I bring to your attention an interesting instruction on how you can easily brew delicious beer at home that all your friends will definitely enjoy. Be sure to read on!
Equipment.
The first thing you need is a 40 liter saucepan or tank. It can be enameled or stainless steel. Stainless steel is better, but more expensive. An enamel container is also okay, but three times cheaper. I bought this miracle for 2000 rubles. I barely found it, by the way. For home cooking, you can get by with pots of up to 50 liters. Then you need to buy more serious equipment, since carrying 50 liters of boiling water by hand is difficult and dangerous.
According to the degree of hardcore, home brewing can be divided into two types: concentrate and all-grain (grain).
In the first case, we have the wort ready, in the form of an evaporated concentrate. This is not chemistry. This is nothing like a natural product. Nowadays the choice of concentrates is very large, you can choose something for every taste. They cost around 800 rubles per can of 20 liters of finished beer.
In the second, we buy malt and mock it ourselves. There are, however, absolute perfectionists; they make their own malt from barley and prepare the water to achieve the required mineralization. Well, for example, if some beer is brewed in the English village of Fuckthishole, then the mineral composition of the local water is determined and the same is made. This is an over 80 level house. brewing For amateurs, it is enough to buy good water in a store or get it from a nearby well/spring/tap.
Next, you need to turn a banal saucepan into a mash brewer. You can use two containers, one for mashing, the second for cooking, but in an apartment, the less bulky trash, the less the wife swears. Which is important for a brewer. We go to the nearest construction market and purchase the necessary parts:
1. Half-inch brass fitting, plus two locknuts, plus two silicone gaskets, plus two fluoroplastic gaskets.
2. Ball valve with internal thread, also ½ inch.
3. American for soldering with a copper tube.
4. Angle fitting.
5. Three copper tees with a diameter of 15mm.
6. Four corners 15 mm.
7. Two meters of unannealed copper tube.
We drill a hole in the pan as low as possible (here, who has what kind of tool and handy skills), trying to damage the enamel as little as possible, and assemble the following structure:
First we place a silicone gasket on the wall of the pan, and a fluoroplastic gasket on it. Otherwise, the silicone nuts will tighten.
Well, the wort brewer is already ready. Now let's upgrade it to a mash. Here it is necessary to delve a little deeper into the theory.
Mashing is the process of keeping the mash (water + malt) at a certain temperature. This holding is called a temperature pause. During this time, enzymes contained in the malt break down starch, which is a polysaccharide, into simpler sugars that are edible to yeast. The enzymes involved in this process are the so-called alpha and beta amylases. According to the figurative expression of one of our colleagues, if you imagine starch as a tree, then beta-amylases bite small branches (fermentable sugars), reach the fork of the branch and freeze, and alpha chops haphazardly into random pieces (non-fermentable sugars). The thing is that these enzymes are most active at different temperatures. Beta-amylase at 60-65 degrees, alpha at 70-75. Accordingly, if we let the beta work longer, we will get a wort of maximum fermentability, a high amount of alcohol, but a rather empty taste, because the yeast will convert all the sugars into alcohol and water. On the contrary, if alpha-amylases rule, then the beer will be dense, rich, but very light, because there will be practically nothing for the yeast to eat. By combining temperature breaks and achieving the desired balance between the body of the beer and the alcohol. Here, the theory is rough.
To turn our tank into a mash tank, we need to assemble a filter element. This, unfortunately, requires some hand-wringing.
To begin with, we take an American piece, a tee, a piece of copper tube and solder one to the other.
Soldering copper tubes is easy. You need solder, always lead-free, and flux. All this is freely sold in markets or plumbing stores. The solder is Sn97-Cu3. Soldering will not work without flux; the solder will simply drain from the copper. If you have a gas torch for soldering, that’s good; if not, it will do. gas stove. We clean the surfaces, apply a thin layer of flux, put everything together and heat it up. When small droplets of tin appear on the parts coated with flux, we bring the solder wire to the joint and the tin itself will be drawn there under the action of capillary forces. Cool and voila. Just remember that copper has exceptional thermal conductivity; work only with a tool, otherwise a severe burn is guaranteed. Copper cannot be thrown from hand to hand like a coal; even a short touch will cause a burn.
We screw the resulting crap to the squeegee and determine the length of the tubes to the walls of the pan. The filter must be in position.
So, we are gradually putting together such a structure.
Using a hacksaw, we make cuts in the tubes a third of the diameter and about a millimeter wide. We do not solder the tubes in two places; we leave them dismountable so that the filter can be washed.
Together:
Here is such a device of Satan.
The last thing you need to do is a cooler, or, as it is called, a chiller. Again we go to the market and buy 10-12 meters of annealed copper tube with a diameter of 10-12 mm and several meters (depending on how far the brewing will be from the point of connection to cold water) of any hose, plus a couple of clamps. The annealed tube, in contrast, is easily bent by hand. So we bend it, winding it around something that is suitable in diameter. Then, carefully, with a large radius, so as not to bend, we bring the end up. For rigidity, you can solder the turns to the vertical tubes, but I just tied them with copper wire (in hand-assing there should be “asshole”).
