and washing). We put the boiler to boil, turned on two burners to the maximum, from 50 to 100 degrees the heating went on for about an hour. They boiled for an hour, hops were added in three doses of 25 grams - immediately, after half an hour and 5 minutes before the end of boiling (also at the end - they added a little juniper berries, for a "zest").
A beautiful shot, but it is better to pour the wort by taking it from above with a jug.Cooking log.Hop task.Cooled with a chiller. The chiller went down to the bottom of the kettle and quickly cooled the bottom of the wort, but the top remained hot, so I had to lift it and fix it higher (you will need to make some kind of hook for this). They decided to pour the cooled wort into the fermentation tank through a tap, just in case they put a nylon sock on it (to hold hop particles), the wort flowed very transparent (much more transparent than usual with us). Saflager W34/70 lager yeast was dissolved in water and added to the wort.
A total of 25 liters came out. wort with a density of almost 17% (calculated at 14-15%)! The efficiency of mashing is of course noticeably higher than with the method that we used before, which means that you can save on raw materials, achieving the same density with less malt. In total, they spent 8 hours cooking (with breaks for drinking beer ;-)
In a few days, when the main fermentation subsides a bit, we will add more hops to the dry hop maker, after that we will hold for another week and a half and bottle it (we have a lot of American hops, let's make some kind of killer mix ;-) . Bottled fermentation will go in the refrigerator (of course, a lager, for home brewing - a very difficult style).
From the noticed shortcomings of the equipment - the fermenter tap barely leaks and, during filtration, it leaks at the place of external attachment to the silicone tube tap. And there is a wish - to make the lid of the fermenter transparent (or at least with a transparent insert) in order to see the processes occurring in the tank during fermentation ;-) But in general the impression is purely positive - the mash-boiler is really a convenient and practical thing at a completely humane cost! The mashing and filtering of 17% of the beer was exceptionally fast, which means that you can try to brew even denser beers (and dense beers are a real headache for brewers). In the meantime, we are waiting for our beer to ferment ...
Shot: Canon EOS 5d markII, Canon EF 24-105/4.0L lens, Canon Speedlite 430EX flash.
Many beer lovers often do not know how this drink is made. The magazine The Beer Connoisseur has produced a magazine that briefly describes main stages of beer production..
Brewing malt. Photo: Financial Tribune
Malt
Brewing begins with barley, wheat, oats or rye sprouted in the malt shop. The grain is then dried in a dryer and sometimes roasted, a process usually carried out in a separate room from the brewery. In the brewery building, malt is passed through a crusher to open the shell of the grains. This helps extract more starch during the mashing process. Large breweries also use soaking before crushing.
The combination of different grains in the brewing process is often referred to as grain balance.
Mashing
The first step in the brewing process is mashing, in which crushed malt (grain) is placed in mash kettle. Mashing is the process of mixing grains with water and heating the resulting mixture to a temperature of 40 to 80 ºC. When mashed, the natural enzymes found in malt break down starches, turning them into sugars, which then become alcohol. This process takes an average of one to two hours. The temperature of the mash can be gradually increased, or the mash can be left at a certain temperature at the discretion of the brewer. At different temperatures, different enzymes are activated, which affects the extraction of proteins and fermentable sugars. Squirrels play less important role, however, are important for the formation of foam in the finished beer. Steam is used for heating in most breweries.
Infusion and decoction method of mashing
Water is mixed with grains in one of two ways: infusion or decoction. When mashing infusion the way the grain is heated in one container (mash tun); when mashing decoction In this way, part of the mash is removed from the mash kettle and boiled in a separate container, and then returned back to the original mixture. Some brewers repeat this process two times (double mash) and even three times (triple mash).
The resulting liquid in the mashing process, consisting of sugars and water, is called must.
(Note: when brewing beer from malt extract, concentrated malt syrup or powder consisting of crushed grain is used, which is mixed with hot water for making wort. This method is most commonly used for home brewing, allowing you to skip the steps required to separate the spent grains from the wort.)
Pumping
Straining or filtering the wort is the process of separating the wort from the grains as efficiently as possible. It is typically done in a separate decanting vat, although the mash filtration process is currently available to both large and small breweries.
