Most of what is sold in stores called beer, does not stand up to criticism, neither in quality nor in taste. And sometimes you want to please yourself and your friends with real delicious food. homemade beer.
Live unfiltered beer is a completely natural product. Contains the most valuable yeast sediment and natural carbon dioxide. Contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Active yeast cells are a source of vitamins and amino acids. The shelf life of beer in some cases can reach several years.
The basis of live unfiltered beer is concentrated beer wort and top-fermenting brewer's yeast. Concentrated wort is produced in factories by evaporating water from beer wort, i.e. In this case, the labor-intensive process of preparing wort from malt and hops is taken over by the plant; all we have to do is dilute the concentrated wort with clean water and add sugar syrup.
Special top-fermenting brewer's yeast ferments the wort at room temperature for 5-7 days. From the sugars in the wort, yeast produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Unfiltered beer is poured into sealed containers from which it will be consumed (bottles, barrels), adding a small amount of sugar syrup for secondary fermentation to obtain natural carbon dioxide.
Beer should sit in bottles at room temperature for 7 days. Then it is placed in a cool place for another 2 weeks to ripen. After the beer has matured, you can enjoy its unique taste, because... it is handcrafted in limited quantities. Beer can be stored for several years, while the ripening processes will continue to occur.
The yeast in beer is a natural “preservative” and prevents the beer from spoiling, so there is no need for preservation or pasteurization. As you know, brewer's yeast has a beneficial effect on the body, improves metabolism, increases immunity, and contains vitamins and amino acids.
Remember that even the “best” medicine in large quantities can turn out to be poison. (Ministry of Health warned)
To prepare 23-25 liters beer at home, required:
Home brewer's kit: fermenter (barrel), water seal with stopper, self-adhesive thermometer, piece of food hose.
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It is desirable, but not necessary: an AS-3 0...25 hydrometer, a flask for a hydrometer, a blow-out siphon (instead of a piece of hose), a thermometer.
A couple of moments and home brewery ready
Ingredients for homemade beer:
Honey (to taste, optional; some brewers make beer by replacing sugar with honey or unhopped wort in a ratio of 1:1.25)
Disinfection is the key to successful results when brewing homemade beer
Let's prepare the yeast for work
Prepare the syrup (I used 1 kg of sugar and 200 grams of honey)
Measure out the required amount of wort (I took a little over 2 kg) and add it to the syrup
Although the wort is hopped, you can add a little hops at the end of boiling for aroma.
Pour water, syrup and wort into the fermenter, add prepared yeast. Close the lid and install the water seal
Fermentation. We wait 5-7 days.
And now about how to bottle beer and get the correct result.
In brewing, one of the most important rules is disinfection. For disinfection I use Nodisher Cl:
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Dissolve the Nodisher Cl tablet in 10 liters. water. We send the equipment we need into the resulting solution: a hose, a syringe, plugs (in the photo there are little blue rounds - these are bottle caps):
To make the beer carbonated, we need to prepare a “primer” (sugar syrup), for this I take sugar at the rate of 11 g per 1 liter of beer. And the yeast that is present in beer “eats” the sugar syrup and turns it into carbon dioxide, which makes our beer carbonated:
Boil the syrup for 5-10 minutes.
We will prepare the necessary equipment: plugs, syringe, hose, etc.
Let's prepare the bottles by first washing them with Nodisher Cl solution:
Using a syringe, add “primer” to the prepared bottles, aka sugar syrup, the proportion can be easily calculated, for convenience, I make syrup per 30 liters, as a result of boiling, the volume decreases, poured into a volumetric flask and divided in proportion to a liter of beer.
This is where the fun begins, open the barrel of beer (it looks like this):
Pouring beer into bottles using a hose:
It sits for 7-10 days at room temperature and is saturated with carbon dioxide and naturally carbonates, i.e. the beer becomes foamy.
This is what it looks like young beer, immediately after bottling.
And so 7 days passed. And we get a wonderful and tasty beer that you can already drink, but it’s better to wait another couple of weeks or a month until it matures and becomes even tastier!