Now let's move on to what is problematic to do yourself.
1. Hydrometer AC-3. This garbage is needed to measure the density of the wort. It's possible without it, but it's better with it. Many people use refractometers for this, but I haven’t used them myself, so I won’t say anything.
2. Fermentation container. Now many online stores offer these 32-liter barrels with a water seal (4) and a faucet (5). Also with a scale and a glued liquid crystal thermometer. You can buy it like this, or separately. But, if in brewing stores this tank costs 300 - 350 rubles, then in offices selling plastic containers, it costs 160 rubles. A matter of taste and laziness.
3. Malt mill. This particular one is called Comfort-500, made at the state farm named after the 47th anniversary of Mao, it looks scary, metal processing is at the level of the Stone Age, but it costs one and a half thousand and does its job. The same one, but made in Belgium, costs 3,500. Advanced two- or three-roll mills already cost from 5 to 9 thousand. No coffee grinders, meat grinders or blenders will do. I'll explain why a little later. A rolling pin will do, but it will not be grinding, but the punishment of God and the seven plagues of Egypt.
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6. Accurate digital thermometer with remote probe. Accurate at least within a degree. An absolutely necessary thing. The one in the picture I foolishly bought for 1,500 rubles. Then it turned out that you could buy a good Chinese thermometer for 300 rubles. On Avito.
7. Libra. You also need more or less accurate ones. If it's within a gram, then it's ideal. In the picture Energy-403 weighs up to 5 kg, there is a container function. Accuracy - grams. Well, that's what it says...
The last thing we need is a meter and a half of SILICONE hose for the fitting on the pan. I didn’t draw it, the hose and the hose are so transparent. It is needed to drain hot wort. PVC will not work; when heated, it stinks and releases all sorts of nasty things. What you need is a medical silicone hose suitable for sterilization. Where to get it depends only on your imagination.
That's all. A micro-brewery for the home, for the family, is ready. There are also all sorts of small things that make the process easier, but at first you can get by. The budget for all this disgrace ranges from 10 to 15 thousand. Depending on the.
Now, let's move on to the actual brewing of beer. I just want to clarify right away that in addition to equipment and ingredients, you will also need a lot of patience. The cooking process itself takes 6-8 hours, fermentation from 7 to 14 days, aging from a couple of weeks to a year. That is, even in the simplest case, you will try your first no earlier than a month after cooking. But believe me, it's worth it.
And another important point. The room in which all this devilry is happening must be clean. No mold in the corners, no fermented milk products near. No animals. Wort is a super-nutrient medium for fungi and bacteria. Therefore, the cleaner the room, the less chance of contamination of the beer. I’ll write below about equipment disinfection later.
So, let's cook the Black Rhinoceros. This recipe, clearly in a state of enlightenment, was invented by a friend from a club house. brewers with the nickname Rhinoceros. The beer is dark. Therefore black.
We will need, based on 28 liters of finished beer (we are limited to a 32-liter fermenter):
Munich malt, Munich, with a color of EBC 25 (in stores there will be “Munich-25”) - 5.77 kg.
Melanoidin malt, Melano, EBC 80 – 0.87 kg.
Caramel malt, Cara, EBC 50 (you can use Cara-150, it will be darker and richer) – 0.35 kg.
Traditional hops, also known as Traditional – 20 grams.
Zatetsky hops or Saaz – 40 grams.
Yeast Fermentis Safale S-04 – one sachet about 11 grams.
First things first, the malt needs to be ground. We take out our hellish mill and go ahead. You can twist it with your hands, you can attach a screwdriver, I acted more cunningly and plowed my little one. Six kilos of malt will require half an hour of time with smoke breaks.
The trick to grinding malt is that you need to get not flour, but grains crushed into several parts and at the same time intact shells. This is why no coffee grinders are suitable. These shells, settling to the bottom of the mash, form a filter layer through which the wort is actually filtered. And it flows through our filter system of copper pipes. The cuts are small enough for the husk to slip through, but large enough for filtering to take a reasonable amount of time. Without this husk, the spent grain will quickly clog the slots and the wort will be filtered until the advent of democracy in North Korea. This is what ground malt looks like:
This recipe uses a single pause mash at 72 degrees. Above I talked about how temperature affects mash. So this beer should turn out “full-bodied” with a small amount alcohol. We put a filter in the tank, take four times more water (24 liters) relative to the amount of malt and heat it to 78 degrees; when adding malt, the temperature will drop to the desired 72. By the way, a degree here or a degree here is not fatal. But at more than 75, enzyme activity drops sharply. Overheat ninada.
Once heated, add malt and stir. (I photographed on Comfort-500, the quality is comparable). We take the temperature.
It should be 72 degrees.
Close the lid and wrap the tank in a blanket/padded jacket as tightly as possible.
We wait an hour and a half. 1 hour, 30 minutes. Patience... Patience...
While the malt is mashing, prepare the yeast. The yeast is dry - it needs to be rehydrated.
We take a jar, flask or something similar, sterilize it in boiling water and pour about 250 ml of boiled water into it. Water temperature is 20-24 degrees. Pour the yeast from the bag into it and plug the neck with cotton wool. Dry yeast has added nutrients for the first time, so you can get by with just water. They will begin to wander there in half an hour.
