In the early days of the "microbrew revolution", approx 1993-1996, I was the head brewer for a local brewpub. I once counted up the number of batches I brewed and multiplied them by an average batch size, (6 BBL/186 gal). It came to a little over 50,000 gallons. It's been a few years since I brewed, but I remember the important stuff.
As Chris and others have said above
SANITATION is the first and last word in successful brewing. One of the first things my brewmaster taught me was the definitions of two words,
clean and
sanitary. Clean means that all visible gunk, residue, film, etc. has been removed from any surface which could contact the beer. Sanitary means that a clean surface has been treated with a sanitizing agent such as chlorine or iodine which kills any remaining microorganisms which could infect the beer. Luckily, it's virtually impossible to infect a batch of beer in such a way that it is drinkable yet hazardous to consume, (no risk of salmonella or e-coli for example).
The other thing I recommend for new home brewers is
WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN! Get yourself a three ring binder or spiral notebook and dedicate one page to each batch. Write down the date and time for each step in the process. Write down all your ingredients. Write down all important temperatures. If something goes wrong, this information will be useful for diagnosing the problem, especially if you are getting advice from someone more experienced. More importantly, If you produce a really fantastic batch of beer, you will want to reproduce it!
I hate to contradict Aglifter above, but tap water is relatively sanitary. Most municipal water systems are chlorinated. In the brewery, I sanitized everything with a 25-35 ppm iodine solution, then rinsed with tap water. We never had any problems in the four years or so that I worked there. For cleaning, we used a 4-4.5% sodium hydroxide solution. Some large commercial breweries use a strong acid solution as a combined cleaner/sanitizer. It is efficient but very hazardous to handle. My chemical supplier told me that if you get the concentrate in you eye, you've lost the eye.
The basics of ethanol production are these. Generate a sterile sugar-water solution and add yeast. The yeast consumes the sugar and excretes ethanol and carbon dioxide. This is called fermentation and will produce a 3-5% alcohol beverage in most cases, up to 8% if you're careful. Stronger than that and you have to distill it. With beer, the sugar comes from malted barley. Malting is the process of taking a grain and germinating it. Just after it sprouts, you kiln it. This leaves you with a kernel of grain consisting of a hull and a starchy endosperm infused with enzymes capable of breaking the starches down into sugars.
The basics of making beer are:
1. Obtain some malted barley.
2. Mill it so that the grain is broken open but the hull is still relatively intact.
3. Soak it in warm water so that the enzymes can convert the starches into sugars. (This is called Mashing)
4. After the starches are completely converted, drain the malt sugar water into a large pot, (brew kettle). This liquid is called wort, (pronounced wert).
5. Boil the wort according to your recipe, usually about 1-1.5 hours. Add hops during the boil according to your recipe. Hops provide bitterness and flavor to balance the maltiness. They also serve as a preservative.
6. At the end of the boil, stir the wort into a whirlpool. This will cause the proteins in the wort to accumulate in the center of the brew kettle making it easier to leave behind when the wort is drained off.
7. Drain the wort into your sanitary fermenter. Add more hops if desired. Cover. Allow to cool.
8. When the fermenter has reached the proper temperature, add the yeast. This is called pitching the yeast. The temperature will depend on the type of yeast you are using.
9. Monitor and maintain fermentation temperature as best you can. Yeast generates heat as it ferments. If it gets too hot, it will produce undesirable flavors and/or kill itself. If it gets too cool, it will go dormant. Ale yeast usually ferments around 77 F, and takes about a week to ferment completely. Once it is fermented, it is officially beer.
10. Move the fermented beer into the sanitized serving container, bottles or a keg. You will need to add a small amount of sugar to provide carbonation. Let it rest for a week or two for the secondary fermentation then chill and serve.
Most home brewers start out extract brewing. You buy a can of malt extract syrup and go directly to step 5.
Every home brewer I know has a copy of
The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It is the definitive resource. Brewing clubs and home brew supply stores are great places for help and information. Use them if they're available.
Stay away from the beer-in-a-box, just add water kits they sometimes sell around Christmas. They make lousy tasting beer at best.
Brewing beer is a great hobby in that it's relatively simple, allows for endless variation, and is highly social. Compared to other hobbies, it's relatively difficult to let it get out of control financially. It's easy to get started with $100-200 worth of equipment. It's hard to spend more than a couple of thousand. It's when you seriously consider opening a brewery or home brew supply that you need to consider therapy.
I have never home brewed myself, because here in Seattle I'm surrounded by an endless variety of delicious beers on tap and in bottles. Maybe someday...
