Basic Beer and Cider Making...

My first experiences with homebrewing and homebrew...

When I was in my late teens or early 20s, I read somewhere that the process of making beer involved a mixture of water, barley, sugar and yeast. I mixed up a concoction of those ingredients, poured it into 16 ounce Bubble-Up bottles, corked 'em -- I wired the corks in real good 'n tight with thin paddle wire -- and put 'em in a box in a storage room to ferment. I leave the rest of the tale untold, other than to say I'm glad I wasn't checking up on the bottles when all the excitment started.

My first encounter with homebrew (other than my first youthful experience) came from a batch made by a maintenance/security man who worked at my brother-in-law's recreational vehicle storage lot. Hank -- I'd guess he was in his late 50s or early 60s -- lived in an apartment unit on the property and brewed his own beer. One hot summer afternoon, he asked me if I'd like a beer and I said sure...big mistake. I was no stranger to beer and had consummed quantities and qualities from cheap "Colorado river trip" beer to better (but still budget priced) fraternity keg party beer and on to good quality Mexican beers while on surfin' safaris south of the U.S./Mexican border. But, I had never tasted anything like that guy's beer...it was flat, cloudy, and sour. While he downed a few, I politely sipped one but never actually finished it. It was another 30 years before I tried either homebrew or homebrewing again.

Here's a basic guide and simple recipe for brewing beer

Rich's Basic Brew (Makes approx. 3.5 quarts)

The following recipe will make a good beer, but it won't make a great beer. The recipe and methods are so basic that only improper sanitation or other careless procedures might result in snail bait. Make sure hands are clean and all tools and containers invloved in the brewing process are clean and properly sanitized with a weak water/bleach solution (1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 gallon of water). While the small quantity of beer made isn't going to quench a big thirst, the inexpensive and easily found equipment and very basic brewing method lends itself to beginning efforts in the art of brewing and small batch experimentation for the adventurous...

Ingredients:

1.00 - pound malt extract
0.25 - ounce hops (flowers or pellets)
4.00 - quarts cold tap water
1.00 - package ale yeast
3.00 - tablespoons corn sugar

Equipment:

1 - one gallon glass jug
1 - rubber stopper to fit jug with a 3/8 inch hole bored through
1 - 4 foot length of 3/8 inch (outside diameter) plastic tubing
assorted pans, stirring and measuring spoons, measuring cups, containers, strainers, bottles to accomodate one gallon of brew (suggestion follows in the instructions), and household bleach for sanitizing all the above equipment

Instructions:

Pour 3 qts. cold tap water into a clean, 1 gallon glass jug that has been sanitized with a weak bleach solution (1 tablp. bleach per gallon of water) and rinsed free of the sanitizing solution. Pour half the water in the jug into an appropriately sized non-reactive cooking pan and add the malt extract. Bring to a boil and turn down heat to keep a low, rolling boil. Add about 75 to 80 percent of the hops and boil for about 30 minutes. Lower heat to a simmer, add remaining hops, and simmer for another 5 or 10 minutes. Using a funnel and a fine sieve, transfer the water/extract mixture into the glass jug using the funnel to direct hot liquid directly into the water in the jug to avoid thermal shock to the glass jug. Water lost through evaporation during the boiling can be replaced by adding cold tap water to bring the level of liquid in the jug to about 1/2 inch below the shoulder of the jug.
After the water/extract mixture in the glass jug has cooled so you can place your hands on the carboy without any discomfort...the jug should feel slightly warm (but not hot), bring 1 cup of water in a sauce pan to a low boil and set aside to cool. When the small sauce pan is cool enough to grasp with the hands. It should feel slightly warm (about 80 to 85 degrees farhenheit is fine) but not hot. Sprinkle one half of the package of yeast into the water. Stir lightly and set aside for about 15 minutes.
Add the water/yeast mixture to the jug and swirl the jug to distribute the yeast. Seal the jug with a blow-off hose inserted into a rubber stopper to fit the jug. Insert the free end of the hose into a container of water to keep air from entering the jug but allow fermentation gases to escape. Set aside in a cool (not cold) place. Fermentation should begin in 6 to 8 hours, slow down after 3 to 5 days, and stop after 10 to 12 days. If there is no sign of any fermentation after 12 hours, loosen the stopper on the jug and sprinkle in the other half of the package of yeast, reseal and hope for the best.
Suggestion: while waiting for the fermentation to subside, buy 8 or 10 bottles of beer that has been bottled in bottles sealed with wire bail, ceramic or plastic stopper and rubber gasket (Grolsch, a fine pilsner from the Netherlands, will do nicely). Drink and enjoy...while your homebrew will be good, it won't be Grolsch. Rinse out each bottle thoroughly as soon as it's been consumed to make cleaning and sanitizing the bottles easier when the beer is ready for bottling. Or, if you want to keep it really simple, just collect a few plastic soda-pop bottles with screw on tops...not the greatest, but they'll work.
When the beer has stopped fermenting, siphon into another clean, sanitized container (leaving any sediment in the bottom of the jug). Dissolve about 1 cup of tap water and add 3 level tablspoons corn sugar to dissolve, and add to the beer. Swirl the jug to thoroughly distribute the sugar/water mixture. Beer can now be siphoned into the clean, sanitized bottles and capped or otherwise sealed. Set beer aside to allow secondary fermentation. It should be ready to drink in 10 to 14 days. Pour into a glass and enjoy, leaving the last bit of beer and any sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The sediment won't hurt you, but it will make the glass of beer cloudy. When you've emptied the bottle, rinse it thoroughly to make it easier to clean and sanitize for your next batch.
Note: it is possible to bring the level of liquid up, using tap water, to make close to a gallon of brew. The trade off is the possibility of foam and fine particles of hops and yeast flowing through the blow-off hose. These can be hard to clean out of the hose and also be a potential source of contamination.

