by James bridges


When Benjamin Franklin said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” he succinctly captured the heartfelt sentiments of most Texans. We take our cold brew seriously and have been taking the matter into our own hands for hundreds of years. The Kreische Brewery of La Grange, founded in 1855, paved the way for countless commercial and independent breweries in the Lone Star State. Be a part of the proud Texas tradition and create your own brew at home! The smartest (and safest) way to start is with a beer brewing kit. Try a few of these techniques to tweak brew to your own personal taste.

Tweaking your beer kit’s flavor: You can adjust the bitterness of the beer by using fresh whole or pelletized hops, which are relatively inexpensive and make a huge difference in flavor. Most kit beers are designed to have low bitterness, and are flavored with hop extract, which contributes bitterness but none of the other desirable hop characteristics to the beer. For a 23 liter batch, 12-14g of low to medium bittering hops (such as Hallertauer, Cascade, Goldings or Willamette), boiled for 10-20 minutes, will make a positive and noticeable contribution to your kit beer.

Another way to personalize brew is enhancing the aroma. This is done by adding 5-10g of aroma hops during the last minute of the boil, then immediately strain, spurge and transfer to your fermenter. By including this step in your brewing process, you will create a balance, complexity and depth of character in your beer that is missing from most kit beers. Fuggles, Willamette, Hallatuaer, Mt Hood, Cascade, Goldings, Tettanger and Saaz are among the more popular aroma hops. For those who choose to continue their brewing endeavors, fine-tune your beer.

Quick overview of the Beer Brewing Process:

1 Making Wort.

Wort is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer. It contains the sugars that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. After the barley is malted, it is ground to grist. The grist is then mashed; that is, mixed with hot water and steeped, a complex and slow heating process that enables enzymes to convert the starch in the malt into sugars. At the end of the mashing, the hot wort is decanted or filtered, boiled, cooled, and the yeast is added to start the fermentation.

2 Fermentation.

The wort is prepared for fermentation by cooling it down to pitching temperature, typically near room temperature. The cooled wort is poured into the primary fermenter in an aggressive manner, so as to aerate the wort; sufficient oxygen is vital for the yeast’s growth stage. The yeast is then pitched (sprinkled or poured, depending on which yeast is used; dry or liquid) into the wort. Primary fermentation takes place in a large glass or plastic carboy or food-grade plastic bucket, nearly always sealed, but can be left open. When sealed, the fermenter is stoppered with a fermentation lock, which permits the escape of carbon dioxide, without introducing oxygen and airborne bacteria to the brew. During this time, it should be kept at optimum temperature for the fermentation process. For ale this temperature is usually 65-75°F / 18-24°C, and for lager it is usually much colder, around 50°F / 10°C. During this stage the fermentable sugars (maltose, glucose, and sucrose) in the wort are consumed by the yeast, while ethanol and CO2 are produced as byproducts by the yeast. A layer of sediment, the trub, appears at the bottom of the fermenter, composed of heavy fats, proteins and inactive yeast. A sure sign that primary fermentation has finished is that the head of foam (krausen), built by bubbling of CO2, falls.

3 Clarification or “racking.”

Often, the beer is then racked (siphoned) into another container, usually a carboy or keg, for aging or conditioning. Racking is done to separate the batch from the trub so that it is not used as food by remaining yeast, as this can give the beer an off-flavor. Racking also helps separate the beer from sediment, making it less likely to find its way into the finished product.

4 Conditioning.

After the primary fermentation has been racked into a new container, the process of aging or conditioning takes place. During this stage, some chemical byproducts from the primary fermentation are digested, which considerably improves the taste. Conditioning can take from 2 to 4 weeks, sometimes longer, depending on the type of beer. Additionally, lagers are aged at this point at near freezing temperatures for 1-6 months depending on style.

5 Carbonation.

Once this conditioning is finished, the beer is ready for carbonation. About 3/4 cup of corn sugar (dextrose) or other fermentable sugar is added to the beer, which is then transferred to bottles and then capped, or placed in a keg. The fermentation of the priming sugar in the closed container by left-over yeast suspended in the beer creates carbon dioxide which then dissolves into the beer. This takes 1-2 weeks. Using this method, sediment will remain at the base of the bottles after completion. This is normal and will not effect the quality of your brew.

6 Packaging.

The final step in your brewing process is packaging. Many home brewers choose to use Cornelius kegs as their container, but bottling still remains the traditional manner of packaging.

Now you’re ready to give your new hobby a test-run! Utilize the simple beer kit tips to practice on your method and after a few batches, then consider turning that basement or storage shed into a home brewery. Discovering a new passion, not only for beer in general, but for the dedication and hard work it takes to create “your” style of brew can be very rewarding. Cheers!