Homebrewing basics

If you discuss the term homebrew with a person off the street, they are likely to reply back with a story about exploding glass bottles. This is the stereotype that many people hold often based on prohibition-era truth and folklore. While it is true that a homebrewer can face the prospect of exploding bottles, this is a rarity and can be easily avoided. Correctly made modern homebrew rivals most brews on the store shelf in terms of freshness, taste, and cost, but brewing at home is a labor of love because it consumes a lot of time.

If your idea of beer is picking up a suitcase of Bud/Miller/Coors on a Friday night, this page isn't for you. This page gives a basic overview of homebrewing procedures based on my experiences, practices, and reading. Intertwined in the text you will find various bits of knowledge and basic theory that are useful for the home brewer to know.

Please note that as with many hobbies, there can often be many different ways to achieve the same result. The same is true with homebrewing. Many of the procedures and techniques described here are not the only ways to achieve the desired results; they are just the methods I happen to use.

- UPDATE! June 8, 2008 - I was sitting in the office of two co-workers discussing the deployment of some production web servers (read about

Table of contents

Extract versus all-grain brewing

There are two general types of home brewing: Extract and all-grain. This page covers a procedure based primarily on the extract home brewing process.

All-grain brewing is identical the method that microbrewers and large brewers use, and it involves the use of precise control of water temperature, enzymes, pH, and other factors to convert the starch in malted grain to sugars. This method takes time and skill to do correctly, but the benefit is much greater control over the finished brew.

Extract brewing involves the use of a grain extract, such as malted barley extract which is also known as malt extract. Grain extract is a commercially-available concentrated version of what the all grain brewer creates during the mashing process, which is the first part of the all-grain brewing process. For the home brewer, the use of grain extract saves time and expense of purchasing additional brewing equipment. The availability of malt extract provides a shortcut for the brewer. One can brew an excellent beer with grain extract, even though the brewer doesn’t have as much control over the final product as the all-grain brewer does.

Most homebrewers start with extract brewing because of the simplicity and lower cost. Some of those graduate to all-grain brewing to take on the challenges and enjoy the rewards it offers.


Homebrew waiting to be opened

The partial mash extract brewing process

Start with water

Because beer is mostly water, the quality and content of the water is important. Ideally, the water should be free of chlorine and flavors. I brew with water that has been filtered using reverse osmosis and activated charcoal which removes the chlorine and other contaminates. If your tap water has a taste, then you might want to filter it or seek another water source such as filtered water can be bought at the grocery store and costs less than $1 a gallon. You could also ask friends or neighbors if you can have a few gallons of water from them if they have an in-house water filter.

I start by heating 1 gallon of water to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit in a small pot. I use a stainless steel cooking thermometer to measure the temperature. When the water is at the correct temperature, I turn off the heat and drop in a pound of crushed grain which has been tied in a cheesecloth bag.
The grain steeps for 30 minutes. During this time, the heat activates enzymes in the grain and the enzymes convert the grain's starch to sugar. The water then washes this sugar from the grain. While the grain is soaking, I fill the 5 gallon stainless steel brew pot with 3 gallons of water and raise the temperature to about 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When the grain in the small pot has steeped for 30 minutes, I sparge (rinse) it a few times in the main brew pot and then pour the contents of the small put into the main pot. The grain can then be eaten, discarded, or composted.

The boil

About hops

Cleanliness and sanitation

Anything the wort comes into after the boil must not only be clean, but must also be sterile. Sterilization can be defined as 'to destroy microorganisms'. The introduction of any germs, bacteria, or stray yeast to the wort will damage the resulting beer by adding subtle off flavors or ruining the beer totally. An infected batch of beer can also cause exploding bottles. The easiest way to sanitize fermenters, siphon tubes, air locks, and anything else is to soak them in a solution of a teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water. I probably end up using more bleach than this, but as long as the items are rinsed with tap water after soaking, I have never had any problems. Items should be soaked until just before their use so that bacteria have less chance to work their way into the system.
Glass carboy and siphon hose with bleach-water solution.

