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Why Make Your Own Beer?

© John Gorton

Why do I make my own beer? After all, I'm not rich, but I can certainly afford to go to a large liquor store and buy some delicious microbrewed beer or imported beer. Why do it then? Why put up with the exploding bottles, the pervasive smell of boiling wort and hops throughout the house, scurrying around town and the Internet trying to find ingredients at the best price, pouring five gallons of "infected brew" down the drain, and all the other problems associated with the hobby? (Future articles will provide offer solutions and advice in handling these problems).

Why? Because it's the best hobby that I've ever tried. I've met more interesting people and learned more about the brewing process than I could ever do picking up a six pack at the local liquor store. I've learned about recipe formulation, ingredient selection and management, mashing, sparging, yeast styles and repitching techniques, natural and forced carbonation, bottling in glass and plastic, kegging, and responsible consumption.

Is making beer difficult? That depends. For the beginner, the process is very simple. If you can boil water and know how to stir, you already have most of the talent which is required. Making beer from an extract kit (available at local homebrew stores and on the Internet) is simple. And you can make delicious beer this easy and simple way. The simplest kits generally consist of malt extract, hops (which offset the malt's sweetness) and beer yeast.

What equipment do you need? All that you need is 4-5 gallon pot, a stirring spoon, an accurate thermometer and a 6-7 gallon bucket with a tight-fitting lid. Most homebrew stores offer a starter equipment set. Once you get hooked by this hobby, you may develop a brewing equipment "wish list" that is a mile long, but you don't need anything else to make "good beer."

How do you make beer from a kit? You bring 3-5 gallons of water to a boil (depending upon the size of your boiling pot). Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the malt extract, return the pot to a boil, lower the heat and watch for boilovers. Add the hops into the pot as prescribed in the directions, and keep up a good rolling boil for about an hour. The pot now contains hot wort (raw beer). You cool the wort by placing your pot in a large sink full of cold water or bathtub or snowbank (or with the cool wort chiller that you'll learn to make after reading a future article). In about an hour or so, your wort should be 80 degrees or less, which you'll confirm with the thermometer.

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