We brew beer at home without equipment. The basics of home brewing

Few people think about how to brew beer at home without equipment. After all, even the simplest recipe will take a lot of time and require certain financial costs.

But if you want to drink real alcohol without chemical additives, you can simplify the task by looking at a specialized store.

It is in it that you can buy special brewer's yeast, hops and malt for a dark or light version.

All stages of making traditional beer at home

Studying the technology and understanding how to brew beer at home without equipment in a simple way, it is important, first of all, to familiarize yourself with the equipment that will be required during the cooking process.

Need to purchase:

a pot of 30 liters;
gauze 5 meters long;
containers in which the drink will ferment;
silicone hose;
container for cooling the wort;
dark plastic bottles for storage.

Also, a thermometer, a hydrometer (for measuring sugar levels) and glass bottles, in which it will be stored in the future, will be useful. All devices must be thermally treated and wiped dry.

Ingredients:

filtered water - 32 l;
barley malt- 5 kg;
hops - 45 g;
brewer's yeast - 25 g;
beet sugar (at the rate of 8 g per 1 liter of beer).

Cooking:

We divide the hops into 3 equal parts so as not to be distracted by weighing the ingredient in the future. We collect ice water in the bathroom and put a container in it, prepare a piece of gauze for straining the wort.

Pour 25 liters of water into the pan and heat to 80 degrees. We make a bag out of gauze, in which we put the malt and immerse it in a hot liquid. Next, we try to maintain the temperature from 65 to 72 degrees for 1.5 hours, setting the minimum fire, or turning the stove on and off. During this period, the malt will be sugared and the wort will become sweet.

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We increase the warm-up to 80 degrees for 5 minutes. We take out the gauze and lower it into the remaining 7 liters of water to wash out the remaining sugars, squeeze. This liquid is added to the hot wort.
Bring the water to a boil over moderate heat, remove the resulting foam and add ⅓ of the hops. We cook for 15 minutes.

We lay the second portion and boil for 50 minutes. After adding the last part of the hops, brew the drink for another 10 minutes.
We take the pan to, filter three times through cheesecloth from one container to another and cool.
Dilute the yeast according to the instructions and add to the wort, mix and pour into a bottle or jar of 30 liters. We transfer to a room where it is possible to observe the temperature regime of 18-20 degrees. We close the water seal and leave to ferment for 7-10 days. If there is no such device, we put a medical glove on the throat of the container, having previously pierced a hole in it with a gypsy needle. We wrap it with adhesive tape at the base so that it does not fly off under the pressure of gases that will be released during fermentation.

The process will start within the first day and gradually decline. When the gas stops emitting, you can remove the water seal.
We add to the bottles for storing beer according to the scheme indicated in the ingredients and proceed to the process of carbonization, namely filling the drink carbon dioxide. To do this, lower the hose to the bottom of the beer bottle, but do not touch the bottom. We pull the air towards us and when the drink pours, we fill the bottles with it. It is important not to fill it up to the neck. We leave a couple of centimeters so that the beer “breathes” and tightly twist the lids. This will start the second fermentation process - carbonization.

We transfer the container to a room where the temperature is maintained at 20-23 degrees and leave it at rest for 2-3 weeks. After 7 days, the bottles should be shaken slightly and this procedure repeated until the end of the fermentation period. Then low alcohol drink can be transferred to the refrigerator or pantry.

As it turns out, brewing beer at home without equipment is easy if you follow the instructions. simple recipe and adhere to manufacturing technology. A delicious drink will not contain preservatives and impurities harmful to the body.

To become a homebrewer, all you need is the desire to brew beer. For the rest, the exorbitantly developed brewing industry will help, as well as this article. The collected material is a complete guide to brewing beer at home from malt and hops. More is not required.

Beer, conditionally, can be prepared in two ways: from malt extract and directly from grain. The first way is the easiest: you need to buy malt extract, mix it with water, boil it, add sugar and yeast, ferment the resulting wort and bottle it (we wrote a separate one). It doesn’t sound interesting, but it was malt concentrates that became a good tool for popularizing home brewing. Maybe that's where you should start. Now I will explain.

Malt concentrate is a concentrated beer wort. The very technology of beer production according to the traditional recipe is very time-consuming, mainly due to the stage at which the wort is prepared. At home, it takes 5-7 hours of nerves, dancing with a thermometer and extreme concentration. During these 5-7 hours, the malt is mashed with water, heated to a certain temperature with certain pauses, then filtered and only then brewed with hops and other ingredients.

Malt concentrate is prepared in a similar way, after which the hopped wort is concentrated - the liquid is simply evaporated until the very powder (or viscous mass) that is sold to us in beautiful jars with the “malt concentrate” label is formed. In other words, homebrewers got unique opportunity bypass the complex and time-consuming process of preparing beer wort.

But there comes a time when a brewer, having tried various concentrates and additives to them, begins to think about traditional brewing, which, oddly enough, is practiced by beer giants.

If you still think that large factories brew beer from "powder", then you are deeply mistaken. This . Malt concentrate is many times more expensive than regular beer malt, not to mention the organization of its production, so it is not profitable for the beer giants to use them.

Well, let's brew our first beer from malt, hops, water and yeast!

In 1516, Germany passed the Reinheitsgebot "Beer Purity Law", according to which beer must be brewed exclusively from barley malt, hops and water. We do not suffer from purism, but it is from malt and hops that we will continue to dance, as well as from yeast, which we discovered much later. But we assume that you can add any interesting ingredients: unmalted grains, honey, herbs, fruits and their juices, vegetables, even mushrooms and tree bark. Brewing is a creative process.

