A standard recipe should be followed to ensure consistency in all the brews. Each subsequent brew should vary only one ingredient. Of course the changes must be documented so that beneficial changes may be incorporated into additional brews, and detrimental changes can be avoided in the future. Below is a standard recipe:
3.5 lb. Tin Lager Malt Extract [1.6 kg]
5.0 Gallons of Mineral Water (or tap water) [24 litres]
1 or 2 Sachets of top fermenting Lager yeast
1 Sachet of gelatine
1 Packet of glucose chips or powder
2 oz. Goldings Hops [57 g]
The first stage of the brewing procedure is to have a plan. All the required equipment must be readily at hand. The ingredients must also be at hand. There must be adequate space available in which to work, a heat supply and water supply. The area should be protected from spillage if possible, and generally neat and tidy. The first item in the plan is sanitation.
Because beer is a relatively low alcohol content beverage, it does not have the same ability to fight off infection as wines etc. The only way to ensure the beer does not catch an infection is to protect it from the environment, and ensure all brewing equipment is sterilised (with the exception of the boiling pot). In other words infection must be prevented , it cannot be cured.
For heavily contaminated items, a 10% bleach solution should be used. 2 fl. oz. mixed with one pint of water makes a 10% solution. The solution is heavy duty disinfectant. After a few minutes the surface in contact with such a solution will be devoid of any bacteria or yeast. Needless to say, such a solution must be thoroughly rinsed from the surface before it contacts the brew.
Apart from the heavily contaminated items, most items will be reasonably clean. In order to sterilise them, a standard solution of bleach is made up. The standard solution is made by diluting 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of household bleach (odourless is best), with 1 gallon of water. This solution is capable of sterilising all equipment within about twenty minutes, and does not even require rinsing.
The simplest method of sterilisation with standard solution is to fill the primary and secondary fermenters with tap water, and add 75 ml of bleach to each. The solution should be stirred with a large plastic paddle to mix thoroughly. Now all the brew equipment (tubing, filter, airlock etc.) should be tossed in and covered. Swish it all around and leave it for half an hour.
A squeezy bottle full of standard solution should also be in your armoury. This may be used to wash down equipment. A cloth soaked in standard solution should be handy to wipe equipment. It is also useful to have a tray containing a little standard solution. Equipment can then be placed on this tray without risk of picking up bacteria from other surfaces.
Hands must be clean. A hat should be worn (hair harbours salmonella). Long sleeves should be worn (arm hairs). Do not drool in the brew, or otherwise allow saliva to touch it (lacto bacillus loves beer).
Sterilisation is a pain, but is absolutely necessary. Do not take short cuts or the brew may have to be binned (I mean drained)!
The yeast must be actively working before it is pitched. This is absolutely essential in the case of dry yeast. For perfection liquid yeast should be used (Wyeast). A yeast starter is made in a plastic bottle. Half a pint of luke warm water and 4 tablespoons of glucose chips should be mixed (possibly with a little malt extract). Add the yeast. Two sachets are recommended. The bottle should be loosely covered, and left somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight. After half an hour, the yeast starter should be actively churning. As with preparing the brew, strict sterilisation procedures should be used (snore, snore).
When all equipment is sterilised, it is time to start the boil.
Pour 3 pints of water into the large boiling pot, and bring quickly to the boil Tap water may be used. The action of boiling the water tends to de-chlorinate it (this is good). The first can of extract should be added when the water has been boiling for a few minutes. The extract should be added slowly and continuously stirred with a paddle so that it does not stick to the bottom, and burn. Again the liquor should be brought back to the boil.
One ounce of the hops should be added at this stage. Be careful that the liquor does not foam and boil over. If it does, just remove from the heat for a couple of seconds. It is a good idea to place the hops in the filter bag, and suspend the bag in the hot liquor. The bag should be removed when adding the second can of extract. Again, it should be added slowly and continuously stirred. When it has been fully dissolved, return the bag. The liquor should be boiled for half an hour. The remaining ounce of hops should be added at this point, and boiled for a further twenty minutes. Any adjuncts that are being used may be added before the end of the boil. Adjuncts such as honey, molasses, maize of rice.
When boiling has finished, it is essential to cool the wort as quickly as possible. The wort will quickly be oxidised at these elevated temperatures, so the wort should not be splashed or disturbed. The pot may be placed into a sink with circulating cold water on the outside, or ice.
The remaining water (about 22 litres) is then poured into the primary fermenter. It does not have any sterilising solution in it at this stage. The water must be cold. The water should be poured out of the bottle from a considerable height in order to oxygenate the wort. At the cold temperature oxidisation is not a problem, and in fact the yeast requires a lot of dissolved oxygen. The extract in the pot may then be poured into the primary fermenter, and stirred well. Place the lid on the fermenter, and allow it to cool to about 25ｰ C. Take a temperature reading to make sure. The yeast is now ready to pitch, but the temperature must be low enough, or the yeast will either die or mutate (this is bad).
Establishing the Correct Gravity
It is unlikely that the wort will have the correct starting gravity. Place the hydrometer in the wort, give it a whirl, and take a reading. This reading is then checked off with the conversion table to find the final alcoholic volume. The gravity required is 1.045 to 1.050. The actual gravity may be increased by adding cane sugar, refined or unrefined, honey, or corn sugar. Glucose is recommended because it has a drier taste than sucrose, and is more readily eaten by the yeast.