Small-batch brewing can be useful for experimentation. Here's some things I've tried using my basic small-batch brewing method...

Coffee Ale -- let your body ponder how to react to this "jump around or lay it down" concoction...

I saved and refrigerated leftover coffee until I had enough to replace the 3 quarts of water in the basic recipe (one could make 3 quarts of coffee and let it cool, if one was in a hurry). The finished brew had a real nice, deep redish-brown color and "coffee 'n cream" colored head. The strong coffee flavor, though, might be a bit much for some...a half 'n half mixture of coffee and water might work better.

Cranberry Ale -- a little tart but a nice "holiday" flavor and color.

I used re-constituted frozen cranberry juice in place of the 3 quarts of water and followed the basic recipe, adding some leftover whole cranberries and cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving to the wort during the boil. The cranberry flavor was noticable but not overpowering, some tasters could taste no berries at all...but there was a definite tartness. I suppose a little extra corn sugar could be added at bottling to overcome the noticable tartness, but that would require a pasteurization treatment of the sealed bottles at some point to avoid all the sugar being fermented and/or the bottles possibly exploding...might be worth a try though.

Raspberry Ale -- re-named "Raspberries 'n Beer" after the first tasting.

I pureed thawed, frozen raspberries with some water and added enough additional water to make 3 quarts. I then follwed the basic recipe using the raspberry/water mixture (strained through a seive) in place of the 3 quarts of water (after straining out the pulp, I added water to make the 3 quarts). The raspberry presence was definetely noticable and the seeds added a hops-like bittering quality all their own. I would be more careful in straining out the raspberry seeds (their pretty tiny) before mixing with the malt extract for boiling next time.

Chipotle Brown Ale -- I had this batch of brew all to myself.

I added an undetermined amount -- probably somewhere between one and two tablespoons -- of coarsely crushed homegrown, homesmoked chilpotle chiles along with the boiling hops. The brew ended up with a definite smokey flavor and VERY respectable level of heat. Next time, I'd be a bit more cautious about the amount of crushed chiles I added and when I added 'em during the boil.

Glass apple cider jugs make great "small-batch" carboys for making beer. Instead of drinking a gallon of cider to get to the jug, you can make hard -- still or sparkling -- cider, and then use the jug for brewing beer, or even more cider if that's to your taste. Here's my recipe for...

Rich's Simple Hard Cider (makes approx. 3.5 quarts)

When primed with sugar to make sparkling cider and left to age long enough after bottling, this cider can aquire almost Champagne-like characteristics...clean and crisp with a short-lived foamy head and long-lived carbonation in the glass or mug.

