Home Beer Making for the First Time Brewer

• You can start your first batch of beer at home in as little as thirty minutes
  
• Home Beer Making doesn't have to be a messy, smelly process (your home doesn't have to smell like a brewery!)
  
• Your home-made beer will taste as good as, if not better than your favorite brewery can make it!
  

The two most basic types of beer are Ales and Lagers. Ales are brewed at room temperature and from start to finish can be ready to drink in as little as two weeks. Lagers require more strict brewing and bottling conditions and take up to a month or more before they are ready to be enjoyed.

Therefore home beer making for the first time brewer is probably most enjoyable by starting with an Ale. It's easy and fun to do with some simple equipment, makes a great excuse for a party or to have friends over, and is nearly foolproof with a simple, proven recipe.

This was my first beer making kit. It's really the best way to go in order to get started. From teh time it arrives at your door, you can be brewing that night, and drinking your home made beer in 2 weeks.

Their Premium Beer Kit comes with everything needed to brew and bottle your first 2 gallons of top-quality beer.

Making beer at home follows the same general steps as a brewery would use, but in much smaller quantities. A typical home beer batch is anywhere from 2-5 gallons at a time. Once this is bottled, you can start your next batch while enjoying the first. After a few rounds of this, you will have a variety of home made beers to share with your friends.

Home Beer Making Step By Step

1. The first step is brewing the wort. This is can be done entirely from scratch on your stovetop, or you can buy a starter can of "pre-hopped" malt (more about this later) to speed the process and make it a little less messy. At the end of this step, you'll have the foundation of your future brew. Using a sterilized scoop or spoon, pour a little into a glass and let it cool down. Take a sip...can you taste the future?


2. The next step is to transfer the wort into the fermenter. A fermenter has a few pieces to it that you can assemble separately, or buy as a ready to assemble kit like the Mr. Beer fermenter. The fermeter is a 2-5 gallon glass or plastic container with a vented lid preventing air borne bacteria and mold spores from entering the liquid brew, but also allowing the gasses that are produced escape from teh fermenter so that it doesn't build up gas pressure and explode!
   



3. Step 3 is bottling your beer! It takes place after a week or so of fermentation during which time the sugars and yeast from the original wort have run their course, producing alcohol as a byproduct. The higher the sugar content in the wort, the more alcohol will be produced. However, at this stage, the beer is "flat" with no bubbles...remember that we had to vent the gasses from the fermenter during the previous step.
   
   When we bottle the beer, a small amount of sugar is added to each bottle and the fermented wort is siphoned off into each bottle which is then capped and allowed to rest for another week or more.
   
   During this time the remaining yeast produces more carbon dioxide bubbles...these are the bubbles that are realeased when the bottle is opened producing that nice foamy head and helping a fresh cold beer feel great when it hits your lips and tongue.
   

Is it really that simple?
That's basically it, three simple steps! When I started brewing beer, I was lucky to stumble across a home beer making kit that really simplifies everything. Purists may scoff at the "Mr. Beer" kit, but the end result of my very first batch was the best tasting beer I've ever had...really.

Making the beer really is as simple as I've described above. You can brew a simple straightforward recipe, or you can try your own, or use any number of "copycat" recipies to try and recreate your favorite microbrew.

So how do you keep track of it all? A home beer making diary is essential in order to note the ingredients and amounts of each item that you used in that particular batch. You can then take notes on specific types of yeast and hops that you used, how long you fermented it, how much sugar you used in bottling, and the best part of all...how it tasted!

It's tempting to just throw all the ingredients in a vat and get started, but trust me...you'll be happy to be able to look back on exactly how you created your previous mater pieces.

I was never the type to keep my room spotless, scrub down the bathroom mirrors or even sweep the driveway of fall leaves...but in home beer making, cleanliness really IS next to godliness!

Why? Well keep in mind that the actual process of turning wort into beer involves fermentation of yeast into alchol. The type of yeast added to the wort helps determine the type of beer that you can make, affects the taste of the beer and ultimately is what makes the alcohol.

If any stray yeast or bacteria enter the wort or brew during any of the stages, that bacteria can run wild in the fertile growing environment of the beautiful wort that you just made.

So what needs to be sterilized? Everything!

You're probably thinking that this sounds really tedious...well, it is a little bit, but I have a few tricks to make it easier.

First of all, I use an oxygen based sterilizing product made by Mr. Beer. It's a powder that when mixed, provides oxidizing power to kill bacteria...then it quickly degrades into simple water and oxygen. No rinsing is involved, unlike using chlorine bleach where you have to be sure to rinse out all of the chlorine.

I mix up a batch of the cleaner in my stovetop pot that I'll be brewing the wort in, then I'll soak all the utensils I need for that day, and finally I pour it all off into the fermenter and run it through the siphon.

Everything is air dried on the counter on paper towels and I'm ready to go. (I also wipe down the counter first with one of those handy wipe kitchen towels.

Home beer making can get as intricate as you like, but if you want to just get started as quickly as possible, I'd recommend using the same home beer making kit that I used called Mr. Beer.

Mr. Beer makes every step as simple as can be. For making the wort, Mr. Beer sells "pre-malted hops", a thick, syrupy mixture of hops and malt that is specifically prepared for different basic types of beers (ale, lager, red, stout, etc).

This mixture comes in a can the size of a soup can and is added to your water and maltodextrin on the stove top. What's maltodextrin? It's a specific sugar that also is sold in single batch sized packets...just open and dump it in, no measuring needed.

As far as the fermenting step, you've probably seen those glass "carboys" used in kitchens basements all across america and europe. Those are typically 5 gallon containers. Mr. Beer makes a plastic fermenter that holds 2 gallons and can sit on your kitchen counter or in a shelf in the kitchen or a closet while the beer is fermenting.

The Mr. Beer fermenter makes this process SOOOO easy...it only has 3 parts to it. The fermeting keg itself has a wide opening on the top making it easy to pour in your wort. The bottom of the keg has a small "foot" that helps collect the yeast and hops sediment making it easier to siphon off when bottling.

The lid of the fermenting keg simply screws on, and it has venting slits built in to the lid to allow the gasses to escape while keeping bacteria and molds out.

Finally, when it's time to bottle the beer, a small spigot allows you to simply pour the beer out...no siphons or hoses required.

For your first few batches of home made beer, or even ALL of them, you really can't go wrong with a Mr. Beer Kit and I'd highly recommend it. For the price of 2 cases of beer from a distributor, you'll be able to enjoy years of the best tasting beer form your home.

You can learn more about Mr. Beer here:
Mr Beer Kits and Supplies