Brewday - Brewing 101

Any day that ends with six gallons of wort fermenting in my fridge is a good day. Today is a good day, with an IPA on its way in a few weeks.

For my first homebrew post on the blog, I will go step by step through the brewing process, with the hope that maybe one person might learn something here today.

We start with the Mash.  To your right you will see your typical igloo cooler, with not-so-typical ingredients. Inside is 10 pounds of crushed 2-row barley, 1/2 pound of munich barley (a German malt that lends a nice grain flavor) and 1/2 pound of Crystal 10 barley (a highly modified grain that has been crystallized and adds a caramel sweetness to the beer. On my kitchen stove I bring 3.44 gallons of water to a temperature of 168.4 degrees, then add that hot water (called hot liquor) to the grain (called grist). The result is a mixture called the mash which sits at about 152-154 degrees. Temperature control is critical, as the hot water activates enzymes in the barley that converts the complex starches in the grain into sugars that yeast can eat and turn into alcohol. Too high, and the enzymes denature and don't work, too low and the enzymes remain inactive and don't do anything (slight variations in temperature also have varying effects, such as increasing the protein levels in the mixture which can give a beer a full body).

After a 45 minute rest, it's time to start collecting the runoff. By now those 3.44 gallons of water are a syrupy sweet liquid loaded with sugars from the mash. But they are also loaded with grain particles and need to be filtered out. Fortunately, there's 12 pounds of grain ready to act as a natural filter. I pour the runoff back over the grain (notice the aluminum foil with holes punched in it. This ensures that the pouring liquid does not create channels in the grain that would lead to a lower efficiency). After about 15 minutes, the foil is removed and the process, called the vorlauf process, is completed. At this time we move on and begin to collect the full volume of wort. In this case, it's just over seven gallons. To add more water and rinse the sugars from the grain, a second tank of hot water (in this case a five-gallon igloo cooler) supplies 168 degree water to rinse the grain. This process, called sparging, can also be done with the aluminum foil, or can be accomplished with the setup I use (built into the lid of the large igloo cooler is a set of small pvc pipes with small holes. The holes sprinkle water on top of the grain that doesn't cause any channels).

After collecting the wort (almost an hour), the kettle is moved to the stove and it's time to boil. This process is trickier than it sounds, as this is when boilovers can occur. Proteins in the wort coagulate as the liquid heats up, and form a foam that can rise and go over the top as the wort comes to a boil. Notice in the photo I've got my spray nozzle from the sink in hand. Spraying cold water on the foam keeps it from rising over the kettle and making a mess of the stove. Once the boilover is prevented, it's time to add the hops.

In this case, I added 3 oz of hops at the start of the boil, and they stay in for 60 minutes. The longer hops are in the boil, the more bitterness they contribute to the beer. This bitterness is measured in units called International Bittering Units (IBUs). When hops are added late in the boil, they add flavor and aroma. The longer they stay in the boiling liquid the more the aroma and flavor is boiled off and evaporates with the steam.

Finally it's time to cool the wort, this can be accomplished by submerging the kettle in an ice bath or with a wort chiller. I use a wort chiller. When it's down to about 65 degrees, I transfer the wort to a sanitized bucket and pitch a packet of yeast from a homebrew store - you can also get them online. Then it's into the temperature-controlled fridge in the living room - where it stays at a cozy 68 degrees for a week or two.

That's about it - for those of you interested in the specific recipe:

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	90.91 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)	Grain	4.55 %
0.50 lb	Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)	Grain	4.55 %
1.00 oz	Cascade [8.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
3.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	51.2 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min)	Hops	8.5 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min)	Hops	6.2 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min)	Hops	3.4 IBU
1 Pkgs	English Ale (White Labs #WLP002)	Yeast-Ale