How to Brew Beer at Home

Dan Franklyn: Hello. My name is Dan Franklyn. I am the owner operator of HopTech Homebrew Supplies located in Dublin, California. Today, we are going to have an introduction video on how to brew your beer. Assuming mostly this will be your first or second time; we are going to try to make it simple, easy more or less say one on one home brew course.

So let's go over the process and the overview of how it works. We have already gone over the equipment and the ingredients. First thing you are going to do is you are going to cook your beer. Next thing you are going to do is you are going to chill your beer. Once your beer is chilled, you are then going to pour it into your first container what we called the holding container. Then you are going to let your beer settle. After it settled for approximately three hours, you are going to transfer into your fermenter. After it's fermented on average one week to ten days, you are going to transfer it back to this first bucket which will now become your bottling bucket. Once you add your priming sugar you will get your bottles and you will fill each individual bottle. At this point, the bottling process takes between 10 and 14 days for carbonation. Put your beer in refrigerator. Taste it, drink it and enjoy it. This is a quick overview.

I am going to start with in throughout the video we would go through the different steps and processes. Right now, we are going to start with the basic equipment. This is what we supply at HopTech. This is a good starter intermediate or advanced kit. What you need to do homebrewing you need fermenters, buckets or carboys. We choose to use buckets at HopTech. You are going to need a pot. You are going to need a cooking spoon, a bottle brush, a thermometer, a hydrometer and hydrometer flask. You are going to need sanitizer. Sanitation is very important to brew. You should have a manual, a book, instructions, recipes, tubing, airlock, stopper, grain bags.

Now that we have looked at our equipment, let's go over our ingredients and some other items that you are going to need in brewing. You are going to need an ingredient kit. Today, we are going to be using a HopTech Lager-a-like, it is called Lager-a-like because it is actually an, ale but taste very similar to lager. Ales are easier to brew, especially for beginner brewers and it's very nice beer taste like a European lager. What consist of an ingredient kit would be extract, either in liquid or dried form. Yeast either in liquid or dried form.

This particular kit we are going to be adding grains. These grains were crushed. They consist of carapils for malt feel, barley for head retention and some crystal for color.

You will also need hops. Hops come in either pellet form or whole hops known as leaf hops. This particular ingredient kit we are going to be using pellets. Most ingredient kits do come with pellets. BOB for bittering pellet, AOB for aroma. You will also need bottles whether you use a 22 ounce bottle or 12 ounce bottle or a flip top bottle and of course, if you are going to use bottles, you need crown caps. You did not twist top bottles you will use brown crown cap bottles to brew. You can also put your beer in a keg if you choose to do so. So this is basic ingredients. You need the hardware, the ingredients and the bottling.

Some kits have more, some kits have less. At HopTech we provide everything you need to do five gallons of successful beer first time out. The only items we did not provide in our homebrew kit are bottles, stove and pot and yes you will cook beer today, which brings up the safety issue. Anytime you are cooking any whether it's spaghetti, beer or soup you need to be careful. You are around heat temperature use obvious cautions. Don't stick your finger in boiling water. Don't taste boiling water, common sense everyday items.

Let me tell you little bit about HopTech. HopTech was one of the very first, if not the very first online homebrew shop. We have been in business for almost 16 years now. I have owned and operated for the past eight years been brewing longer that that. What we do at HopTech is we supply the public, the consumer with all the necessary supplies to homebrew. We offer beer making supplies, wine making, liquors etc. Today, however, we are going to go over homebrew making. It's a lot of fun and as we say at HopTech it's a hobby you can drink.