An hour and a half passed. Now we need to carry out the so-called “iodine test”. Take a little wort with a spoon and drop iodine into it. If the color has not changed, it means there is no more starch in the mash, everything has been broken down into sugars. And this is buzz. If it turns blue, it’s not bad at all. You can also try keeping the wort under a blanket, but most likely this will not help. Although I have not yet seen high-quality imported malt turn blue after mashing on an iodine test.
Now it's time for a mystical process cleverly called mash-out. We put the tank on the stove and, stirring constantly - because it will burn, we bring the temperature of the mash to 78 degrees. Turn off the heat and keep it like this again under the blanket for 15 minutes. This is necessary to stop the activity of enzymes. The breakdown of starch stops.
During these 15 minutes, prepare the water for rinsing. This is such a special water, differing from ordinary water only in that it is heated to 80 degrees. When we drain the primary wort, a lot of sugars will remain in the grain. It’s no good throwing away a good thing, so we’ll try to wash them out of there.
It's time to filter the mash. We put a silicone hose on the fitting, drag in our plastic fermenter and open the tap.
What is the hose for? The thing is that hot wort actively oxidizes upon contact with air. And this gives an off-flavor in the beer. To minimize contact with air, a hose is needed.
At first, the wort will be very cloudy - the husks have not yet properly settled to the bottom, so we return the first liters drained back. There is a subtlety here - it is important for us that a filter layer is formed, but by pouring the wort back into the tank, we will agitate the sediment again. To avoid this, we put a large plate on top, even if it sinks, everything will now pour onto it and will not disturb the grain.
Drain slowly. As soon as clean wort is released, we stop returning it to the mash and begin to take it into the fermentation room.
At the same time, we make sure that the grain is not exposed. As soon as it appears, add rinsing water. So, gradually, draining and adding, we need to collect 30-32 liters of wort. At the end, we stop pouring the rinsing water and simply drain everything that is there. The first part of the Marlezon ballet is completed. We throw away the spent grain, unscrew the filter, rinse the tank and pour clean filtered wort into it. And let it boil. 30 liters will take a long time to heat up, you can speed it up by covering it with a lid. But keep in mind that if you miss the moment of boiling, the wort will run away, and cleaning the stove from burnt sugar is hell and Israel. You will also hear from your wife a lot of interesting things about yourself, about beer and about the universe in general.
As soon as it boils, weigh out 20 grams of traditional hops and throw it in. These are bittering hops. Let it boil for 50 minutes. In total we need to cook for 90 minutes or an hour and a half. During this time, about 3-4 liters will boil away, everything unnecessary will evaporate with steam, some of the sugars will caramelize and the walls of the room will be covered with droplets of condensation.
Wash the fermentation chamber thoroughly, fill it with water and pour a bottle of 5% pharmaceutical iodine into it. We also throw a water seal with a stopper there and push in the fermentation lid. This is disinfection. Iodine decomposes quickly, so it does not leave any foreign odors or tastes. Instead of iodine, you can use special disinfectants; specialized stores sell them in disastrous quantities. Let's leave it like that.
After 50 minutes, weigh 20 grams of Zatec and add it to the wort. These are flavor hops.
15 minutes before the end of cooking, connect the chiller to cold water and lower it into the wort. This is so that it has time to sterilize with boiling water.
Five minutes before the end of cooking, add the remaining 20 grams of Zatec. These are the aroma hops. In total we will get about 20 IBUs (bitterness units). This is such a mild, pleasant bitterness.
We pour part of the wort into a 100 ml beaker, which I forgot to write about in the equipment, and separately cool it strictly to 20 degrees to measure the density. We put the hydrometer in there so that it floats and look at the value of the initial density (ID). In this recipe we need to get 13.5% NP. If there is more, you just need to add boiled water. If less, boil more. Although less is unlikely. In general, the output should be 28 liters.
(Here, unfortunately, is a photo from another brew; the hydrometer shows 14.5%)
Upon completion of cooking, turn on the water in the chiller and turn off the heating. The point of the chiller is that the wort must be cooled as quickly as possible from 100 to 20-24 degrees suitable for yeast. This copper spiral will do the job in about 15 minutes. If you take the tank to the bathroom and put it in cold water, it will take 40-50 minutes. And the longer the wort sits and comes into contact with air, the greater the likelihood of infecting it with “wild” yeast or bacteria, which fly around in abundance.
During these remaining five minutes, we run to the fermentation room and pour out the iodine solution. Those who wish can rinse with boiled water, but, in principle, this will do. Drain the cooled wort into a clean, disinfected fermenter. From a height of at least a meter.
The meaning of this action is that the wort, falling, is saturated with oxygen. Yeast, they are living creatures, they also need to breathe. For beers with a low initial gravity, such as this one, this method is suitable, but for high-gravity beers, additional aeration is necessary.
We take the yeast in a flask, by this time it will already give rich foam and pour it into the wort.
