Brewing Home Made Beer

Brewing home made beer can be a rewarding process, although it takes about three weeks to complete. This can be a difficult waiting time, especially the last two weeks when the beer is in bottles, looking so scrumptious and refreshing to drink. If it is opened before it is time, however, the carbonation will not have had time to be completed and the secondary fermentation with all of the sediment settling will not be completed. If patience is used, then the home made beer will be clear and carbonated, perfect for drinking at any occasion.

Equipment Needed

There is a lot of equipment that is needed to make home made beer and it all must be kept clean and sterilized in order for the beer to come out correctly. This equipment is not expensive, however, and will usually only run about one hundred fifty dollars for the equipment and another forty or so for a beer kit with all the ingredients.

The brew pot is a piece of equipment that an individual may already have on hand. It should be able to hold about sixteen quarts of water and should be made of stainless steel or enamel coated metal. If the pot is not made of these materials or if the enamel is chipped, then the beer will end up tasting like the metal and will not be as palatable.

The primary fermenter with the airlock and stopper has to be bought at a brew shop or ordered online. This piece of equipment allows the wort to ferment at a certain temperature while allowing the carbon dioxide to escape but not allowing the air from the outside to get into the system. The primary fermenter will hold the home made beer for about three to five days during this stage of the process before moving into the bottling stage and secondary fermentation.

A plastic hose and a plastic bottling bucket are needed and should be made of food grade plastic. In addition, home brew beer bottles must be purchased, usually at least forty of them, for the beer to go into after primary fermentation. Glass beer bottles are usually best, made of a dark glass, and bottle caps and a bottle capping machine are also needed to complete the process. The beer will end up staying in the bottles for at least two weeks in a dark place before being ready for consumption. The other things needed for home made beer are the supplies already in most kitchens such as sauce pans and pot holders.