The bottom of the decanting tub has round or longitudinal holes, as well as holes for draining. The solids from the mash remain at the bottom and form a wort filter.
The pumping process consists of three stages: mash-out, recirculation and rinsing. Mash out heating the wort to 76 ºC, which stops the enzymatic reactions and retains the fermentable sugars in the wort, and also makes the wort less viscous, facilitating further work.
Then carried out recycling wort and a filter layer is formed, with the help of which from the wort naturally particles of grain are separated, which makes the wort more transparent.
As soon as the wort is cleared, the remaining spent grains, consisting of the husks and particles formed during the mashing process, must be washed. Washing pellets carried out warm water to get as much sugar as possible from the grains for the wort.
After washing, the grains are usually used in feed for livestock and pigs or used in the production of bread.
Boiling
Having received the wort, it is sterilized by boiling in a cauldron. In this case, the activity of enzymes is suspended, and the liquid evaporates. During the boil, which typically lasts 60 to 120 minutes, hops are added.
Photo: +Russ Hopping
The taste, aroma, and bitterness that hops impart to a beer depends on the stage at which it is added. Hops can be added at the very beginning of the boil to give more bitterness: the more time it is boiled, the more bitter the drink will be. In the middle of the boil, hops are added for more bright taste, and in the end - for taste and aroma.
Hops can also be added after the boil by swirling (flavor/aroma), fermentation (dry hopping for aroma), or maturation (dry hopping for aroma).
Vortex mixing
At the end of the boil, vortex mixing is carried out, which makes the wort even more transparent by removing proteins and hop particles that settle at the bottom. These particles are called sediment. A brew kettle can be used for vortex mixing, but many breweries have a special container for this.
Hop separator is a vortex mixing tank that has a separate chamber with hops to filter the sediment. This allows you to give the wort a brighter hop aroma. The hop separator is often used when whole hop cones are added to the boil. A standard whirlpool is best used to separate the lees that form when pelleted hops are used.
Fermentation
The wort is pumped into the fermentation tank, and yeast is added (added) to it. This stage is called main fermentation- sugars are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The result is an ale, or lager, from the yeast used. (In the production of hybrid beers, one of these two types of yeast is also used).
After adding yeast to right temperature beer is usually kept at 15 to 20 ºC (ale) or 10 ºC (lager). During the conversion of sugar into alcohol by yeast, heat is generated, and this process must be strictly controlled. A higher temperature when using yeast for ale leads to a more active formation of aromatic organic compounds - esters.
Maturation
During the aging process, ales and lagers mature and acquire their final flavor, and the amount of fermentation by-products is reduced. Dry hopping can also be carried out at this stage to achieve a more pronounced aroma. More complexity can be added to the taste through other methods, including barrel aging.
Cold storage of beer for 30 days, known as lagering, defines the main differences between lager compared to ale: greater transparency and a different taste.
For the production of lagers, the method is also used secondary fermentation, which is called the German word "Kreusening". After the fermented "young" beer is pumped into cold storage tanks, actively fermented beer with added yeast is added to it. This extra dose of yeast activates the production of carbon dioxide and helps eliminate the undesirable effects of the main fermentation - diacetyl (or taste butter) and other compounds.
The aging process can last from one to six weeks, and sometimes longer. Depending on the style, the brewer may filter out the remaining yeast or other particles in the beer and then place it in the maturation tank. To make the beer more transparent and increase the shelf life, pasteurization can be carried out.
Fort Point Brewery. Photo: Matthew Ankeny Bottling and carbonation
Once the fermentation process is complete, the beer must be kegged or bottled and carbonated, either naturally or by force. In forced carbonation, CO 2 is injected into a high-pressure tank to carbonate the drink. Forced carbonation is used more often, as it allows you to speed up the process and makes the beer even more transparent.
During the fermentation stage, kreuzening can also be used for carbonation. In addition, aging in bottles or the addition of a small amount of sugar and yeast when bottling is also used for this.
Experiments
Experimentation is the soul of brewing, and every aspect of the process can be changed - ingredients, mashing and fermentation temperatures, as well as their duration.
