Welcome to
Brewing 101: The Ultimate Guide
TO Brewing Beer at Home
Brewing isn't just for the pros. You can do it too!
So, you want to brew beer at home but you don’t know where to start? Maybe you’re making the move from extract brewing or diving right in with all grain. Either way, there’s an overwhelming amount of information out there and it can get confusing.
We’ve listened to what you’ve said on social, spoken with the newbies and pulled in the expertise of our resident brewers. Now we’re proud to share with you All Grain Brewing 101: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Beer at Home.
Read on for a step by step guide of everything you need to know to get started. If you want to know more about a topic, just follow the links provided to access an in-depth article or video.
We raise a glass to your journey and welcome you to the community of homebrewers across the globe.
Beer doesn’t just taste great; it has a fascinating history too. Brewing, in some form or other, has been around for thousands of years, with evidence of recipes dating back nearly as far as 2000BC. Beer quickly became the most popular alcoholic beverage in the world, with currently around 2 billion hectolitres being brewed worldwide, per year.
For homebrewers, a good beer can be anything that we enjoy as we don’t have to cater to other people’s tastes. So what kind of brewer will you become? The maker….The scientist….The wild one or even the old-school master?
We want everyone to enjoy making beer at home, so let’s get started with the guide and get you up and brewing in no time.
Ingredients for All Grain Brewing
Malt
Hops
Hops are what makes beer beer. They provide a flavour and aroma and help keep the beer fresher for longer. In most brewing situations, some number of hops are boiled in wort for 1-1.5 hours, and it is during this time that the ‘alpha acids’ provide the main bitter and preservative element of beer. We have compiled everything you need to know about hops in this great article.
Yeast
Yeast is the most important element of brewing. It’s what converts the sugar to alcohol. Most yeast manufacturers indicate the ‘style’ of beer the yeast is most suited to, in order to help you in the beginning. This article walks you through how to pitch the correct quantity of healthy yeast.
Water
Brewing Equipment
Systems like ours have been created to make the hobby more accessible to everyone as they combine multiple pieces of the equipment into a single cohesive device. Don’t panic if you don’t have an all grain system yet, the essential bits of gear you will need to acquire to begin brewing are based on the same fundamentals. Our resident brewer walks you through the equipment essentials in this video.
Brew Kettle
A brew kettle is used to boil wort during the wort-creation process. We recommend choosing a high-quality product here, especially one made from 304 stainless steel. The resistance to corrosion and heat damage which will prove its value over time and last for years.
Mash Tun
If you are proceeding to all-grain brewing from extract, then you may also need to get your hands on a mash tun for the additional mashing process. While many systems including the Grainfather G30 combine both the kettle and the mash tun into a single piece, it is possible to use a separate mash tun from your kettle.
Fermenter
The brewing process
the beer brewing process
Sanitising
There are only 3 rules in brewing. Sanitise, sanitise and sanitise! It may not be the most enjoyable part of brewing but it’s the most important. The last thing a brewer wants is a batch of beer ruined by avoidable contamination.
Mashing
Mashing refers to the process where enzymes in the grain convert complex starches into sugars which can be turned into alcohol. Using a ‘Mash Tun’ the grains are steeped in warm water usually between 65°C – 68°C (149°F – 154°F) for an hour.
Once the mashing is complete the grains are ‘rinsed’ with new warm water to extract all the sugars from the grains.
Wort Boiling
Fermentation
To begin the fermentation process, you transfer cooled wort to a fermenting vessel and add the yeast. During this process, the yeast converts the sugar in the wort to alcohol and CO2. Important flavour compounds are also being created at this stage.
While we do not have complete control over our fermenting time, controlling the temperature is important to the outcome of the fermentation time and the quality of the finished product.
We have compiled an in-depth guide to fermentation to help you avoid any mistakes.
Kegging and Bottling
When it comes to packaging your beer at the end of the process there are several options available to homebrewers. The most popular of these choices is bottling or kegging.
Bottling beer
Bottling is generally the cheaper and simple option for those starting out. It also makes it easier to turn up to a BBQ with your latest homebrew in hand.
Just like everything in brewing, bottles need to be clean and sanitised. Fortunately, this can be as easy as running them through a hot wash in a clean dishwasher. Bottles can be glass or plastic and can be reused to make the hobby even more sustainable.
If you’re planning on bottling your homebrew, take a read of our guide to bottling beer.