We close the fermenter with a lid, insert a water seal (without pouring anything into it yet) and shake it for another five minutes for greater aeration. Again, shaking a 30 kg container is good exercise. We take the fermentation chamber to a dark and cool place and only then pour either vodka or boiled water. If you immediately pour liquid, then at the first attempt to lift the fermenter, this liquid will immediately be sucked inside.
All. Now wait 14 days. And, another clarification: S-04 yeast requires a fermentation temperature of 18-25 degrees. If less, fermentation will be sluggish. If more, during the fermentation process they will release a bunch of esters, which will have an unpredictable effect on the taste and aroma of beer. Therefore, it is advisable to maintain this interval during fermentation.
Here they are, wandering around. Below - the previous cooking is standing, carbonizing.
Two weeks passed….
By this time, we went to the store and bought a pack of liter PET bottles with caps and a pack of glucose/dextrose. This sugar is better absorbed by yeast than the sugar we are used to and does not give a brown taste. Now is the time to bottle the “green” or “young” beer.
To begin with, let’s pour a little from the tap into a beaker and measure the final gravity of the beer (CF). I got 5%. Which, given the temperature at which we mashed (more non-fermentable sugars), is quite normal. From the table we find the alcohol content – 4.5%. A light and full-bodied beer, as expected.
In order for the beer to be saturated with carbon dioxide, you need to add a little glucose to each bottle, since everything in the wort has already been eaten. Having consumed this sugar in a closed bottle, the yeast will saturate the beer with gas. This is called “natural carbonation”, in contrast to artificial saturation with carbon dioxide under pressure in kegs. There's really no difference. In this recipe, comrade Rhino indicated 7 g/liter, so we will add 7 grams of dextrose or glucose to each bottle.
We open the fermentation chamber and enjoy the smell for a couple of minutes. Then we take our silicone tube (pre-disinfected) or a special siphon, fill it with boiled water and, holding one end with a finger, lower the other into beer. The siphon principle, yeah, the fermentation chamber should be higher than the bottles.
By the way, here, if you still use a tube, you need the help of another person, preferably homo sapiens. All these movements are meant to pick up the beer from above without touching the sediment, which will be 2-3 centimeters at the bottom.
Well, we remove our finger, wait for the water to pour out somewhere and the beer to flow out, and lower the tube to the very bottom of the bottle. Again, avoid excessive contact with air. We fill the bottle. When there are three or four centimeters left to the neck, squeeze the bottle, squeezing out the air and close the lid. And so many times.
When everything is poured, we leave these flounder-like bottles in a dark and not necessarily cool place. A week for carbonation. During this time, the yeast will eat the glucose, the bottles will inflate and turn to stone. By the way, this will also be natural preservation. There is nothing left to eat there, there is no oxygen, there is no contact with air. Beer in PET bottles can be stored quietly for six months (no longer is necessary, after all, gas exchange occurs through the pores of the plastic), and in glass for several years. After carbonation, the beer needs to sit for another month, but I started opening it within a week. I'm not made of iron. Although after a month of aging it undoubtedly became better. True, by that time half of the cooked food was left...
Well, that's all. This method does not claim to be the only correct one. I wrote it the way I did it personally. There are a lot of options here. But with this set of pans you can cook whatever your heart desires. But my soul is capricious and restless.
Beer production technology
Additional processing and crushing of malt and unmalted raw materials.
The main purpose of crushing malt and unmalted raw materials is to facilitate and accelerate physical and biochemical processes dissolving the grain to ensure maximum transfer of extractives into the wort.
During storage and transportation, malt and unmalted grain become contaminated. Therefore, before grinding, they are cleaned of foreign inclusions. To remove dust and sprout residue, the malt is passed through a polishing machine. Unmalted raw materials are cleaned from organic and mineral impurities using an air sieve separator and a polishing machine. To remove metal impurities, grain products are passed through an electromagnetic separator.
The optimal grinding composition should ensure the highest possible extract yield and a sufficiently high rate of wort filtration, since the grain shell serves as a good filter material. Malt is crushed in dry or partially moistened form. Crushers are used to grind dry malt. The composition of the grind depends on the quality of the malt, the methods of mashing and filtering.
Obtaining beer wort.
The purpose of mashing is to extract the soluble substances of malt and unmalted raw materials and convert insoluble substances into soluble substances under the action of enzymes, followed by their transfer into solution. Substances that have passed into solution are called extract.
Mashing includes 3 stages: mixing crushed grain products with water, heating and maintaining the resulting mixture at a given temperature.
Preparation of the mash begins with mixing crushed grain products with water at a temperature of 37-40 ° C, which is carried out in the mash apparatus with the mixer turned on. Next, mashing is carried out using infusion or decoction methods.
The infusion method involves gradually heating the entire mash to 40-70°C at a rate of 1°C/min. and holding at temperatures 40;52;63 and 70°C for 30 minutes. Next, the mash is heated to 72°C and maintained until complete saccharification according to the iodine test. Then the saccharified mash is heated to 76-77°C and sent for filtration. The wort obtained in this way is rich in enzymes, contains a lot of maltose and amino acids, little dextrins and is therefore highly fermentable. However, the yield of extract using the decoction method is higher. This is due to the fact that during decoction methods the mash is subjected not only to enzymatic, but also to physical action (boiling).
