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Welcome to homebrewing, hobby, obsession, way of life.
This video will show you how to brew your own beer at home with Northern Brewer's Small Batch Starter Kit.
Brewing beer might seem like a mysterious process but it's really not.
If you can make mac-and-cheese from a box without help, you can make beer. And we're going to show you how.
In this video, we'll go through the three stages of making beer with the Northern Brewer Small Batch Starter Kit together.
First, the actual brewing, where malt extract and hops are boiled with water to make wort, which is the brewer's term for unfermented beer.
Next, fermenting, which is when the wort we brewed is turned into beer by the yeast.
Finally, bottling, where the flat beer is bottled with a little dose of sugar for priming, which is the brewer's term for carbonating the bottles.
Before we get started, let's go over the three things you need.
One, a small batch starter kit. This includes all the specialized equipment for brewing, fermenting, and bottling, plus your first recipe kit, malt, hops, and yeast in the right proportions for the kind of beer you want to make.
Two, a boil kettle. Any pot that can hold about two gallons of liquid will work.
Today, we're going to use our pasta boiling pot to brew this batch of beer. Move over spaghetti.
Three, bottles for your finished beer. We will need approximately a dozen clean pry-off 12-ounce beer bottles, but we won't need them until about two weeks after brew day.
Brown glass is best. Twist-offs won't work.
Now that we have everything we need in order to brew, let's make some beer.
Brew day is here, the boil kettle is ready, and we're going to brew the Dead Ringer IPA Kit.
On brewing day, we will boil the malt extract and hops in water to make the wort. Then cool the wort and add yeast to begin the next phase of our beer's life, fermentation.
It's time to collect water in the boil kettle and start heating it on the stove. We need 5 quarts of water.
While the water heats, steep the specialty grain. Specialty grains add color, flavor, and body to our beer.
Pour the grains into the supplied muslin mesh bag and tie a knot in the bag.
Dunk the grain bag in the water. Steep the grain for about ten minutes, then remove and discard the grain and the bag. Just think of this as making tea with barley malt.
Not every Northern Brewer recipe kit comes with specialty grain. If your recipe kit doesn't call for specialty grain, just skip ahead to the next step.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have wort. Wort is the brewer's term for unfermented beer.
Now we'll crank up the heat and bring it to a boil. We will now boil the wort for 45 minutes, adding malt extract and hops as we go.
Here's a tip: Always turn off the heat or the flame on your stove before adding the malt extract. This will help avoid scorching on the bottom of the kettle.
As you add malt exact, stir well to dissolve. The malt and hop additions for each recipe are a bit different, so refer to the instructions included with the ingredients.
The times specified are given as minutes before the end of the 45-minute boil.
So for our Dead Ringer IPA, we add the malt extract and 3 and a half grams of Centennial hops at the very beginning and boil for 45 minutes.
Then we add another 3 and a half grams of Centennial hops 20 minutes before the end of the boil and 7 grams of Centennial hops 5 minutes before the end.
And, finally, one last 7-gram dose of Centennial hops at the very end of the 45-minute boil once the flame on the stove is turned off.
Now that our 45-minute boil is finished, the wort must be cooled down before we can add yeast and proceed with fermentation.
We're going to use a simple ice-water bath to cool the wort. During this process, keep the kettle covered to protect the wort from airborne microbes.
Put ice in the sink and fill it about halfway with water. Place the kettle in the ice bath.
Whatever we do, we shouldn't stick anything into the wort that hasn't been sanitized first.
Swirling the kettle is okay but stirring with a dirty spoon is not.
Our goal is to cool the wort down to the temperature range at which our yeast will be happiest, approximately 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the side of the kettle is cool to the touch, it's time to get ready for fermentation.
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Fermenting begins on brewing day and ends about two weeks later.
While the wort is cooling, it's time to do the most important task of the entire brewing process, cleaning.
It's impossible to make good beer with dirty equipment. Everything that comes in contact with the wort or beer from now on must be sanitized.
Use the Easy Clean Sanitizer included with your starter kit to sanitize the one-gallon fermenting jug, lid, and airlock. Also, sanitize the auto-siphon, hose, yeast packet, and a pair of scissors.
To make the sanitizing solution, use one tablespoon of Easy Clean per one gallon of warm water.
Mix it in the fermentation jug. Give it a good splash or swirl to help dissolve the granules of Easy Clean.
Two minutes contact-time to sanitize the surfaces. No rinsing required.
After two minutes, pour the sanitizing solution out of the jug and into a clean plastic tub or bucket to sanitize the small pieces.
