Homesteaders are a
resourceful and imaginative group. If you need a tool, a fixture, an egg
or heating fuel, there’s that innate drive to make it, design it, produce
it, or cut it yourself. Many of us could just go out and buy it and be
done with it but I think it has something to do with substance, the drive
to be more self-sufficient or the feeling of accomplishment and
self-respect from burdening no one and doing it yourself. There’s not a
soul on the planet that hasn’t said with pride “My home-grown tomatoes are
so much better than store-bought ones, and so much better for me as well.”
You’ll hear the same about home brewed beer.
Armed with a little
information, some materials and enough of a desire, what we can do for
ourselves, at some time or other, we end up doing. And more often than
not, we are better folks for it. Rarely will a homesteader hesitate to
expand the boundaries of experience beyond past “excursions to the
limit”. So let’s push the envelope once again and take that next step to
self-sufficiency and make our own beer or ale. We’ll cut out the
commercial big guys, we’ll cheat the government out of some alcohol tax
revenue. In the process, we’ll free more than a million yeast cells from
imprisonment in a dark foil packet so they can spend their entire lives
productively fermenting something worthwhile instead of just hanging
around making food go putrid. Best of all, we’ll satisfy our own taste
buds. No more will the lack of choice dictate what we consume. Geez, I
already feel good about myself and haven’t even started!
Are you ready to brew
some beer?
“Why I go mad just
waiting!” I hear you say.
So, let’s just jump
right in and make some mighty-fine, tax-free beer!
Here are two simple
recipes to begin with. The first uses an ingredient kit to make a lager
style beer, refreshing, light-bodied with just a touch of bitterness to
give it a clean, crisp taste. The alcohol content will be about 5.3%.
The second recipe uses standard, grocery-store-available malt extract and
produces a medium-bodied amber beer. It will be slightly stronger in
taste with a heavier, malty flavor. Its alcohol content will be about the
same as the first recipe. In the reference section there is a link to a
process for removing most of the alcohol from the brew should you decide
to go that route. There’s also plenty of information on advanced brewing
techniques so be sure to check the references out.
It has been my
experience with the grocery store bought malt extract, although convenient
and capable of a mighty-fine brew, it doesn’t compare with the quality
brew that a good kit will produce. Still, it is a fine tasting brew,
easily adjustable to your palette and highly recommended. It leaves the
door wide open for experimentation. To start, however, I’d recommend using
an ingredient kit for your first batch and then do some experimenting on
your own thereafter. You can hardly go wrong.
What You’ll Need:
Equipment
Here’s what we
need to get going:
-
Fermenting Vessel
(Primary Fermenter)
A 5 to 6 gallon plastic bucket with a lid, preferably food grade. I use a
6-gallon trash bin (never used for trash, I might add) from Wal-Mart for
around $7 and it came with a tight-fitting and locking lid. I drilled a
1/2” hole in the lid to accommodate an air lock (see below). It’s a good
idea to first measure and mark the 5 and 6 gallon heights on the fermenter
for reference.
-
Air Lock
This is a device for allowing the fermentation gases to escape while
keeping air from entering the fermenter. It costs about $5 from a home
brew supply store but you can substitute 1/2” plastic tubing, stick one
end in the drilled hole of the cap and run the other into a jar of water
to
keep air and unwanted natural yeasts from entering the fermenter during
fermentation.
-
Bottles and Caps
If you are going to bottle your beer for aging, a good capper and quality
bottle caps are a must. I circumvent this by using Mason jars as
bottles. Occasionally I’ll transfer part of the brew to a 1 or 2 gallon
dispensing carboy instead of bottling. The carboy will hold a slight
carbonization pressure and with that setup I am able to draw off a mug
whenever I want. The carboy held brew is not quite as carbonated as
bottled beer but it’s still a refreshing way to grab a single mug.
-
Hydrometer
(optional but highly recommended)
This is a device for measuring the specific gravity of your fermenting
liquor. The reading obtained relates to the remaining unfermented sugars
in your brew. Under certain circumstances it can be used to determine the
alcohol content of your brew but more so to tell you when it is safe to
bottle your beer.
-
Stainless Steel or Enamel Pot
1 to 1-1/2 gallon
-
Long Handle Wooden Spoon
(some purists frown on wooden gear, I use it regularly)
-
Bottle Brush
(if required)
-
Labels
(optional) for your bottles
-
Mug
. . . or two or three for you and your friends
-
Plastic Tubing for siphoning
Ingredients
--OR--
-
Malt extract – hop flavored
or unflavored
-
Dry malt or sugar
-
Brewer’s yeast
-
Additional hops (optional)
-
Gelatin, plain (optional)
-
Water