MALT

First of all, it is a convenient brew kettle, also known as a mash tun, enamelled or stainless steel, most often with a thermo-case. As a fermentation tank, a fermenter, which is basically called a "beer factory", plastic containers can be used, with a slot in the lid for a water seal, or plastic or stainless steel barrels equipped with faucets, thermometers, pressure gauges and other convenient pribludy.

Now collectively without what it is difficult to do:

Scales or beaker for malt and hops.
Container for soaking and filtering (bucket-basin for 5-10 l).
Malt crusher (mill, meat grinder, coffee grinder).
Wort kettle for 25-30 l.
Spoon with a long handle - paddle (plastic).
Accurate thermometer with scale up to 100˚С.
Iodine - for malt sampling and disinfection (or special disinfectant).
Fermentation tank with water seal.
Hydrometer for measuring the density of the wort.
Silicone tube for pouring beer.
Glass or plastic bottles with tight lids.

Of all of the above, the most difficult thing to do without a thermometer. During the preparation of the wort, in particular its malting, it is very important to accurately observe the temperature pauses, otherwise the beer simply will not work. The bottles are convenient with a yoke cap, you can also use standard beer caps, but then you have to buy a crown capper and crown caps themselves (regular beer caps).

What else will be useful:

Self-adhesive fermentation tank thermometer.
Filter media, add. filter containers.
Canvas or gauze bag for mashing the must.
Chiller for rapid cooling of the wort (or ice bath).

We advise you to take a closer look at some of the products for brewing on the world-famous Chinese marketplace AliExpress. Recently, we have been running a section in which we publish selections of such products. For example, you will find links to penny measuring instruments necessary for comfortable brewing and much more (scales, thermometers, hydrometers, volumetric flasks, a mash bag, etc.)

Preparation

Cleanliness is the key to success! IN this case this is not an empty phrase. beer wort is an ideal breeding ground for any microorganisms that in a matter of hours will develop colonies in it and beer will no longer work out of it. Always use sterile containers and utensils, and minimize wort exposure to air. During brewing, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and preferably wipe them with alcohol, as you would with any tool that will come into contact with the wort.

Disinfection is the key to successful brewing.

The containers can be washed with iodine solution or with special disinfectants that are stocked in beer shops. You can also use a weak solution of bleach: 1 tbsp. l. for 5 liters of water. But still more reliable than special equipment. After using them, be sure to rinse the disinfected containers thoroughly, preferably hot water(be careful with plastic). After iodine, it is not necessary to rinse. Do not use several solutions at once - their reaction with each other can lead to the formation of toxic substances.

As a sterilizer, you can use heads from under any moonshine.

Preparation of beer wort

So, you bought or germinated quality beer malt, found aromatic hops, prepared water and sterilized all equipment. Now, in fact, it's time to learn how to brew beer at home.

First you need to make a recipe, namely, decide how thick and bitter your beer will be. PC brewing programs such as BeerSmith will help us with this. For trial purposes, you can use it for 21 days, then you have to buy a license, but it costs that money ($28). BeerSmith allows you to automatically calculate all the parameters of the future beer based on the given ingredients. It also includes 100 styles of beer from the BJCP guide. By the way, it would not be superfluous to acquire the BJCP manual itself, where the classification of beer is clearly described.

Malt preparation

First you need to measure the malt. For a classic beer recipe from malt and hops, 4 kg of malt is taken for 25 liters of beer. You can vary the amount of malt and water, thereby affecting the density of the drink and its taste. Malt must be winnowed, washed from dust and dirt.

Purified beer malt must be crushed into fine grits. To do this, you can use a malt grinder, but if it was not at hand, a regular meat grinder or other kitchen equipment will do: a blender, a food processor, a coffee grinder. However, practice has shown that it is much more convenient and practical to have a malt mill on hand.

Before mashing the wort, some brewers do the so-called "pre-mash" - soaking the malt with water for 12 hours. This procedure is necessary to give elasticity to the malt husk - it will not be damaged during crushing, which means that it will be more convenient to filter the wort. Also, "pre-mashing" activates enzymes. Grinding wet malt leads to corrosion of the metal parts of crushers, so not everyone resorts to this method. But soaking can also be done after grinding, right? Be that as it may, our main task is to prepare and grind our malt to the desired condition (the optimal grinding size is like that of barley groats).

Mashing malt infusion

Wort mashing is the most important process in the preparation of beer. At this stage, the crushed malt is mixed with water (mashed), as a result of which the malt enzymes go into solution and break down the starch into sugar, which the yeast will then process. Enzymes require a certain temperature to work. There are two fundamentally different methods of mashing: infusion and decoction. We will use infusion - this is a classic mashing scheme for home use, during which the wort is sequentially heated, while maintaining the temperature pauses necessary for the action of enzymes. decoction method used in factories as a cheaper one - part of the wort is boiled and added to the rest, raising its temperature to the desired one.

For a classic beer recipe, a 1/3 water ratio (1 part malt/3 parts water) is used. Therefore, to prepare 25 liters of beer, we need to take 4 kg of malt and 12 liters of water. Water must be boiled and cooled to 60 ° C. Pour the malt in a thin stream, thoroughly mixing the wort so that no lumps form. If you haven't got a convenient wort kettle with a filter system, you can make your first attempts to brew beer using the "in a bag" method - pour malt into a cloth bag and "mash" right in it.

At this stage, it is advisable to check the acidity of the wort using a pH test. For brewing, the optimal pH is 5.2..5.5. How to properly acidify. For this, any food acids are used.