Cooling the wort

After about an hour of boiling, and the correct addition of hops and other ingredients, the wort must be cooled quickly and then transferred to the primary fermentation vessel. There are many ways to cool 4 gallons of 220 degree wort down to 80 degrees. The faster methods are preferred so that the wort can be put into the fermenter as soon as possible to help protect it from bacteria and stray yeast by prolonged exposure to the air.

I prefer to use a so-called immersion chiller. This is a simple device made of about 30 feet of coiled copper tubing. The chiller is first placed into the boiling wort to sterilize it. I sterilize the chiller in bleach water beforehand as well. When it is time to cool the wort, the pot of boiling wort with immersion chiller is placed into the kitchen sink, and cool tap water is run through the immersion chiller. The tap water exits one tube of the chiller and goes down the sink drain. The tap water never comes in contact with the wort. The water exiting the chiller is almost the same temperature as the wort. I was burned by this near boiling water on one occasion after forgetting just how hot the exiting water was. Using an immersion chiller I can cool 4 gallons of wort from 220 to 80 degrees in about 20 minutes.

One other method of cooling involves placing the brew pot in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink, bathtub, or snow. This takes much longer and leaves the wort exposed to the open air for a much greater time which risks the health of the final product.

After cooling the wort to an acceptable temperature, it is siphoned to the sterilized 5 gallon glass carboy. During this process, it is advisable to introduce as much oxygen into the wort as possible, to encourage healthy yeast growth. Note that this is the only time you want to oxygenate the wort or beer during the whole process; oxygen is damaging to beer during the fermentation process.

Also at this time, the brewer may need to add additional water to the fermenter to make a total of 5 gallons. Assuming the wort has been cooled to a temperature acceptable to pour into the glass carboy, I add any remaining needed water last. The final part of this step is to remove a small sample of wort from the fermenter to be tested with a hydrometer. More on that later.

Yeast

After getting the wort into the fermenter, the yeast is added. It is important to get the yeast working as soon as possible so that the wort has greater resistance to any outside germs that may attack it. Some brewers use a small packet of yeast nutrients to help give the yeast a quick start. I honestly do not know what these nutrients consist of.

Yeast is a hugely important element in the final flavor of most beers, and many people fail to understand this. While all beer yeast is either 'ale' or 'lager' yeast, there are almost infinite strains of these two types and each strain gives a beer a different flavor. 20 years ago, the homebrewer had very few yeast choices. At best, a brewer had 5 or 6 different types of dry (powdered) ale and lager yeast to choose from. Today, however, not only can a homebrewer get a specific type of yeast for a specific style of beer, we also have liquid yeasts available. These liquid yeasts have the advantage of being very fresh and have the ability to start fermentation quickly, thus reducing so-called 'lag time' which is the time between when the yeast is pitched into the wort and when fermentation begins. The liquid yeasts are much more expensive (about $6.00) than the old 99 cent dry varities, but the benefit they impart to the finished product is so significant that the added cost (10 cents per bottle) is well worth it.

Ale versus lager yeast

No essay about beer would be complete without an explaination of ale versus lager. Many people mistake ale and lager as simply two different styles of beer. Most people assume Bud/Miller/Coors are lager while anything darker in color is an ale. While Bud/Miller/Coors are lager beers, the terms ale and lager refer to something more specific than just two styles of beer.

The majority of all beer yeasts are created using either ale yeast or lager yeast. In the beginning, all beer yeast was ale yeast. Eventually it was discovered that a strain of yeast had the ability to produce a crisper tasting and lighter bodied beer. This yeast also worked well at cooler temperatures. This yeast was dubbed lager yeast. There is a whole lot more history here, but this is the high level overview.

The key general differences between the two are that ale yeast functions at generally warmer tempteratures and produces beer with a frutier flavor. Lager yeast works best at a cooler temperature and produces a drier and more crisp beer. The majority of beers in the world are lagers because these beers are pale, watery, and generally lacking in flavor. The lager yeast is needed to help produce these types of beers, although do not blame the yeast for the abundance of watery beer in the world; Many fine and tasty lager beers exist.

