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About Homebrewing

About Homebrewing


Home brewing is as easy as cooking and totally legal. You can be as basic or advanced as you want to. If you can follow a recipe you can brew beer. With practice you can make great beer. If you would like to just watch a brew session use our contact form and let us know.

Basic ingredients for beer

  • Water - spring water or well water work best.
  • Malt -  comes in dry extract, liquid extract or grains
  • Hops - to bitter and preserve the beer
  • Yeast - to make flavors and alcohol
  • Misc flavor additions like fruit or herbs


Types of brewing

  • Extract -  Usually the starting point for most breweres. Using malt extract (either dry or liquid) to provide the fermentable sugar for making beer. The extract might be hopped or you may add hops separately.  These ingredients are boiled in a volume of water usually for 60 minutes and when cooled the yeast is added. This method has the least control over the flavor of the beer.
  • Extract with specialty grains - involving the normal extract steps above but with some specialty grains that you steep. One example might be a stout recipe where you steep roasted barley. This allows you to customize the flavor of your beer more than the standard extract recipe.
  • Extract with partial mash - this may include the two examples above but will use some grains that you have to mash in order to convert the starches to sugars. Usually this involves steeping the grains at certain temperatures for a period of time. With this method you can customize the flavor and fermentability of your beer more than the previous two methods.
  • All grain - A basic definition is that it involves a process of heating the grains in water at certain temperatures for certain periods to extract starches and convert them to sugar, which is rinsed out of the grains, creating wort. Once the wort is created you then start the boiling process and from here on its like an extract batch. With all grain you have the most control over the flavor of your beer. There are many methods of mashing and different configurations of the brewing equipment, sometimes called sculptures. You can be as basic or as complicated and high tech as you want with all grain.

What Beer styles can I brew?
Most homebrewers start by brewing ales rather than lagers. Ales ferment at warmer temperatures. Lagers take longer to ferment and require better (cooler) temperature control. You can brew any beer style you want but some are easier to brew. Home brew shops sell boxed kits that make it easy for you to start. There are many books with clone recipes for your favorite beers.

How long does it take?
My extract batches take me 3 hours to brew, about 10 days to ferment, then carbonate for 2 to 3 weeks. So in about 5 weeks. Lower alcohol beers and kegging can speed up this time.  All grain batches take longer, somewhere around 5 hours depending on your setup.

Equipment for basic extract brewingbasic starter kit

  • Starter kit from your local homebrew store (pic to right)
  • A large (at least 4 gallon) pot with lid since you'll want to boil at minimum 3 gallons of wort to 5 gallons. Doing full 5 gallon boils is best if you can but it may be hard to do on an electric stove.  You need to have extra head space in your kettle, as wort likes to boil over.
  • A 1 gallon pitcher is nice for measuring and for mixing chemicals in.
  • Digital thermometer is nice for quick measurements but most kits come with a glass one.
  • A nice large plastic spoon.
  • Large towels. Ones you can get full of sticky wort and not have to sleep on the couch.
  • A large plastic dish tub is nice for sanitizing equipment in.

Equipment upgrades

  • Propane burner aka Turkey Fryer
  • 8 to 10 gallon pot for doing full volume boils of 5 to 6 gallons
  • Keg system.
  • Fermentation chest freezer with a temp controller
  • 6+ gallon glass carboy for fermenting in glass

How much does it cost?

Like any hobby you can geek out as much as you want. Here are some basic costs.

  • Equipment starter kits are about $120 and might include ingredients for a batch.
  • I would at least get a 4 gallon (16 quart) kettle but 5 gallon is better.
  • Ingredients range from about $15 to $35 per 5 gallon batch, about 50 bottles.
  • Misc things you use each batch, caps, cleaning supplies, etc.. $2-$5 maybe?

Not factoring equipment, my batches are around $4 to $5 a six pack for beer that is $6.99+ a six pack in the store. 

Tip: You can save costs by buying in bulk. Extract, grains, hops, cleaning chemicals, etc...

Yeast
Yeast plays a big part in the flavor of a beer, especially for certain styles. Yeast comes in several forms. Dry yeast comes in little packets and is the cheapest form of yeast. Even though the packet may not say to hydrate the dry yeast before adding it is a good idea to do so.  Liquid yeast comes in a container, either a vial or foil pack smack pack, and has the yeast in a liquid form. Liquid yeast will generally take off quicker than dry yeast.  Selections of yeast variety are usually better in the liquid yeasts also. You local home brew shop has a nice selection of yeasts.  Here is our Yeast 101 article with a more in depth discussion.

Where to get equipment
One local homebrew shop that has a nice selection is:

VonKlopp Brew Shop
5231 East Frontage Road (Across from Menards North)
Rochester MN 55901
507-252-WINE (507-252-9463)
www.pinecheesemart.com

U-Brew
2110 14 Hwy East Frontage Road
Rochester, MN 55904
(507) 424-3387
www.u-brew.com
U-Brew is an on premise brewing store. Great if you want to try it first. They do carry a small selection of ingredients and a few things the VonKlopp Brew Shop does not.

Equipment online:


Free Online Resources to get you started


Homebrewing Myths

  1. Its illegal - nope, in about 99% of the states it is totally legal you just can not sell it. You can read the 2008 statute here, sub 9 or the AHA keeps tabs on MN brewing laws
  2. Headache beer - if you buy good ingredients, and ferment at sane temperatures you should not have this problem. You can make award winning beer with even a good quality extract kit.
  3. Its complicated and time consuming - an extract kit can take as little as 2 hours to brew and a couple hours to get the beer to a point where its ready to drink. It will take about 5 weeks from start to finish on a normal beer. Higher alchohol and certain styles of beer can take longer.

What else can I brew

  • Wine
  • Mead - honey wine
  • Hard cider
  • Sake
  • Pop

Enjoy
Ryan Thompson-Jewell