Your First Batch Of Beer
Ok, you have now got all of your equipment and ingredients and are now ready to make your first batch of homebrew. Here is a walkthrough of malt brewing as well as some do's and do not's.
Malt brewing walk through
Ok first thing first, one of the things that all homebrewers need to do is keep organized. So the first thing that you need to do is organize all your equipment and ingredients so that they are easy to get a hold of.
Second thing is, yeast. If you have decided to use dry yeast then go on to the next step, though you may want to read the following because you may want to use liquid yeast sometime. For all of you that are using liquid yeast you will need to start it by the company's instructions. More than likely it will take a good 24 hours to be ready to use. So make sure that you have started your yeast long before you start brewing. Some advantages to liquid yeast is that you do not have to rehydrate it as well as the yeast when you pitch it into the wort will not be in that dormant state. Also and this is an opinion, I think that the liquid yeast gives that better beer flavor.
From here on out is the fun part. Now for the actual "brewing" process. First thing that you want to do is grab that boiling pot and place about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of water in it. Use the water that you think would be best for your homebrew, if you are uncertain look over "water" in brewing 101. Now here is great recommendation if you are using an electric stove. Get a "WIRE" hanger that has no plastic on it and bend it to form a ring that will go over your burner and under your boiling pot. Next thing is to add the pot to the heat. Turn the heat on at about med/high. Now if you are using specialty grains place them in a "hop sock" and add them to the water at this time. These will stay in the water until it is just about to boil. If you leave them in too long it can cause really nasty Tannin's to be released, so make sure that you remove on time. Also when removing grains do not squeeze the bag this too can cause the release of tannins. When you water comes to a boil remove from heat.
The reason that you want to take the water off the boil is because when you add the malt you can have the tendency to burn the malt to the bottom of the pot, which can cause nasty flavors. So open the malt and add it to the water and mix well while doing so. When you think that you have mixed the malt in as good as you can place it back onto the burner and stir it until you get the wort to boil again. When the wort is to a boil take the hops and add them to a hop sock and add them into the boiling wort. A hint and suggestion, keep your boil at about med/high to high, and keep and eye on it at all times. That second that you turn away is the time that you're wonderful creation will boil over and ruin everything. There is nothing worse than trying to get sticky malt off your burner. Trust me it gets everywhere.
Ok back to the hops, these are known as boiling hops, why, well because they are left in at the boil only. You will want to leave them in that boil for no less than 30 minutes, though personally I like to leave them in the boil for about 60-90 minutes. This will get all of that hop flavor out, though if you are using a real strong hop, you may want to use less of it or leave it in the boil less time.
Now when you think that the hops have been in the boil long enough, it is now time to add the finishing hops. Which is usually a little amount of what you first hops were though can be totally different, or your recipe can not have any finishing hops at all. Ok add the hops to yet another hop sock and add them to the boiling wort for about 3-5 minutes, depending on the flavor that you are looking for. All that the finishing hops are going to do is add the hop flavor and aroma. When you are done take the pot off the stove again, because you are done with the boil.
From here there are several schools of thought to what should be done. I am only going to give one, because it was what was taught to me and it really hasn't failed me yet. In fact this method get rid of some of the mistakes than can happen when brewing. Take a thermometer that has been sterilized and add it to the pot, a floating thermometer works really well for this. Then cover the pot as best that you can. Now from here you need to cool your homebrew so that you can add the yeast to it. The method that has worked for me is to fill my bathtub up with cold, cold water and place the boiling pot in there for about 45 minutes. If you use this method remember not to get any of the surrounding water in the pot it can cause contamination. However you decide to cool the wort, it really needs to be done. Some people have suggested that you can just add the hot water to the cold filler water and it will be fine. Sure but the only problem with this is that if you oxidize hot wort, that oxygen can cause nasty, nasty flavors. In fact this is one of the main reasons that many hombrewer's first batch of beer turn out bad, rancid and nasty. So by cooling it first you eliminate a lot of those problems.
After the 45 minutes or so uncover the pot and check the temperature, is should be somewhere around room temperature (approx. 70 degrees). If it is not around room temperature then you will need to leave it in the bathtub until it is. After it has reached that perfect temperature, take it back to where you are going to rack it into the fermenter. Be careful not to slosh around the wort, because yes even still you can oxidize the wort and cause nasty flavors.
Into the fermenter add the 2 1/2 gallons of cold water, this is the time that I use the spring water, though you can use what ever you would like to. Now to the fermenter rack the wort into the water. What I mean by rack is grab that 3-4 foot plastic tubing and get a siphon going from the boiling pot to the fermenter. Be careful not to oxidize the wort, the best way to do this is to run the fermenter end of the tubing down the fermenter wall and into the water. Be sure and remove all of the wort into the fermenter, except the very bottom, which there will be a lot of crap, try not to get this into you fermenter. Though if a little does get in there it is ok, if won't kill anything, including you. From here, with the exception to "unpopular" belief do not stir, mix, slosh, or shake, these movements can be very devastating to your homebrew.
Now it is time to add your yeast, if you are using liquid yeast, this is very easy. Clean the package that the yeast comes in and then dump the contents into the fermenter, that's it. Make sure that the liquid yeast has "puffed up" before you add it, (about 24 hours before brewing). If you are using dry yeast you will need to rehydrate it first. This is the normal procedure that comes on all packages, though if it is different, use the manufactures instructions first. Ok here it is, get a cup of warm water and put it into a clean bowl, to that add the dry yeast, do not stir, but let sit 10-15 minutes, then stir up and add to your fermenter, pretty easy. Now from here the only thing left to do is place the cover on to the fermenter, fill the water lock and place it on the fermenter. Be sure that you DO NOT stir in the yeast, it will mix on it's own in about an hour or so. Only thing left to do is place the fermenter in a corner and let it do its thing. You will know when fermentation has started when the water lock starts bubbling, which should be anywhere from 12 hours to three days, depending on the yeast and the brew.