Many homebrewers create primarily ales because ales ferment well at temperatures found in the home and these brewers do not have a spare refrigerator or other cool environment for fermentation. On the Gulf Coast where I live, homes are typically 70 to 75 degrees 10 months out of the year and this temperature range is fine for brewing ales. Ales are also of interest to the home brewer because these beers tend to be more flavorful and full-bodied and the final product is more tolerant of slight off-flavors that might be introduced during fermentation. Lagers, on the other hand, can require more precision for the beer's delicate flavor to work correctly.

Primary fermentation

A short video showing vigorous primary fermentation.
Click the picture to open the 90 second, 1.5 MB, .WMV format video.

Secondary fermentation

When I first started brewing, I didn't really understand the point of the secondary fermentation vessel. It seemed a lot easier and less risky to just leave the beer in the primary for 3 weeks, but after a while I started to understand the reasons to move the beer to a clean vessel for the secondary fermentation. First, you are leaving behind materials that you do not want ending up in the final product such as hop pieces, dead yeast cells, and grain residue. See photos below. Second, it has been written that dead yeast cells will begin to impart an off flavor to the beer after enough time has past, so leaving those behind is a good idea. Finally, moving the beer to a fresh fermenter gives you the opportunity to add some water to make a full five gallons if a vigorous blow-off process resulted in any lost beer volume.


Emptied primary fermenter with accumulation of hops in the top.


Accumulation of yeast in primary fermenter.

The vigorous fermentation in the primary will settle down after about 4 days. When this happens, the beer can be racked (siphoned) to another clean and sterile carboy. After the beer has been transferred, the carboy can be topped up with boiled and cooled water so that the volume of liquid reaches the thin neck of the carboy. This helps minimize exposure of the beer to oxygen until the time the air is purged by the CO2 being created by fermentation. The carboy is fitted with a special top and small water-filled fermentation lock. The beer will continue to ferment in the secondary for perhaps 1 to 3 weeks.

Specific gravity: The density of liquid

How does the brewer know how long the beer should be left in the secondary fermenter before it is bottled? Part of the answer lies in measuring the beer's specific gravity, or density. Water has density of 1. When something such as sugar is dissolved in water, the mixture becomes slightly more dense. For example, freshly-brewed wort may have an 'original' gravity (known as OG) of 1.045, which means it is 1.045 times as dense as water. As the wort is fermented, the sugars are broken apart by the yeast and the density, or gravity, of the wort drops. The 'final' gravity (FG) of beer is the density of the brew after the fermentation is ceased and all fermentable sugars have been exhausted. A beer will never achieve a final gravity of 1.000 because there will be some sugars in the beer that are not fermentable by the yeast. A typical FG of a beer might be 1.011 or 1.015. The number varies from recipe to recipe depending on how much malt, what types of malt, and the type of yeast used.

Gravity is measured with an instrument called a hydrometer. A hydrometer simply floats in a liquid and its numbered gauge sticks out from the surface of the liquid. The number seen at the surface of the liquid indicates the gravity. A more dense liquid will cause the hydrometer to float higher and display a higher number while a less dense liquid will cause the instrument to float lower and give a lower number.

Most homebrew recipes will indicate the OG and FG of the beer. You should check the gravity of the beer right before pitching (adding) the yeast to the fermenter. Comparing the gravity of your wort to the number listed in the recipe will give you an indication that you did or didn't goof up.

When measuring specific gravity, always make a note of the temperature. Measurement of gravity is performed based on a liquid temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If your wort or beer is warmer or cooler, you must make an adjustment to the number based on the temperature difference. Any good homebrew book will have a chart or description of the adjustment.

So, back to the original question: How does the brewer know how long the beer should be left in the secondary fermenter? One way to know is to check the gravity of the beer after it has been in the secondary fermenter for a week or two. If the gravity matches the FG listed in the recipe, then the fermentation is complete; all fermentable sugars have been consumed, and it is safe to bottle.