The essence of the decoction method is that individual parts of the mash (decoction) are boiled and then mixed with the rest of the mash, gradually increasing its temperature to 75°C. When boiling, starch grains from large particles of crushed grain products go into solution, gelatinize and are exposed to enzymes. There are the following options for decoction methods: with one, two, three decoctions or boiling the entire thick part. The most common are single and double decoction methods. Unmalted grain is mashed in a mixture with malt or processed separately, and then mixed with malt and a general mash is prepared.
Filtering the mash.
Sugared mash is a suspension consisting of two phases: liquid (beer wort) and solid (beer grains). The purpose of filtration is to separate beer wort from spent grains. Filtration of the mash is divided into two stages: filtering the main wort and leaching - washing out the extract retained by the grain. The wort and wash waters must be transparent to avoid difficulty in subsequent technological operations and deterioration in beer quality.
Filtration of the first wort is essentially a physical process. And when grains are leached with water, convective diffusion occurs, as well as various chemical processes, mainly exchange reactions. With a decrease in the concentration of the wort, its pH increases from 5.7 to 6.2, which leads to an increase in the dissolution of silicic acid, polyphenolic, tannic, bitter and other substances of the shell of grain products. This increases the color of the beer, which can cause a deterioration in its taste.
The filtration rate of the mash is affected by the composition and height of the filtering layer. When filtering on a filter apparatus, the filter layer is a layer of grains formed when the mash settles. Well-dissolved malt produces a loose and easily permeable layer.
The filtration rate is significantly affected by temperature, which should not exceed 78°C to avoid inactivation of a-amylase. The latter completes the additional saccharification of starch residues. In addition, higher temperatures increase the solubility of protein hydrolysis products, polyphenolic and other substances, which affects the stability of beer.
IN alkaline water The tannins and bitter substances of the shells dissolve easily. But with prolonged extraction, even water of normal composition extracts substances from the shells that cause the unpleasant taste of beer.
Boiling wort with hops.
The filtered wort and rinses are collected in a wort brewer and boiled with hops. The purpose of boiling is to sterilize the wort, stabilize and aromatize its composition with bittering substances from hops.
Crushed grain products always contain a certain amount of microorganisms. When the wort medium is acidic, sterilization is achieved after just 15 minutes of boiling. When hops are boiled, a significant part of its carbohydrates, protein, bitter, tannic, aromatic and mineral substances passes into the wort. The aromatization of the wort occurs as a result of the dissolution of specific hop components in the reaction products of melanoidin formation.
As the temperature of the wort increases, protein denaturation occurs, which is externally characterized by the appearance of turbidity. Boiling the wort with hops is accompanied by a decrease in its viscosity and an increase in color as a result of the reaction of melanoid formation, caramelization of sugars, oxidation of polyphenolic substances and dissolution coloring matter hops
Separation of wort from hop grains.
After boiling, the hopped wort enters the hop separator. The hop grains are retained on the sieve, the wort passes through it and is pumped by a centrifugal pump into a collection tank for cooling and clarification. The hop grains are then washed hot water for additional leaching of hop extractives. The rinsing waters are added to the wort in the wort brewer.
Cooling and clarification of the wort.
The purpose of cooling and clarification of the wort is to lower the temperature to 6-16°C, saturate the air with oxygen and settle suspended particles.
In the cooled wort, coagulated proteins remain, which are in a state of thin suspensions. When the temperature drops, they precipitate.
During the entire cooling process, the wort absorbs oxygen from the air, which at temperatures above 40°C is spent on oxidation organic matter wort, which leads to darkening of the wort, a decrease in hop aroma and hop bitterness.
Cooling the wort is accompanied by the evaporation of a certain amount of water, which leads to a decrease in its volume and an increase in concentration.
Fermentation of beer wort and post-fermentation of beer.
The main process by which wort turns into beer is alcoholic fermentation. At the same time, the chemical composition of the wort changes significantly, and it turns into a tasty aromatic drink. Fermentation of beer wort takes place in two stages: main fermentation and post-fermentation. At the first stage, intensive fermentation of the sugars in the wort occurs, resulting in the formation of young (cloudy) beer, which has a unique taste and aroma, but is not yet suitable for consumption. During post-fermentation, the remaining sugars are slowly fermented, the beer acquires characteristic organoleptic properties, is clarified and saturated with carbon monoxide, i.e. it matures and the beer turns into a marketable product.
Clarification and bottling of beer.
After post-fermentation and maturation, to give it a marketable appearance and the desired transparency, the beer is clarified using separation and filtration. In this case, suspended yeast cells, protein and polyphenolic substances, hop resins, heavy metal salts and various microorganisms are removed from beer.
When filtered, beer loses some of its carbon dioxide, so before bottling it is carbonated by blowing carbon dioxide through the beer.
After carbonation, the beer is kept in collection tanks for 6-8 hours and then sent for bottling.
The novice brewer's head is simply spinning. The abundance of new information, a lot of incomprehensible terms and lack of experience leave the novice master confused. However, no need to worry. Without undue haste, it is worth mastering all the necessary information and then the risk of error will be minimized.
