If you haven’t already heard, Thursday, August 4th, is International IPA Day. Whether you are hanging out with friends, sitting at home, blogging or writing on Twitter (#IPADay), please enjoy a pint or six of your favorite India Pale Ale and share your experience with others. Perhaps it is an IPA that you brewed yourself?
For more information on International IPA Day, click here.
Leading up to the first time I brewed some beer, I was convinced that I wanted to go all in and buy all the individual ingredients myself. I wanted to be hardcore from the beginning and I felt that buying an ingredient kit was equal to cheating. As soon as I had picked out a recipe online, I went to my local brewing supplies store and immediately became overwhelmed with all the things I saw.
I felt lost.
I had countless questions running through my head. Is this the right malt? How many bottle caps are in this little bag? What exactly do I do with these grains? Do I really need this much corn sugar on hand? What do I do if I can’t find the right hops? Should I just buy myself a six-pack of Two Hearted Ale? (Good stuff)
Then I caught myself gazing at all the beer ingredient kit boxes and realized that would probably be the safest route to go since it was my first time. It turns out that it didn’t feel very much like cheating because I still had to boil the grains, add the hops, add the malt, etc. I guess I was expecting the ingredient kits to be more like a “just add water” situation but I actually had to follow a very specific recipe. Okay, I wasn’t REALLY expecting to just add water but I thought that the kits would have oversimplified the process. The particular kit I bought (True Brew India Pale Ale Home Brew Beer Ingredient Kit
Though it is fairly easy to brew beer, there is still the possibility that you might make some simple mistakes that will destroy your batch of beer. Let this post be a warning to you before you get started on the brewing process.
Always thoroughly clean your brewing kit and other brewing supplies before you get started. Bacteria in your wort can wreak havoc on the fermentation process and ruin the flavor of your beer. Cleaning your supplies will also ensure that there isn’t any unwanted substances or objects in your beer. I love my cats very much, but not enough to drink cat hair beer (I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has tried this).
Don’t forget to add the yeast to the wort. Yeah, you laugh about it now, but I have heard from many sources that forgetting to add the yeast before sealing the fermentation bucket/tank is a fairly common mistake made by home brewers. Without yeast, you will end up with a batch of flat non-alcoholic beer. Yummy.
Don’t syphon directly from the bottom of the fermentation bucket. During fermentation, a lot of sediment settles along the bottom of the bucket and if you hold the syphoning tube too close to the bottom, it will suck it up and move it into the bottling bucket. In many wheat beers, moderate amounts of sediment may be desirable but many people freak out when they see floaties in their beer. The sediment in beer will not harm you, but it might taste a little chunky going down.
Lastly, avoid the temptation of prying open the fermentation bucket before it is time to bottle/keg the beer. This also helps prevent bacteria and other flavor destroyers from entering the beer. Just trust that you took all the right steps leading up to the point where you sealed the bucket and let the yeast do what it does best.
This was a question I am sure a lot of beginning home brewers might have. I know I sure did. Like most people, I want to avoid legal trouble as best I can! In the United States, a home brewer is permitted to brew 100 gallons of beer per adult in a household. The maximum allowed is 200 gallons. This is great if you are married and your spouse hates beer! That leaves an additional 100 gallons for you and your friends. Each of these two numbers is probably a lot more than the average home brewer brews in a year. To put it in perspective, most brewing kits yield roughly 5 gallons of beer per batch.
Be sure to keep in mind that state and local laws may be a little more strict than the federal home brewing laws. It is hard to believe there are still dry counties in the United States. If you want more detailed information regarding home brewing laws, the American Homebrewers Association has a bunch of legal jargon you can read.
Welcome to Basic Home Brewing. I am your host, Benjamin Kohl, and I’d like to help you get started on your exciting new hobby of brewing your own beer. You don’t have to be an expert chef to brew beer. In fact, it is actually quite easy as long as you are good at following instructions. If I can do it, so can you! Whether you dream of one day becoming a professional brewer or you just want to impress all your beer connoisseur friends, this site is a great place to get started.
Check out the brewing supplies page for links to books, keg kits, ingredient packages and brewing kits. There is also a simple glossary of terms you should know before you get started. I promise not to overload the glossary with too many terms. After all, I’m only going to cover the basics and I won’t get into any advanced topics. There are plenty of other websites that cover advanced recipes and brewing techniques. I am still a novice brewer like you and I know what it is like to have a lot of questions about the hobby and I also know how hard it can be to find answers to those questions.
I already have a good list of topics I will be discussing in the coming weeks so stay tuned!