After mixing hot water with malt, it's time to arm yourself with a thermometer and monitor the temperature pauses. There are three of them, two of which are required:

Protein pause . The mash is kept for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 25-55°C. This pause is not required. It is used if slightly modernized malt or “unmalted” is used. During the pause, the wort kettle (pot) must be insulated, and the wort should be periodically stirred. The protein pause promotes better protein digestion, reduces the turbidity of the wort, and facilitates further filtration. The density of taste slightly weakens, the amount of foam decreases.
Maltose pause. The mash is kept from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours at a temperature of 62-68°C. During this time, enzymes convert starch into maltose, a monosugar. At a low temperature and a long pause, more fermentable sugars are obtained, which means that the beer becomes stronger, while the density of taste is significantly lost. Higher temperatures and shorter pauses produce more non-fermentable dextrins, which give the beer a thick flavor. The fortress, accordingly, falls.
Pause saccharification. The mash is kept for 15 minutes at a temperature of 70-75°C. At this stage, the final saccharification of the wort takes place. Starch completely breaks down into dextrins, the breakdown of enzymes begins. With an increase in this pause, which makes sense only by reducing the previous ones, the strength of the beer drops and its taste density increases.

After the third pause, an iodine test should be done to check the completeness of saccharification. To do this, take a couple of drops of mash and place them on a white plate. Wait a few minutes and add a drop of iodine, then mix the drops. If there is no color change, then the wort is completely saccharified and can be put on fermentation. If the iodine turns blue, then there is still starch in the wort - the wort must be boiled for another 15 minutes at a temperature of 70-75 ° C. After that, it can still be boiled for 5 minutes at a temperature of 75-77 ° C and proceed to filtration.

Congestion filtering

If you originally mashed the wort in a bag, then there is practically no need to filter the wort. However, the grain (the undissolved part of the wort) still contains a lot of sugar, so it is advisable to rinse it. Optimum temperature water for washing - 75-77 ° C. But more on that later. First you need to filter the wort and measure its density. Modern wort kettles are equipped with a filter system with a false bottom and a tap. All you have to do is place a large collection container under the tap and start draining the wort. The first wort will be cloudy, so it is best to drain it into a separate container until a clear liquid begins to flow from the tap. It is necessary to change the container to the main one, and return the first cloudy wort to the filter tank.

Malt grains work here, which is collected in a dense layer on the mesh bottom (if we are talking about the purchased wort kettle) and begins to play the role good filter. You can assemble your own filter system from a large tank and a sieve, but I will leave these engineering wisdoms to your conscience. After filtering, be sure to measure the density of the wort using a hydrometer. Typically, the density varies between 14-22%. It's time to bring the gravity of the wort up to the values in our recipe using a rinse. The amount of water depends on the desired density.

For beer with a density of 12%, you should take next quantity water temperature 75-77°C (not higher):

During the filtration process, try to control the density of the wort using a hydrometer so as not to overdo it with the amount of wash water - at the end of the wash, more “useless” substances pass into the wort, which only increase the cloudiness.

Wort boiling and beer hopping

The resulting wort must be poured back into the wort kettle and boiled for 1-2 hours with the addition of hop cones. Brewing beer is needed to enrich the wort with hop bitterness and aroma. During boiling, all unnecessary microorganisms are killed, and the malt enzymes are finally destroyed. It is recommended to boil the wort for at least 1 hour. Boiling should be active, 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking, it is better to reduce the fire and cover the wort with a lid.

Put the wort on the fire, add hops for bitterness - about 80% of the hops rate. The bitterness that will transfer into the beer from hops depends on the amount of alpha acids contained in the buds (or granules). For example, to obtain a drink with a slight hop bitterness for 25 liters of wort, it is enough to take 25-50 g of hop pellets with an alpha acid content of 6.4%, for bitter beer - 60-100 g. The granules are simply put into the wort, it is better to put the cones into a cloth bag. 10-15 minutes before the end of the boil, you need to add hops for taste, and 5 minutes - for aroma. Irish moss is also added with flavor and aroma hops for better clarification of the beer.

Wort cooling

The boiled wort must be quickly cooled to a fermentation temperature of 16-18°C. It is important to cool quickly, in 20-30 minutes, - this reduces the risk of contamination of the wort with foreign microorganisms that can seriously compete with yeast. At home, this can be done using a bath with cold water(if possible with big amount ice).

If you are going to brew regularly, I advise you to purchase a chiller - a coil through which flowing water is supplied. cold water.

Chiller - The best way cool beer quickly after brewing.

Adding yeast with preparation

During cooling, it is advisable to ferment the yeast so that you do not have to wait later:

Pour a small amount of wort with a temperature of no more than 30 ° C into a sterile container and pour / pour yeast into it.
Cover with a sterile lid and let stand for 30-40 minutes. When signs of fermentation appear, the yeast can be added to the chilled wort.

But before adding yeast, the cold wort must be freed from suspensions, due to which the cold wort becomes cloudy. This process will have a positive effect on the final taste of the drink. To do this, stir the wort with a rotating motion using your mixing spoon. As a result of rotation, the suspensions will settle to the bottom in the center of the tank, and the wort can be poured into the fermentation brewery without any problems.

It is also important to saturate the wort with oxygen before introducing yeast cultures, which was all gone during the boil. To do this, the wort must be intensively mixed, and it is better to pour from a great height. Experienced brewers use aquarium compressors for aeration. Do not forget that everything should be as sterile as possible.