Some homebrewers simply let the beer sit in the secondary until the bubbling of the air lock slows to a certain rate or ceases totally. I like to time things much closer in order to get the beer out of the fermenter as soon as possible. The other factor that I calculate into determining when to bottle is the day of the week. Bottling takes a couple of hours so it's easiest to do it on a weekend.
Two packages of compressed hops and a hydrometer

Bottling time

Once it has been determined the beer has spent enough time in the second fermenter (typically 1 to 3 weeks), it's time to bottle it. Bottling is a lot of work if you want to do things right and get the beer out of the fermenter and into the bottles quickly to avoid exposure to air which contains oxygen and contaimnents. It helps to have a helper.

Flat beer is no fun. How does homebrew get carbonated? Easy. Even though you are leaving yeast behind every time you rack the beer from one container to another, there is still always some yeast in the beer. To carbonate the beer, you simply add a measured amount of sugar to the beer, bottle it, and seal the caps tightly. The sugar will be fermented by the residual yeast. This will create carbon dioxide which will be trapped in the bottle and will dissolve into the beer. This is called priming. It typically takes about 2 weeks for beer to carbonate using this method.

Ideally you should have already accumulated about 48 twelve ounce bottles with NON-twist-off tops. You're also going to need a capper and some new crown caps. Sterilize all of the bottles. This takes a lot of space unless you do it in batches. After soaking all of the bottles in th usual bleah-water solution, I rinse each one using a faucet-mounted bottle washer. This is handy device that attaches to the sink faucet. You place bottle upside down over the washer and this presses a metal bar that opens a valve in the device and water is sprayed up and into the bottle. This makes quick work of rinsing 48 bottles. You must also sterilize a carboy (yes, again). You can typically use the one that you used for the primary fermentation.

Depending on the recipe, you will typically have 3/4 or 1 cup of dextrose priming sugar. You can also use powdered malt extract. Boil your priming sugar in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes. Rack the beer into the sterilized carboy and gently pour in the priming sugar syrup. You must be VERY careful to avoid splashing the beer or introducing any oxygen into it. In addition to the risk of contamination, you are also worried about oxidizing the beer and having the taste suffer. Remember, beer is a food and it is best when consumed fresh. Beer should be stored in the absence of oxygen.

Once the priming sugar has been added to the beer in the sterile fermenter, you can start bottling. The basic idea here is to rack the beer into each sterilized bottle and then cap it. I will typically fill a dozen bottles, place caps on them, run them through the capper, put them in 6-pack holders, and move them aside. It's easy to accumulate a floor full of bottles and end up knocking half of them over if the capper slips under your pressure while crimping a cap.

One great tool to make bottling easier is a bottle filler. This is a spring-loaded rigid plastic tube that connects to the end of the racking tube. You simply press the bottle filler against the bottom of a bottle and the beer will flow. As soon as you lift the tube up, the valve will close and the beer will cease to flow. This device also has the advantage of flowing the beer into the bottom of the bottle which helps minimize splashing and oxidation. Homebrew shops typically have a variety of caps to choose from. The differences are mostly aesthetic with the exception of one kind of caps that is coated with an oxygen absorbing material. The theory is that these will help minimize the small amount of oxygen at the top of each bottle.

The end result

Additional hints

This section details a few helpful hints.

plumbing - After you go through the motions of creating a batch of beer from start to finish, you'll learn that you spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink washing and rinsing things. It is very helpful to have a way to attach various devices directly to the kitchen sink faucet such as a bottle washer, wort chiller, or length of hose to aid in filling carboys with water or rinsing them out. The key to attaching these devices to the faucet is a small adapter that screws into the end of the faucet and gives you a standard garden hose thead connection to which you can attach your devices or hoses. To install, you must first remove the aerator from the faucet. If you've never done this before, you might need a pair of pliers to get it lose. After removing that the aerator, the adapter screws right on. You can usually find these adapters at home brew store or a good hardware store in the plumbing section.

paperwork - Before I brew, I prepare a printed sheet that lists the essential information about the beer I'm brewing, the major steps of the brew process, and the recipe itself. This printed sheet allows me write in things such as date, times, specific gravity measurements, and any important notes. This helps me stay oragznied during the boil and helps me work efficiently and consistently. I also staple my hops packages to the sheet when I'm done. If I have made any bottle labels, I'll usually staple one of those to the sheet too. If I brew a beer I love and want to duplicate, I have a great record of how it was made. If I brewed a beer that had problems, the printed log may offer reasons why.

