How to Brew Beer

It is quite a scientific and an artistic feat to brew good beer. The process of doing so has a definite set of strict rules, but at the same time, these same rules are contrastingly flexible. This is why brewing beer is influenced by one’s creativity and personal interpretations. It does sound quite challenging, is it not? Well, truth be told, it is fairly simple.

You just have to follow these steps:

Sanitation/Cleaning

As for all food and beverage processes, cleaning is always the first step. This also holds true for brewing beer.

All equipment must be thoroughly sanitized and cleaned. This is a very important step that must not be taken lightly. Take your time and clean every piece of equipment you will be using to brew beer.

After everything is spick and span, the brewing may now commence.

The Brewing Process

This step requires delicate attention for a long period. As you proceed to this step, close monitoring must be ensured to follow the strict timelines needed to make a perfect brew. Mashing, lautering, and boiling are the sub-processes involved in this step. Each subprocess is as vital as the rest.

Following each instruction to the simplest detail is essential to create good-quality beer. These vital steps will form the base of your finished product. In case there are any discrepancies in this step, the overall quality of the beer will surely be affected.

The Sub-Processes of Brewing

The Mash

The first step is immersing your grain bill in hot water to break down the starches and activate the enzymes within the grain. This will convert the starches to fermentable sugars. Water quality, temperature, and stirring are key elements in this process.

The Lautering

In this process, we remove the wort from the grain. We also use the “sparging” method which involves pouring hotter water than the mash into the mash itself to cleanse it of residual sugars.

The Boil

This is when you boil the mixture to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit. In this step, you also add a key ingredient, hops, which serve as a natural preservative to prevent bacteria from invading your beer. After this, you then cool down your brew in preparation for fermentation and bottling.

Fermentation

This is the most important step. This whole process will take approximately one week. With yeast in the mixture, respiration must occur at first then the fermentation may begin in 12 hours. The temperature must be about 68 degrees to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. After everything, you then commence with gravity reading. After this, proceed with the secondary fermentation.

Bottling

Before bottling, make sure to clean everything first. Carefully bottle all the beer batches and store them in a cool dark place for at least 2 weeks.