Making Beer - Step 4

While the wort is cooling down we take the important step of sterilizing our equipment, again to keep harmful bacteria and other germs from entering the fermentation process and ruining our beer. We use a sterilizing powder purchased from House of Home Brew. I've also read on-line that a weak solution of bleach and water can also be used.

Now it's time to transfer the chilled wort to the fermentation container and to then add the yeast. This process is called "pitching".

Charlie and Chris transferring the chilled wort.

Straining the wort to remove hops before fermentation.

Installing the fermentation lock to allow fermentation bubbles to escape and not allow air in.

Beer Trivia: Spent yeast at the bottom of the beer bottle is full of vitamin B and won't hurt you.

Making Beer - Step 3

We now move on to the next step - Cool the Wort. This is a very unglamorous step but one that is critical. We need to very quickly reduce the temperature of the boiling wort to below 75 degrees. This is critical for two reasons. First, to stop to cooking process and stabilize the wort and second, to keep bad bacteria from getting into it. We do this by putting the pot with the wort into the kitchen sink and then surrounding it with cold water and ice cubes.

Chris Elliott checking the temperature of the cold water to chill the wort.

Beer Trivia: Alcohol provides an unfriendly environment for microbial action, and the isohumulone content of the hops inhibited the growth of Lactobacillus. Thus, high alcohol content and high hopping rates could protect beer from the souring associated with long storage times.

Note: We have since purchased a wort chiller which makes this a quicker and less messy process. It is coiled copper tubing that is placed into the hot wort and then cold water is run through the tubing which removes the heat. The wort chiller cost an additional $60 or so.

Making Beer - Step 2

OK, now that we've cracked open a couple of beers from a previous batch (you know, checking quality control) it is time to move on to Step 2 - Make the Wort. Wort is simply all of the beer ingredients mixed together without the yeast, essentially it's flat beer. We have used kits that have already "mashed" the grains into malt and are now starting to do our own mashing. The mashing process adds about 2 hours to the brewing effort, a small price to pay for extra drinking time!

Here's are the actions for Step 2:

Fill pot with water from the tap and bring to boil.
Add cans of malt or mashed grains.
Add hops.
Let the pot boil for 45 to 60 minutes.

Beer Trivia: A pint of beer has the same energy giving value as four eggs or more than half a pound of meat!

Chris Elliott adding hops to the wort during the boil.