In order to brew beer you need not only enthusiasm and necessary ingredients. The brewing process requires equipment and tools. Some of them can be easily replaced with analogues from the arsenal kitchen utensils, but there are some pretty specific items that every self-respecting brewer should have. Let's take a closer look at what equipment and tools you will need to home brewing. What are the requirements for them and how to choose the right devices.
Heating device
If you are making beer from malt extract, you will need a heating source that can bring 4.5-13.5 liters of water to a boil. A stove in your kitchen will do just fine. When you brew beer from grain products, you will need a different heating source. For example, a roasting pan.
Bag BIAB
The ideal BIAB-bag coincides in circumference with the boiling pot and does not lag behind its inner surface to the very bottom. This device prevents the mash from burning and will allow you to separate most of the spent grains. A ready-made bag can be purchased at a specialty store, but experienced brewers buy fabric and model their own device according to the individual dimensions of the equipment.
Mash tun
The mash tun is used to maintain temperature breaks during the mashing process and separate the liquid wort from the grain. This is a fully assembled factory-made unit.
Boiling container
The wort is boiled in a special boiler. If you brew beer in small batches, then the minimum container volume is 7 liters, but there is also no need to take a kettle larger than 25 liters. If you prepare beer in large volumes, you will need a more capacious boiler with a volume of 28-36 liters. If you take this issue seriously, you should pay increased attention to the quality of the material from which the boiling container is made: it must be strong, wear-resistant and durable.
Stirring spoon
This item will be needed to homogenize the mash and thoroughly mix all the introduced components. A mandatory requirement is the presence of a long handle. The spoon should reach the bottom of the brewing container, and the top of the handle should remain long enough to keep the brewer's hands safe. Typically, spoons made of stainless steel or special plastic are used.
Jug
A small jug or ladle with a handle is needed to carry out the process of recirculating the wort through the grain bed, which the Germans call vorlauf. At its core, this process involves returning the first batch of wort to the filter bed to clarify it before boiling.
Immersion wort cooler
This forced cooling device allows you to quickly cool the wort to the yeast task temperature. As a rule, the cooler is a coil of copper tube, with cold water supply and warm water outlet hoses attached. Cold water circulates through the immersion chiller system and quickly reduces the temperature of the wort.
Beaker
A transparent glass with measuring divisions will be required for accurate dosing of ingredients. It is better to stock up on several with different volumes and different division prices. It is convenient for large ones to measure malt, water, malt extract, and for small ones - hop products, yeast, activator and other additives.
Can-opener
Some beer making ingredients, such as malt extract or hop products, are packaged in cans. Stock up on a good can opener so that it doesn’t let you down at the most inopportune moment.
Container for preparing wash water
Additional capacity will be required for the preparation of wash water, which is added as the mashing process is completed. All wort and collected rinses are collected in a boiling vessel.
Straining device
When pouring wort after boiling into a fermenter (fermentation vessel), many brewers prefer to strain it through a sieve. This allows you to separate the remaining hops and other suspended matter from the wort. A fine-mesh colander or sieve is quite suitable for these purposes.
Thermometer
During the brewing process, it is very important to maintain temperature at all stages. This will avoid many undesirable moments and damage to raw materials. Therefore, you should not save money and purchase an accurate, calibrated thermometer capable of measuring high temperatures (up to 100˚C will be enough).
Equipment cleaning and disinfection products
Clean and sterile equipment is the key to a brewer's success. Therefore, it is necessary to stock up on special cleaning and disinfection products.
The cleaning product should be quite effective and free of perfumes. These aromatic compounds can settle on the walls of the equipment and introduce undesirable tastes and odors into the beer. Caustic soda-based products are optimal.
The disinfectant will get rid of beer-spoiling microorganisms and make the process and product stable. Regular bleach (calcium hypochlorite) will also work; it should be diluted in a ratio of 28 g per 4.55 liters of water. An important condition for using such a disinfectant is a thorough rinse with water. If you want a simpler method, buy a special disinfectant that does not require rinsing (ethanol based). Pour it into a spray bottle and you will have the simplest method of sanitation.
Fermenter or fermentation container
The mystery of turning wort into beer takes place in this container. Nowadays, ready-made brewing kits are very popular, which are equipped with a fermenter in the form of a plastic bucket. Experienced brewers prefer to use glass and plastic jugs, called carboys. Both types of containers work great and have their own advantages and disadvantages, which are revealed during the brewing process.
Air valve
This device is installed in top part fermenter and is intended to remove CO2 released during fermentation. The valve is designed to prevent contaminants from entering the fermenter system. The air valve is of great importance, because the tightness of the fermenter can lead to its explosion. This device is attached to the lid of the fermentation tank using a bushing or gasket.
Fermentation chamber
To maintain the fermentation temperature at a certain level, a cooling system is required. Most often, brewers modify a refrigerator or freezer for these purposes.
Secondary fermenter
If the beer recipe requires the addition of additional ingredients, for example, hop products during dry hopping, the use of a secondary fermenter tank is recommended. It is important that the secondary fermenter has such a volume that when filling it with beer there is as little free space as possible. This will help minimize exposure to oxygen.