Ingredients:

1.00 - gallon jug (glass) of apple cider
1.25 - cup cane sugar
1.00 - package wine yeast

Equipment:

1 - rubber stopper to fit jug with a 3/8 inch hole bored through
1 - 4 foot length of 3/8 inch (outside diameter) plastic tubing and...

Instructions:

Pour off and reserve about 1 quart of the cider in the jug. Heat 1 cup of the reserved cider in a non-reactive pan to a simmer. Remove the cider from the heat and add 1 cup cane sugar to dissolve. When the sugar has been dissolved, add the cider/sugar mixture to the rest of the cider in the jug. Heat another cup of the reserved cider in the same fashion as above. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Sanitize the rubber stopper and tubing in a weak bleach/water solution (1 tblsp. per gallon of water).
When the cider that was heated in the non-reactive pan has cooled to about 95 degrees farhenheit, sprinkle one half the package of wine yeast over the cider and gently stir in. Set cider/yeast mixture aside for about 15 minutes.
When the 15 minutes are up, add the cider/yeast mixture to the rest of the cider in the jug. Add some of the remaining reserved cider to the jug to bring the level up to the shoulder of the jug if necessary. Seal the jug with a blow-off hose inserted into a rubber stopper to fit the jug. Insert the free end of the hose into a container of water to keep air from entering the jug but allow fermentation gases to escape. Set aside in a cool (not cold) place. Fermentation should begin in 6 to 8 hours, slow down after 6 to 8 days, and stop after 14 to 21 days. If there is no sign of any fermentation after 12 hours, loosen the stopper on the jug and sprinkle in the other half of the package of yeast, reseal and hope for the best.

If "still" cider is the desired end result...

When making still cider, the cider should not be bottled until there is no -- I repeat, NO -- sign of any fermentation. A fermentation trap added after the first few days of initial fermentation rather than a blow-off hose left on for the entire fermentation comes in real handy here. The cider in the jug should be allowed to sit undisturbed to clear as much as possible.
Once clear, the cider can then be siphoned into another clean, sanitized container (leaving the sediment behind) and then again siphoned into clean, sanitized wine bottles and appropriately sealed with corks. Set the bottled cider aside for at least a month or two to allow it to age. Check the bottles of cider once in awhile to make sure the cider in the wine bottles hasn't begun to ferment again (protruding corks and/or excessive seepage are a clue). If it has, open the bottles and consume the cider now...wine bottles aren't made to withstand the build up of carbon dioxide resulting from yeast acting on residual sugars in the cider that weren't converted in the initial fermentation.

If sparkling cider is the desired end result...

When the cider has stopped fermenting, siphon into another clean, sanitized container (leaving any sediment in the bottom of the jug). Heat 1 cup water to a simmer and add one quarter cup of sugar to dissolve. When dissolved, add the sugar/water mixture to the cider in the jug. Swirl the jug to thoroughly distribute the sugar/water mixture. The cider can now be siphoned into clean, sanitized beer bottles (not screw top, they aren't strong enough) and capped. Beer bottles that seal with a wire bail, stopper, and rubber gasket also work nicely...and, in a pinch, plastic soda bottles can be used. Set cider aside to allow secondary fermentation (to carbonate). It should be ready to drink in about 30 days. The longer it ages, the better it will be...
Note: it is possible to bring the level of cider up using the reserved cider to make close to a gallon of cider. The trade off is having foam and yeast residue flow through the blow-off hose. If left long enough, mold may begin to form inside the tubing. This not only could be a source of contamination for the fermenting cider in the jug, but can also make the plastic tubing very hard to clean.
Additional Note: If glass cider jugs are beginning to accumulate beyond your cider making needs, cider from other non-glass containers or re-constituted frozen concentrated apple cider can be fermented in the glass jugs instead.

The above recipes and fermenting methods are offered as an easy and inexpensive introduction to the process of brewing beer and making cider, they aren't intended to be the final answer to making good quality beer and cider...the results aren't likely to earn any ribbons at the county fair. For more advanced information about homebrewing, visit a local homebrew supply business and ask questions. Once they know your level of expertise and intentions, the people there can help you choose the appropriate equipment, supplies, and ingredients. Many also offer seminars and classes in homebrewing.

Another good source of information for potential or new homebrewers is The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing, by Charlie Papazian, Copyright 1984, 1991 by Charlie Papazian, and published by Avon Books, a division of the Hearst Corporation, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.

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