Indicators
Key metrics, measured with liquid gravity meters, help brewers control the fermentation process.
- Density- the ratio of water to other substances contained in water, including sugar
- Initial density(OG) - gravity of the wort before adding yeast
- Final density(FG) - density after completion of the fermentation process
- ABV- initial gravity and final gravity - the main variables for calculating the volumetric alcohol content (ABV)
Beer is an extremely widespread drink all over the world, it was invented in ancient Egypt. Currently, we can observe it in bars and shops in huge number and a variety of varieties. But one cannot but agree that homemade beer, prepared by oneself, is much better than the factory one. After all, we know for sure that only organic products without any preservatives.
Many mistakenly believe that home brewing technology requires serious equipment, but this is not entirely true. To brew beer at home, it is quite possible to use ordinary kitchen utensils, for example, a large pot. In addition, all necessary ingredients for the recipe is now available in stores, and it is not at all necessary to harvest hop cones in advance and brew wheat and barley malt.
There are different recipes home beer, which abound with a considerable number of interesting components, because beer is a very multifaceted drink. But if we talk about the traditional classic recipe, then it includes yeast, hops, malt and water. If you do everything right, maintain the necessary pauses and correctly adhere to the recipe, then in the end you will get a homemade drink with thick foam and rich taste. No pasteurization and filtration, like store-bought beer, only natural ingredients - this is the only way to get foamy homemade beer with a pure original taste.
Brewing beer at home: what is needed for this?
The art of home brewing is not easy, so not many people risk making beer with their own hands. Most of us find it easier to buy a bottle of beer in the store than to fiddle with own kitchen. Therefore, all home brewing recipes are designed for devoted fans of this foamy drink, who prefer a pure taste, without impurities and preservatives.
To brew traditional beer, besides water, three ingredients are needed: beer yeast, hops and malt. The only “but” is that it is not recommended to experiment with yeast, but immediately buy the best ones in a special store, because the successful outcome of brewing depends on their quality. The first two ingredients can theoretically be made at home, but this will take extra time, so it is also better to purchase them ready-made.
An important nuance: to obtain light beer, the malt must be dried. naturally, to get dark, a special caramel variety is added to the main bill, no more than 10% of the total bill, it is cooked in the oven, lightly fried.
Malt
- these are, in fact, germinated dried barley grains in a hard husk, which serves as a natural filter in the production of beer.
This ingredient should be white in color, sweetish, pleasant smelling and not sink in water. Before use, the malt must be ground in a special roller mill, so that an intact husk remains.
Hop
all varieties are divided into two types: aromatic and bitter, and it is selected depending on what you want to achieve more in home beer, aroma or bitterness. The main thing is that the hops are of good quality, this plays an important role in the density house drink. Before using it, the bumps must be carefully examined, they should be reddish and yellowish in color.
Yeast
it is highly desirable to take beer ones, but if you did not manage to get them, then regular ones will do. The main thing is that they are dry and alive. As for water, it must certainly be clean and soft, purified, filtered water or water from a spring is ideal. AT last resort You can use boiled water. If it's bad, your homemade beer won't taste good and you'll be wasting your time.
Ideally, it is better to buy water. It will come out, of course, a little expensive, but the taste of the intoxicating drink will turn out to be simply excellent. And one more important nuance: sugar. It must be taken at the rate of 8 grams per liter of beer (to saturate with carbon dioxide), some recipes use glucose or honey.
Equipment needed for home brewing
All the equipment that you need for self-brewing beer at home can be found in any kitchen, or you can easily get it, there is no need to purchase a special expensive apparatus or a mini brewery. So, you will need a large pot (enamelled is ideal) for 30 liters, it can be improved by installing a drain tap at the bottom. In the pot you will boil the wort, as well as another container for beer fermentation.
Be sure to stock up on a thermometer to control temperature regime, and a large piece of gauze 4-5 meters long. Next, you need to prepare glass and plastic bottles, where you will pour homemade beer, and a narrow silicone hose (with its help, the drink is carefully removed from the sediment).
A chiller is needed to cool the wort. You can make it yourself at home from copper tube. You can do without a chiller, and use a bath at home or a very large tank with ice water- for cooling beer wort. Some still stock up on a hydrometer - a device that determines the sugar content, the density of the future drink, but this is not at all necessary.