As a general rule, there should be about 1.5 lb. of fermentable sugar per gallon of wort. In order to be more accurate the following formula may be used:
To evaluate alcohol by volume content, use the formula below
To calculate the required gravity of your brew to produce a certain alc. volume.
To calculate the amount of sugar required to make up to a certain alc. volume
S=sugar in grams
vol=volume of wort in litres
AV=alcohol by volume in per cent
OG=Original Gravity as read from hydrometer
FG=Final gravity, must be estimated (usually 1.005 to 1.010)
MG=Measured gravity as read from hydrometer
RG=Required gravity, if you know what alcohol content is required
When the temperature of the wort is cool enough the yeast starter should be pitched. It should be thoroughly stirred around, and aerated. The lid should be placed on the brew, and an airlock fitted. The air lock should be half filled with standard solution from the squeezy bottle. The fermentation period has now begun. The fermenter should be moved to its resting place, where the temperature will be constant (within reason). It is a good idea to wrap the fermenter in a jacket. This will go somewhat to preventing the wort from thermal shock.
The fermentation is likely to be over within a week. However two weeks in the primary fermenter will help to condition the beer, and is therefore strongly recommended. The progress of fermentation may be followed by monitoring the airlock. When bubbling finishes the fermentation should be complete. However, the yeast may have gone dormant, so swish up the brew from time to time to re-suspend the yeast. The lid of the primary fermenter should not be removed for the first two weeks, as infection may set in.
After two weeks, the brew is ready to undergo secondary fermentation. The object of secondary fermentation is to condition the beer, clarify it, and reduce the quantities of suspended matter. Secondary fermentation lasts about one week, and should net be confused with priming (in barrel or bottle).
The brew must be transferred from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter. It is a good idea to use the pressure barrel as the secondary fermenter. The barrel should contain standard solution along with the siphon hose. The standard solution should be run out via the tap. The remainder glugged down the drain. Now the wort must be racked from the primary into the secondary. Obviously the primary must be elevated above the secondary. If siphoning the following procedure should be used:
The siphon should be filled with standard solution, and the tap closed. The siphon is connected to the racking cane, and placed below the surface of the wort. The tap is then opened, and the wort is allowed to drain for a few seconds. When all that remains in the siphon is brew, it can be transferred to the barrel. Great care should be taken when siphoning to avoid disturbing the yeast sediment. A certain amount of wort should remain in the primary because it is not possible to remove all the wort without disturbing the sediment.
It is recommended that the primary fermenter is fitted with a spigot or tap, about two inches from its base. This will allow the wort to be transferred more quickly to the secondary without worrying about collecting sediment. The level will not fall below two inches in the primary fermenter. A nylon mesh may be placed over the tap to prevent lumps of sediment transferring into the secondary fermenter. The lid of the barrel should be fitted loosely, for about half an hour until the air is forced out, the lid may then be tightened.
After a couple of days of settling, the beer is ready to be fined (clarified). The old stale yeast is knocked out of solution be the action of a fining agent. A commercial sachet of gelatine is required. This is pasted with a few tablespoons of cold water. This is then diluted with about half a pint of cold water. The solution is then gently heated but not boiled to dissolve the gelatine. This solution is then added to the secondary fermenter, and mixed around. A small squirt of 10% sodium metabisulphate solution may also be added to help with the fining. After a day the beer should be clear. Cloudy beer should not be bottled, as it will have a yeasty taste.
Before bottling, the beer should be primed. This involves providing enough fresh yeast and sugar to allow carbonation in the bottle. For a five gallon batch, 4 ounces (120 g) of priming sugar will be necessary. Again a starter solution of yeast is made as in the previous procedure. Fresh yeast is mixed with about half a pint of luke warm water and the sugar. Mix it into a smooth solution, wait for half an hour, and then pitch into the secondary fermenter. The wort should be stirred to promote mixing. The brew should then be left to settle for an hour or two. The beer is then ready to be bottled.
Whilst the beer is settling the bottles should be prepared. Each bottle should be rinsed, and soaked in standard solution. They should soak for about half an hour. For 5 gallons of beer, about 70 bottles will be required. Each bottle will need to be thoroughly cleaned with a bottle brush to remove all grease, wild yeast, and dirt. Bottle caps should also be soaked in standard solution before use.
The bottles are filled using a funnel from the tap at the bottom of the secondary fermenter. Each bottle is filled to ｾ inch below the cap level. This allows expansion space for carbonation. The caps should be loosely fitted to the bottles so that air is driven off. Once all bottles have been filled the may be capped. Each bottle should then be checked for integrity of the seal. Spills should be wiped from the bottles. The bottling date should be labelled also. The bottles must be stored at a low temperature 10 degrees C is adequate for about three weeks. The beer will be drinkable after 1 week, but for adequate condition three weeks is recommended.
Unfortunately there will usually be a yeast deposit in the bottom of the bottle. For this reason the beer must be poured into a glass carefully, and in one go. About ｽ an inch of beer will be wasted, as it is not poured from the bottle.
All brews should be documented showing times, ingredients, statistics and methods. The records should also have dates so that good brews can be copied, and bad brews can be avoided. It's just common sense.
Here are some useful conversions:
1 oz.=28 grams
1 lb.=0.454 kg
1 lt=3 bottles
1 lt=1.706 pints
1 lt=0.213 gallons
ｺ C=ｺ F * 9/5 +32