Beer storage
If you have a cellar, put the beer there. At a temperature of 10-15 degrees the best result will be obtained. In the absence of a cellar, beer can be stored in the refrigerator. In plastic bottles, beer can be stored for up to 6 months, and if packaged in glass with crown caps, then for more than a year. Without any preservatives.
Let me give you the minimum cost of making beer at home:
1. Wort 2 kg 450-500 rub.
2. Yeast 100 rub.
3. Sugar 1 kg 35-45 rub.
4. Water 25l 130-200 rub.
5. 1L PET bottles 25 pcs. 125-150 rub.
Total: 875 rub. for 23 liters. 1 liter – 38 rub.
Instructions for making beer from concentrated hopped wort
To prepare 23 l. beer with an initial extract of 11% (approximately 4.5-4.8% Alc.vol.) you will need:
2 kg. concentrated wort
1 kg. granulated sugar
1 sachet of brewing yeast (10 g)
Pure water
Required Equipment
1. Plastic or polyethylene food container with a volume of about 30 liters, with a water seal
2. Siphon tube, for overflowing, removing sediment from beer, and filling into bottles or kegs.
3. Kegs or bottles sufficient to fill 23 liters. Plastic fizzy drink bottles, brown beer bottles with crown caps are ideal.
Note - Do not use glass bottles that are cracked or chipped.
4. A hydrometer and measuring flask will be useful to monitor the fermentation process and determine the final density.
5. Thermometer (for optimal temperature control).
Purity
All equipment, bottles, etc. must be washed and disinfected with appropriate disinfectants. means. Be sure to thoroughly rinse all equipment after disinfection. Do not use homemade cleaners or compounds.
Experience
Experienced brewers can make slight modifications to the instructions given below and produce a beer more suited to their individual tastes. For example, replacing part of the added sugar with malt concentrate or unhopped wort (instead of 1 kg of sugar, - 1.25 kg of wort) will create a fuller beer body. By diluting the kit to 18 liters instead of 23, the result will be a beer with a fuller, rounded aroma and an alcohol content of approximately 6%.
Note – when using unhopped wort or dry malt concentrate, they must be boiled for 10-15 minutes.
Fermentation
1. Pour 2 liters into a saucepan. water, heat, add sugar, boil for 30 minutes. over low heat, add the concentrated wort, bring to a boil, leave to cool under the lid closed for a while (10-15 minutes).
2. Pour 15 liters into an empty sterile container. cold water, add the wort with syrup, bring to a volume of 23 liters with cold water. Stir. The temperature of the wort before adding yeast should be 18 – 28 C.
3. Scatter the yeast over the surface of the beer and close the lid.
4. Leave the container in a warm place at a temperature of 18 - 24 C; the beer will ferment for approximately 4 to 8 days.
5. Before pouring the beer, you need to check whether fermentation has ended or not. Signs of the end of fermentation: no bubbles should rise to the surface, the beer becomes clear. Hydrometer readings should not exceed 2%.
6. It is advisable to additionally remove the beer from the sediment; to do this, you need to carefully pour the beer into a sterile container without lifting the yeast from the bottom, and leave it to settle for 24 hours, then remove it from the sediment again, before adding sugar for further fermentation.
It is important to ensure that fermentation is completely complete before bottling the beer, otherwise there is a risk of bottle rupture.
Storing beer in bottles
1. During the post-fermentation process, your beer will be saturated with carbon dioxide, which adds life and sparkle to the beer.
2. Prepare sugar syrup: for 100 g. water 170 gr. Sahara. Add the syrup to the skimmed beer. Do not exceed the amount of sugar, otherwise the beer will be too carbonated. Using a siphon tube, pour the beer from the container into the bottles without adding 5cm. to the edge of the bottle.
3. Tightly screw or crown cap your bottles, place in a warm place at approximately 20 C and leave for approximately 7 days for secondary fermentation. Store beer in a dark place.