Main beer fermentation

Before setting the wort for fermentation, take a small amount of it to check the density. This information will come in handy later. The optimal density for light lager beer is 10-12%, for dense beer - 12-16%. Mix the wort well after pitching the yeast. Close the fermentation tank with a water seal lid and place it in the place where the beer will ferment. It should be a dry room with a stable temperature of 18-24°C.

Fermentation of beer lasts 5-8 days. The end of fermentation is characterized by the absence of carbon dioxide released through the water seal. We open the container, take a small amount of young beer to measure the density. For fermented beer, the density should drop to 2-2.2%. In a fermented beer, the gravity is constant because the sugars are no longer processed by the yeast. Knowing the initial and final density you can calculate the final strength of the drink. If everything went well, the beer can be bottled and sent for maturation.

Overflow, fermentation, maturation

Here we come to the most pleasant stage of cooking. home beer. At this stage, the beer does not have a full taste. In order for this taste to develop, the beer must go through the process of maturation in tightly sealed bottles. Before pouring, you need to get rid of the yeast sediment - carefully drain the beer through a silicone hose, without moving the sediment. You can use an intermediate overflow: first, pour the beer into a container, which should be left at a low temperature (5-7 ° C) for a day, and then pour the completely clarified drink into bottles.

In order for the beer to ferment and be saturated with carbon dioxide, sugar or other substances that contain it are added to it, for example, honey or unhopped malt extract. For 1 liter of beer, it is enough to take 8-9 g of sugar or honey, malt extract - 11 g or 1.25 times more sugar. Of course, malt extract is preferable. Their sugar is better to cook syrup or use fructose-dextrose (6-7 g / 1 l). You can add sugar to each bottle, after which they need to be shaken well to completely dissolve, but it is better to mix the required amount of sugar / malt with beer in a separate container and pour the drink into bottles from there.

Beer is bottled in clean, sterile bottles. It is necessary to leave 3-4 cm from the neck for normal fermentation and carbon dioxide concentration. Glass bottles without tight corks should be sealed with new crown caps. Beer must be fermented in a dark room at room temperature. Ripening should take place in the dark cool place within at least 1-2 weeks. In order not to get confused, it is better to label the bottles - indicate the type of beer on them, and the date when it was bottled. You can store it for 6-8 months, while the drink will remain “alive” all this time.

It's time to reap the fruits of your labors.

I will continue to cover the beer theme and hope for any possible help from you. Becoming a homebrewer is not difficult. For this, only one thing is required - the desire to cook. In conclusion, I would like to say that homebrewers are enthusiastic people who are not afraid to experiment. Do not limit yourself to anything other than consuming the results of your new hobby. For moderation is the best feast!

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Beer is an extremely widespread drink all over the world, it was invented in ancient Egypt. Currently, we can observe it in bars and shops in huge number and a variety of varieties. But one cannot but agree that homemade beer, prepared by oneself, is much better than the factory one. After all, we know for sure that only natural products without any preservatives.

Many mistakenly believe that home brewing technology requires serious equipment, but this is not entirely true. To brew beer at home, it is quite possible to use the usual kitchen utensils, for example a large pot. In addition, all necessary ingredients for the recipe is now available in stores, and it is not at all necessary to harvest hop cones in advance and brew wheat and barley malt.

Eat different recipes making homemade beer, which abound with a considerable number of interesting components, because beer is a very versatile drink. But if we talk about the traditional classic recipe, then it includes yeast, hops, malt and water. If you do everything right, maintaining the necessary pauses and correctly sticking to the recipe, then in the end you will get a homemade drink with thick foam and rich taste. No pasteurization or filtration like shop beer, only natural ingredients– this is the only way to get a foamy homemade beer with a pure original taste.

Brewing beer at home: what is needed for this?

The art of home brewing is not easy, so not many people risk making beer with their own hands. Most of us find it easier to buy a bottle of beer in the store than to mess around in our own kitchen. Therefore, all home brewing recipes are designed for devoted fans of this foamy drink who prefer a pure taste, without impurities and preservatives.

For cooking traditional beer besides water, three ingredients are needed: brewer's yeast, hops and malt. The only “but” is that it is not recommended to experiment with yeast, but immediately buy the best ones in a special store, because the successful outcome of brewing depends on their quality. The first two ingredients can theoretically be made at home, but this will take extra time, so it is also better to purchase them ready-made.

An important nuance: to obtain light beer, the malt must be dried. naturally, to get dark, a special caramel variety is added to the main bill, no more than 10% of the total bill, it is cooked in the oven, lightly fried.

Malt - these are, in fact, germinated dried barley grains in a hard husk, which serves as a natural filter in the production of beer.

This ingredient should be white in color, sweetish, pleasant smelling and not sink in water. Before use, the malt must be ground in a special roller mill, so that an intact husk remains.

Hop all varieties are divided into two types: aromatic and bitter, and it is selected depending on what you want to achieve more in home beer, aroma or bitterness. The main thing is that the hops are of good quality, this plays an important role in the density house drink. Before using it, the bumps must be carefully examined, they should be reddish and yellowish in color.

Yeast it is highly desirable to take beer ones, but if you did not manage to get them, then regular ones will do. The main thing is that they are dry and alive. As for water, it must certainly be clean and soft, purified, filtered water or water from a spring is ideal. In extreme cases, you can use boiled water. If it's bad, your homemade beer won't taste good and you'll be wasting your time.

Ideally, it is better to buy water. It will come out, of course, a little expensive, but the taste of the intoxicating drink will turn out to be simply excellent. And one more important nuance: sugar. It must be taken at the rate of 8 grams per liter of beer (to saturate with carbon dioxide), some recipes use glucose or honey.

