Brewing Beer at Home!

Wow! This weekend I learned how to make beer from a professional, aka Aaron Fitzgerald!

Step 1: Measure 20 liters of water into a big pot. Put in on the stove and get it to 70 degrees Celsius.

Aaron is carefully measuring the temperature with a thermometer.

Step 2: Once the water reaches 70 degrees Celsius, add a sheer bag and wrap it tightly around the outside of the pot.  This is called the "Brew-in-a-bag" Method.

Step 3: Pour the grains into the sheer bag, stirring as you pour to avoid clumping.

Step 4: Stir the grains to avoid clumping.

Step 5: Let the grains sit in the 70 degree Celsius pot of water for an hour.

Step 6: After an hour with the grains cooking in the 70 degree water, it is time to take the bag of grains out.  Place the bag in the strainer.

Step 7: Push all the water out.  

Pushing hard to squeeze of the water with my massive muscles.

Step 8:You will probably notice the water level has gone down from.  Raise the water level by pouring warm water through the bag of grains in the strainer.

Aaron is adding more warm water.

Step 9: Once the water is a little above the 20 liter mark, remove the bag of grains.

This is what the liquid looks like after being heated with the grains for an hour.

Step 10: Put the pot back on the stove and turn the heat up to a light boil. (If it is boiling too hard, it might kill the important sugars which are needed to ferment with the yeast later.)  Start a 60 minute-countdown for the boil. At the start of the boil, add a small amount of hops.  When there are 15 minutes left, add more hops.  Finally, when there are 5 minutes left, add another small portion of hops.  

(That is a total of 60 minutes boiling, adding hops in 3 segments. 60, 15, and 5 minute countdown)

Adding some hops!

Step 11: After 60 minutes boiling and all the hops have been added, cool down the beer to 20 degrees Celsius. To do this, a big strong, muscular person has to lift the pot into the sink and create a nifty, makeshift clog so that cold water is running on the outside of the pot to cool it off, without overflowing.  It will take a few hours for the temperature to drop down to 20 degrees.

Step 12: When the liquid is at 20 degrees Celsius, use a hydrometer to measure the gravity.  The gravity.

The ideal gravity is a little over 1.00.

Step 13: Once the temperature has dropped down to 20 degrees Celsius, it is time to siphon the liquid into the fermenter. 

I siphoned the beer by sucking on the tube with my mouth, and suddenly all the beer poured through the tube and into the fermenter automatically.  Pretty cool actually, except I sucked too hard and inhaled some beer.

Step 14: Once all the liquid is in the fermenter between 15 - 20 degrees Celsius, it is time to add the yeast. Surround the fermenter with the pot. Add cool water to maintain the proper temperature and cover overnight.

I am carefully adding the yeast. Notice* We put the fermenter in the pot so that we can fill it with water to control the temperature, keeping it between 15-20 degrees Celsius. Also, Aaron was pretty smart and tied the thermometer on a string so we can easily check the temperature at any time.

Step 15: The next morning, I awoke excitedly to find that the beer was on its way! You can see the yeast creating a white foam on top! 

Most of the work is done, but we will have to patiently wait at least a week for the beer to ferment.  We will also have to get some CO2. 

 I hope it turns out well!  In any case, I had a lot of fun learning how beer is made.  In sum,  making beer is quite simple, and the most important part is keeping everything the right temperature.

ONE WEEK LATER!

The beer has been sitting in the tank fermenting for about 9 days now.  Finally, it is time to put the beer into the keg!

Aaron measured the gravity with the hydrometer.

It was just where it was supposed to be...at around 12...I think.

After sanitizing the keg, we siphoned the beer into the keg.

Aaron put on a sieve on the tube.

To transport the beer, he had to siphon it to prevent air bubbles.  He lightly sucked on the tube twice and the beer started going through the tube.

He easily transferred all the beer from the fermenter into the keg.

I  held the tubes while the beer was being siphoned into the keg.  The keg is almost full, but we saved a few inches in the top for the CO2.

This picture is actually too full.  We had to ladle some out.  I had a chance to taste some of it before it was carbonated.  I thought it tasted pretty good, but we will have to see how it tastes once it is finished.

The remaining beer contains a lot of yeast that can be reused later.  Aaron shook it up.

  It is called the "slurry."  Aaron collected the slurry in ziploc containers.

Next, Aaron put the CO2 into the beer.

After putting in the CO2, we put the beer in the fridge.  

I just tried it! It is delicious, but it will take a few more days to fully carbonate!