Homemade beer with your own hands: simple recipes. How to brew beer at home using a recipe

This section has been prepared specifically for all lovers of this foamy drink. Recipes for making beer appeared quite a long time ago and to this day it is not known for certain where this drink was first made. According to historians, the first methods of brewing beer appeared 9500 BC, exactly when people learned to grow grain crops. There is an opinion that grains were originally intended for making homemade beer and only then, much later, they began to make bread from them. Now it is no longer possible to establish what came first, bread or beer. At the same time, all lovers of a foamy drink know very well that beer is called liquid bread.

Be that as it may, recipes for homemade beer have survived to this day practically unchanged and we have a wonderful opportunity to try the drink that our ancestors prepared. This drink gained particular popularity in the 18th century, when monks living in Germany began brewing beer. It's no secret that even now German beer is famous all over the world thanks to its amazing taste.

To try real good beer, you don’t have to go to Germany - you can make this drink yourself. In this section we have collected all the most popular beer making recipes that are suitable for home use. Since the brewing process is not very simple and requires certain knowledge, in each recipe you will find useful tips from professionals that will help you avoid basic mistakes and make this process not only easier, but also more interesting.

The homemade beer recipes collected in this section will help you, even without experience, prepare this wonderful drink with your own hands. Thanks to special technology, good quality beer has a special aroma and taste. It is very important not only to follow the sequence of actions, but also to choose the right ingredients.

Making beer at home requires patience and strict adherence to all the recommendations described in the recipes. Despite the complexity of the technology, it is enough to prepare this drink yourself a few times and you will be able not only to brew it without the help of professionals, but also to create your own recipes.

Beer, relatively speaking, can be prepared in two ways: from malt extract and directly from grain. The first method is the simplest: you need to buy malt extract, mix it with water, boil it, add sugar and yeast, ferment the resulting wort and bottle it (we have written a separate one). It doesn’t sound interesting, but it was malt concentrates that became a good help for the popularization of home brewing. Perhaps these are where you should start. I'll explain now.

Malt concentrate is concentrated beer wort. The technology itself for producing beer according to a traditional recipe is very labor-intensive, largely due to the stage at which the wort is prepared. At home, this takes 5-7 hours of nerves, dancing with a thermometer and extreme concentration. During these 5-7 hours, the malt is mashed with water, heated to a certain temperature with certain pauses, then filtered and only then brewed with hops and other ingredients.

Malt concentrate is prepared in a similar way, after which the hopped wort is concentrated - the liquid is simply evaporated to form the same powder (or viscous mass) that is sold to us in beautiful jars labeled “malt concentrate”. In other words, home brewers have a unique opportunity to bypass the complex and time-consuming process of preparing beer wort.

But there comes a time when a brewer, having tried different concentrates and additives to them, begins to think about traditional brewing, which, oddly enough, is practiced by brewing giants.

If you still think that large factories brew beer from “powder,” then you are deeply mistaken. This . Malt concentrate costs several times more than regular beer malt, not to mention the organization of its production, so it is not profitable for brewing giants to use them.

Well, let's brew our first beer from malt, hops, water and yeast!

In 1516, Germany passed a law on the purity of beer, the so-called Reinheitsgebot, according to which beer must be brewed exclusively from barley malt, hops and water. We do not suffer from purism, but it is from malt and hops that we will continue to dance, as well as from yeast, which was discovered much later. But we admit that you can add any interesting ingredients to the wort: unmalted grains, honey, herbs, fruits and fruit juices, vegetables, even mushrooms and tree bark. Brewing is a creative process.

MALT

First of all, this is a convenient wort kettle, also known as a mash tun, enameled or made of stainless steel, most often with a thermal cover. The fermentation tank, fermenter, which is generally called a “beer factory,” can be plastic containers with a slot in the lid for a water seal, or plastic or stainless steel barrels equipped with taps, thermometers, pressure gauges and other convenient gadgets.

Now collectively what is difficult to do without:

• Scale or measuring cup for malt and hops.
• Container for soaking and filtering (bucket-basin 5-10 l).
• Malt crusher (mill, meat grinder, coffee grinder).
• Wort boiler for 25-30 l.
• Spoon with a long handle - paddle (plastic).
• Accurate thermometer with a scale up to 100˚С.
• Iodine – for malt testing and disinfection (or a special disinfectant).
• Fermentation container with water seal.
• Hydrometer for measuring wort density.
• Silicone tube for pouring beer.
• Glass or plastic bottles with tight lids.

