Step 1

Pick a recipe to brew and add up the number of pounds of grain used.

You can’t go wrong with a pre-made recipe from my favorite brew supply store.

Step 2

Heat 1 quart water for every pound of grain in your recipe. Bring the water to 173-178°.  (you will learn how to adjust this temperature with more batches.)

Step 3

Pour the hot water into your cooler set up (mash tun) that you made here.  Add the cracked grains and stir thoroughly. 

Step 4

If the grain is now 148°-158°, you’re all set. 

Close the cooler.  Start step 5 while you wait one hour.

Step 6-Option 1

slowly siphon the water onto the grain-  keep 1-2 inches of water on top of the grain while draining out at same rate into another kettle.

Step 5

Heat the same amount of water that you want in the final volume.  (usually 5 gallons)

Heat the water to 180°

Step 6-Option 3

A sprayer can be made from CPVC pipe to evenly distribute the water, but with 1-2 inches of water over the grain, this is not required.

Step 6-Option 2

Pour all 5 gallons into a beverage cooler that will keep the temperature constant as it pours over the grain.

Step 8

When 20 minutes remain in the boil, add the “flavor hops”  and any clarifiers from the recipe.

When 5 minutes remain, add the “aroma hops”.

Step 9-Option 2

An immersion chiller is a coil of copper tubing that cold water goes through.  This is a faster way to cool your beer down than the ice bath.

I personally use a counter flow chiller.

Step 7

Now you should have about 6.5 gallons of hot sweet barley tea.  Bring it to a boil and add your “bittering hops” from the recipe.

This will boil for 60 minutes.

Step 9 Option 1

To cool the beer at this point, one option is to put the kettle into a sink full of ice or even add some sanitary chilled water to the beer.  (dilutes the beer though) Keep the lid on.

Step 10a: 

Your goal is to have the beer under 90° before you pour it into your glass carboy.

Step 10b: 

Pour the cooled beer into a sanitized carboy and sanitize/ add an airlock. 

Be sure your beer is under 80 degrees F before adding yeast.

Step 10f: 

Hopefully your beer won’t overflow during fermentation like this one did.  

Wait 7-10 days until fermentation appears to have stopped.

Step 10d: 

Yeast love oxygen.  Some people shake the carboy for 10 minutes to incorporate oxygen into the beer.  I use an aeration stone and an oxygen tank for 60 seconds. 

Step 11: 

Transfer the beer  to a clean and sanitized carboy to finish clarifying.  Wait another 7-10 days. 

Step 12:

Now you can carbonate and enjoy your beer.  There are two options:  Bottling or draft systems.  Click here for more information.

Step 10 Note

Once beer is under 120° it becomes a perfect environment for all kinds of biological growth that we don’t want.  Sanitize everything from now on. 

Step 10 Note

The sanitizer I use is called Iodophor or BTF.  It is fast, inexpensive and easy to use.

Step 10 Note: 

There are a lot of different yeasts on the market.  The easiest is probably dry yeast like the ones pictured.  In the world of yeast, more is more.  Nothing wrong with using 2 packets.

Step 10c:

Instructions for mixing yeast and clean water are printed on most of the packages.

These instructions are pretty good.

Step 10e:

Let your beer ferment between 50-75°F.  This may mean in a basement or other cool location if you live where it is warm.  Not a problem where I live.