How to Homebrew Beer

Some of the best beer ever tasted are the ones brewed right from home. Now, more than ever, people are looking to make their mark with their own style of brewing. With a few simple steps and the right equipment, you too can be on your way to making the best beer ever tasted.

To begin with you will need to add three gallons of water to a kettle. Take a bag of steeping grains and add them while the water is cold. The type of grain you use will determine the color and flavor of your beer. Once the grains are added, bring the kettle to about 155 degrees. Make sure you remove the steeping grains from the water when it reaches 180 degrees. At this temperature the husks will release their tannin into the brew and taint the flavor. Keep the temperature steady at 155 degrees for about 25 minutes. Do not squeeze the grains as this will also release the tannins into the water.

Once you have removed the grain, bring the mixture to a rolling boil. At this point you are ready to add your malt. Add the malt to the rolling boil. Be sure to continuously stir the malt so it does not burn to the bottom of the kettle. In about 10 minutes a thick layer of malt foam will form and possibly boil over. If this happens, remove the kettle from the heat source.

Once the malt foam disappears, you are ready to add your hops. When you've added the desired amount of hops, start your timer for one hour. As the water boils, the hops may build up on the sides of the kettle and you will need to scrape them back down into the kettle. Towards the end of the boil, add more hops during the last 5 minutes of the boil to improve the flavor.

When the one hour boil is complete, cool the kettle as quickly as possible by placing it in a tub of ice water. Once it has cooled, vigorously poor the kettle contents, known as the wort, into a carboy. Add cold water to the carboy to increase the total volume to 5 gallons and set at temperature of 65 degrees. Grab a sample of the wort to measure specific gravity. Add yeast to the wort and place an airlock on top of the carboy. Let it sit overnight. The next morning, you will notice foam bubbling off the top. This is normal and you may want to capture it to prevent a mess.

After one week, the bubbling in the airlock will decrease. When you see bubbling in the airlock once every 90 seconds, carefully siphon the wort into a second carboy. After the beer has conditioned for several weeks, it is ready to drink.

The best beer is made from the finest hops