h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Brewing Home Made Beer - A2636615
Author: Donald - U641020

This was rescued from the Flea Market from an original article from a researcher that has left the building.

I have added a bit and taken a bit out and hope it will encourage people to try it for themselves. It's well worth the effort.

Well, this certainly seems thorough!

It might flow better if you keep all of the beer kit instructions together before moving on to the scratch home brew. In other words, say everything you want to say about the kit first - what it includes, how to use it, etc., then move on to brewing from scratch with something like "If that seems too easy for you, try this..."

When you say 'cereals' do you mean 'grains'? Maybe it's the american in me, but when I think of cereals I'm thinking Frosted Flakes

Would you consider giving temperature figures in both Celcius and Farenheit?

I was also a bit confused by the first mention of OG, when measuring the sugar content of the beer. It says to use the hydrometer to measure and that it will measure the sugar content, but doesn't say how... then in the next paragraph states that there should be an OG of a certain level without saying what that is or how to measure it. Maybe you should state that a hydrometer measures the sugar content by displaying an Original Gravity (or OG) level, and when that level is at a certain point you're ready for the next step.

On the whole I think that if I venture into home brewing I'll stick with the kit

Aside from all that, there seem to be quite a few grammatical and punctuation errors and typos. I'm sure you could spot them on another read through, or later I could go through and find them again for you

A fine job, and with a bit of tweaking a grand addition to the guide

Hello Donald,

The subject is close to my heart, and the entry shows promise.

I might recommend the addition of a glossary to cover things like sparging, racking, wort, and the other specialised terms involved with brewing.

Malt is the sugar which is produced by the action of the enzyme maltase on the raw starch in the grain. Barley is predominant in brewing because it has the highest efficiency/yield of malt. Sugar, of course, is what the yeastie-beasties eat. Alcohol is what they excrete.

I haven't done any malting/mashing/sparging with my batches. I use malt extract, with a modest amount of milled malted grain. I feel this adds body to the brew, whereas a recipe calling exclusively for malt extract tends to lack character.

You don't want the barley to sprout green buds. Just the rootlets.

A paragraph on hydrometers would be helpful.

Sanitation: Iodophor and household bleach (sodium hypochlorite) solutions are acceptable sanitisers. They will evaporate from the clean surface without odours.

This is nitpicky, but I would call the 'yeast lock' a 'fermentation lock'. This allows carbon dioxide from the primary fermentation to escape without allowing any outside air into the fermenter.

I wouldn't recommend a plastic cask for pressure-carbonisation. Cornelius kegs (20L) are prime for this purpose. Remember that cold liquids retain dissolved gases better than warm.


Chill the boiling wort to 20-25degC before pitching the yeast. I find that a counterflow wort chiller is the quickest and most efficient means.

I've always oxygenated the wort before pitching. According to the pundits, oxygen is necessary ONLY in the yeast populating cycle. The yeast will proliferate and utilise the available oxygen for growth; fermentation will commence within one to two days.

A paragraph on yeast? Flocculate? (just teasing)

Mislo,

I have corrected the spelling mistakes and typos, I hope. I have done the layout the way it is because once the wort is fermented the remaining procedures are the same for both methods.

Yes, Corn, Wheat. Barley, Maize are all cereals. AS far as temperature is concerned, most of the world now uses Centigrade. There is really only one temperature that you need worry about and that 20C = 70F.

I have added a bit about a hydrometer. AS you suggest, a hydrometer doesn't measure sugar content. It measure specific gravity which is affected by sugar content.

Foolish Mortal.

I have been using plastic pressure vessels without any ill affect for years. If you don't use plastic that only leaves aluminium. Likely to be horrendously expensive. I have never seen a five gallon pressure vessel made of glass! What are the Cornelius Kegs you mention made off? I agree that cold liquids retain dissolved gases better than warm but what has that got to do with the material the pressure vessel is made from?

I have always found that tipping 15 or 16 litres of cold water onto 4 litres of boiling water brings the temperature down to with a couple of degrees of 20C. Keeping the temperature up has always been my problem, not getting it down.

