Making Beer At Home

Making beer can be as simple as sanitizing a fermenter bucket and adding ready made wort or you can discover the joy of chemistry and convert “all grain” starches and proteins into fermentable sugars to make your very own recipe. It’s up to you how much time and effort you want to put into your hobby.

We carry a large variety of pre-hopped and unhopped malt extracts, as well as 30 different varieties of grains that you can crush and steep for a partial mash beer. If you live in the Philadelphia or in N.J. area, we can help you brew micro brew style ale to suit your taste. All you need is a little time and about three feet of floor or counter space to make 5 gallons of fresh homemade beer. Of course you will need a beer making equipment kit like this one:

Brewer’s Best Equipment Kit

6.5 GALLON PRIMARY FERMENTER WITH LID

6.5 GALLON BOTTLING BUCKET WITH SPIGOT

AIRLOCK

SIPHON & BOTTLING SET-UP

HYDROMETER

TWIN LEVER CAPPER

BOTTLE BRUSH & SANITIZER SOLUTION

LIQUID CRYSTAL THERMOMETER

BEER MAKING INSTRUCTIONS AND RECIPE BOOK

Brewing beer; the beginners method:

Decide what kind of beer you want to brew.

This is probably the hardest part of making beer, because there are so many styles to choose from. Dark, pale or amber. Then you need to decide which type of hops to use; English, German, American or other. Now how much hop flavor and bitterness do you want? Sharp and bitter, creamy and malty or mild and aromatic?

Don’t stress too much about this.. that’s why We’re here, To help you pick the right recipe to suit your taste. Our recipes and advice are always free!

Sanitize your equipment.

Take a 6 tbs of sanitizer (comes in the kit) and mix it into a full fermenter of warm water and place the lid, airlock, hydrometer and brew spoon in the solution for 5 min.

Bring to a boil, 3+ gallons of water and add malt extract.

7 lbs of malt extract is the average 5% ABV beer recipe. You can use pre-hopped or un-hopped extract, depending on your recipe.

Note: If your recipe has milled speciality grains, steep the grains in a grain bag in the brew water for 20 mins at 150 degrees. Do not bring grains to a boil! this will release too many tannins from the husks and your beer will have a dry paper taste.

set clock timer on stove for 60 min and add hops acording to recipe

Cool down the wort (unfermented beer)

Place brew kettle in a sink full of cold water until it is below 100°F.

Pour into sanitized fermenter and top off to the 5 gallon mark

Add Yeast.

Yeast is a big flavor component in beer. We carry over 20 different types of yeast for all different styles of beer and wine. We can help you choose wisely.

Ferment for 7 to 10 days.

The bigger the beer the longer it take to finish. I let it go at room temp till two days after the bubbling stops, then check the specific gravity with a hydrometer.

Most beers will finish at 1.010 specific gravity. If it is higher than that then let it go for a few more days until your sure it’s done.

Bottle your beer

Siphon your beer into a bottling bucket and add 3/4 cup of priming sugar. a) Take 2 cups of water and add priming sugar, then put in microwave for 1-2 mins to sanitize the sugar.

fill your bottles to about an inch from the top and apply a cap.

Let carbonate for 10 days

The priming sugar you added will ferment in the bottle and carbonate your brew if you leave it at room temp for 10 or more days

Chill and enjoy!

Here is a link to a good beermakers fourm Brewersroundtasble.com