4. Then move the bottles to a cool place to allow the beer to mature. Ripening will take approximately two weeks. Once the beer is completely clear, it is ready to drink, but the taste will improve if it is left to mature for a month.
5. When bottling beer, be careful not to disturb the yeast sediment that will collect at the bottom of the bottle. You may like to pour the beer into a pitcher first. Drink chilled.
6. Rinse the bottles with water immediately after they are empty, it will be easier for you to wash and disinfect them next time.
collapseTo determine the most profitable business idea, it is necessary to analyze the client's needs. Beer production as a business is a pretty good idea for starting your own business. Fresh draft beer tastes significantly better than bottled beer. Restaurants and cafes can become clients of high-quality homemade live beer.
Before finally deciding on opening a beer business in Russia, it is necessary to calculate the expected production volumes.
Eg:
- small brewery with a capacity of 55–550 l/day;
- mini-brewery with a capacity of up to 15 thousand l/day.
It is most profitable, experts say, to open an enterprise with a product capacity of up to 1 thousand l/day.
Organization of a mini-brewery
How to open a microbrewery? Before you organize your brewery, you will need to select a room for making the drink. It should be spacious, as an exception - a home brewery, which does not involve the production of large volumes of product.
Theoretically, this can be organized, but it turns out to be unprofitable in terms of financial investments.
To create a full-scale beer business, you need to produce approximately 100 liters of beer per day. Regarding registration of a case, it is difficult to clearly determine the required set of documents, since beer production in some regions is subject to licensing, while in others this is not necessary. Therefore, before opening your own beer business, it is recommended to consult an experienced lawyer.
Business registration
- If you want to organize an independent mini-brewery in order to sell your own beer, you must legally register your own business with the relevant authorities: tax, SES, PB.
- First of all, you need to determine the legal form of the future enterprise. For a home beer business, the most optimal case is an individual entrepreneur (individual entrepreneurial activity). The paperwork process in this case is carried out quite quickly, and a simplified taxation system is applied to the entrepreneur.
License
- In Russia, bills related to licensing the beer business are annually considered for the production of a drink at home. Today, small beer production does not require a license. This is quite a significant advantage for starting your own business in this field of activity.
Home brewery space
- “Home brewery” as an option does not involve large investments in furnishing the premises. Do-it-yourself brewing is a truly reproducible case with minimal cash outlay.
- You can start a home beer business in a small, separately built room, or your own garage. Later, to expand the business, it is possible to rent a small production workshop.
Raw materials
- The main raw materials for making beer are malt, hops, yeast, and, of course, water. The taste of the finished product depends largely on water. Experts recommend using soft, clean water to make beer. And this may require additional equipment.
- Raw materials can be purchased abroad: from equipment suppliers, large beer manufacturers. Purchasing foreign raw materials is very profitable if you order goods in large quantities.
In this case, to start your own production you will need to invest about 2 million rubles, then the monthly profit will be about 200,000 rubles.
Production costs
How much does it cost to open a brewery? A brewery can be opened on its own with about $2,500 in hand. First you need to prepare the necessary documents:
- Register the enterprise with government agencies.
- Draw up a contractual agreement between the founders and a charter.
- Other documents.
You will need about $300 to complete the documents.
The next stage is the purchase of the necessary equipment. Costs will depend on the planned scale of production. You can invest a minimum of $2,500. But, if you have the funds, then to organize a more extensive enterprise you will need about $7,000.
Profitability
- The profitability of mini-beer production in Russia is about 40 percent.
- Payback period is from two to three months.
- In a workshop with an area of 30 square meters, it is possible to organize the production of 50 l/day.
- To service the equipment of such an enterprise, it will be enough to hire one specialist.
In about six months, when the mini-production has paid off and some savings have appeared, the home brewery can be expanded. Profits from the beer business will increase accordingly.
Organization of a micro brewery
For a microbrewery to produce 100 liters of product per day, you will need a room with an area of 40 square meters. Such an enterprise will make it possible to produce 30–2000 liters of “live” product per day.
Minimum set of equipment
- Electric stove.
- Fermentation container.
- Wort boiler.
