Making our own beer at home is easier and cheaper than we imagine; anyone can brew your own home brew. we just need a kid of ingredients like these and follow a simple process that includes malting, roasting and macerating the barley, adding hops and yeast, allowing it to ferment and bottling.
Regarding money, the process is not excessively expensive, although it will depend the type of fermenter that we buy, this is the container where we will add the ingredients so that the fermentation that will give rise to the beer takes place.
This is methodology, hygiene, perseverance and above all a lot of patience, since it will take several. weeks to see the first results.
What do I need to have my own beer?
As ingredients, the basic ones are four:
- Water.
- barley.
- hop.
- yeast.
In general, it is considered that for every liter of waterare needed:
- about 175 grams of barley.
- between 1.5 and 3 grams of hops.
- one gram of yeast.
- 6 grams of common sugar (towards the end of the process).
As for utensils, the basic and more pedestrian is:
- a large pot.
- a filter tank.
- a blender.
- a thermometer.
- a hydrometer.
- the bottles – dark in color – for the beer to be brewed.
What are the steps to make beer?
In our excellent Brief guide to brewing homemade beer in an easy way, we explain in detail the entire process and how you should do it at home. However, to summarize a bit, the steps are as follows:
- Germination of barley grains to give sugars and flavor.
- Roasting of the germinated grains to enhance the characteristic flavor of the beer as desired.
- Maceration of germinated grains and crushed in hot water.
- Filtering of solid remains.
- Addition of hops to filtrate
- Boiled the mixture for two hours.
- Fermentation in a cool, dark place, at a controlled temperature and allowing gases to escape but preventing bacteria from entering, and at a stable temperature, between 18 and 22 ºC for ale-type beers and between 7 and 13 ºC for lager-type beers.
- We will wait two weeks and you can be sure that the fermentation has finished when the density of the liquid, measured with a densimeter, does not change in 48 hours.
- Bottled and carbonation by adding sugar.
Why a fermenter?
Because fermentation is a process that requires space, a voluminous container for the liquid of the mixture obtained and constant attention to control that the temperature of the process does not get out of hand or gases accumulate. Precisely a fermenter does all these functions for us at the same time and avoids us having to be pending every day.
Of course, this will depend on what we are willing to pay for the fermenter, since there are some that range from very sophisticated ones that monitor everything to the simplest ones that limit themselves to containing the process and allowing the gas to escape, but without regulating the temperature. The more sophistication, the higher. is the price.
Three models of fermenter from most to least cheap
Cooker Fermenter with Faucet and bubbler
We start with a simple and very cheap model, which allows us to make 15 liters of homemade beer. It is ideal for beginners and is made up of a plastic bucket with an upper gas outlet and a tap at the bottom to extract the beer once it has fermented.
Regarding the temperature, we will have to control it manually by choosing the place of fermentation and refrigerating the cube, since it is a process that generates heat and if it rises too much it could stop. It is perfect for exteriors or cool corners of the house, depending on the season of the year. We can also acquire the complete kit of brewers and brewers.
🍺 This model is on Amazon for 17.49 euros
Klarstein Gaerkeller – Mash Tank and Fermentation Kettle
We moved on to a more elaborate and somewhat more expensive fermenter -it is not for nothing that it is made of stainless steel-, which holds up to 30 liters and has a temperature gauge, as well as a lid with four safety hooks and a gas outlet valve.
🍺 This model is on Amazon for 179.99 euros
Klarstein Brauheld Pro
And we end up with a device that is words, and prices, higher, since more than a fermenter it is a machine for making beer, in which it is enough to add the roasted malt and the hops so that it macerates them for us thanks to its system of internal heat and recirculation of the liquid and then we ferment it.
We just have to wait a few weeks to get our beer. In addition, it controls the temperature digitally and by recirculation outside the tank. We can buy it in 30, 35 and 45 liters. A luxury.
🍺 This model is on Amazon from 452.99 euros
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