Brewing your own beer is really not as difficult as you might think! It is similar to any other recipe you might come across with a few added considerations. But is it legal? Yes it is unless local laws prohibit beer and wine making. According to federal law if you are 21 and older you can brew not more than one hundred gallons of beer in a year. If there is more than one adult in the household 200 gallons can be brewed. This is for personal use of course and it is illegal to sell your beer. No problem, enjoy it yourself and let your friends enjoy it to...Who doesn't like free beer?
If you have never brewed before there are many kits available with basic supplies needed to start your own beer. If you prefer to go solo and find the supplies yourself just google local homebrew and hardware stores to find where you can get them. Here is a short list of supplies to get started:
* 4 gallon pot (stainless or enamel)
* 5 gallon glass carboy
* 5 gallon or bigger plastic bucket for priming
* 6 ft length of clear plastic hose, 3/8" inside diameter (siphon hose)
* Plastic hose clamp to fit 3/8" hose
* Fermentation Lock
* Rubber stopper with hole to fit fermentation lock, for top of carboy
* 3 ft clear plastic hose with 1 1/4" outside diameter
* Large plastic funnel
* Thermometer
* Bottle washer
* Bottle capper,tons of bottle caps, and about 60 regular sized beer bottles.
In addition to these you will need a bottle of bleach for sanitizing your equipment. It is important to clean and sanitize all of your equipment before starting to ensure no microbes will be tainting your golden brew.
As far as ingredients are concerned here is a list of what you may like to get for your first batch. Remember these are not written in stone so try what you think you will like.
* 6 lbs. hop-flavored malt extract (be sure to get the hop flavored unless you plan
on adding hops yourself).
* 5 gallons of water
* One package of yeast(dry will work but liquid yeast works better for me).
* 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling
Now that you have your ingredients and supplies you can start brewing!
*Remember to sanitize anything that will contact your beer.
1) Pour your malt extract into about 2 gallons of water and bring to a boil for 45
minutes.
2) Add 2.5 gallons of cold water to your sanitized and rinsed carboy.
3) Add your hot malt extract mixture to your carboy (strain if you added your own
hops).
4) Let the mixture in the carboy cool to below 75 degrees and add yeast.
5) Add clear plastic 1 1/4" tube to top of carboy for initial fermentation.
6) Once the fermentation has settled, generally in a day or two, attach the
fermentation lock.
7) Let the beer ferment in the carboy for around 14 days.
8) Siphon beer from carboy into plastic bucket and add 3/4 cup sugar.
9) Siphon beer into bottles and cap.
10) Age for 10 days to achieve desired carbonation.
11) Enjoy your first batch of Homebrew.
I will periodically post some of my recipes that I have made, so check back when you want to try a new one. If you have comments feel free to post them...Happy Brewing.