Of all the above, the most difficult thing to do without is a thermometer. During the preparation of the wort, in particular its malting, it is very important to accurately observe the temperature pauses, otherwise the beer simply will not turn out. The bottles are convenient with a yoke cap; you can also use standard beer bottles, but then you will have to buy a crown capper and the crown caps themselves (regular beer caps).

What else will be useful:

• Self-adhesive thermometer for fermentation tank.
• Filter materials, additional containers for filtration.
• A canvas or gauze bag for mashing the wort.
• Chiller for rapid cooling of wort (or ice bath).

We advise you to take a closer look at some brewing products on the world famous Chinese trading platform AliExpress. Recently, we have been running a section in which we publish selections of such products. For example, you will find links to cheap measuring instruments necessary for comfortable brewing and much more (scales, thermometers, hydrometers, volumetric flasks, mash bag, etc.)

Preparation

Cleanliness is the key to success! In this case, this is not an empty phrase. Beer wort is an ideal breeding ground for any microorganisms that will develop colonies in it in a matter of hours and will no longer make beer. Always use sterile containers and accessories and minimize contact of the wort with air. During cooking, wash your hands thoroughly with soap, or better yet, wipe them with alcohol, as well as any equipment that will come into contact with the wort.

Disinfection is the key to successful brewing.

Containers can be washed with iodine solution or special disinfectants that beer stores are stocked with. You can also use a weak solution of bleach: 1 tbsp. l. for 5 liters of water. But still more reliable than special equipment. After using them, be sure to rinse the disinfected containers thoroughly, preferably with hot water (be careful with plastic). It is not necessary to rinse after iodine. Do not use several solutions at once - their reaction with each other can lead to the formation of toxic substances.

Heads from any moonshine can be used as a sterilizer.

Preparation of beer wort

So, you bought or germinated high-quality beer malt, found aromatic hops, prepared the water and sterilized all the equipment. Now, in fact, it’s time to learn how to brew beer at home.

First you need to create a recipe, namely, decide how dense and bitter your beer will be. PC brewing programs such as BeerSmith will help us with this. For informational purposes, you can use it for 21 days, then you will have to buy a license, but it is worth the money ($28). BeerSmith allows you to automatically calculate all the parameters of the future beer based on the given ingredients. It also already contains 100 beer styles from the BJCP guide. By the way, it wouldn’t hurt to get the BJCP manual itself, where the classification of beer is clearly described.

Malt preparation

First, you need to measure out the malt. For a classic recipe for beer made from malt and hops, take 4 kg of malt per 25 liters of beer. You can vary the amount of malt and water, thereby influencing the density of the drink and its taste. The malt needs to be winnowed and washed from dust and dirt.

Purified beer malt must be ground into fine grains. To do this, you can use a malt crusher, but if you don’t have one at hand, an ordinary meat grinder or other kitchen equipment will do: blender, food processor, coffee grinder. However, practice has shown that having a malt mill on hand is much more convenient and practical.

Before mashing the wort, some brewers do what is called a “pre-mash” - soaking the malt in water for 12 hours. This procedure is necessary to give the malt husk elasticity - it will not be damaged during crushing, which means it will be more convenient to filter the wort. Pre-mashing also activates enzymes. Grinding wet malt leads to corrosion of the metal parts of the crushers, so not everyone resorts to this method. But soaking can be done after grinding, right? Be that as it may, our main task is to prepare and grind our malt to the desired condition (the optimal grind size is like barley).

Mashing malt using the infusion method

Mashing the wort is the most important process in beer brewing. At this stage, the crushed malt is mixed with water (mashed), causing the enzymes in the malt to go into solution and break down the starch into sugar, which the yeast will then process. Enzymes require a certain temperature to work. There are two fundamentally different methods of mashing: infusion and decoction. We will use infusion - this is a classic mashing scheme for home use, during which the wort is heated sequentially, while maintaining the temperature pauses necessary for the enzymes to act. The decoction method is used in factories as a cheaper method - part of the wort is boiled and added to the rest, raising its temperature to the desired temperature.

