How to Brew Your Own Beer – DIY

Do you love beer? Are you the type of dude that spends his Friday nights out with the guys trying to locate the best most hoppin’ (no pun intended) brewery around? Well, then this DIY brew your own beer is tailor-made for you! In 10 easy steps you can be the most envied man around and all your friends will be begging to sample your new concoction! The initial cost of this DIY project is around $75-150. If you plan on making this a hobby, however, this initial investment could save you a bundle in the long run.

Here is what you’ll need to buy before starting:

Insulated Cooler

Large Steel Pot

Wort Chiller

Glass Carboy

Plastic Bottling Bucket

48 Glass Bottles

5-10 Pounds of Crushed Malted Barley

1 to 5 Oz of Hops

Package of Yeast

3⁄4 Cup of Priming Corn Sugar

1. Mash – Soak the crushed malted barley in hot water for one hour. During mashing, the enzymes in the malt break down into fermentable sugars which the yeast will convert into alcohol.

2. Sparge – Drain the liquid and rinse the malt with more hot water to extract those fermentable sugars. This is now what we call wort.

3. Boil – Boil the wort anywhere from one to two hours depending on the style of beer you’re brewing and what flavor you want it to be.

4. Add hops – Add hops throughout the boiling water. Most beers have two to three additions of hops at different times during the boiling process. Typically you would boil one addition of hops for 60 minutes – we call these hops bittering hops because they add that bitterness you taste in beer. Other additions of hops can occur at the 30-, 15-, 10-, and 5- minute mark depending on the style you’re trying to achieve.

5. Cool Wort – This step is very important! Make sure you cool the wort as quickly as you can in order to avoid bacteria. The wort Chiller is great for this. You simply run cold water through it and let it cool down.

6. Move Wort – You’ll need to cool the wort till it is 75 degree or less and then transfer it to a fermenting vessel. You can buy various types but the most common are the large glass carboys.

7. Add Yeast – Add the yeast! There is the dry yeast which you sprinkle in the beer and then the liquid yeast which you pour and mix into the beer.

8. Cool Vessel – Put the vessel in a cool place and out of direct sunlight. Keep it around 70 degrees for two weeks. This about the normal temperature for a basic homebrew.

9. Transfer – After the two weeks is over, and you’re thinking, “Wow that was the longest DIY project of my life,” transfer the beer into a keg or bottles. When you put the beer in its drinking container add a little bit of priming sugar. This will stir up a bit of extra fermentation and will carbonate the beer.

10. Condition – Let the beer condition in its bottle for another two weeks—and now you’re really convinced this is the longest DIY project ever in the history of mankind. But just do it! You’ll be glad you waited. This last two weeks is critical for making sure the flavor is developed and the carbonation sets in.

So, do you think you have it in you to brew your own beer and wait the four weeks that it takes? It may take a long time but you’ll be thankful you did it! You’ll get to boast that you just accomplished a feat that many don’t dare undertake. Go out and get those supplies and brew some beer! Your friends will thank you.