- Water filters.
- Kegs.
- Fermenters.
- Specialized installations for sterilization.
Cost of equipment for a microbrewery
In Russia, one set of equipped microbrewery costs about $2,500. This includes:
- Container with a water seal.
- Set of laboratory equipment.
- Technical documentation for the preparation of eight varieties of product.
- Raw materials: malt concentrate, yeast, disinfectant.
To further ferment the product and distribute beer into separate containers, kegs are used - special sealed containers. It is recommended to purchase kegs from food-grade plastic. They are the most affordable, their capacity is 10, 25 liters.
At the initial stage, you can purchase used equipment. This will significantly reduce initial costs.
Profitability of the beer business
To create a mini-production at home, you will need relatively small investments. This makes this field of activity very profitable and tempting for young entrepreneurs. The payback period for an average beer business is about one or two years.
The main advantage: the ability to organize a mini-production with its subsequent expansion.
Profitability of a microbrewery
- Profitability – 40 percent.
- Payback period: 1.5–2 years.
- Monthly income – 600,000 rubles. with the cost of a glass of beer 0.5 l - up to 200 rubles.
- Investments in the first year of operation - up to 4 million rubles.
- Profit in the first year, taking into account taxation – 2.5 million rubles.
- Income for the second year – up to 5 million rubles.
Micro brewery profitability
- To make 50 liters of beer you need 3-4 cans of concentrate, 15 g of brewer's yeast, 2 kg of sugar.
- Investment in a microbrewery ranges from $2,000 to $7,000.
- Production profitability is 40 percent.
- Payback – 2.5 months.
Conclusion
The profit of a beer company in Russia depends primarily on sales channels. A brewery as a business on a large scale requires considerable financial resources, which not every young entrepreneur may have at his disposal. A business idea for selling beer on tap does not require significant investments, so having little money, it is recommended to start with it, and later you can start your own production.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs today are interested in how to open a brewery, what are the pros and cons of this business, and how much does such a business cost?
A high-quality intoxicating drink is a subject of interest to a large number of people. Almost every adult man prefers to spend his day off drinking a bottle of good beer in the company of friends, and modern parties simply cannot do without this drink.
Beer has not lost its popularity for many decades, but finding high-quality beer today is quite difficult - obtaining a license becomes much more difficult, due to which manufacturers are forced to increase the cost of the product.
Despite the fact that alcohol is harmful to the human body, live beer produced in our own brewery can also bring benefits - the natural ingredients contain many elements necessary for the body.
Types of breweries
Anyone can open their own brewery in modern realities. Business planning must begin with choosing its type, because this is what will generate income, probable expenses and production volumes. A business from scratch must take into account production volumes:
- Microbrewery producing from twenty to five hundred liters of foamy drink per day.
- A mini-brewery that produces from five hundred to fifteen thousand liters of beer daily.
- A brewery with production volumes exceeding thirty thousand liters per day.
Companies can also be divided by the type of raw materials used to make the drink:
- Full production cycle.
- Shortened cycle.
In the first case, wort is used, produced directly in production by crushing and boiling grains. This process requires additional equipment, is very labor-intensive and time-consuming, but the quality of the drink is always at the highest level.
The second method is much simpler, as it involves the use of ready-made wort, but production volumes are limited to only three thousand liters per day.
Home
A distinctive feature of this type of private brewery business is the ability to create a drink literally at home. Of course, the volumes will be quite low, but for using the drink for personal purposes this option may be ideal. The equipment will cost from five to fifty thousand rubles, and production volumes can reach thirty-five liters per day.
A home brewery can be located in a private house, or, if desired, even in a city apartment, the main thing is to allocate an area for equipment and raw materials and carefully monitor the process.
Craft
Breweries that are based on their own drink recipes and produce special varieties have gained great popularity.
Often such a process begins on rented equipment, and production volumes are quite low. Gradually this figure increases, but only if the drink finds demand and its consumer.
Factory at the restaurant
And bars are the easiest places to sell your own beer, which is why a small brewery linked to restaurants becomes a profitable business.