Traditional beer recipe at home with photo
To make grain beer in your own kitchen, classic recipe, withstanding all the temperature moments and pauses, you must first pay attention preparatory stage: thoroughly wash and dry all equipment (except the thermometer) and proceed with the process with clean hands.
Everything must be sterile, otherwise you risk infecting the wort wild yeast or other microbes and instead of beer, get sour mash and level all your efforts. Then prepare the ingredients: 32 liters of water, 5 kg barley malt, 45 grams of hops, 25 grams of brewer's yeast and granulated sugar (based on the calculation that was given above).
- Pour 25 liters of water into a saucepan, heat it to 80°C, and immerse the ground malt in it, poured into a gauze bag (it is made from a long piece of gauze). Close the pan with a lid and pause for an hour and a half at a temperature of 65-72 °, turning the heat on or off. It is at this temperature that you saccharify the malt, as a result, the wort becomes sweet, easily fermentable sugars appear in it.
- After an hour and a half, increase the temperature of the fire to 80 ° and maintain this pause for another five minutes. Then remove the bag of malt from the pan and rinse in the remaining seven liters of water, which should then be poured into the wort. In this way, we wash out the remaining sugars from the malt.
- Further, according to the recipe, the wort should be brought to a boil, remove the resulting foam and add the first 15 grams of hops. Half an hour the wort must be boiled intensively, after which another 15 grams of hops should be added. Then boil for another 50 minutes, add the last portion of 15 grams of hops, and boil for another 10-15 minutes. It will take an hour and a half in total.
- Now, the wort must be cooled very quickly, keeping within 20-30 minutes. The sooner you do this, the lower the risk of future beer contamination with wild yeast and harmful bacteria. Transfer the pan to a bath filled with ice water, then pour through cheesecloth three times into another container.
- The next step is to dilute the brewer's yeast and add to the wort, mixing thoroughly. It is very important to follow the instructions on the packaging of the yeast. Next, the container is transferred for fermentation to a dark place with a temperature of 18-22 °, a water seal is installed on it, and the must is left to ferment for a week or ten days.
- Intensive fermentation will begin in 6-12 hours, and will last for two to three days. All this time, the water dispenser will actively blow bubbles, carbon dioxide will escape, and the beer at the end of fermentation will become much lighter. Readiness is determined by the absence of bubbles during the day - this means that the fermentation process has ended.
- Now, according to the recipe, the carbonization of beer (filling the drink with carbon dioxide) is to be done - to improve the taste, in order to achieve the appearance of a dense thick foam. Don't be intimidated by this "terrible" name, the carbonization process is quite simple. You need to take the sterilized bottles that you have prepared for storing beer (it is highly desirable that they be made of dark plastic or glass) and pour sugar into them (8 grams of sugar per 1 liter of beer).
- After that, the drink must be carefully drained using a narrow silicone hose and filled with bottles, trying not to touch the sediment (otherwise the beer will turn cloudy). Pour not to the very top, but leave a couple of centimeters so that the beer “breathes” and tightly cork with lids. Further, without any pause, the secondary fermentation process will begin, which will supply the young beer necessary quantity carbon dioxide.
For best quality you need to remove the bottles in a dark place with a temperature of 20-23 ° and leave alone for two to three weeks. After the first week has passed, the bottles must be shaken periodically, and at the end of the period, transfer them to the cellar or refrigerator.
Beer home cooking compares favorably with cheap store counterparts with a richer taste, thick foam and the absence of preservatives. It turns out a drink that does not contain anything superfluous. I will tell you how to brew beer according to the classic recipe, using only traditional ingredients: hops, malt, water and yeast. To save original taste, we will not resort to filtration and pasteurization.
It is believed that to make real beer you need to buy a mini brewery or other expensive equipment. This myth is imposed by manufacturers of such products. Together with the brewery, such offices will gladly sell a ready-made concentrate, which only needs to be diluted in water and fermented. As a result, a novice brewer pays exorbitant prices for beer, the quality of which is best case slightly higher than store-bought cheap brands.
