You don’t have to be a mountain hermit in Kentucky or have an expensive lab to brew your own unique beverages.  Lead by the father/son duo of Jon and Joel Back, on Feb. 23, both novices and intermediates attended a “Home Brewing Basics” course at the Langdon Center Rock House to participate in hands-on learning of the art of brewing beer.  Both Jon and Joel Black of Granbury have several years of brewing under their belts and wanted to provide an opportunity to share the joy of home brewing with others who are interested in knowing how it’s done. 

Since, 1978 when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill which repealed federal restrictions and excise taxes on home brewing, artisan beer brewing has grown steadily. In 1986, there were only 5 American brewpubs. Now, the Association of Brewers reports that in 2006 there were 1,389 regional craft breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs in the United States.  This growth has spilled over into individuals becoming interested in beer brewing at home.

There are many variations in the techniques of brewing beer at home, different steps depending on what kind of beer the brewer is making, and fundamental differences in types of brewing altogether (extract brewing, all grain brewing, etc), but as Jon and Joel demonstrated, it all boils down to these basic steps for extract brewing, which is where nearly all home brewers start:

1.  The brewer should purchase a home brewing kit.  Tips on where to do this are given at the bottom of this article.

2.  Save beer bottles!  The brewing process requires pry-off bottles, not screw-off, and you’ll need about 48 of them.  Friends and family are a great resource to help with this. 

3.  The brewer should thoroughly clean and sanitize ALL your equipment and bottles that will come into contact with beer by using one of many various sanitizing products on the market.  Bacteria will ruin the beer!

4.  Steep the grains in a muslin bag in a very large stainless steel pot (about a 5 gallon pot) of water filled halfway on the stove until right before it begins to boil.

5.  Stir in the malt extract (syrup or powder form) and bring it to a boil.

6.  Add the hops, a cone-shaped flower that adds essential characteristics to beer, and allow to boil for one hour.

7.  Remove the pot from the heat source, and by way of an ice bath or copper cooling coils, cool the wert, German for “unfermented beer,” down to at least 80 degrees.

8.  Pour the wert into a fermenting bucket and add cool water until the bucket reaches five gallons.

9.  Add the packet of yeast, put on the lid, and oxygenate it by either rocking your bucket to slosh it around for five minutes or using other various kinds of aerating equipment that can be purchased.

10.          Put an airlock in the top of your lid, which will have a grommeted hole that allows gasses to escape as the sugars in your wert are turned into alcohol by the yeast.

11.          Put the fermentation bucket in a cool place (upper 60’s to lower 70’s is a good temperature range for the yeast) and let ferment for about three weeks.

12.            Transfer the beer to a bottling bucket and mix in your pre-measured pouch of dextrose (corn sugar), which will create the carbonation in the bottle.

13.            Fill approximately 48 12-ounce bottles of beer that have been sanitized immediately before. Cap them with your bottle capper. This is a good time to make a couple of friends who will be drinking the beer to share some of the work. 

14.            Let them sit at room-temperature for at LEAST 7-10 days to insure adequate carbonation. Darker, strong beers taste better when left to “bottle condition” for longer periods of time.

15.            Enjoy, and share with friends and family!

During the session, the participants got to actively watch and participate in the entire process. A new batch of beer was brewed, and another batch that Jon and Joel had made on Super Bowl Sunday was ready to bottle, so the participants were able to go through the bottling process as well.

Entering into the brewing world is a relatively inexpensive investment. For as little as $100, one can purchase “beer kits” which include almost all the necessary items one needs to brew their first batch of beer, including an ingredient kit. Cheaper beer kits such as “Mr. Beer” which can be found at Walmart are also available. However, for an authentic beer brewing experience, avoid these kind of kits because they automate much of the process.

Here are some suggested quality online stores from which one can purchase any products needed for home brewing:

Austin Homebrew Supply:  www.austinhomebrew.com

Homebrewer’s Outpost:  www.homebrewers.com