How to Brew Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time John J. Palmer Publisher: Brewers Publications; 3rd edition (June 25, 2006) ISBN-10: 0937381888 ISBN-13: 978-0937381885 Contents Introduction Acknowledgements Glossary Equipment Descriptions Section 1 - Brewing Your First Beer With Malt Extract Chapter 1 - A Crash Course in Brewing • 1.0 What Do I Do? • 1.1 Brew Day • 1.2 Fermentation • 1.3 Bottling Day • 1.4 Serving Day • 1.5 Read On! Brew On! Chapter 2 - Brewing Preparations • 2.0 The Road to Good Brewing • 2.1 Preparation • 2.2 Sanitation o 2.2.1 Cleaning Products o 2.2.2 Cleaning Your Equipment o 2.2.3 Sanitizing Your Equipment • 2.3 Record Keeping Chapter 3 - Malt Extract and Beer Kits • 3.0 What is Malt? • 3.1 Beer Kit Woes • 3.2 Shopping for Extracts • 3.3 Finding a Good Kit • 3.4 How Much Extract to Use • 3.5 Gravity vs. Fermentability Chapter 4 - Water For Extract Brewing • 4.0 The Taste of Water • 4.1 Home Water Treatment • 4.2 Water Chemistry Adjustment for Extract Brewing Chapter 5 - Hops • 5.0 What Are They • 5.1 How Are They Used • 5.2 Hop Forms • 5.3 Hop Types • 5.4 Hop Measurement • 5.5 Hop Bittering Calculations Chapter 6 - Yeast • 6.0 What Is It? • 6.1 Yeast Terminology • 6.2 Yeast Types • 6.3Yeast Forms • 6.4Yeast Strains o 6.4.1 Dry Yeast Strains o 6.4.2 Liquid Yeast Strains • 6.5 Preparing Yeast and Yeast Starters • 6.6 When is My Starter Ready to Pitch • 6.7 Yeast from Commercial Beers • 6.8 Support Your Local Micro • 6.9 Yeast Nutritional Needs o 6.9.1 Nutrients o 6.9.2 Oxygen o 6.9.3 Aeration is Good, Oxidation is Bad Chapter 7 - Boiling and Cooling • 7.0 First Recipe • 7.1 Beginning the Boil • 7.2 Hop Additions • 7.3 The "Hot Break" • 7.4 Cooling the Wort Chapter 8 - Fermentation • 8.0 Some Misconceptions • 8.1 Factors for a Good Fermentation o 8.1.1 Yeast Factors o 8.1.2 Wort Factors o 8.1.3 Temperature Factors • 8.2 Re-defining Fermentation o 8.2.1 Lagtime or Adaptation Phase o 8.2.2 Primary or Attenuative Phase o 8.2.3 Secondary or Conditioning Phase • 8.3 Conditioning Processes • 8.4 Using Secondary Fermentors • 8.5 Secondary Fermenter vs. Bottle Conditioning • 8.6 Summary Chapter 9 - Fermenting Your First Beer • 9.0 Choosing Your Fermenter • 9.1 Transferring the Wort • 9.2 Location • 9.3 Conducting the Fermentation • 9.4 How Much Alcohol Will There Be? Chapter 10 - What is Different for Brewing Lager Beer? • 10.0 Yeast Differences • 10.1 Additional Time • 10.2 Lower Temperatures • 10.3 Autolysis • 10.4 Yeast Starters and Diacetyl Rests • 10.5 When to Lager • 10.6 Aagh! It Froze! • 10.7 Maintaining Lager Temperature • 10.8 Bottling Chapter 11 - Priming and Bottling • 11.0 What You Need • 11.1 When to Bottle • 11.2 Bottle Cleaning • 11.3 What Sugar Should I Prime With? • 11.4 Priming Solutions • 11.5 Using PrimeTabs • 11.6 Bottle Filling • 11.7 Priming and Bottling Lager Beer • 11.8 Storage • 11.9 Drinking Your First Homebrew Section 2 - Brewing Your First Extract-and-Specialty-Grain Beer Chapter 12 - What is Malted Grain? • 12.0 Barley Malt Defined • 12.1 Malt Types and Usages • 12.2 Other Grains and Adjuncts • 12.3 Extraction and Maximum Yield • 12.4 Extract Efficiency and Typical Yield o 12.4.1 Table of Typical Malt Yields • 12.5 Mash Efficiency • 12.6 Planning Malt Quantities for a Recipe Chapter 13 - Steeping Specialty Grains • 13.0 Why? Why Not! • 13.1 Understanding Grain • 13.2 Mechanics of Steeping • 13.3 Example Batch Section 3 - Brewing Your First All-Grain Beer Chapter 14 - How the Mash Works • 14.0 An Allegory • 14.1 Mashing Defined • 14.2 The Acid Rest • 14.3 Doughing In • 14.4 The Protein Rest and Modification • 14.5 Starch Conversion/Saccharification Rest • 14.6 Manipulating the Starch Conversion Rest Chapter 15 - Understanding the Mash pH • 15.0 What Kind of Water Do I Need? • 15.1 Reading a Water Report • 15.2 Balancing the Malts and Minerals • 15.3 Residual Alkalinity and Mash pH H • 15.4 Using Salts for Brewing Water Adjustment Chapter 16 - The Methods of Mashing • 16.0 Overview • 16.1 Single Temperature Infusion • 16.2 Multi-Rest Mashing • 16.3 Calculations for Boiling Water Additions • 16.4 Decoction Mashing • 16.5 Summary Chapter 17 - Getting the Wort Out (Lautering) • 17.0 Aspects of Lautering • 17.1 A Good Crush Means Good Lautering • 17.2 Getting the Most From the Grainbed Chapter 18 - Your First All-Grain Batch • 18.0 Preparation • 18.1 Additional Equipment • 18.2 Example Recipe • 18.3 Partial Mash Option • 18.4 Starting the Mash • 18.5 Conducting the Mash • 18.6 Conducting the Lauter • 18.7 Options For Next Time Section 4 - Formulating Recipes and Solutions Chapter 19 - Some of My Favorite Beer Styles and Recipes • 19.0 A Question of Style • 19.1 Ales vs. Lagers • 19.2 Style Descriptions • 19.3 Ale Styles • 19.4 Lager Styles Chapter 20 - Experiment! • 20.0 Just Try It • 20.1 Increasing the Body • 20.2 Changing Flavors • 20.3 Using Honey • 20.4 Toasting Your Own Malt • 20.5 Developing Your Own Recipes Chapter 21 - Is My Beer Ruined? • 21.0 (Probably Not) • 21.1 Common Problems • 21.2 Common Off-Flavors Appendices • Appendix A - Using Hydrometers • Appendix B - Brewing Metallurgy o B.0 