Beer
The marvelous sound of a beer cracking open is only overshadowed by the first sip. This magical art dates back 7000 years and for good reason. Beer is delicious.
Let There Be Beer
Although beer has changed a lot over the centuries, most beer can be boiled down to a few key ingredients. This will always include a style of malts, a variation of hops, and a strain of yeast. In fact, in German beer purity laws, called Reinheitsgebot, only these three ingredients plus water are allowed to be used in the beer making process.
The drastic, natural variations of these ingredients allow for a plethora of different flavors, colors, and even textures to blossom through the correct combination and under the appropriate conditions. Some beers will call for additional ingredients such as fruits and special sugars, but we will focus on the three key ingredients.
Hops
Hops, or specifically the flower of the hop plant, adds flavor and aroma to a beer. Typically this is a bitter flavor, but depending on the hop variety this can also be citrus, floral, and even notes of specific fruits.
The hop variety, amount of hops, and the timing of when the hops are added alter these different attributes in the beer.
Although they are very pretty and iconic flowers, generally you will find them in the form of pellets at brewing stores and even most breweries.
Malt
Malts are dried grains, typically barley. The grains contain starch that will be converted to sugar through a process called mashing. This sugar is crucial to the brewing process.
Grains are dried and roasted at different temperatures to create many types of malts. From light pilsner malts to dark chocolate malts, the variations will affect the taste, color, body, and even alcohol content of the final beer.
Yeast
Yeast is a living organism. Without it fermentation would not happen, you would just be making tea. Yeast eats the sugars from the malt and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Science!
Like hops and malts, there is a wide variety of yeast strains available. Each strain will bring a unique profile of flavors, textures, and colors to your beer. Yeast can be purchased as a starter in a number of different forms at any brewing store.
Basic Equipment
To start brewing your own beer there are some items that you will need to procure. These items are the bare minimum you will need to make the 5 gallon IPA recipe here.
Dont be intimidated by the list of items, all of these (with the exception of the bottle caps) will be used over and over again.
For the sake of keeping things simple and cheap we will not focus on kegs.
Instead we will use bottles. In the future you may want to purchase a keg for convenience.
Although we individually go through each item you will need, there are also a seemingly infinite number of kits out there that come with most of these basic Items.
Airlock
Airlocks are important to allow air out of your fermenter (bucket) but not allow oxygen in. Oxygen may give us life, but it will destroy anything that you are fermenting.
Hydrometer
Hydrometers are used to determine the final alcohol content of your beer by measuring the liquids density before and after fermentation.
Steeping Bag
A steeping bag is extremely helpful to keep sediment levels down and will help your tubing not get clogged up.
Bottles
If you dont have a keg, bottling your brew is where the carbonation happens. It takes 54 - 12 oz bottles 5 gallons of beer or only 30 - 22 oz bottles. Bottles are reusable, so save them up, but be sure to thoroughly sanitize them. These must be fermentation grade. Period.
Sanitizer
Cleanliness is crucial to any brewing operation. The easiest way to mess up a beer is by contaminating it with bacteria. A good rinse-free sanitizer is very important.
2 x 6.5 Gallon Food Grade Buckets with Lids
This bucket is to ferment you beer in. It needs an airtight lid with a hole in the lid that fits your airlock.
Large Stock Pot
We’re talking big. A 5 gallon stock pot should do the trick, and there’s nothing wrong with getting a larger one. This item generally does not come with a kit.
Bottle Caps & Capper
Bottle caps and bottle cappers keep all the carbonation in the bottles.
Auto-Siphon & Bottling Wand
While not crucial, auto-siphons will save you from making a mess as well as some headache when its time to fill your bottles. It stops filling the bottles when you pull it from the bottle and starts when you put it in the bottle.
Tubing
You will need 4 feet of 3/4 inch tubing to transfer liquid between vessels.
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Pale Ale Recipe
Malt: Extract Recipe
Size: 5 Gallons
Type: Pale Ale
This simple Pale Ale Recipe is delicious, easy, and quick. Perfect for anyone's first homebrew. Through this recipe, we will learn the steps to transform basic raw ingredients into beer. To see the equipment you will need for this recipe, visit the Equipment Page.
This is an extract recipe, meaning, we will be using pre-extracted malt which saves several steps.
You can extract your own through a process called mashing, but for the sake of simplicity and learning, this recipe will use extract.
Remember, before you begin to sanitize everything with your no-rinse sanitizer. Everything.
If this is your first brew, get excited! If you’ve done this before, welcome back and cheers!
Pale Ale Ingredients
1.5 lb
Crystal 10 Malt
5oz or 3/4 Cup
5 oz
5 Gallons
Filtered or
Spring Water
Step 1 - Sanitize Everything
Sanitize all your equipment thoroughly with a rinse-free sanitizer like Star-Sans or the equivalent.
Step 2 - Make Wort
In a 5 gallon pot, bring 3.5 gallons of water up to 170˚ F (77˚ C). Put 1.5 lbs of Crystal 10 Malt into a steeping bag and steep in the heated water for 30 minutes.