I don't think you want to oxygenate the wort, in fact the less oxygen the wort sees the better. Oxygen + water + organic materials is the prime environment for bacteria to breed. The last thing you want where beer is concerned. Yeast doesn't need Oxygen to do its work and I would go as far as to say the oxygen might even be detrimental to fermentation. Oxygen may be used in breeding yeast, but thats a whole different subject.

I have always found that providing the temperature is right, 20C, fermentation starts within a matter of hours and after 24 hours its going well.

Donald

Donald,

Corny kegs are stainless steel. They are available from brew shops, refurbished, at about $25 per. I like them for the fact that you can easily put them in a 'kegerator', hook up the CO2 and tap, and not have to fiddle around with bottling. Just a couple days of 15-18 PSI CO2, and it's ready to drink.

About the oxygen: Since the yeast has to breed before it ferments, I see this as a logical step. If everything was sanitised thoroughly, infection won't be an issue. The instructions I follow stress that the wort should be 'aerated' as it goes into the primary fermenter.

I'm more worried about picking up infection from the cold water that the wort is cooled/diluted with. It may just be me, but I can taste the difference between a 5-gallon boil and a 2-gallon boil with water dumped in.

What are your thoughts on using malt extract vice sugar for bottling?

Peace,

fool

Nice entry - however I personally would have talked a little about the intermediate step between ready prepared kits and making your own malt - what about buying in ready-malted barley?

I found it was great fun playing around with the various quantities of chocolate and crystal malt changing the recipes - and you tend to get more consistent results from commercially produced malt than you do from the homemade stuff.

You might also want to mention some of the equipment you can buy if you get more serious...

I used to use a couple of 5 gallon plastic drums which were fitted with a thermostatically controlled heating element - great for mash-tuns. Mind you, you can make equipment as and when you need it - for cooling I just used 15 metres of copper piping bend into a serpentine.

Foolishmortal,

I think the difference in emphasis revolves around the difference in the beer we are making. You, being American, are make a larger type beer, whereas I, being British, is making an Ale type beer.

AS you will know, Larger type beer uses bottom fermenting yeast which works at a lower temperature and uses slightly different type of malt. Ale type beer uses top fermenting yeast which ferments at a higher temperature which consequently affects the whole nature of the brew.

Thats why Americans think we British are strange as we like our beer warm. The fact is that if Ale type beer, because of the way it is brewed, is meant to be served at room temperature. If it is served chilled it kills the taste stone dead. On the other hand, larger benefits from being chilled. Warm larger tastes worse than chilled Ale.

I can't see that using malt extract in place of sugar when bottling can make that much difference. So little of it is used that there not a lot that can happen. Having said that, I don't often make bottled beer. I have a couple of cases of empty bottles that have only ever been used twice. I prefer the draught beer which avoids the hassle of filling up two dozen bottles by hand.

Donald

This is very clearly explained.
Just 2 things that might have escaped the spell check caught my eye.
your in l.5 and of/off just before fermentation.
I don't know a lot about beer-brewing (though I did give it a go once) and this guide is helpful.

Thanks for the comments whisky.

Good idea, I'll work in a paragraph or two about using ready-malted barley. It does make a nice intermediate step between doing everything and using a kit.

I agree, that once you have got confidence in making the basic brew and understand the processes involved, varying the type of malt and other ingredients can produce some interesting results. You can even experiment in adding various spices and different types of hops. But thats getting more advanced. We will stick to the basics for the time being.

Donald

C'mon, Donald, don't stereotype my tastes...my favourite brew could be served in Newcastle bottles, and no-one would know the difference.

It's generally too warm in CA to do good lagers without yet another refrigerator. Also takes too long to lager, IMHO.

Peace.

fool

Hey folks,

sorry to disturb, but there's already a comprehensive edited entry on homebrewing at A481060. If you feel that there's something vital missing, you still have the option to make an update of the exisiting entry via the UpdateForum.

SchrEck Inc.

I missed this when I went looking. This entry covers everything and I dont think there is much I can add to it. I'll take mine out of PR.

Donald