First things first, real beer or ale is made from ONLY four ingredients :
 

1) Water
2) Malted Barley
3) Hops
4) Beer or Ale Yeast

Just keep things clean, and you shouldn't have any problems.

Beer is made by converting starches in the Malted Barley into malt sugar which is metabolized by yeast and produces alcohol as a waste product. The recipe on the previous page produces a Amber-ale like the one pictured with about 5% alcohol. It has a clean and crisp finish, a bit hoppy ( the way I like it ).

To start out I culture my own yeast from Serria Nevada Pale Ale. They sell a natural beer which contains dormant yeast. Serria Nevada Pale Ale also is the Best Micro brew Ale you can get, in the bottle or on the tap. By using that yeast culture, your beer will have similar characteristics.

Step (1). Go buy a six-pack of Serria Nevada Pale Ale at a store where it is refrigerated and you think they sell a lot of beer ( You don't want old beer ). Take one bottle and don't refrigerate it.

Step (2). Culture the Yeast

Prepare Wort ( wert ) to culture yeast. Wort is the term for unfermented beer. We need about 750 ml of room temperature Wort to culture the yeast. I always save some Wort from each batch in the freezer to start my next batch. You can make some by boiling 1 liter of water and adding 2-3 ounces of Malt Extract or Yeast Culturing stuff to it and boiling a half hour. I then transfer the wort into a 1 liter Pyrex Heat Resistant Flask and boil for another 3 minutes. I then cover the flask with aluminum foil and secure tightly. Let it cool to room temperature. Open your room temperature Serria Nevada Pale Ale and pour all but the last inch into a cold glass and drink it. Take the rest and swirl it up, enough to mix up the sediment on the bottom. Quickly remove the aluminum foil from the Lab Flask and pour the beer sediment into the flask without touching the sides. Immediately put a fermentation lock on the flask and wait. I usually get my yeast going in around 8 hours, but many books say it can take 2 or 3 days. I usually prepare my wort to culture the yeast the night before I am going to brew and add the beer sediment in the morning and start brewing my beer, and by the time I'm ready to add the yeast culture, it's ready.

Or you could just use a packet of Dry Ale yeast, or Liquid Yeast ( they come with instructions).

Step (3). Prepare the Wort ( Mashing & Sparging )

This is really easy and I think that modern home-brew 'Professionals' scare away a lot of novice beer makers with to many details, I won't.

All you have to do is grind the grain, add it to 168 degree water and let it set for an hour ( trying to keep the temperature around 152-158 degree ). Then you drain off the liquid. This is called Single Infusion Mash.

I generally Mash my grain in a 6 gallon stainless steel pot. I bring 1 1/4 quarts of water per pound of grain ( 2 1/2 3 Gallons ) to about 168 degrees and then pour in the crushed grain. This should leave you with a porridge at about 155 degrees. Stir it well, and check the temperature. If it is to hot, add cold water to bring it the the correct temperature. If it is to cold, add heat from the burner and stir. Don't worry to much about the temperature dropping, but don't let it get over 178 degrees because this can de-activate the enzymes in the grain. After an hour taste the wort, you'll notice that it is sweet.

Now you are ready to separate the liquid from the grains. What you will be doing is filtering the liquid through the crushed hulls of the malted barley. This is the Sparging & Lautering step. There are many devices which you can buy to do this. I would suggest that use a 7 gallon food grade container with a spigot ( available at you local home-brew shop ) for about $10-15, and a Sparging Bag also about $10-15. The Sparging Bag fits over the container and you pour in the mash. You slowly add enough water ( 168 degree water ) to get about 6 1/2 gallons of runoff. Many brewers re-circulate the wort back through the Sparger until the wort becomes clear. Don't worry if your wort is not perfectly clear, work on that on your next batch of beer.

Or you could buy some extract and add it to warm water. ( Instructions included )

Step (4) Boiling the Wort

I boil my Wort in a 10 gallon Stainless Steel Pot with a cover. If you don't have a stainless steel pot an Aluminum or Ceramic Pot will do. You are going want to boil your wort between 1 and 1 1/2 Hours. What you don't want to do is have you pot boil over on the stove, It is messy. So watch you wort.

Step (5) Adding the Hops during the Boil

You are going to add Hops at different times during the boil to add bitterness and aroma to your beer. Many recipes are very exacting in there instructions, I won't be. I like to add 1/3 or 1/2 half of the hops in the recipes at the beginning of the boil. Then every 15 or 20 minutes add a little more, saving little to add at the end of the boil. This is not Rocket Science.

Step (6) Adding Irish Moss to help clear your Ale.

Irish Moss is a form of dried seaweed which coagulates beer proteins so that they fall to the bottom of the wort ( clearer beer ). You add about 1/2 teaspoon around 20 minutes before the end of the boil.

If you don't have any, don't worry.

Step (7) Cooling the Wort

Now that you have finished the cooking part of recipe, the wort needs to be cooled down to around 75-80 degrees, as quickly as possible. This is to prevent contamination from bacteria & wild yeast. The easiest way is to place your brew pot a sink of cold water, and continue to run cold water until the Wort cools off. If your sink is to small you might place the brew pot in a trash can filled with ice and water. Or you might purchase a Wort Chiller at the local home-brew store.

Step (8) Fermenting the Ale

Now you are ready to ferment the beer. There are many different fermentors available. I have been using 7 Gallon food grade containers with a tight fitting lid and air lock as my primary fermentor and 5 gallon glass water bottles as my secondary fermentor.

Pour your cooled Wort into the 7 Gallons Fermentor add your actively bubbling yeast culture and snap on the lid with a Fermentation Lock. It will probably be fermenting very actively by the next day. If you don't see any bubbling in the fermentation lock you might have a loose seal, or no fermentation. If you get concerned, open the lid and see if there is any head on the Wort. If there is a head then your seal isn't tight. I wouldn't worry to much about the loose seal. If there is no head then your beer is not starting. I could be because it is to cold ( less than 65 degrees ) in which case move your beer to a warmer place. Or you might need to re-pitch the yeast.

You will leave the beer in your Primary Fermentation Unit for two to three days or until the head seems to have peaked. Then you will transfer it to your Secondary Fermentation Unit ( 5 gal. glass water bottle). Using a plastic siphon tube, siphon all but the last half last inch of beer into the glass carboy, leaving the scum behind. Fill the carboy up to about an inch or two below the neck to allow for beer head if it forms. If you don't have enough beer to fill the bottle, add some water.

You should then leave the beer in the secondary fermentation unit for at least a week. You will probably notice different levels of clarity in the beer during this process. The beer will be ready to bottle or put into a key when it clears.

Relax, have a home brew.

If you have any questions or suggestions please notify

The Webmaster of Topanga Canyon : TunaDog@TunaDog.com
 

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(C) Copyright Don Hirlinger, 1998, 1999
 

last updated : 10-23-1999