Sebahu.com   [pron: say-baa-hoo]

The Phone Phantom presents....
How to brew your own beer!

[ This information comes to you from out of the BBS past (see bottom of document). Some references have been deleted, as they were no longer relevant or current. ]

This is it, folks!

Okay, here's what you'll need:

• Bottles
• Bottle caps
• Bottle capper
• A 4-5 gallon pot
• Ingredients for your recipe
• Racking hoses, basically siphon hoses
• A strainer or cheesecloth bag
• Brewer's yeast
• 2 5-gallon buckets. I suggest one 5-gallon bucket and one glass carboy (the kind of jug as the office water cooler)
• An airlock. This is a little plastic device that you put water in and it lets the CO2 escape without letting any air in.
• A rubber stopper
• Irish moss. This stuff helps the yeast settle.
• Bottle brush

Bleach, for cleaning and sanatizing

Okay, here's the basic process:

Bring 2-3 gallons of water to a boil and add the malt extract. To make it easier to pour out of the can, soak the can in hot water first. Then add the first load of hops. The hops that you add at the beginning of the boil is called the bittering hops, and the hops that you add at the end is called the aromatic hops. If your recipe calls for regular malt also, add it now, too. Also pour in the corn sugar, if it's called for. Let this mixture (it's called a wort) boil for about a half an hour, and during the last 5 minutes of the boil, add a teaspoon of Irish Moss.

Now you need to strain all the hops and malt out of the wort, so all you have is a dark liquid with no crud in it. You can do this however you want. After you've strained it, pour the liquid into your 5-gallon glass carboy (or plastic bucket, if you've chosen that). Add cold water until the total amount of liquid is 5 gallons. The carboy or bucket that you're using now will be referred to as the Primary Fermentation Vessel, or PFV. Put the PFV in a cool place overnight.

When the liquid in the PFV is cooled to room temperature, sprinkle the yeast on top of the mixture, let it sit for about 10 minutes, then stir it in. If you're using the glass carboy you'll have to shake the whole thing. Put the stopper on the carboy and insert the airlock. Be sure to fill the airlock halfway with water. Put the PFV in a cool place to ferment for about a week.

While you're waiting for the beer to ferment, you'll need to wash and sterilize your bottles. Use your bottle brush to scrub out the bottles, hold them up to the light to check for scum, and then soak them all in the bathtub with bleach and hot water.

You'll know when it's done fermenting because that big foamy thing on top of the beer will get smaller, and the airlock will bubble less often. Now you need to siphon the beer off of the crud at the bottom. This is where the other 5-gallon bucket comes in. Leave a lot of beer in the PFV if you have to, but don't siphon up that stuff! It tastes gross!! Use your mouth to start the siphon.

After you've siphoned out the good beer, immediately "prime" it with about a cup of CORN sugar. This will ferment a little more once it's in the bottles, creating CO2. Since the CO2 can't escape, it carbonates your beer. After you've primed it, put your beer into bottles and seal them with the crimper. Put them in a dark place for 2-3 weeks. After this time you can drink it. I would pour it into a glass, first, because whenever you brew your own beer you are going to have some yeast settled on the bottom of the bottle. There is no way around this. If you drink it from the bottle it tastes a little different at the bottom.

Here's a rather unique recipe that I like. Beware: this does not taste like American beer! It's good, though. I had several friends who don't even like beer tell me that it was good.

Ingredients:

6 cups corn sugar
1 package of Cascade Leaf Hops. New City Market, in the cooler.
About 1/3 lb. of Crystal Malt
Pale Ale beermaking kit. It's basically a can of malt extract. There's a packet of yeast included!

Just make it like I said above, only boil it for 15 minutes instead of 30, add all of the hops at once, let it ferment for about 5 days, and be sure to save 1 cup of the 6 cups of corn sugar for priming.

Resources to help you with your home brewing:

BOOKS   -::-   DVD's   -::-   Magazines   -::-   Brew Kits

-------
Special thanks goes out to Jeff Hunter, SysOp of Temple of the Screaming Electron BBS.
*Another file from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven & the Temple of the Screaming Electron, Taipan Enigma

If you found the information helpful, please consider a donation. Thank You.

Home :: Support Us :: Practices :: Reviews :: Education :: Articles