For the classic beer recipe, a hydromodule of 1/3 is used (1 part malt/3 parts water). Therefore, to prepare 25 liters of beer we need to take 4 kg of malt and 12 liters of water. Water needs to be boiled and cooled to 60˚C. Pour in the malt in a thin stream, thoroughly mixing the wort so that no lumps form. If you have not acquired a convenient wort kettle with a filter system, your first attempts at brewing beer can be made using the “in a bag” method - pour the malt into a fabric bag and “mash” it directly in it.

At this stage, it is advisable to control the acidity of the wort using a pH test. For brewing, the optimal pH is 5.2..5.5. How to properly increase acidity. For this purpose, any food acids are used.

After mixing hot water with malt, it’s time to arm yourself with a thermometer and monitor the temperature pauses. There are three of them, two of which are required:

1. Protein break. The mash is kept for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 25-55°C. This pause is optional. It is used if weakly modernized malt or “unmalted” malt is used. During the pause, the wort boiler (saucepan) must be insulated and the wort must be stirred periodically. The protein pause promotes better breakdown of proteins, reduces the turbidity of the wort, and facilitates further filtration. The density of taste weakens slightly and the amount of foam decreases.
2. Maltose pause. The mash is kept for 20 minutes to 1.5 hours at a temperature of 62-68°C. During this time, enzymes convert starch into maltose, a monosaccharide. At low temperatures and a long pause, more fermentable sugars are obtained, which means the beer becomes stronger, while the density of taste is significantly lost. At a higher temperature and a shorter pause, more unfermentable dextrins are formed, which give the beer a dense taste. The strength falls accordingly.
3. Saccharification pause. The mash is kept for 15 minutes at a temperature of 70-75°C. At this stage, the final saccharification of the wort occurs. Starch completely breaks down into dextrins, and enzymes begin to decompose. With an increase in this pause, which makes sense only by reducing the previous ones, the strength of the beer decreases and its flavor density increases.

After the third pause, an iodine test should be done to check the completeness of saccharification. To do this, take a couple of drops of the mash and place them on a white plate. Wait a few minutes and add a drop of iodine, then mix the drops. If no color change occurs, then the wort has completely saccharified and can be fermented. If the iodine turns blue, it means there is still starch in the wort - the wort needs to be boiled for another 15 minutes at a temperature of 70-75°C. After this, you can still boil it for about 5 minutes at a temperature of 75-77°C and begin filtering.

Mash filtering

If you initially mashed the wort in a bag, then there is practically no need to filter the wort. However, the spent grain (the undissolved part of the wort) still contains a lot of sugar, so it is advisable to rinse it. The optimal water temperature for washing is 75-77°C. But more on that later. First, you need to filter the wort and measure its density. Modern wort boilers are equipped with a filter system with a false bottom and a tap. All you need to do is place a large collection container under the tap and start draining the wort. The first wort will be cloudy, so it is better to pour it into a separate container until clear liquid begins to flow from the tap. You need to change the container to the main one, and return the first cloudy wort to the filter tank.

What works here is spent grains of malt, which are collected in a dense layer on a mesh bottom (if we are talking about a purchased wort kettle) and begin to play the role of a good filter. You can assemble your own filter system from a large tank and a sieve, but I will leave these engineering intricacies to your conscience. After filtration, you must measure the density of the wort using a hydrometer. Typically the density varies between 14-22%. It's time to bring the wort density to the levels in our recipe by washing. The amount of water depends on the desired density.

For beer with a density of 12%, you should take the following amount of water at a temperature of 75-77°C (not higher):

During the filtration process, try to control the density of the wort using a hydrometer so as not to overdo it with the amount of wash water - at the end of the wash, more “useless” substances pass into the wort, which only increase turbidity.

Boiling wort and hopping beer

The resulting wort must be poured back into the wort kettle and boiled for 1-2 hours with the addition of hop cones. Brewing beer is necessary to enrich the wort with hop bitterness and aroma. During boiling, all unnecessary microorganisms are killed and malt enzymes are completely destroyed. It is recommended to boil the wort for at least 1 hour. Boiling should be active; 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking, it is better to reduce the heat and cover the wort with a lid.

Place the wort on the fire, add hops for bittering - approximately 80% of the hop requirement. The bitterness that will be transferred into beer from hops depends on the amount of alpha acids contained in the cones (or pellets). For example, to obtain a drink with a slight hop bitterness, for 25 liters of wort it is enough to take 25-50 g of granulated hops with an alpha acid content of 6.4%, for bitter beer - 60-100 g. The granules are simply put in the wort, it is better to put the cones in a fabric bag. 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking you need to add hops for taste, and 5 minutes before the end of cooking - for aroma. Irish moss is also added with flavor and aroma hops for better clarification of the beer.