Step 3
Bring mixture to a boil. Stir in 8 lbs of Pale Ale Malt Extract until well mixed with water. Congratulations, you have made wort.
Step 4
The hops will be added in two batches. Being careful to avoid a boil-over, add 3 oz of Cascade Hops to the boiling wort. Start a timer for 60 min. After 60 min of boiling, turn off the heat and immediately add the remaining 2 oz of Cascade Hops. Stir together.
Step 5
If you have the space, cool the pot of wort in an ice bath. Once the wort’s temperature drops below 75˚F (24˚C) pour wort into sanitized fermentation bucket. Add chilled filtered/spring water until there are 5 gallons of liquid in the bucket (The colder the better). Stir together.
Step 6
Using a Hydrometer, measure the original gravity and record this number for calculating the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) after the fermentation process.
Step 7
Pitch (add) the yeast into wort and stir vigorously adding as much air to the liquid as possible.
Step 8 - Ferment
Add lid to fermenting bucket and set up airlock so that no oxygen is getting in, but air can get out. Allow wort to ferment in a cool and dark place with a consistent temperature (Ideally 65˚F or 18˚C) for 14 days until there are no further bubbles appearing in the airlock.
Step 9
After there are no further bubbles appearing in the airlock, remove lid from fermentation bucket. Using the Hydrometer, check the gravity of the beer and record the result. Wait 2-3 days and check the gravity again. If the gravity has not changed then the fermentation process is over. This step insures that the bottles will not explode when filled. Once the gravity has not changed, use the original gravity (from step 6) and the final gravity to calculate the ABV of the beer using this calculator. This is the alcohol content of the beer.
Step 10 - Bottle
In a small pot boil 5 oz (3/4 cup) priming sugar in 1 cup of water mixing until dissolved (THIS AMOUNT OF PRIMING SUGAR IS MEANT FOR 5 GALLONS OF BEER. LESS BEER REQUIRES LESS SUGAR AND CAN RESULT IN BOTTLES EXPLODING. YE BE WARNED). Let cool. Add mixture to a sanitized bucket (bottling bucket). Use an Auto-siphon to move the now fermented beer from the fermenting bucket to the bottling bucket. Try to avoid agitating the sentiment at the bottom as much as possible. Gently mix the Priming sugar and beer in the bottling bucket.
Step 11
Use an Auto-Siphon with a Bottling wand attached to fill sanitized bottles leaving 1-3/4 inch of headspace. Use a bottle capper to add caps to the bottles. Store bottles for 2 weeks in a dark place at a consistent room temperature (this allows the beer to become carbonated).
Step 12 - Cheers!
Chill beer and enjoy!
Beer Terminology
Adjuncts – Additional ingredients like corn, rice, fruit, or spices used to alter beer flavor and body.
Attenuation – The percentage of sugars yeast ferments into alcohol and CO₂, affecting the beer’s final dryness or sweetness.
Blow-Off Tube – A tube attached to the fermenter that allows excess CO₂ and foam to escape.
Boil – The stage in brewing where the wort is heated, typically for 60–90 minutes, with hop additions.
Carboy – A glass or plastic vessel used for fermentation.
Cold Crashing – Rapidly cooling the beer before bottling to help settle yeast and other particles.
Conditioning – The process of aging beer to develop flavors and carbonation.
Diacetyl Rest – Allowing beer to warm slightly at the end of fermentation to let yeast clean up off-flavors.
Fermentation – The process in which yeast converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Gravity (Original Gravity, Final Gravity) – A measurement of the wort’s sugar content before and after fermentation.
Hops – The flowers of the hop plant used in brewing for bitterness, aroma, and preservation.
Hop Addition (Bittering, Flavor, Aroma) – Adding hops at different stages of the boil to affect the beer’s bitterness, flavor, or aroma.
Hydrometer – A tool used to measure the gravity of a liquid to determine alcohol content.
IBU (International Bitterness Units) – A scale used to measure the bitterness of a beer based on hop content.
Krausen – The foamy head that forms during active fermentation due to CO₂ and yeast activity.
Lautering – The process of separating the liquid wort from the spent grain after mashing.
Mash – The process of steeping crushed malted grains in hot water to extract fermentable sugars.
Off-Flavors – Undesirable tastes in beer caused by contamination, improper fermentation, or aging issues.
Pitching – Adding yeast to the cooled wort to start fermentation.
Priming Sugar – Sugar added before bottling to create carbonation as yeast ferments it.
Racking – Transferring beer from one vessel to another to separate it from sediment.
Sparging – Rinsing the grains with hot water to extract remaining sugars after lautering.
Trub – The sediment composed of hops, proteins, and other solids that settle after the boil.
Wort – The sweet liquid extracted from malted grains before fermentation.
Yeast – A microorganism that consumes sugar and produces alcohol and CO₂ during fermentation.