Fisher - Brewing Made Easy, 2nd Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Beer at Home

Contents INTRODUCTION You Can Brew It!

Every year tens of thousands of people become homebrewers. It isnt hard to get started. You just walk into your local brewstore and buy an equipment kit, a bag of brewing ingredients, and a book like this one. And then you start to brew. If you like what you made the first time, you brew again. And again.

Suddenly, you are a brewer, capable of creating any existing style of beer or of designing your own beers. You start to enter contests, join homebrewing clubs, subscribe to brewing magazines, grow your own hops, travel to conventions, and experience the exciting and growing world of beer from the best possible perspective: that of the brewing insider.

The reasons people have for brewing their own beer are many. But for most of us, it comes down to three essential goals: saving money, improving on flavor, and having fun.

Saving Money. This is a great argument for making your own beer. Today an incredible variety of microbrews and imports is available, and theres nothing wrong with that! The fact that this country has finally thrown off the yoke of mediocre commercial beers and embraced the diversity of styles and good taste is cause for celebration. But many of these beers can be pricey. So why not make beer at home? You can brew simple extract beers such as we describe in this book for just fifty or sixty cents per glass. Compare that with import or brewpub prices! And all-grain brewers can achieve even greater savings. Of course, quality brewing ingredients are not cheap, nor should they be. But the sticker shock you may feel when picking up a big bag of brewstuff should be tempered by the knowledge that it will make a significant amount of beer.

Improving on Flavor. Most of us who brew at home feel that the taste of our beer is as good as, if not better than, anything on the market. We use the best ingredients and serve our beer perfectly fermented and aged. This is why homebrew is often superior to microbrew. Our beer doesnt have to be shipped anywhere, it doesnt sit on a shelf, and it doesnt have to make a profit. The only people our homebrew has to please are our friends, ourselves, and maybe a panel of judges if we decide to enter it in a contest. We can experiment with the amount and kinds of grain, the type of hops, or the strain of yeast. Ultimately, we can create a recipe that suits our palates perfectly, and it becomes our own house beer , something that we will brew again and again in the years to come.

Having Fun. Finally, brewing is fun. There is a deep satisfaction that comes from taking simple ingredients and combining, fermenting, and aging them to produce the age-old and ever-new libation called beer. Some people spend years perfecting just a few recipes; others never brew the same recipe twice. It all depends on what you want to do. Some brewers enjoy complex recipes and elaborate equipment setups; others cultivate simplicity. There is a comfort level of brewing for everybody. Thats what makes homebrewing such a great hobby.

Brewing Made Easy is designed for the beginning brewer, and our goal has been to supply accurate, up-to-date information that is easy to understand and apply, so that you can start homebrewing right away, the right way. Every brewer does things a little differently, and over time you will undoubtedly develop an individual brewing style that suits you.

We wish you good luck and happy brewing!

CHAPTER 1 Brewing with Malt Extracts

Malt extract brewing is the simplest way to make beer, and most people start out this way. Malt extract is the product of grain mashing, in which malt grains (barley that has been partially germinated, dried, and roasted to produce different brewing characteristics) are steeped at controlled temperatures to extract the brewing sugars. Then the resulting liquid is reduced until it is a syrup that contains only about 20 percent water.

Mashing is the trickiest stage of brewing, and using malt extracts means that you dont have to mash grain. Later, you can work up to more complex forms of brewing, such as partial mash and all grain. But for now, lets stick to the extracts.

Basic extract brewing is not complicated. Simply boil together malt extracts, either in syrup or dry form (often both are used in a recipe), water, and hops. You add hops to the brew (wort) at various stages of the boil to provide bitterness, flavor, and aroma. And finally you add yeast after the wort has cooled.

You can achieve even more simplicity by using can kits, which are cans of hopped malt extract formulated to make a particular beer. The recipe for Redemption Bitter (see ) is not much more complicated than a simple kit recipe, because it uses malt extract that has already been hopped by the manufacturer.

Basic Equipment

You will need a few pieces of basic equipment. If you buy a starter kit, much of what you need for basic brewing will be in it. In addition to what is shown at right, its always handy to have a few white food-grade plastic buckets kicking around for cleaning bottles, soaking equipment, and so forth. Even the most occasional brewer will soon acquire a sizable collection of miscellaneous gear and then he has to find room to store it! Our philosophy in writing this book has been to find the easiest method to help the beginner make good beer. To do this we will often recommend buying a desirable tool, such as a Vinator or Auto-Siphon, right away rather than waiting and using a simpler but sometimes less satisfactory method.

Brew pot. A 16-quart stainless steel pot is fine for basic extract brewing.

Fermentation lock. A clear plastic airlock allows carbon dioxide to escape during fermentation but keeps air from reaching your beer.

Long-handled metal or plastic stirring spoon.

Medium-size stainless steel strainer. A metal strainer is useful for rinsing grains and straining spent hops from wort.

Plastic fermenting bucket with lid. A 6.7-gallon plastic fermenter usually comes with the equipment kit.

Thermometer. A thermometer, either a regular cooking thermometer (left) or a floating one (right), is useful for telling when its safe to pitch the yeast. Yeast can stand very cold temperatures, but anything above 90F will kill it.

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