Emergency reset
An emergency release system is required when there is concern that there will not be enough free space in the fermenter at the time of fermentation of the beer. Then an emergency release tube connected in place of the air valve at the top of the fermenter will serve as a means of releasing curls if the fermenter is filled to the brim.
Hydrometer
A hydrometer or saccharometer is required by a brewer to determine the density or sugar content of wort and beer. This is necessary to control the fermentation process and calculate the alcohol content by volume. You will also need a container to store the hydrometer. Be careful, the device is very fragile.
Refractometer
The refractometer device measures the density of a sample, like a hydrometer, only according to a slightly different principle. Just a few drops of wort placed on a refractometer are enough to measure the density of the initial wort.
Beer transfer tube
This device is necessary for transferring beer from the fermenter to another container or into a bucket for bottling. There are several varieties, but the simplest and most convenient to use is the autosiphon.
Bucket for bottling beer
This item is similar to a plastic fermenter, only it is equipped with an outlet pipe at the bottom. The fermented beer is pumped into a bottling bucket, from which the bottles are filled with beer through a filling tube connected to the nozzle.
Bottle filling device
This item is a rigid plastic tube with a spring-loaded tip. When the end of the filler is pressed to the bottom of the bottle, beer flows out of the tube. When the bottle is full, simply squeeze out the filler tip and the flow stops.
Bottle brush
A very important detail to ensure long-term preservation of bottled beer. A brush will help thoroughly rinse the bottles, removing hard-to-reach dirt that can spoil the beer.
Bottles and crown caps
Glass bottles are needed by the brewer for packaging and storage. finished product. It is not necessary to buy new ones every time; you can reuse existing ones after thorough washing and disinfection. Carefully monitor the integrity of the bottles: they should not have cracks or chips. Screw-neck bottles are not recommended due to the difficulty of sealing them.
Crown caps must be correctly matched to the size of the bottle neck for the best seal.
Capping machine
This device is necessary for hermetically sealing bottles with crown caps. Typically a double lever cap is used, but some brewers use a machine tool to speed up and simplify the process.
Keg system
This system allows you to have greater control over the carbonation of your beer and eliminates the need to wash dozens of bottles and wait for the bottle carbonation period. The operation of this system has its own nuances that should be studied before use.
A brewery should be a palace of production, safety and innovation.
A brewery is the heart of a craft beer business, its engine, and its many complex systems and processes (from crushers and mash tuns to digesters and fermentation tanks) require constant monitoring, maintenance and safety.
The path to the perfect brewery is long and full of big decisions. What is the scale of your system, how much space do you have, what kind of beer will you be brewing, how easy should the equipment be to maintain and clean? So many questions. What will be the heat source for the brew vat? Will you have a “Blocked - Informed” program to protect workers during the service process?
Leading US craft producers 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 carefully to do homework and understand what scale of brewing you will have, and how often you will cook. Equipment suppliers 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 large quantity hops, which is what craft breweries in the US typically brew, is something they don’t always factor into their calculations.
Calculate the loading volume of the filter tank yourself, the depth of the filter layer for the types of beer that you are going to brew, and also decide whether you are going to brew 24/7. All of this will influence what size brewery you need.
Second tip- Visit several breweries that use the equipment you are planning to buy and talk to 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 during setup?
The choice of equipment will largely depend on your communication with the supplier. The opinions and experiences of brewers who have worked with these suppliers can help you make your decision.
After you calculate how much power equipment you need, add 50%. Simply 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 main advice is to make sure you have all the critical parts on hand, especially those that may take a long time to arrive. Work with your equipment supplier and service team to develop a maintenance program that includes preventative replacement of valves, filter pan blades, etc.
One more tip- create an audit procedure for your process. Track the beers you brew frequently from start to finish, take notes, and then check periodically to make sure everything is working properly. Measure things like initial wort gravity, final gravity, evaporation, and try to keep these values consistent from brew to brew.
Understand the Basics
Udo Funk, US Sales Director, Ziemann USA Inc.
Size. What is the final capacity you want to reach with the new brewery, what are your plans for growth? Are you going to start working two shifts right away? 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 varieties.
Flexibility. Think about system expansion options. What degree of automation do you need? Can new vessels be easily integrated into the process? Can the brewery grow along with your sales? Consider alternative technologies such as a tun filter or mash filter.
Output. The craft beer market is growing and becoming increasingly competitive. Raw materials are becoming more expensive. In a couple of years, even small breweries will have a hard time running a successful business if they experience 20% wastage when brewing IPAs.
Guarantees. The most important tip of all is to make sure you have guarantees on the output and performance of the equipment from the manufacturer, and make sure they are spelled out in the contract.
What's best for your beer?
Dean Coffey, co-founder and brewer, Ale Asylum (Madison, WI)
In 2012, we carried out a major expansion that involved a complete overhaul of the entire process. While planning the opening of the brewery, I communicated with producers from all over the world.
After some hesitation I chose W.M. Sprinkman Corp. from our home state of Wisconsin. We supported a local business and they made us custom quality equipment that was perfect for our needs.
Two more factors I took into account when planning the brewery: what better for beer and how can we be more environmentally responsible.