In fact, you can make homemade beer without special equipment, using improvised means: large saucepan for cooking, a plastic or glass fermentation container, any bottles and other available devices, full list which are published below.
You will have to buy only hops, malt and brewer's yeast. I do not insist on choosing a particular company or brand. The range is wide enough, buy any product you like.
Theoretically, malt and hops can be grown at home. But these processes are beyond the scope of the article. Further, we will assume that all the necessary ingredients are available: homemade or purchased. The only thing I do not advise you to experiment with brewer's yeast, but immediately choose the best strains in the store, because from grain mash beer differs precisely in special yeast.
Ingredients:
- water - 27 liters;
- hops (alpha acidity 4.5%) - 45 grams;
- barley malt - 4 kg;
- brewer's yeast - 25 grams;
- sugar - 8 grams per liter of beer (needed for natural saturation with carbon dioxide).
Necessary equipment:
- 30-liter enamel pot - for boiling the wort;
- fermentation tank - for fermentation;
- thermometer (required) - if moonshine from sugar or wine can be made only by approximately controlling the temperature, then with beer this is an initially failed undertaking;
- bottles for pouring finished beer (plastic or glass);
- silicone hose of small diameter - for removing beer from the sediment;
- ice water bath or wort cooler;
- gauze (3-5 meters) or a bag of fabric;
- iodine and a white plate (optional);
- hydrometer (optional) - a device for determining the sugar content of the wort.
Brewing home beer
1. Preparation. The first step, during which the brewer checks for the right ingredients and readiness of the equipment to work. I also advise you to pay attention to the following points.
Sterilization. Wash all used containers and accessories well with hot water and dry. Before working with the ingredients, the brewer thoroughly washes with soap and dries his hands dry. It is very important not to infect beer wort with wild yeasts and pathogens, otherwise you will get mash instead of beer. Neglect of sterilization eliminates all further efforts.
Water. It is better to use spring or bottled water. In extreme cases, ordinary tap water is also suitable. Before brewing beer tap water stand for a day in open containers. This time is enough for the chlorine to evaporate, and heavy metals and salts to settle at the bottom. Subsequently, the settled water is carefully drained from the sediment into another container through a thin tube.
Yeast. For normal fermentation, brewer's yeast is activated 15-30 minutes before being added to the wort. a small amount warm water(temperature not higher than 28 degrees). There is no universal method that allows you to properly dilute any brewer's yeast. Therefore, you must follow the instructions on the package.
2. Mashing the wort. This term refers to the mixing of crushed malt with hot water to break down the starch in the grains into sugar (maltose) and solubles (dextrins). Sometimes the malt is sold ready for brewing, crushed, which makes things a little easier. If not, the dried sprouted grain must be ground on its own using a grain crusher or a mechanical meat grinder.
Attention! Grinding does not mean grinding into flour, you just need to grind the grains into small pieces, be sure to save particles of the grain peel, which will then be required to filter the wort. The correct grinding option is shown in the photo.
Correct grinding AT enamel pan pour 25 liters of water and heat on the stove to 80°C. Next, the ground malt is poured into a fabric or home-made bag measuring 1 by 1 meter, made from 3-4 layers of gauze. A bag of malt is immersed in water, the pot is covered with a lid and boiled for 90 minutes, maintaining a stable temperature of 61-72°C.
Malt grouting at 61-63 degrees promotes a better yield of sugars, increasing the strength of home-brewed beer. At 68-72°C, the density of the wort increases, although the alcohol content in the drink will be slightly lower, but the taste will be richer. I recommend sticking to the temperature range of 65-72°C, which results in a tasty dense beer with a strength of 4%.
Brewing malt in a bag After 90 minutes of boiling, an iodine test is done to make sure that there is no starch left in the wort. To do this, 5-10 milligrams of the wort is poured onto a clean white plate and mixed with a few drops of iodine. If the solution has turned dark blue, you need to cook the contents of the pan for another 15 minutes. If the iodine hasn't changed the color of the wort, you're done. You can not do an iodine test, but simply increase the mashing (brewing) time by 15 minutes, the quality of the drink will not suffer from this.