Brewing Metallurgy o B.1 Passivating Stainless Steel o B.2 Galvanic Corrosion o B.3 Soldering, Brazing, and Welding Tips • Appendix C - Building a Wort Chiller • Appendix D - Building a Mash/Lauter Tun o D.0 Choosing a Cooler o D.1 Designing the Manifold o D.2 Tun Geometry and Flow Potential o D.3 Sizing the Tun • Appendix E - Metric Conversions • Appendix F - Recommended Reading Introduction There are many good books on homebrewing currently available, so why did I write one you ask? The answer is: a matter of perspective. When I began learning how to brew my own beer several years ago, I read every book I could find; books often published 15 years apart. It was evident to me that the state of the art had matured a bit. Where one book would recommend using baking yeast and covering the fermenting beer with a towel, a later book would insist on brewing yeast and perhaps an airlock. So, I felt that another point of view, laying out the hows and whys of the brewing processes, might help more new brewers get a better start. Here is a synopsis of the brewing process: 1. Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars. 2. The malt sugar solution is boiled with Hops for seasoning. 3. The solution is cooled and yeast is added to begin fermentation. 4. The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol. 5. When the main fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation. Sounds fairly simple doesn't it? It is, but as you read this book you will realize the incredible amount of information that I glossed over with those five steps. The first step alone can fill an entire book, several in fact. But brewing is easy. And it's fun. Brewing is an art as well as a science. Some people may be put off by the technical side of things, but this is a science that you can taste. The science is what allows everyone to become the artist. Learning about the processes of beer making will let you better apply them as an artist. As my history teacher used to chide me, "It's only boring until you learn something about it. Knowledge makes things interesting." As an engineer, I was intrigued with the process of beermaking. I wanted to know what each step was supposed to be doing so I could understand how to better accomplish them. For instance, adding the yeast to the beer wort: the emphasis was to get the yeast fermenting as soon as possible to prevent unwanted competing yeasts or microbes from getting a foothold. There are actually several factors that influence yeast propagation, not all of which were explained in any one book. This kind of editing was an effort by the authors to present the information that they felt was most important to overall success and enjoyment of the hobby. Each of us has a different perspective. Fortunately for me, I discovered the Internet and the homebrewing discussion groups it contained. With the help of veteran brewers on the Home Brew Digest (an Internet mailing list) and Rec.Crafts.Brewing (a Usenet newsgroup) I soon discovered why my first beer had turned out so brilliantly clear, yet fit only for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in. As I became more experienced, and was able to brew beer that could stand proudly with any commercial offering, I realized that I was seeing new brewers on the 'Net with the same basic questions that I had. They were reading the same books I had and some of those were excellent books. Well, I decided to write an electronic document that contained everything that a beginning brewer would need to know to get started. It contained equipment descriptions, process descriptions and some of the Why's of homebrewing. I posted it to electronic bulletin boards and homebrewing archive computer sites such as Sierra.Stanford.edu . It was reviewed by other brewers and accepted as one of the best brewing guides available. It has been through four revisions as comments were received and I learned more about the Why's of brewing. That document, "How To Brew Your First Beer" is still available and free to download and/or reproduce for personal use. It was written to help the first-time brewer produce a fool-proof beer - one they could be proud of. That document has apparently served quite well, it has been requested and distributed world-wide, including Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, and Asia- the Middle East and the Far East. Probably several thousand copies have been distributed by now. Glad I could help. As time went by, and I moved on to Partial Mashes (half extract, half malted grain) and All-Grain Brewing, I actually saw requests on the 'Net from brewers requesting "Palmer-type" documents explaining these more complex brewing methods. There is a lot to talk about with these methods though, and I realized that it would be best done with a book. So, here we go Oh, one more thing, I should mention that Extract Brewing should not be viewed as inferior to brewing with grain, it is merely easier. It takes up less space and uses less equipment. You can brew national competition winning beers using extracts. The reason I moved on to Partial Mashes and then to All-Grain was