Equipment needed for home brewing

All the equipment you will need for self-manufacturing beer at home, you can find it in any kitchen, or you can easily get it, there is no need to purchase a special expensive apparatus or a mini brewery. So you will need large saucepan(enamelled is ideal) for 30 liters, it can be improved by installing a drain tap at the bottom. In the pot you will boil the wort, as well as another container for beer fermentation.

Be sure to stock up on a thermometer to control the temperature, and a large piece of gauze 4-5 meters long. Next, you need to prepare glass and plastic bottles, where you pour homemade beer, and a narrow silicone hose (with its help, the drink is carefully removed from the sediment).

A chiller is needed to cool the wort. You can make it yourself at home from copper tube. You can do without a chiller, and use a bath or a very large tank of ice water at home to cool the beer wort. Some still stock up on a hydrometer - a device that determines the sugar content, the density of the future drink, but this is not at all necessary.

Traditional beer recipe at home with photo

To make grain beer in your own kitchen, classic recipe, maintaining all temperature moments and pauses, you must first pay attention to the preparatory stage: thoroughly wash and dry all equipment (except for the thermometer) and proceed with the process with clean hands.

Everything must be sterile, otherwise you risk infecting the wort wild yeast or other microbes and instead of beer, get sour mash and level all your efforts. Then prepare the ingredients: 32 liters of water, 5 kg of barley malt, 45 grams of hops, 25 grams of brewer's yeast and granulated sugar(from the calculation given above).

Pour 25 liters of water into a saucepan, heat it to 80°C, and immerse the ground malt in it, poured into a gauze bag (it is made from a long piece of gauze). Close the pan with a lid and pause for an hour and a half at a temperature of 65-72 °, turning the heat on or off. It is at this temperature that saccharification of malt takes place, as a result, the wort becomes sweet, easily fermentable sugars appear in it.
After an hour and a half, increase the temperature of the fire to 80 ° and maintain this pause for another five minutes. Then remove the bag of malt from the pan and rinse in the remaining seven liters of water, which should then be poured into the wort. In this way, we wash out the remaining sugars from the malt.
Further, according to the recipe, the wort should be brought to a boil, remove the resulting foam and add the first 15 grams of hops. Half an hour the wort must be boiled intensively, after which another 15 grams of hops should be added. Then boil for another 50 minutes, add the last portion of 15 grams of hops, and boil for another 10-15 minutes. It will take an hour and a half in total.
Now, the wort must be cooled very quickly, keeping within 20-30 minutes. The sooner you do this, the lower the risk of future beer contamination with wild yeast and harmful bacteria. Transfer the pan to a bath filled with ice water, then pour through cheesecloth three times into another container.
The next step is to dilute the brewer's yeast and add to the wort, mixing thoroughly. It is very important to follow the instructions on the packaging of the yeast. Next, the container is transferred for fermentation to a dark place with a temperature of 18-22 °, a water seal is installed on it, and the must is left to ferment for a week or ten days.
Intensive fermentation will begin in 6-12 hours, and will last for two to three days. All this time, the water dispenser will actively blow bubbles, carbon dioxide will escape, and the beer at the end of fermentation will become much lighter. Readiness is determined by the absence of bubbles during the day - this means that the fermentation process has ended.
Now, according to the recipe, carbonation of beer is to be done (filling the drink with carbon dioxide) - to improve the taste, in order to achieve the appearance of a dense thick foam. Don't be intimidated by this "terrible" name, the carbonization process is quite simple. You need to take the sterilized bottles that you have prepared for storing beer (it is highly desirable that they be made of dark plastic or glass) and pour sugar into them (8 grams of sugar per 1 liter of beer).
After that, the drink must be carefully drained using a narrow silicone hose and filled with bottles, trying not to touch the sediment (otherwise the beer will turn cloudy). Pour not to the very top, but leave a couple of centimeters so that the beer “breathes” and tightly cork with lids. Further, without any pause, the secondary fermentation process will begin, which will supply the young beer necessary quantity carbon dioxide.

For better quality, you need to remove the bottles in a dark place with a temperature of 20-23 ° and leave alone for two to three weeks. After the first week has passed, the bottles must be shaken periodically, and at the end of the period, transfer them to the cellar or refrigerator.

Home-brewed beer compares favorably with cheap store-bought counterparts with a richer taste, thick foam and the absence of preservatives. It turns out a drink that does not contain anything superfluous. I will tell you how to brew beer according to the classic recipe, using only traditional ingredients: hops, malt, water and yeast. To save original taste we will not resort to filtration and pasteurization.

It is believed that to make real beer you need to buy a mini brewery or other expensive equipment. This myth is imposed by manufacturers of such products. Together with the brewery, they will gladly sell you a ready-made beer concentrate, which only needs to be diluted in water and fermented. As a result, you will pay exorbitant prices for beer, the quality of which is best case will be slightly higher than the store.

In fact, you can make homemade beer using improvised means: large saucepan, fermentation tank, bottles and other available things, full list which are published below.

You will have to buy only hops, malt and brewer's yeast. I do not insist on choosing a particular company or brand. The range is quite wide, you can buy any material you like.

Theoretically, malt and hops can be grown at home. But these processes are beyond the scope of the current material. Further, I will assume that you have all the necessary ingredients, whether they are homemade or purchased, it does not matter. The only thing: I do not advise you to experiment with brewer's yeast, but immediately buy their best strains in the store, because from grain mash beer differs precisely in special yeast.

Ingredients of home beer:

water - 27 liters;
hops - 45 grams;
barley malt - 3 kg;
brewer's yeast - 25 grams;
sugar - 8 grams per liter of beer (needed for natural saturation carbon dioxide).