I once heard of a vessel that would remove the dimethyl sulfide that can form in the whirlpool. I talked to the engineers at Sprinkman and asked if they could do something similar. They added a vessel that removes dimethyl sulfide just before fermentation.
When we were doing the first brew, I went up to the roof, went to the pipe connected to the vessel, and, of course, I smelled popcorn coming out of it.
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 into the boil. Although it costs a little more, it saves 85% of energy and reduces our carbon footprint.
When we opened in 2006, many things were different at the brewery. Over time, I created a wishlist and made small changes that over time yielded big results.
No matter what size your brewery is: research, think and create a system that suits your needs.
Brewery Performance and System Selection
Gregg Norris, Sales Engineer, GEA Brewery Systems (Columbia, MD)
When choosing an equipment supplier, a brewer must carefully assess his needs before selecting a specific technical solution. What equipment will be purchased is determined by expected sales and the project budget.
Nanobrewers, restaurant brewers, and just small brewers rarely need powerful automated equipment. It will simply never pay 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 100 thousand deciliters per year threshold should consider advanced equipment with high productivity and yield. Those producing between 100,000 and 400,000 decalitres must weigh capital costs against total cost of ownership.
Are the reliability and automation of equipment important enough to you to expect its payback within 5-10 years? That's the question mid-sized brewers need to ask themselves.
Brewers that produce more than 400 thousand deciliters per year will benefit significantly from investing in powerful equipment.
Create your team of repairmen
Dan Gordon, co-founder and director of operations at Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. (San Jose, California)
Preventive Maintenance- key to keeping the brewery running. 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 calendar. Replace gaskets and bearings before they leak or make strange noises, which is a sign of problems.
Follow the inspection calendar for every part that may break or wear out. For all parts that are difficult to find or replace, you must have them in stock. spare parts. Also ensure 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 at the brewery. At Gordon Biersch, we 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 equipment failures can stop your work.
A priority - chief electrician. This is a person who knows everything about your motors, frequency controllers, sensors. A mechanic must 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, CO)
Due to 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 are often ignored, but protein deposits often remain on them that are not removed by the usual way cleaning.
Dirty equipment can cause off-flavors in your beer. In addition, scale in digester may interfere with heat transfer, resulting in more energy required to boil the wort.
IN whirlpools Microorganisms may grow if not properly cleaned.
Heat exchangers- usually the first thing people pay attention to if there are problems with the wort.
Remember: good taste beer production begins with proper cleaning of equipment.
In a filter tank, safety comes first
Tyler Glaze, Quality Manager, Short's Brewing Co. (Elk Rapids, Michigan)
Are you using an old lauter tun? Do you regularly have to climb up and remove filters to clean them? Do you have to work in a confined space?
In breweries with older equipment, cleaning the filter tank means you have to reach into it and pull out filters. And when you're inside the vat, you're exposed to a lot of dangers.
- Cutting off the power and jamming the blades so they can't move is critical.
- The mash and liquid supply lines must be turned 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.
- Anyone servicing equipment must have a properly calibrated and working gas sensor.
- And finally, it is necessary to conduct procedure diaries. Each procedure is different, so there may be other hazards that are not listed here.
Don't forget to recycle grain
Robert Vanatalo, Brewmaster, The Mitten Brewing Co. (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
You may not pay much attention to this when planning your brewery, but use or disposal beer grains is an important task that new brewers must keep in mind.
Shortly after we opened, we were fortunate 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 deciliters uses a shovel, 250-liter containers and a cart for exporting grain.
On a normal 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 deciliter brewery produces more grain, so our farmer friend keeps 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 due to high content nitrates and sulfates. They feed it not only to cows, but also to chickens, pigs, sheep and even llamas. We recently started experimenting with adding spent grain to pizza.
The fermentation tank is designed to carry out the main fermentation process. The quality and taste of beer depends on this stage.
In brewing, it is important that the fermentation container is made of materials that do not have any effect on this process and the acidity of the wort. That is why the German manufacturer makes stainless steel tanks. This metal is highly durable, reliable and resistant to corrosion. Products made from it have a long service life. This means that you can brew beer in a stainless steel vat for many years.
During the fermentation process, sugar from the wort is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. To allow the second one to escape, a water seal is provided in the tank, so air does not get inside. Various microorganisms and foreign objects are not allowed to enter the mash. For this purpose, the vats are equipped with tight-fitting lids with clamps.
The resulting young beer can be easily drained using a 1.2 cm diameter stainless steel tap for further preparation.
After use, the container can be easily washed, using mild cleaning agents.
A fermentation tank makes a wonderful and practical gift for a novice brewer or an experienced professional. Will fit into any interior: from the kitchen to the country house. This is possible thanks to the stylish design.
If necessary, the fermentation tank can be moved to a cool room. This can be done easily, because... It is equipped with durable handles. Compact dimensions and low weight make transportation convenient. Can even be transported in the trunk of a car.
In the online store site you can purchase a fermentation tank. We work with the German company Bielmeier without intermediaries, so we offer low prices for all products. The equipment presented by us has all the necessary quality certificates. Our couriers will quickly deliver your order to any place and time that is convenient for you.