because brewing is FUN. These methods really let you roll up your sleeves, fire up the kettles and be the inventor. You can let the mad-scientist in you come forth, you can combine different malts and hops at will, defying conventions and conservatives, raising your creation up to the storm and calling down the lightening Hah hah HAH But I digress, thermo-nuclear brewing methods will be covered in another book. Okay, on with the show Section 1 Brewing Your First Beer With Malt Extract Welcome to How To Brew! In this first section of the book, we are going to lay the groundwork for the rest of your brewing education. As with every new skill, it helps to learn to do things the right way the first time, rather than learning via short cuts that you will have to unlearn later on. On the other hand, when you learn how to drive, it is not necessary to learn how an internal combustion engine works. You just need to know that it does work when you keep it supplied with air and gasoline for fuel, oil for lubrication, and water for cooling. To learn to brew beer, you don't need to learn how the yeast metabolize the malt sugars. But, you need to understand that metabolizing is what they do, and you need to understand what they need from you to get the job done. Once you understand that, you can do your part, they can do theirs, and the job should turn out right. Once you gain some familiarity with the brewing processes, you can delve deeper into the inner workings and make your beer better. So, in Brewing Your First Beer With Extract, you will learn to drive. Chapter 1 - A Crash Course in Brewing, will provide an overview of the entire process for producing a beer. Chapter 2 - Brewing Preparations, explains why good preparation, including sanitation, is important, and how to go about it. Chapter 3 - Malt Extract and Beer Kits, examines the key ingredient of do-it-yourself beer and how to use it properly. Chapter 4 - Water For Extract Brewing, cuts to the chase with a few do's and don'ts about a very complex subject. Chapter 5 - Hops, covers the different kinds of hops, why to use them, how to use them, and how to measure them for consistency in your brewing. The last ingredient chapter in Section 1, Chapter 6 - Yeast, explains what yeast are, how to prepare them, and what they need to grow. From there, Section 1 moves into the physical processes of brewing. Chapter 7 - Boiling and Cooling, walks you thru a typical brew day: mixing the wort, boiling it, and cooling it to prepare it for fermentation. Chapter 8 - Fermentation, examines how the yeast ferments wort into beer so you will understand what you are trying to do, without going into excruciating detail. Chapter 9 - Fermenting Your First Beer, does just what it says: takes what you have just learned and walks you through the practical application. Everybody wants to brew their favorite beer that they buy at the store, and it is usually a lager. So, Chapter 10 - What is Different for Brewing Lager Beer? examines the key differences of lager brewing, building on what you have already learned about ale brewing. Section 1 finishes with Chapter 11 - Priming and Bottling, explaining each step of how to package your five gallons of new beer into something you can really use. It is a long section, but you will learn to brew, and brew right the first time. Later sections of the book will delve deeper into malt and malted barley so you can take more control over the ingredients, and thus, your beer. The last section, Section 4 - Recipes, Experimentation, and Troubleshooting, will give you the roadmaps, the tools, and the repair manual you need to drive this hobby to new horizons. Have Fun! Chapter 1 - A Crash Course in Brewing What Do I Do? If you are like me, you are probably standing in the kitchen, wanting to get started, your beer kit and equipment on the counter, wondering how long this will take and what to do first. Frankly, the first thing you should do is read all of Section I - Brewing Your First Beer With Extract. This book is going to teach you How To Brew, from the fundamentals to the advanced methods; you won't be confused by conflicting instructions on a beer kit, and you will have an outstanding first batch. But if you are like me, you probably want to do this right now while you have some time. (It's going to take about 3 hours, depending.) So, in this first chapter, I will walk you through the steps necessary to get your first batch bubbling in the fermentor, and give you an overview of what you will do to ferment and bottle your beer. The instructions in this chapter may not explain why you are doing each step or even what you are doing. To understand the Whats and Whys of brewing, you will need to read the rest of this book. Each of the chapters in Section I discuss the brewing steps in detail, giving you the purpose behind each step. You will know what you are doing, rather than doing it that way because "that's what it said " You will know how long to boil the wort, how to really use hops, why to bother cooling the wort, why to bother re-hydrating the yeast, why to wait two weeks before bottling Get the picture? But, if you can't wait, this chapter should see you through. Beer production can be broken down into 3 main events: Brew Day, Fermentation, and Bottling Day. If you have questions about terminology or equipment, be sure to review the Glossary and Required Equipment sections via the links at the top of the page. 1.1 Brew Day Equipment Needed Let's review the minimum equipment you will need for this first batch: • a 20 qt. brew pot (large canning pot) • large stirring spoon (non-wood) • ordinary table spoon [...]