Once again, two minutes contact-time, no rinsing. Make sure all surfaces of the equipment get two minutes of contact.
Now that the wort in the kettle is cooled and the fermentation equipment is sanitized, it's time to fill the fermentor.
You may want to place a chair or small table next to the counter for this step.
Uncover the kettle and use the sanitized siphon assembly to transfer the cooled wort into the sanitized fermenting jug.
To start a siphon, place the free end of the hose inside the jug.
Now immerse the tip of the auto-siphon in the wort in the kettle and give the elbow of the auto-siphon piston a nice, gentle pump to start the flow.
There will be some naturally occurring but gross looking hop-malt sludge at the bottom of the kettle.
The brewer's term for this is trub. It won't hurt your beer but try to leave as much of it behind in the kettle as you can.
Cover the filled fermentor with the sanitized screw cap and gently rock back and forth for a few minutes to slosh the wort and mix some air in. Yeast cells need some oxygen for a healthy fermentation.
Now it's time to add the yeast. The brewer's term is pitching the yeast.
Use the sanitized scissors to cut open the yeast packet and pour half of the yeast into the wort in the jug. You can discard the remainder of the yeast or use it to bake beer bread.
Thread the sanitized cap onto the jug. Fill the sanitized airlock with approximately one tablespoon of sanitizing solution or tap water, and then fit the airlock in the hole in the center of the cap.
Finally, move the fermentor to a dark, quiet, cool spot to wait for fermentation to begin.
That was a great brew day. Clean up your brew area and then sit back and enjoy a beer. You earned it. Let the yeast do the heavy lifting.
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Within a day of brewing day, fermentation begins.
While the yeast convert malt sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol, you will see bubbles come through the airlock, and a cap of thick, tan foam forms on the surface of the beer.
Roughly one week from brewing day, fermentation ends. Bubbles come through the airlock less frequently or stop entirely.
That cap of foam starts to subside or falls back into the beer all on its own.
One week for fermentation is a guideline. Yeast is a living organism and it does its own thing.
If fermentation happens to finish a little early, we just bide our time and then proceed to step three, bottling.
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Thanks to the effort of our yeast, the wort has been transformed into warm, flat beer.
Two weeks after brew day, we need to carefully transfer it into sanitized bottles to let it become carbonated, handcrafted homebrew.
A second set of hands on bottling day isn't strictly necessary but it's definitely helpful.
First, move the fermentation jug to a table or countertop. Do this early so the yeast and sediment has a chance to resettle.
While we wait for the yeast to settle back down in the jug, let's sanitize the gear we need for bottling day, the auto-siphon and hose, the bottle filler, all of our bottles, and about 20 bottle caps.
Using a clean plastic tub or bucket or even your boil kettle, mix the sanitizer solution and sanitize all that gear.
Remember, one tablespoon Easy Clean per gallon of warm water, two minutes contact, no rinsing.
We won't dump the solution out right away in case we need to resanitize a piece of equipment during the bottling process.
Now it's time to build the siphon filler assembly. Connect one end of the hose to the piston on the auto-siphon and the other end of the hose to the bottle filler.
Remove the airlock and cap from the jug and place the auto-siphon into the beer. Put the bottle filler into the first bottle.
While holding down the bottle filler to keep the valve open, have your helper pull up, then push down on the siphon piston to begin the flow of beer.
You are now filling your first bottle.
To stop the flow, just lift up on the bottle filler.
Try to leave about 1 inch of headspace in each bottle. Fill to the brim, then remove the filler.
Add one priming tablet to each filled 12-ounce bottle. The small charge of sugar will carbonate or prime the flat beer.
The CO2 gas created by this mini-fermentation will be absorbed by the liquid since it can't escape the sealed bottle.
To cap the bottles, put a sanitized bottle cap on a filled, primed bottle.
Center the bell of the bottle capper on the cap, push down on the levers, then release. The cap should be crimped tightly to the bottle.
Repeat filling, priming, and capping until the beer or the bottles are gone.
After the bottles are filled and capped, the bottles need time to carbonate, or condition.
Move the bottles to a quiet, dark spot where they will be at room temperature.
After one to two weeks, the bottles can be stored cool or cold.
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Assemble your tasting panel, clean your favorite beer glass, and crack open a bottle of fresh handcrafted beer.
Decant the beer into your glass, admire the appearance, savor the aroma, discuss with your friends, and then take a sip, homebrewer.
Congratulations on a successful batch. We hope you and your small batch starter kit will brew, share, and enjoy many more great batches of homemade handcrafted beer.
For information, ideas, resources, and advice on your next batch, please visit us at northernbrewer.com.
Cheers.
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