Necessary equipment:

30-liter enamel pot - wort is boiled in it;
fermentation tank - needed for fermentation;
thermometer (required) - if moonshine or wine can be made only by approximately controlling the temperature, then with beer this is an initially failed undertaking;
bottles for pouring finished beer (plastic or glass);
silicone hose of small diameter - for removing beer from sediment;
ice water bath or wort cooler;
gauze (3-5 meters) or a bag of fabric;
iodine and a white plate (optional);
hydrometer (optional) - a device for determining the sugar content of the wort.

Brewing home beer

1. Preparation. The first stage, during which the brewer checks the availability of the right ingredients and the readiness of his equipment for work. I also advise you to pay attention to the following points.

Sterilization. All used containers and fixtures are well washed with hot water and dried. Before working with the ingredients, the brewer thoroughly washes with soap and dries his hands dry. It is very important not to infect the beer wort with wild yeast, otherwise you will get mash instead of beer. Neglect of sterilization eliminates all further efforts.

Water. It is better to use spring or bottled water. In extreme cases, ordinary tap water is also suitable. Before brewing beer tap water defend during the day in open containers. This time is enough for the chlorine to evaporate, and heavy metals and salts to settle at the bottom. Subsequently, the settled water is carefully drained from the sediment into another container through a thin tube.

Yeast. For normal fermentation, brewer's yeast is activated 15-30 minutes before being added to the wort. a small amount warm water. There is no universal method that allows you to properly dilute any brewer's yeast. Therefore, you must follow the instructions on the package.

2. Grouting the must. This term refers to the mixing of crushed malt with hot water to break down the starch in the grains into sugar (maltose) and solubles (dextrins). Sometimes the malt is sold ready for brewing in crushed form (called "wort"), which makes things a bit easier. If not, you need to grind it yourself using a grain crusher or a mechanical meat grinder.

Attention! Grinding does not mean grinding into flour, you just need to grind the grains into small pieces, be sure to preserve the particles of the grain peel, which will then be needed to filter the wort. The correct grinding option is shown in the photo.

correct grinding

IN enamel pan pour 25 liters of water and heat on the stove to 80°C. Next, the ground malt is poured into a fabric or home-made bag measuring 1 by 1 meter, made from 3-4 layers of gauze. A bag of malt is immersed in water, the pan is covered with a lid and boiled for 90 minutes, maintaining stable temperature 61-72°C.

Mashing malt at a temperature of 61-63 degrees contributes to a better yield of sugars, increasing the strength of homemade beer. At 68-72°C, the density of the wort increases, although the alcohol content in the drink will be slightly lower, but the taste will be richer. I recommend sticking to the temperature range of 65-72°C, which results in a tasty 4% ABV thick beer.

brewing malt in a bag

After 90 minutes of boiling, an iodine test is done to make sure that there is no starch left in the wort. To do this, 5-10 milligrams of the wort is poured onto a clean white plate and mixed with a few drops of iodine. If the solution has turned dark blue, you need to cook the contents of the pan for another 15 minutes. If the iodine has not changed the color of the wort, it is ready. Iodine test you can not do it, but simply increase the mashing (brewing) time by 15 minutes, the quality of the drink will not suffer from this.

Then the temperature is raised sharply to 78-80°C and the wort is boiled for 5 minutes to completely stop the fermentation. Next, the bag with malt residues is removed from the container and washed with 2 liters of boiled water at a temperature of 78 degrees. So the residues of extractive substances are washed out. Wash water added to the must.

This method of mashing is called "in the bag". It allows you to do without filtration - separating grains (undissolved particles of malt) from the main wort. In turn, filtration requires specific equipment (cleaning systems) and reusable transfusion of wort from one container to another. Grout in a bag does not affect the quality of the brewed beer and takes much less time.

3. Boiling the wort. The contents of the pan are brought to a boil and the first portion of hops is added, in our case it is 15 grams. After 30 minutes of intense boiling, the next 15 grams are added, and after 40 minutes the remaining 15 grams of hops are boiled for another 20 minutes.

Depending on the chosen beer recipe, the time intervals and the amount of hops may vary. But, adhering to the indicated sequence and proportions, you are guaranteed to get a good result.

Boiling takes an hour and a half, during all this time it is important to maintain intense heating so that the wort gurgles.

adding hops

4. Cooling. Beer wort needs to be cooled quickly (in 15-30 minutes) to 24-26°C. The sooner this is done, the less risk there is of contaminating the drink with fermentation-damaging bacteria and wild yeasts.

You can cool the wort with a special immersion cooler (one of the possible designs in the photo) or carefully transfer the container to a bath of ice water. Most beginner brewers use the second method. The main thing is not to accidentally turn over hot pot by scalding himself with boiling water.

cooler design

The cooled wort is poured through cheesecloth into a fermentation tank. To saturate the future beer with the oxygen necessary for the normal development of yeast (after boiling it is almost gone), the transfusion is done 3 times.

5. Fermentation. Diluted brewer's yeast is added to the wort and mixed well. In this case, it is very important to observe the temperature and proportions indicated in the instructions on the sachet label. There are top-fermenting yeasts, which are fermented at a temperature of 18-22°C, and bottom-fermenting, working at 5-16°C. These two types make different types of beer.

