Tips on how to brew your own beer

Tips on how to brew your own beer

Tips

 * Start collecting non-screw top bottles well in advance of beginning this hobby, you will need about 50 to bottle a standard batch. This is a good excuse to start buying premium brands. Also old recyclable glass soft drink bottles and some champagne bottles are outstanding (a dark beer in a coke bottle is stealthy to say the least), and can often be found at yard sales.
 * DON'T USE BLEACH! Use a brewery specific sanitizer like "StarSan" or an iodine based food grade sanitizer!
 * Keeping temperatures down in the fermenter will result in a cleaner and better tasting beer. Try to keep the temperature between 60 to 70°F (16 to 21°C) if possible (for ales) or 45 to 55°F (7 to 13°C) for lagers (lower is better). Much cooler and the yeast goes dormant, but if it gets too much warmer you'll get some unusual "fruity" flavors. The ideal temperature varies depending on the strain of yeast you use, so the above recommendation is just a general guideline.
 * A bottle brush will be handy for cleaning the bottles. A good thermometer will be useful for many things.
 * Clean and sanitize! It can't be repeated enough. Clean and sanitize! Use an electric dishwasher if available.
 * An easy way to keep the temperature down is to keep the fermenter in a large bucket of water and wrap the whole thing with a big blanket. You can add ice packs or frozen water bottles to drop the temperature a few degrees if you need to.
 * Most beers benefit from a second fermentation stage, or a "secondary." Once fermentation has slowed (the airlock is either no longer bubbling, or has slowed to 2-3 bubbles per minute), very carefully siphon the beer from the first fermenter to another sanitized fermenter, preferably a glass carboy. Splashing is discouraged at this stage, as you do not want oxygen getting into the beer. A slow, smooth siphon is best. This "secondary fermentation" gives the beer more time to clear, meaning less sediment in the bottles, and generally results in a better tasting beer.
 * Screw top plastic soda bottles are excellent choices for beginners. Most home brewers don't like the feel and appearance of plastic beer bottles but they work great. They are cheap, strong, and easy to use. If you use them make sure to remove the labels so that someone will not pick up a bottle of beer thinking it is a soft drink.
 * Cans of malt extract can be purchased at your local home-brewing store, or online. They often come in different flavors and produce different tasting beers.
 * There is a tremendous variety of specialty grains, yeast strains, hops, malts, and preparations. Experiment with different combinations of ingredients, and create your own unique brew.
 * An extra large cooler full of bleach water is a great device to soak bottles in to sanitize them.
 * Glass carboys, although heavier and a little more expensive, are really the best if you are going to be brewing for a long time. The plastic buckets eventually get scratched, are more difficult to clean and the plastic will let in oxygen, albeit very slowly.

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