Welcome to home brewing:
hobby, obsession,
way of life!
This video will show you how to brew your own beer at home with Northern
Brewer's Deluxe Starter Kit. Brewing beer might seem like a mysterious process but
it's really not. Brewing is boiling liquid,
moving liquid from vessel to vessel without splashing,
keeping equipment clean,
and waiting for yeast to work its magic.
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 you will see the three stages of
making beer with your Northern Brewer Starter Kit. First, the actual brewing
where malt extract and hops are boiled in water to make wort. 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 (the brewer's
term for carbonating the bottles.)
And that's really all there is to it: boiling liquid, moving liquid,
keeping things clean, and waiting for the yeast to do its thing.
Before we get started
let's go over the four things you will need:
1. a starter kit
2. a recipe kit -
the ingredients: malt extract, hops and yeast in the right proportions for the
kind of beer you want to make.
3. a boil kettle that can hold at least three-and-a-half gallons of liquid.
We are going to use a five-gallon kettle in this video.
4. Bottles for your finished beer.
You will need approximately two cases clean pry-off beer bottles,
brown glass is best.
Brew Day is here!
The boil kettle is ready and we are going to brew the Caribou Slobber
brown ale.
On brewing day
we will boil the malt extract and hops in water to make that wort.
Then cool the wort. Now it's time to brew!
With the yeast ready, it's time to collect water in our boil kettle. Any good quality drinking is fine.
If the water tastes good
it will make good beer.
If your recipe kid includes specialty grains,
it also includes a muslin bag for steeping.
Put the muslin bag over the whole bag of grains,
tip the sack and slowly pour the grains into the muslin bag.
Tie a knot near the top of the muslin bag so the grains don't spill while steeping.
If you like you can toss the bag for a few moments to knock out excess grain
dust from the crushed malt.
As the water heats
steep specialty grain.
Specialty grains give extra color and flavor to the finished beer.
Steep the grain for 20 minutes or until the water reaches approximately
170-degrees fahrenheit,
whichever comes first.
Not every Northern Brewer recipe kit comes with specialty grain.
If your recipe kit doesn't call for specialty grain, you can skip ahead to
adding malt extract.
Speaking of liquid malt extract -
here's a tip:
a few minutes before you need it,
put unopened jugs in a sink of warm water. This will make it easier to
pour when it's time to add to the kettle.
When you've reached temperature or time
just lift the specialty grains out and let them drain briefly.
Don't squeeze the bag.
Bring the kettle to a boil
and at the malt extract
stirring to dissolve.
Your recipe kit may include malt extract syrup
or dry malt extract.
The Caribou Slobber has both. Some tips for dissolving malt extract:
turn the heat off to prevent scorching,
pour syrup slowly,
pour dry malt extract quickly,
and stir constantly.
When the extract is dissolved,
return the kettle to the heat and bring it to a boil.
When it starts to boil set a timer for sixty minutes.
We now have WORT!
The wort will be boiled for sixty minutes
during which we add the hops at the time specified by the recipe.
Your recipe kit instructions show the time for each hop addition.
For our brew the Caribou Slobber recipe kit has three additions. One that says
sixty minutes...
another that says forty-five minutes and a third that says fifteen minutes.
This is the amount of time each addition needs to be boiled.
The first addition goes into the kettle right away
and it's boiled for the entire sixty minutes.
The second addition is added forty-five minutes before the end of the boil
and the last addition is added fifteen minutes before the end of the boil.
Your recipe kit may call for other boil additions like spices, sugars,
or more malt extract.
Treat these just like hops
and add them to the kettle at their specified time.
Now - a word from Northern Brewer's
Civilian Brewing Division:
When you boil wort
it creates froth.
When you add boil additions like hops, spices, or sugars it creates a lot of froth.
Because wort is sugary
boilovers are sticky.
A watched pot may never boil
but an unwatched pot will always boil over.
If the froth tries to escape your kettle and boilover two things to remember:
turn the heat down... and stir, stir, stir!
I'm boiling some wort outside to show you
what a boil over looks like.
Don't try this at home.
Just look at that nasty mess.
Do yourself a favor,
don't let this happen to your stove-top.
Stay diligent, homebrewer,
Keep an eye on boiling wort and be ready to knock down escaping foam.