The filled fermentation tank is transferred to a dark place with a temperature recommended by the yeast manufacturer. In our case it is 24-25°C. Then a water seal is installed and left alone for 7-10 days.

fermentation tank example

Will start in 6-12 hours active fermentation which usually lasts 2-3 days. At this time, the airlock actively bubbles, then the frequency of carbon dioxide release slowly decreases. At the end of fermentation, young homemade beer becomes light. Its readiness is determined by two methods: a saccharometer (hydrometer) and a water seal.

In the first case, the readings of two hydrometer samples for the last 12 hours are compared. If the values differ slightly (by hundredths), then you can proceed to the next step. Not everyone has a sugar meter, so at home they often just look at the water seal. The absence of bubbles within 18-24 hours indicates the end of fermentation.

6. Plugging and carbonation. Carbonization of beer is its artificial saturation with carbon dioxide, which contributes to the improvement of taste and the appearance of thick foam. Despite compound name the process itself is very simple.

Sugar is added to beer storage bottles (preferably dark ones) at the rate of 8 grams per 1 liter. Sugar will cause a little secondary fermentation, which will saturate the beer with carbon dioxide. Then the beer is drained from the sediment through a silicone tube, filling the prepared bottles with it.

spill completed

One end of the tube is lowered to the middle of the container with beer, the other - to the very bottom of the bottle, this minimizes the contact of the drink with air. It is important not to touch the yeast, which, depending on the type, can settle to the bottom or accumulate on the surface, otherwise the beer will turn cloudy. The bottles are not topped up 2 cm to the neck and tightly corked.

The easiest way is to use a plastic container, since the lids for it can be twisted by hand. For glass bottles you need rope corks or a special device for clogging ordinary beer corks (pictured).

bottle with cork

stopper closure device

The bottles filled with beer are transferred to a dark place with a temperature of 20-24°C and left for 15-20 days. To dissolve the yeast sediment every 7 days, they need to be shaken well. After that, the drink is transferred to the refrigerator.

7. Ripening. Homemade beer is ready, you can already drink it. But if you let it stand for another 30 days, then the taste will improve significantly.
Beer can be stored in the refrigerator for 6-8 months, open bottle- 2-3 days.

homemade beer (ale)

Foamy intoxicating drink came to us from Ancient Egypt. For brewing, people from the African continent took malt, hops and water. The Egyptians did not brew beer for the sake of intoxication - they saw it as medicine and bread. Over time, in the process of improving production, recipes began to be supplemented various additives sometimes useless and even harmful to the body. They are included in the composition of beer for the sake of unique taste. But what if you want a natural, environmentally friendly drink? We will answer this question by telling you how to brew beer at home.

Preparation of the base for beer

The main components of the foamy drink are:

Water is free from impurities, does not leave a strange aftertaste and is absolutely transparent. In the absence of artesian water, it is replaced with filtered water. Store-bought water is also allowed. Its advantage is the passage of bacteriological control.
Yeast. Recipes suggest taking beer. If there are problems with the purchase, you can put the usual "live".
Hop. This phyto product gives the beer the necessary density and taste. The best drinks are obtained from reddish or yellow-green cones with yellowish pollen under the scales. Green and cloudy fruits are not suitable for brewing.
Malt. Good quality of this ingredient confirms White color, nice smell And sweet taste. He must not drown in water. Before making homemade beer, the malt should be soaked and germinated at a temperature of 10 - 30°C. Then the component is dried and ground to obtain grains. The drying conditions of the malt determine the color of the beer. light drink obtained from dried barley natural way, dark - from raw materials fried and steamed in the oven.

Equipment for making beer at home

For convenient work with the ingredients you will need:

enameled container, the capacity of which allows you to boil 30 liters of wort;
dishes for the fermentation process;
glass or plastic container for pouring finished beer;
thermometer to control temperature conditions;
a piece of gauze (about 5 m);
narrow silicone hose for easy bottling;
hydrometer - a determinant of the level of sugar content;
bath with ice water to cool the wort;
iodine tincture and a large white plate.

How to make beer at home: instructions

To get quality homemade beer, you need to spend some preparatory work.