Temperature control - For the sake of simplicity, this page doesn't generally refer to any specific fermentation temperatures because the amateur homebrewer needs to keep things simple. One good way to create a better and more accurate homebrew is by controlling your fermentation temperature. A detailed study of yeast yields the knowledge that yeast produce different amounts of byproducts at different temperatures. These byproducts are part of the flavor and aroma of the finished product. Some flavors are more desireable, some less. While it's possible to brew a great beer entirely at room temperature (for example, 74 degrees Farenheit), fermenting at the temperature reccomended by the yeast manufacturer lets you take a big step in quality depending on the style of beer you're brewing. While many styles such as stout and hefeweizen do well at higher temperatures, other styles are improved by fermentation at cooler temperatures. How can temperature be controlled? In warmer climates such as Texas, temperature control generally means fermenting the beer in a refrigerator whose thermostat is adjusted correctly or controlled with a special device.

Brewing with fruit

The addition of fruit or fruit juice during the brewing process can add a great element to a beer. There are many superb commercial brews that are brewed with fruit, and it's easy to do this at home. There are three related key factors to keep in mind when planning to brew with fruit: Santizing, timing, and fruit selection.

First, the fruit must be sanitized before adding it to the wort to avoid spoilage of the beer by stray bacteria or yeast in the fruit. One common technique involves pasteurization which simply involves heating the fruit to 165 degrees for 30 minutes in order to kill the majority of the microrganisms in it. One must be very careful to avoid boiling the fruit, as this will set the natural pectin in the fruit and give the finished beer a cloudy protein haze.

The second consideration is when to introduce the fruit into the beer making process. Many recipes call for adding fruit after the boil, when the wort is still hot. In theory this avoids boiling the fruit but still exposes it to enough heat to pastuerize it. The drawback to this method is that you might run the risk of the fruit clogging your blow-out tube and/or being blown out before it has been exposed to the beer for a long enough duration. Using a primary fermentation vessel without a blow-out tube avoids these possibilities, because the fruit is left in the beer the whole time. Adding fruit juice or fruit puree instead of whole or crushed fruit avoid the clogging problem, but still leaves open the risk of losing some fruit during the blow out. My method is to pasteurize the fruit or juice, lower the temperature using the sanitized wort chiller, and add it to the secondary fermenter. This avoids loss due to blow off but still allows for a lengthy exposure of fruit to beer.

Finally, one must determine which fruit or juice to select, and what quantity to use. The recipe you're using will largely determine this, but homebrewing is often a hobby that invites experimentation and invention. Factors such as cost, availability, and physical composition of the fruit come into play. If a recipe calls for 8 pounds of fresh raspberries, but the local grocery store sells them for $12 a pound, you might look for a cheaper alternative such as frozen raspberries, or pure bottled raspberry juice. Depending on the physical makeup of the fruit, you might need to process it beforehand. Avoid putting large pits or seeds into the beer. Some recipes call for crushing the fruit beforehand. Again, if you're using a tested recipe, let that guide you.

A few words about fruit juice: You can use fruit juice in addition to, or as a replacement for, whole fruit. Using juice can save time spent processing while fruit and save the hassle of removing the fruit from the beer. When choosing a juice, look for a pure juice that contains no other additives such as water, sugar, other juices, or preservatives. Juices like this are hard to find and expensive. Look at your local health food or specialty grocery store. Some juices of this type are made from a juice concentrate that has been diluted with water, and these are probably okay to use.

How much fruit juice should be used in place of fresh fruit? I have had limited success finding good information about this. Table #1 below is a compilation of data I have found from diferent juice manufacturers and other sources such as the customer support department at

Words of caution

There are many good sources of homebrewing information, but there are bad sources as well. Here are some things to avoid:

Avoid any preassembled beer 'kit' with a recipe that claims that no boiling is necessary. Boiling at least serves the purpose of killing bacteria and stray yeast. The more effort you put into a batch a beer, the better it can be. Boiling also helps coagulate some of the protien in the beer which can result in a less cloudy finished product.