Back to the brew day.
The sixty-minute boil is finished
and all boil kettle additions have been made.
The wort must now be cooled to a hundred degrees fahrenheit or below before we
can add yeast and proceed with stage two - fermenting.
We're going to use a simple cold-water bath to cool the wort.
Replace water as necessary.
If you like you could add ice to the water bath.
Keep the kettle covered almost all the way to protect wort for airborne microbes.
When the side of the kettle is about body temperature, lukewarm,
not hot to the touch,
it's time to get ready for fermentation.
While the wort is cooling
it's time to do the most important task of the entire brewing process: sanitizing.
It's impossible to make good beer with dirty equipment.
So everything that comes in contact with the wort or beer from now on must
be sanitized first.
Assemble the bottling bucket and auto siphon.
The gasket and spigot go on outside of the bucket
the nut goes on the inside hand-tightened,
don't over-tighten or it will deform the gasket and cause a leak. Leak test
bucket with plain water before proceeding.
Use the Star San sanitizer included with your starter kit
to sanitize the equipment. To make the sanitizing solution use one fluid ounce
of star san per five gallons of water.
Use the gradient lines on the bucket to measure the water.
Use the auto siphon to stir the mixture.
This solution will sanitize the bucket.
Also put the funnel, airlock, bung
and yeast packet in the sanitizer.
Two minutes contact time to santize the surfaces, no rinsing required.
While you've got the sanitizer solution in the graduated bucket
put five gallons in the carboy
and mark a carboy.
We used electrical tape.
Fill the carboy up
the rest of the way with sanitizer.
For further information on sanitizing and cleaning
see Chapters 3 and 5 of this DVD. When the wort in the kettle is cooled and
the fermentation equipment is sanitized
it's time to fill the fermentor.
First add two gallons of cold water to the sanitized, empty fermentor.
Next, pour in the cooled wort.
Leave behind any sludge that's accumulated in the bottom of the kettle.
Finally, add more cold water to bring the total volume to five gallons.
Seal the fermentor and gently rock back and forth for a few minutes to mix
the wort in the water
and aerate the wort for fermentation.
The side of the fermentor should not be warm to the touch.
Now it's time to add the yeast. The brewing term is "pitching" the yeast.
If you have dry yeast sprinkle it on the surface of the wort.
Seal the fermentor,
fill the air lock with sanitizer,
and move the fermentor
to a dark quiet spot.
Now it's time to take a break.
Let the yeast do the heavy lifting,
have a beer,
then clean up.
Within a day or two 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 foam forms above the beer.
Roughly one to two weeks from brewing day fermentation ends.
Bubbles coming through the air lock become very slow or stop,
and the cap of foam starts to subside.
[alert beeping] Attention, citizens! Do you know where your yeast is?
by now you've noticed that actively fermenting beer has a head
of yeast foam on it.
This yeasty foam is called the krausen.
Krausen is good.
It's a sign of a healthy fermentation,
when the krausen tries to escape the carboy through the neck that's called
blow-off.
Blow-off is bad.
It's bad because it's messy at a time when we want things to be sanitary
and contained.
It's also bad because it can clog the airlock
and pressurize the carboy.
What should you do
if your beer tries to escape during fermentation?
Use a blow-off hose...
or a blow-off hose and stopper if you opted for plastic carboys.
How to do this:
sanitize the blow-off hose,
removed the airlock and stopper,
put the blow off those
into the carboy,
run the free end,
into a bucket
or container of sanitizer.
This will act like a giant airlock.
They'll still let CO2 gas escape without letting oxygen back in and
it's big enough for the escaping krausen
to travel up,
through the hose,
and into the sanitizer...
keeping everything contained and sanitary
After primary fermentation is complete
the fermented beer is transferred to a five-gallon cardboy for secondary fermentation.
standby for another important message from the civilian brewing division
We are fermenting beer
with the Northern Brewer Deluxe Starter Kit which uses a two-stage
fermentation. First stage primary fermentation in a six-gallon carboy,
active fermentation the yeast is actively metabolizing sugar in the wort
converting it into CO2 and alcohol
Secondary fermentation takes place
in a five-gallon carboy.