Kegging
Kegging beer is a more consistent alternative to bottling – it also takes less time.
Kegs can be hooked up to a tap and served just like your local brewery. It’s more of an investment but as well as ease of process, it comes with the ultimate bragging rights. Picture your next hangout, sharing your latest brew from your home bar set up. If you think kegging is the way to package up your brew, you can find some great tips in our guide to kegging.
We recommend following brew day videos on YouTube to see the process in action. You can subscribe to our channel here.
Homebrewing Techniques
Making a yeast starter
A great way to save money is by creating a yeast starter. Yeast will happily reproduce under the right conditions. This means that you can multiply the number of yeast cells from one packet. The process is straightforward and it takes less than an hour to set up.
Dry Hopping
The bitterness, flavour and aroma in hoppy beers like IPA’s, mostly come from essential oils in hops. Hops in the boil is essential to the production of iso-alpha acids which determine the bitterness of the beer, but you will want to add your hops towards the end of the boil if you want some delicious notes (as most of the flavour and aroma oils are easily boiled off.)
Dry hopping is the process of adding the hops back into the beer to steep towards, or at the end of fermentation.
This technique preserves as much flavour and aroma in the final beer which is great for hoppy beer styles like pale ales and IPAs.
Through trial and error, we have compiled the best techniques, backed by prominent breweries on dry hopping. You can get the article here.
Step Mashing
As you develop your skills, you may wish to experiment with different techniques like step mashing. Step mashing is where the temperature is progressively increased through a series of rests. It’s a great technique for producing more variety and more distinctive beers. If you want to learn more about this technique, you can watch our instructional video here.
Common Off Flavours in Beer
New and seasoned homebrewers alike often experience different off flavours in beer at some stage of the journey. This can be quite disappointing, so if you want to learn more about recognising, remedying and avoiding common off flavours, read our article here.
Beer Clarification
The clarity of homebrew goes through phases, currently, we are in the phase of hazy is fine, but many beer styles call for brilliant clarity. Here is how and what to do when clarity is needed: The number one cause of a murky brew is called the chill haze which comes primarily from the malt you use. You will know if it’s a chill haze as it will subside when the beer warms up. You can minimise or reduce chill haze by:
- Adding enzymes to the wort to remove the proteins and polyphenols that cause haze development.
- Choosing the right raw materials. Using high alpha acid hops for bittering will reduce the hop-derived haze in your beer. Hop leaves contain more polyphenols than hop extracts. Low-polyphenol-content malts do exist but some compromise on flavour.
- Try using a batch sparge, which is known to reduce the amount of tannins extracted from the husks.
- Use a wort chiller for rapid and effective chilling. When boiling wort is rapidly cooled, the trub forms large particles and drops to the bottom. This is called the cold break, and it drops a lot of protein out of the solution.
Permanent haze
If you are worried about the look of your beer, a permanent haze will be the bane of tasting day. As the name suggests, it’s a haze that doesn’t go away. It could also suggest a serious problem in the brewing process. A permanent haze can be due to biological contamination. You will easily be able to identify a biological haze as it’s not just the look that will be off. There’s little that can be done to fix the problem but it will be a learning curve to tighten your sanitation process to prevent it happening in your next batch.
Homebrewing Tips and Tricks
- Know all the steps of your brew before starting.
- Read your recipe a few times, don’t miss count if you make the recipe larger!
- Start off with a relatively simple brew until you get used to the process and familiar with your equipment, save the 12% Russian Imperial Stouts or DDH IPA’s for further down the road.
- Be patient! Your beer won’t go bad sitting in the fermenter or cellar a bit longer than needed.
- Have fun when homebrewing. Why wouldn’t you make your own beer if there’s no fun in doing it?
We are working on bringing you a more extensive blog of homebrewers tips and tricks so watch this space!
Beer Recipes
Now for the fun stuff!
Choosing your recipe may reflect your choice in beer or perhaps you want to start off with a blonde ale to ease yourself in. Whatever tickles your fancy, we have you covered along with a whole bunch of creative inspiration.
If you haven’t already, join our community of craft brewers and gain free access to a catalogue of recipes.
Homebrewing Resources
If you’re really serious about homebrewing, we recommend further reading. Or listening! Here are our recommendations for brewing books and podcasts.
Congratulations, you’ve graduated from homebrew wannabe to a well-informed crafter. Now you just need to get started. Don’t forget to follow our social channels to stay up to date with even more great content.