If the establishment offers snacks and specialties in addition to drinks, demand will be high and consumers will definitely love the place. The main disadvantage is the need to increase prices due to high labor costs.
Advantages and disadvantages
Opening a private brewery is quite simple; the main thing is to purchase the necessary equipment and pay close attention to the process of making and selling the drink. It is important to understand that, like any other business, a home brewery has its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages include the following factors:
- If prices are normal, the demand for the drink will be extremely high, since live, fresh beer has a lot of positive qualities, unlike bottled beer.
- It is not at all necessary to invest a lot of money when planning to open your own brewery. The business can be increased gradually as demand increases.
- With the right approach, it is possible to increase production volumes, and, accordingly, profits, in a fairly short period of time. In this case, you will have to invest in advertising and regularly update the assortment.
Flaws:
- High competition, which is not felt when selling a unique high-quality product at an affordable price.
- The shelf life of the finished product is extremely low, due to which it will be necessary to immediately sell live beer in a restaurant to avoid financial losses.
Observe the following conditions:
- The finished product must be of the highest quality; this is the only way to attract and retain consumers.
- The cost of beer should not be higher than the market average.
- Increasing the number of places where the drink is sold will increase the number of consumers, and, accordingly, profits.
Private brewing business is a process that must be approached carefully; this is the only way to make a profit in a short period of time.
You can download it here to use as a sample.
Documentation
Establishments that sell alcohol are often subject to all sorts of inspections, so in terms of documentation, everything must be impeccable.
It is important to know how much the registration process costs. It includes the following steps:
After the LLC status has been successfully obtained, you can start decorating the premises. To do this you will need the following documents:
- Permission from the sanitary service to start the equipment necessary for brewing beer.
- Permission from the fire safety service.
- Permissions from services for utilities, including water supply and sewerage.
The next step is obtaining a license to sell alcoholic beverages. It is worth considering that this requirement does not apply to all regions, so this issue must be clarified in local conditions.
Note! Since beer is an alcoholic beverage, it requires excise duty and regular payments for the use of the mark.
The final stage is checking hygiene standards, obtaining permission to operate in specific conditions and opening the establishment itself.
Room
One of the key factors for opening a brewery is renting or purchasing premises. For a microbrewery you will need an area of at least forty square meters, and for a mini-factory an area exceeding one hundred square meters.
The hall must be divided into three zones:
- production room;
- stock;
- household department.
It is imperative to pay attention to the presence of all necessary communications and compliance with fire safety rules - this is what will be the key to successful work in the future without unforeseen circumstances.
Equipment
Any brewery, regardless of its size, must have the following equipment:
- Containers for fermentation of foamy drink.
- Containers for using technology.
- Laboratory equipment for quality assessment and other processes.
- Beverage filling system.
- Treatment facility.
- Stabilizers for electrical voltage.
- Refrigerators for storing raw materials and finished products.
- Equipment for cleaning, sterilization and disposal.
Note! Modern equipment manufacturers often provide additional services, including delivery, installation, installation of all communications and even training of personnel to operate this equipment, so problems should not arise.
Income and expenses
Calculation of income and expenses for a small business is a key point, since it is by fixing all costs that you can understand how much money will be required to open a business and how quickly you can make a profit. The tables present data based on the production of one thousand liters of beer per day on an area of one hundred and fifty square meters.
Starting investments
| The attachment | Amount (thousand rubles) | Notes | |
| 1. | Renting a building for a brewery | 60 | Over a period of two months |
| 2. | Carrying out indoor renovations | 400 | One-time investment, including interior decoration, cosmetic repairs |
| 3. | Purchase and installation of necessary equipment | 11 300 | Taking into account the average cost of a complete set |
| 4. | Purchasing additional equipment | 300 | Treatment facilities, refrigerators |
| 5. | Preparation of necessary documentation | 25 | |
| 6. | Transport for the supply of raw materials and transportation of the product | 250 | |
| 7. | Advertising attachments | 40 | |
| Trial batch of product in a volume of 300 liters | 50 | ||
| Total: | 1136 | ||
When using such equipment, the amount of starting investment will be approximately twelve and a half million rubles. Depending on the supplier and region, the figure may vary.