This is a quiet period
in-between active fermentation and bottling
where the beer's flavor will mellow out,
has a chance to clarify after primary fermentation allowing the yeast and
remaining hop and malts settle out to the bottom so you get a clearer
smoother tasting beer
when it's time to move to bottles.
How do you do a secondary fermentation?
Very simple.
Sanitize the five-gallon carboy
siphon finished beer
from the primary
into the secondary.
The Caribou Slobber calls for a one to two week primary fermentation
followed by
two to four weeks secondary fermentation
before you bottle.
Don't be terrified to let your beard get clarified.
Brew on, brewers!
Time once again to sanitize.
The auto siphon, hose, five-gallon carboy,
and airlock.
We will mix the sanitizing solution in the bottling bucket,
siphon the beer from the primary fermentor into the secondary fermentor
and attach the airlock. Your beer is at risk stay tuned for
this important information from the Civilian Brewing Division.
Question:
what is the difference between a smart siphon
and then not-so smart siphon?
Three things:
gravity,
oxygen,
sludge.
Gravity - smart siphons use gravity.
Gravity is your friend. Put the receiving vessel lower
than the vessel you are siphoning out of.
Oxygen. Oxygen is your enemy.
Smart siphons do not splash the beer. Splashing the beer causes oxygen uptake.
Siphon quietly.
Sludge. Sludge is bad.
Sludge accumulates at the bottom of your primary fermentors. Sludge is normal.
Sludge is natural. Sludge is yeast
and malt
and hop solids.
But when we siphon
we wanna leave this layer behind.
How do you leave the sludge behind?
Two principles:
One -- start high.
Start your siphon
high up in the carboy
don't jam it all the way down
right into that sludge.
Started high and follow
to liquid level down.
Two -- finish titled.
Tilt the carboy
follow the level of liquid down
all the way to the bottom
and get every last drop of good beer
out of your fermentor without picking up the sludge.
Common-sense clause, homebrewers...
tilt the carboy back
over a table
not out over empty space.
That is a recipe for spilled beer
and hurt feet.
Remember --
start high,
finish tilted.
Siphon on, brewers.
Thanks to the efforts of our yeast the wort has been transformed into warm
flat beer.
We're almost there we just need to carefully transfer it into bottles to
let it become carbonated handcrafted homebrew.
Assemble the bottling bucket and auto siphon. The gasket and spigot go on
outside of the bucket.
The nut goes on the inside. hand-tightened.
Don't over tighten or it will deform the gasket and cause a leak. Leak test the
bucket with plain water before proceeding.
Time once again to sanitize. Prepare a star san solution
and sanitize the bottling bucket with spigot, the bottle filler with three foot hose
and the auto siphon assembly,
approximately sixty bottle caps
(always have spares sanitized and ready when you're bottling).
Also sanitize two cases of pry-off beer bottles.
Remember -
two minutes contact time, drain the bottles in the bucket,
no rinsing required.
Mix a priming solution.
We will use five eighths of a cup of plain white table sugar in sixteen
ounces of water. The measured dose of sugar will cause a small controlled
fermentation in the bottles.
The CO2 given off by this fermentation carbonates the beer.
Bring the priming solution to a boil, let it cool for five minutes,
then pour it into the emptied sanitized bottling bucket.
Make sure the spigot is closed.
Siphon the beer from the fermentor into the bottling bucket.
Is the spigot still closed?
When the bucket is filled stir gently with the auto siphon to mix the
beer and priming solution. Attach one end of the three foot bottling hose to the
clear end of the bottle filler.
Attach the other end of the hose to the spigot on the bottling bucket.
Open the spigot.
Fill the bottles by depressing the filler against the bottom of the bottle.
The valve will open and the beer will flow.
Lift up on the filler to close the valve and stop the beer.
Leave approximately one inch of headspace in each bottle.
Put the sanitize bottle cap on a filled bottle,
center the bell of your bottle capper on the cap
and pushed down on the levers,
then release.
The cap should be crimped tightly.
After the bottles are filled and capped
the beer needs to 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.
Like many craft beers your homebrew is bottle conditioned. There will be a layer
of fine yeast at the bottom of each bottle.
This is unfiltered natural living beer.
Pour your beer into a clean glass, leaving the layer of east behind
Cheers. NORTHERN BREWER DOT COM.