Beer
September 08, 2026
3 qt water
3 c grain (crushed, cracked, rolled, or milled)
0-2 c adjunct (optional)
1 tbsp hops
1 1/2-3 g dry brewer's yeast
Place a grain bag inside of a large boiling pot or kettle. Secure the bag to the pot with large metal binder clips or a rope. Pour water into the pot, through the grain bag. Heat water to 160-170°F. Gradually pour grain (such as 60-100% barley malt, and 0-40% wheat, corn, rice, or oats) and adjunct (such as molasses, brown sugar, cane sugar, toasted malt, or caramel syrup) into the grain bag, and stir gently to saturate grain(s) evenly. Let cool to 148-158°F. Cover the pot, and let it soak for 1 hour. Suspend the grain bag and contents above the pot, to allow the liquid (known as the 'wort') to drain out of the grain bag and back into the pot, and to strain out the grain solids (without squeezing the grain bag). Discard the spent grain. Bring wort to a boil. Stir hops into the wort. Boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, and let cool to 70-75°F.
Refrigerate a sample of wort (6 oz, or enough to allow a hydrometer to float in the wort, without hitting the sides or bottom of a hydrometer jar) to cool to 60°F, then use a hydrometer to do a gravity test. To do this, pour the sample into the hydrometer jar, then put the hydrometer in the sample, and gently spin the hydrometer. Once the hydrometer stops spinning, ensure that it is still floating without touching the sides or bottom of the hydrometer jar, then take the reading, at the lowest level of the sample. The result of this test is called the 'original gravity' (OG). Discard the sample.
Transfer the wort to a fermenter (such as a 1 gallon glass jar, that has a small opening in the lid for an airlock to fit snugly into). Stir yeast into the wort. Put an airlock into the opening of the fermenter, and fill the airlock up to the fill line with clean water. Set the fermenter in a place that is cool (48-78°F) and dark (away from sunlight). Once per week during fermentation, remove the lid from the fermenter, stir contents with a large spoon, and close the lid. When fermentation is complete (1 week to 2 months, or when at least two gravity readings taken each week match, or 1 week after krausen [foam on top of the beer] and sediment [such as yeast and hops] drops to the bottom of the fermenter), put the fermenter on a surface above a lower surface, and set a large pot on the lower surface. Connect one end of a Y shaped food grade splitter to one end of a food grade tube, then put the other end of the tube into the fermenter, and lower the tube into the beer until that end of the tube is about 1" above the sediment. Hang the splitter end of the tube over the opening of the fermenter, so that it hangs outside of the fermenter, at least 3-4" below the other end of the tube that is inside of the fermenter. Use your mouth to suck on one of the openings of the splitter, until beer fills all but the last several inches of the tube. Cover the splitter opening (that you sucked on) with your tongue, then quickly replace your tongue with a finger. Place the splitter end of the tube into the large pot, and let the beer flow out of the fermenter, through the tube, out of the other splitter opening (that you did not suck on), and into the large pot, until the beer is transferred to the pot, and mostly krausen and sediment remains in the fermenter. Strain and filter the beer.
Refrigerate a sample of the beer to cool to 60°F, then use a hydrometer to do another gravity test. The result of this test is called the 'final gravity' (FG). Discard the sample.
To carbonate beer, prepare it as sparkling water (but with beer instead of water; I will add a recipe for sparkling water and link to it from here and elsewhere soon).
Use a funnel to transfer beer to beer bottles with flip top lids, leaving the neck of each bottle of beer empty. Close the lid of each bottle of beer, then store the bottles of beer in a place that is cool (40-65°F) and dark (away from sunlight).
To determine ABV (Alcohol By Volume) and Proof, multiply the difference between OG and FG by 131.25 (i.e., 1.07 OG - 0.97 FG = 0.1 x 131.25 = 13.125% = about 13% ABV x 2 = 26 Proof). Beer is usually 1-15% ABV (x 2 = 2-30 Proof).
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