Cooling of beer wort

The brewed wort must be quickly cooled to a fermentation temperature of 16-18°C. It is important to cool quickly, within 20-30 minutes, - this reduces the risk of contamination of the wort with foreign microorganisms that can seriously compete with yeast. At home, this can be done using a cold water bath (with plenty of ice if possible).

If you are going to brew beer regularly, I advise you to purchase a chiller - a coil through which running cold water is supplied.

A chiller is the best way to quickly cool beer after brewing.

Adding yeast with preparation

During cooling, it is advisable to ferment the yeast so that you don’t have to wait later:

1. Pour a small amount of wort at a temperature of no more than 30°C into a sterile container and add/pour yeast into it.
2. Cover with a sterile lid and let stand for 30-40 minutes. When signs of fermentation appear, yeast can be added to the cooled wort.

But before adding yeast, the cold wort must be freed from suspensions, which is why the cold wort becomes cloudy. This process will have a positive effect on the final taste of the drink. To do this, stir the wort using a swirling motion using your stirring spoon. As a result of rotation, the suspension will settle to the bottom in the center of the container, and the wort can be easily poured into the brewery for fermentation.

Also, before adding yeast cultures, it is important to saturate the wort with oxygen, which was all lost during boiling. To do this, the wort needs to be stirred intensively, or better yet, poured from a great height. Experienced brewers use aquarium compressors for aeration. Don't forget that everything should be as sterile as possible.

Basic beer fermentation

Before fermenting the wort, take a small amount to check the density. This data will come in handy later. The optimal density for light light beer is 10-12%, for dense beer – 12-16%. After pitching the yeast, stir the wort well. Close the fermentation container with a lid with a water seal and place it in the place where the beer will ferment. This should be a dry room with a stable temperature of 18-24°C.

Beer fermentation lasts 5-8 days. The end of fermentation is characterized by the absence of carbon dioxide released through the water seal. Open the container and take a small amount of young beer to measure the density. The density of fermented beer should drop to 2-2.2%. In fermented beer, the gravity is constant because the sugars are no longer processed by the yeast. Knowing the initial and final density, you can calculate the final strength of the drink. If everything went well, the beer can be bottled and sent for maturation.

Overflow, post-fermentation, maturation

Now we have come to the most enjoyable stage of brewing homemade beer. At this stage, the beer does not have a full taste. In order for this flavor to develop, the beer must undergo a maturation process in tightly sealed bottles. Before pouring, you need to get rid of the yeast sediment - carefully drain the beer through a silicone hose without stirring the sediment. You can use an intermediate transfer: first pour the beer into a container, which should be left for a day at a low temperature (5-7°C), and then bottle the completely clarified drink.

In order for the beer to ferment and become saturated with carbon dioxide, sugar or other substances that contain it are added to it, for example, honey or unhopped malt extract. For 1 liter of beer, it is enough to take 8-9 g of sugar or honey, malt extract - 11 g or 1.25 times more sugar. Of course, malt extract is preferable. It is better to boil their sugar into syrup or use fructose-dextrose (6-7 g/1 l). You can add sugar to each bottle, after which they need to be shaken well to completely dissolve, but it is better to mix the required amount of sugar/malt with beer in a separate container and from there pour the drink into bottles.

Beer is bottled in clean, sterile bottles. It is necessary to leave 3-4 cm from the neck for normal fermentation and carbon dioxide concentration. Glass bottles without a tight yoke stopper must be sealed with new crown caps. Beer should be fermented in a dark room at room temperature. Ripening should take place in a cool, dark place for at least 1-2 weeks. To avoid confusion, it is better to label the bottles - indicate the type of beer and the date when it was bottled. You can store it for 6-8 months, and the drink will remain “alive” all this time.

It's time to reap the fruits of your activities.

I will continue to cover beer topics and hope for any possible help from you. Becoming a home brewer is not difficult. To do this, you only need one thing - the desire to cook. In conclusion, I would like to say that home brewers are passionate people who are not afraid to experiment. Don't limit yourself to anything other than consuming the results of your new hobby. For moderation is the best feast!

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