Home Beer Making - Steps

This step by step outline is for a beer making kit made by Mr. Beer. Other kits or recipes may use a slightly different step progression, but this is the main sequence used. Beer Making Step 1
Ready your brewing container - make sure it is big enough. Some kits come with their own container.

Beer Making Step 2
Sanitize all your equipment. This is very important, as there are always stray spores of bacteria and other microorganisms in the air, which can sour your beer.

Beer Making Step 3
Fill the Keg with four quarts of cold tap water, or use bottled water, if you desire. DO NOT USE HOT WATER IN THE KEG! Pour some hot water into a large bowl - any kind of mixing bowl will do. Set the can of beer mix into the hot water for ten minutes, to soften its contents. The malt is a very thick syrupy texture and pours very slowly if not softened.

Beer Making Step 4
Set a three or four-quart saucepan or kettle on your kitchen range. Pour six cups of cold water into this saucepan. Heat the water to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat source; pour in the whole can of beer mix. For stronger beer, you may add up to an additional ½ cup of white granulated table sugar. Pour the wort into the keg and add additional cold water to bring the total volume up to the 8.5 quart mark on the keg. Make sure the temperature of the wort is no more that 103 Degrees Fahrenheit. Closer to seventy degrees would be better - as the yeast is now to be added and you don’t want it so hot it will kill it!

Beer Making Step 5
Add the yeast to the wort. Sprinkle the dried yeast granules on the surface and allow it to float for about five minutes. Then stir it very vigorously in.

Beer Making Step 6
Install the fermentation lock on the brewing container, which should now be placed in a room with a stable temperature of around 70 - 75 degrees, and out of direct sunlight. Fermentation should begin in about twenty-four hours.

Beer Making Step 7
Allow the beer to ferment for a minimum of seven days. As the yeast cells will gradually become inactive, and collect at the bottom of the container.

Beer Making Step 8
Collect the bottles you will need. You may use plastic soda bottles. The caps, which come with the standard kit, are designed to use with these types of plastic bottles. Sanitize the bottles.

Beer Making Step 9
After sanitation, add granulated white table sugar to each bottle according to bottle size in the amounts shown below:

12 oz - 3/4 teaspoon
16 oz - 1 teaspoon
22 oz - 11/2 teaspoons 1 liter/quart - 21/2 teaspoons
2 liters - 11/2 Tablespoons
3 liters - 21/4 Tablespoons
Beer Making Step 10
Fill the bottles from the container to within 1 - 2 inches from the top. Residual yeast in the brew will ferment the sugar in the bottle, carbonating it. Do not use too much sugar - the bottles may explode. Do not use too liter - the beer will be flat. Hand tighten the caps and invert the filled bottles several times to dissolve the sugar. You may use a food quality plastic hose to siphon the beer into the bottles.

Beer Making Step 11
Store the bottles under the same conditions the brewing beer was kept under for seven days. More time will improve the taste of the beer. If you use plastic bottles, you can test the bottles by pressing in them after a few days. If they are firm, the beer has carbonated. You may now move the bottles to a cool location to store the beer. A few more days will improve the flavor, but it is now ready to drink.

Beer Making Step 12
Serving your beer. Since the beer has fermented in the bottle, yeasty sediment will have collected on the bottom of each bottle. Although not harmful, indeed it is nutritious; it will cloud the beer if the beer is drunk directly from the bottle. The beer may be slowly poured from bottle to glass in a continuous motion. Rinse the bottle thoroughly immediately after pouring if you plan on reusing the bottles. Drink the beer within four months of making it.

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