Avoid malt extracts that have hop extract already added. You will make a better beer by adding your own hops at the correct times and in the correct quantities. Again, you can take shortcuts, but avoiding shortcuts will generally result in a better beer.

Avoid taking shortcuts with sanitation. If you have read this whole essay, you will understand that sanitation is important throughout most of the brewing process.

What do you do if you've already bought a kit but haven't brewed yet? There are many different types of beer kits and some do take some shortcuts. Kits are a good thing because they can be an easy way to get started in homebrewing. The drawback to kits is that they may lead to an inferior brew due to poor quality ingredients or bad directions. The good news is that you can control many factors when brewing beer from a kit and make the most of it. What shortcuts might a kit take? A kit will likely contain dry yeast because dry yeast doesn't require refrigeration to preserve it. Dry yeast is OK, but will not yield the same quality result as the more expensive liquid yeast. You can stick with the dry yeast, or seek out a liquid yeast. If you use a dry yeast, rehydrate it in a cup of clean room-temperature water for 10 minutes before adding it to the wort. If the kit doesn't advise that you boil the wort, that's a bad sign. You should always boil if possible. At the risk of complicating things, I can't reccomend a specific action here for kits that don't require boiling, unless the kit's directions do present an option for boiling. If there's an option to boil the wort, take that option. The malt extract in the kit may have hop extract already in it rather than using separate hops. Again, the benefit here is that this gives the kit a longer shelf life because hops pellets have a shorter shelf life. If this is the case, then you can't really change things other than possibly throwing a small amount of compressed or whole hops at the end of the boil. Adding hops will of course change the final taste of the beer so this has to be taken into account. In the end, I would probably follow the directions included with the kit if this is your first batch, but put a lot of effort into things you can control such as these items: Sanitize the necessary equipment. Oxgenate the wort really well before adding the yeast by shaking the fermenter or agitating with a sanitized spoon. Minimize exposure of the beer to air at all times after adding the yeast. If using dry yeast, start it in a cup of clean room-temperature water before adding to the wort. Boil your bottle caps in water for 3 to 5 minutes before capping the bottles (assuming the caps aren't the oxygen absorbing kind that are activated by exposure to moisture). Cool the wort as quickly as possibly before adding the yeast. Boil the wort if the directions offer that possibility. Ferment the beer at the appropriate temperatures at the right times. Make sure the wort is cooled to a low enough temperature before adding the yeast. Otherwise, you'll kill the yeast. Doing these things will help your beer in at least two ways: You'll get the fermentation started as quickly as possible, and keeping things sanitary and minimizing air exposure will help eliminate off-flavors in the beer and other related problems.

Immersion wort chiller sanitizing in the kitchen sink.

Printed resources

Equipment list

Brewing procedure summary

1. Heat 1 gallon of water to 160 degrees, turn off heat, and steep grain for 30 minutes.
2. Add water from prior step to main brewpot, add additional water, and bring to boil.
3. When brewpot boils, remove from heat and stir in malt extract.
4. Return brewpot to boil and start timing. Avoid a boilover.
5. Add hops at the correct times according to the recipe.
6. After the end of the boil, cool wort as quickly as possible to 70 or 80 degrees.
7. Rack wort to sterilized primary fermenter and add water if necessary to make 5 gallons.
8. Measure and record the OG and temperature of the wort.
9. Oxygenate the wort and add the yeast and any yeast nutrients.
10. Attach a blow-by fermentation lock and ferment for about 4 to 7 days.
11. After vigorous fermentation has slowed rack beer to sterilized secondary fermenter and attach air lock.
12. After beer reaches the FG listed in the recipe (1 to 3 weeks), prepare for bottling.
13. Rack beer to a sterilized container, add priming sugar, and bottle.
14. Let the beer condition for 2 to 4 weeks and try it. It will generally improve with age for a few months.
15. Enjoy!

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Entire page copyright 2007 Ken Blair :: Return to top of page :: Updated November 29, 2007 :: Return to kenblair.com