... process There are several brewing spreadsheets and software programs available over the Internet that can be a big help A brewer needs to be able to repeat good batches and learn from poor ones If you have a bad batch and want to ask another brewer for their opinion, they are going to want to know all the brewing details They will want to know your ingredients and amounts, how long you boiled, how you. .. general, the darker the beer, the warmer you serve it 2 Pouring your beer To pour the beer without getting yeast in your glass, tip the bottle slowly to avoid disturbing the yeast layer on the bottom of the bottle With practice, you will be able to pour everything but the last quarter inch of beer without getting any yeast in your glass 3 Savor the flavor Finally, take a deep draught and savor the flavor... the beer splash as you siphon it in Instead, put the end of the siphon under the surface of the beer as it fills The swirling motion of the beer as it enters the bucket will be sufficient to evenly mix the priming solution into the beer without aeration If you don't have a bottling bucket, you can gently pour the priming solution into the fermentor and gently stir it Allow the sediment in the fermentor... filler) need to be sanitized, especially the inside After sanitizing, leave the siphon full of sanitizer and carefully place the racking cane in your beer Release the clamp/valve or your clean-and-sanitized thumb and allow the sanitizer to drain into a jar Make sure the outlet is lower than the fermenter, or you will drain the sanitizer into your beer As the sanitizer drains, it will draw the beer into the. .. use The purpose of malting a grain is to release these enzymes for use by the brewer Once the seeds start to sprout, the grain is dried in a kiln to stop the enzymes until the brewer is ready to use the grain The brewer crushes the malted barley and soaks it in hot water to reactivate and accelerate the enzyme activity, converting the barley's starch reserves into sugars in a short period of time The. .. gives the beer flavors time to meld and balance out 1 Chill your beer The bottled beer does not need to be stored cold It will keep for approximately six months, depending on how well you managed to avoid exposure to oxygen during the last stage of fermentation and the bottling process You will probably want to chill it before serving, however The optimal temperature for serving beer depends on the style,... Cover the pan and allow it to cool 4 Combine beer and priming sugar The best method for preparing the beer and priming sugar solution is to use a separate container the same size as your fermentor as a "bottling bucket." Clean and sanitize it and pour the priming solution into it Next, siphon the beer from the fermentor into the bottling bucket Don't simply pour the beer into the bucket, and don't let the. .. the fermentor and leave it to cool Now bring 3 gallons of water to boil in the brewpot You will be boiling all of the extract in just 3 gallons and adding this concentrated wort to the water already in the fermentor to make the total 5 gallons (See Chapter - Water for Extract Brewing, for more info.) Note: If your beer kit includes some crushed specialty grain, you will need to steep that first before... flavor of the beer you have created Don't rush it - there's plenty more (47 bottles, in fact) Take time to evaluate the flavor, its bitterness qualities, its sweetness, the level of carbonation These observations are your first steps to beer appreciation and designing your own recipes 1.5 Read On! Brew On! If you want to learn more about brewing beer - how it works, why it works, and how to have fun... by the yeast, though the yeast will continue to ferment the beer long after the bubbling diminishes Leave the beer in the fermentor for a total of two weeks 5 Clean Up Now is the time to wash out your brewpot and other equipment Only use mild unscented detergents, or the cleaners recommended in Chapter 2, and rinse well 1.3 Bottling Day The second big day in your career as a homebrewer comes two weeks . cooling. To learn to brew beer, you don't need to learn how the yeast metabolize the malt sugars. But, you need to understand that metabolizing is what they do, and you need to understand. what to do first. Frankly, the first thing you should do is read all of Section I - Brewing Your First Beer With Extract. This book is going to teach you How To Brew, from the fundamentals to the. How to Brew Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time John J. Palmer Publisher: Brewers Publications; 3rd edition (June 25,