Equipment must be washed, sterilized and dried. Hydrometer and thermometer should not be doused with boiling water. After preparing the malt in the manner described above, the yeast is activated. Before being introduced into the wort, they are diluted with boiled, not hot water.
The second stage is grouting the wort, that is, mixing the wort with hot water. 25 liters of prepared liquid are heated in a saucepan to 80 degrees. Then the grainy malt is poured into water or put first in a gauze bag and lowered into a container in this form. The bag will prevent the mixture from burning and will save you from excavating the remaining malt. As soon as the malt is in the water, the pan is closed and set on low heat. The contents should be slowly cooked for 90 minutes, and its temperature should fall within the range of 61 - 72 degrees. If you want to do Reviver keep the temperature around 61 degrees. If you need a weak product with a pronounced aftertaste, increase the temperature to 70 degrees. The optimum thermometer reading is 65 °. Compliance with this condition makes it possible to obtain bright taste and a standard strength of 4%. After an hour and a half, a little wort is placed on a clean white plate and iodine is dripped onto it (1 - 2 drops). Blue color wort indicates the presence of starchy particles, which must be removed by an additional 15-minute boil. The initial shade of the mixture indicates the absence of starch and suggests the transition to the next stage of brewing.
The temperature of the contents of the pan is increased to 78 - 80 degrees and detected for 5 minutes, after which the bag of malt is removed. It is washed in the remaining water, heated to 80 °. The liquid with extracts is poured into a common container.
Boiling the wort important point in the preparation of beer. After filtering, it is brought to a boil and combined with 15 g of hops. After 30 minutes of boiling the composition, a second portion of hops is introduced into it, and after another 40 minutes, a third 15-gram share. Boiling is extended by 20 minutes. In total, the wort is boiled for 90 minutes, and it must constantly gurgle - this is how the recipe prescribes.
Cooling of the wort brewing technology requires to be carried out quickly, avoiding the ingress of foreign microorganisms into the composition. The pan is carried to the bathroom and placed in cold water. Within 15 - 30 minutes, the wort should cool to 25 degrees. The mixture is passed through a piece of gauze over the dishes in which the subsequent fermentation will take place. To enrich the wort with oxygen, it is poured twice from container to container, but without gauze.
To ferment the wort, it is combined with activated yeast and mix. The product of top fermentation can be introduced into the wort at a temperature of 18 - 22 °. Bottom fermenting yeasts require conditions of 5 - 16°. A variety of yeast allows you to make two types of beer. Dishes for fermentation with all ingredients should be transferred to a dark room. Temperature regime should be as required by the type of yeast. A lid with a water seal is placed on the container and the mixture is kept for 7-10 days. Gradually, fermentation will become regressive, and the intoxicating liquid will last day brighten up. Its readiness is determined by a water seal or a hydrometer. In the first case, understanding is facilitated by bubbles, in the second - by the same indicators taken at intervals of 12 hours.
The preparation of the drink is completed by corking and carbonization. For foam and excellent taste sugar is poured into opaque sterilized bottles at the rate of 8 g per liter of hop liquid. Carefully pour beer allows silicone tube, it does not allow sediment to enter the beer. During the pouring process, it is important to ensure that the tube remains in the middle of the contents of the pan and does not touch its surfaces, on which the yeast has remained. When filling the bottles, leave 2 cm from the top and cork the container. Homemade beer saturates sugar with carbon dioxide, which has an effect light fermentation. For the course of this process, the drink requires placement in a dark place and a temperature in the range of 20 - 24 °. The container with beer should stand for 3 weeks, but from the 8th day it is recommended to shake it weekly. At the beginning of the 4th week, the bottles are transferred to the cellar or refrigerator.

Chilled beer is completely ready to drink. But an additional month's exposure in a cool place will significantly increase its taste. We invite you to watch the brewing process in the video below.

An old recipe for homemade honey beer

You can prepare this delicious drink from the following ingredients:

live pressed yeast - 100 g;
natural flower honey- 4 kg;
red or yellow-green hop cones - 65 pcs.;
purified cold water - 20 liters.

How to brew beer at home? Hops are added to a pot of water and the raw materials are boiled over low heat for 2 hours. The broth is cooled to 70 degrees and honey is gradually introduced. The sweet liquid is brought to 25 ° and stirred with yeast. The container is left ajar and kept in a room at room temperature for 6 days. On the 7th day, the beer is bottled and put back in a cold place. After 24 hours, the container is sealed. After 2 days start tasting. How to brew a honey intoxicating drink, the video clearly shows.

Easy recipe with molasses

For a change, you can make beer with molasses. 45 g of hops are boiled in 10 liters of water and, after straining, added to 1 kg of molasses. The mixture is boiled again, after which it is poured into a barrel and removed for cooling. The wort is prepared from 260 g of diluted yeast and wheat flour(recipe can be taken from the literature on baking pies). Noisy volumetric wort is poured into the cool contents of the barrel and mixed well. Next, the barrel is sealed and transferred to heat for 6 hours. After the time has elapsed, the container is moved to a cool place and kept for 3 days. The preparation is completed by pouring the drink into bottles and corking with corks filled with wax, resin or sealing wax.

Recipe for homemade table beer

You can make table beer yourself from the following components:

hops - 50 g;
wine - 50 ml;
water - 100 ml;
malt - 1.5 kg;
raisins - 50 g;
sugar - 1 kg 250 g;
yeast - 1/10 cup.

Prepare table beer by mixing wine, water and sugar in a saucepan. The composition is supplemented with hops and raisins, they wait for it to boil and boil for 35 minutes, stirring constantly. Malt and 9 liters of water are added to the liquid filtered through cheesecloth. The mass is re-boiled, cooled to 30 degrees and combined with yeast. Then she is allowed to stand for 8 days, but periodically visit the vessel and remove the foam. Finally, homemade beer is bottled and put away in the cool. It turns out 10 - 15 servings, which are recommended to be consumed in 2 weeks. At longer term Storage beer becomes cloudy and loses its taste.

Vilna beer recipe

In order to make delicious Vilna beer, the hostess must put the following components in the container:

rye malt - 1 kg 200 g;
linden honey - 200 g;
kishmish - 400 g;
scalded hops - 900 g;
mashed crackers - 400 g;
salt - a pinch;
yeast combined with a glass of warm boiled water.

Production begins with the dilution of the created mass with water to a thick creamy consistency. The container is covered with a thick cloth and cleaned for a day in a warm room. The next day, the mixture is diluted with 3.2 liters of boiled water, and after thorough mixing, 10 grains of grated bitter almonds are placed in it. And again, the container is covered and cleaned for a day in heat.

Further, the recipe prescribes adding 6.5 liters of boiled water to the composition and pouring it into a cast iron, which will languish all night on a hot stove. In the morning, pour 50 g into the mass baking soda and after a couple of hours the infusion is drained, passing through a canvas. Filled bottles are sealed with corks and the top is reinforced with wire. First, the container is placed in a warm place, and after 6 days it is transferred to the cold. The drink will be ready in 10 days.

Now you know how to brew beer at home in many ways. By mastering these simple recipes, you can please your loved ones delicious drink without the content of additives harmful to the body. We hope our selection of videos will teach you the art of brewing.