Then the temperature is raised sharply to 78-80°C and the wort is boiled for 5 minutes to completely stop the work of the enzymes. Next, the bag with the remaining malt is removed from the container and washed with 2 liters boiled water temperature 78 degrees. So the residues of extractive substances are washed out. Wash water added to the must.
This method of mashing is called "in a bag" and allows you to do without filtration - the separation of grains (undissolved malt particles) from the main wort. In turn, filtration requires specific equipment (cleaning systems) and reusable transfusion of wort from one container to another. Mashing in a bag does not affect the quality of the brewed beer in any way, but takes much less time.
3. Boiling the wort. The contents of the pan are brought to a boil and the first portion of hops is added, in our case it is 15 grams. After 30 minutes of intense boiling, the next 15 grams are added, and after 40 minutes the remaining 15 grams of hops are boiled for another 20 minutes.
Depending on the chosen beer recipe, the time intervals and the amount of hops may vary. But, adhering to the indicated sequence and proportions, you are guaranteed to get a normal result.
Boiling takes an hour and a half, during all this time it is important to maintain intense heating so that the wort gurgles.
Adding Hops 4. Cooling. Beer wort needs to be cooled quickly (in 15-30 minutes) to 24-26°C. The sooner this is done, the less risk there is of contaminating the drink with fermentation-damaging bacteria and wild yeasts.
You can cool the wort with a special immersion cooler (one of the possible designs in the photo) or carefully transfer the container to a bath of ice water. Most beginner brewers use the second method. The main thing is not to accidentally turn over hot pot by scalding himself with boiling water.
Cooler design The cooled wort is poured through cheesecloth into a fermentation tank.
5. Fermentation. Diluted brewer's yeast is added to the wort and mixed well. In this case, it is very important to observe the temperature and proportions indicated in the instructions on the sachet label.
Yeasts are top-fermented, which are introduced at a temperature of 18-22 ° C, and bottom fermentation operating at 5-16°C. These two types make different beers.
The filled fermentation tank is transferred to a dark place with a temperature recommended by the yeast manufacturer. In our case it is 24-25°C. Then a water seal is installed and left alone for 7-10 days.
Example of a fermentation tank After 6-12 hours, active fermentation will begin, which usually lasts 2-3 days. At this time, the airlock actively bubbles, then the frequency of carbon dioxide release slowly decreases. At the end of fermentation, young homemade beer becomes light. Readiness is determined by two methods: a saccharometer (hydrometer) and a water seal.
In the first case, the readings of two hydrometer samples for the last 12 hours are compared. If the values differ slightly (by hundredths), then you can proceed to the next step. Not everyone has a sugar meter, so at home they often just look at the water seal. The absence of bubbles within 18-24 hours indicates the end of fermentation.
6. Plugging and carbonation. Carbonization of beer is the saturation of the drink with carbon dioxide, which contributes to the improvement of taste and the appearance of thick foam. Despite the complicated name, the process itself is very simple.
Sugar is added to beer storage bottles (preferably dark ones) at the rate of 8 grams per 1 liter. Sugar will cause a little secondary fermentation, which will saturate the beer with carbon dioxide. Then the beer is drained from the sediment through a silicone tube, filling the prepared bottles.
The spill is completed One end of the tube is lowered to the middle of the container with beer, the other - to the very bottom of the bottle, this minimizes the contact of the drink with air. It is important not to touch the yeast, which, depending on the type, can settle to the bottom or accumulate on the surface, otherwise the beer will turn cloudy. The bottles are not topped up 2 cm to the neck and tightly corked.
Easiest to use plastic container, since the covers to it can be twisted by hand. For glass bottles, you need yoke corks or a special device for corking ordinary beer corks (pictured).
Bottle with yoke stopper 
Closing device for regular corks The bottles filled with beer are transferred to a dark place with a temperature of 20-24°C and left for 15-20 days. Once every 7 days, the containers must be shaken well. After that, the drink is placed in the refrigerator.
7. Ripening. Homemade beer is ready. But if you let the drink stand for another 30 days, the taste will improve significantly.
Beer can be stored in the refrigerator for 6-8 months, an open bottle - 2-3 days.
Another method of brewing beer without special equipment is shown in the video.