It is also important to find out which entrepreneurs expect monthly costs when producing one thousand liters of drink per day:
| Type of expenses | Amount (thousand rubles) | Note | |
| 1. | Payment for rent of premises | 30 | |
| 2. | Expenses for maintaining the premises | 5 | |
| 3. | Purchase of raw materials | 700 | Water supply and electricity are taken into account |
| 4. | Wage | 180 | With six employees |
| 5. | Regular promotions | 20 | |
| 6. | Tax fees, excise duty payment | 650 | |
| 7. | Depreciation | 35 | |
| Total: | 1620 | ||
Taking into account all these factors, the amount of monthly expenses will be more than one and a half million rubles per year. If you sell thirty thousand liters of beer monthly at the average market price, the profitability of the product will be approximately one hundred and thirty percent, which is considered an extremely high figure for any business.
Video: opening your own brewery – how much does it cost?
Beer is proof that God loves us
and wants us to be happy
Benjamin Franklin
I suggest we move away from the topic for a moment finance, my friend :)
Today I will tell you about how to brew beer at home, in a regular saucepan. This one of the easiest ways, everything is simplified to the maximum. Perhaps the beer is not of the highest level, but, in any case, it is better than what you can buy in the store. At the same time, such homemade beer has extremely low cost.
So, to make beer you will need:
1. Assistant. Carrying a 30-liter pot of boiling water alone is difficult and dangerous. But if you are brewing a small volume, you can try to cope alone.
Malt can be purchased at a specialty brewing equipment store. In some stores they can even grind it for you for a fee.
3. Hops. You can buy it in specialized stores, or pick some cones if you have it somewhere.
4. Yeast. Can also be purchased from a specialty store. Yeast is exactly what you need pubs, if done on bakery– it won’t work out beer, A Braga. There are two types of brewer's yeast - top fermentation (they are used to prepare ales) And bottom fermentation (they are used to prepare lagers). In this article we will look at preparing ale, since ale is easier to prepare. The fact is that ale yeast feels great at room temperature, and lager yeast "work" only at temperature 7-13°C.
5. Coffee grinder. To grind with your own hands malt, you will need a coffee grinder.
6. Saucepan. For large volumes you need a large pan. I bought 30 liter. By the way, it was not easy to find one for sale.
7. Water. The quality of beer depends on the quality of water. I use regular tap water because I like the taste of tap water from St. Petersburg. But I know that in some regions, and in particular in Moscow, tap water is of very poor quality. Then it is better to buy good water in the store. Although, according to my observations, in regions with poor tap water, purchased water is far from being of the best quality (for my taste, it is often inferior even to tap water from St. Petersburg).
8. Gas stove (electric stove). What you will cook with.
9. Immersion thermometer. I use a special multimeter with temperature measurement function to which it is connected thermocouple. You can use whatever you like - the main thing is that you can control the temperature with it until 80°C. Find on sale analog An immersion thermometer of this range is problematic. You'll probably have to spend money on digital.
10. Mixing spatula. A regular one will do. frying spatula or ladle. Or anything at all, the main thing is that it can be prevented wort (preferably enough to reach the bottom of the pan).
11. Insulation. To maintain temperature breaks, you will need to wrap the pan with something. I use several warm jackets and a blanket.
12. Fermentation tank. The tank in which wort will wander. Most likely you'll have to buy it. Specialized stores sell excellent plastic fermentation containers, and they are not at all expensive. (for convenience, I bought two at once).
This is a thing that is installed on fermentation tank, to get out of it carbon dioxide. It allows gas to pass out of the tank, but does not allow any unwanted microflora to penetrate inside the tank. (due to the fact that it is filled with a disinfectant solution). Costs pennies, sometimes sold complete with fermentation tank.
14. Gauze. In order to filter wort you will need gauze. Moreover, it will be useful to you at two stages - after mashing and after cooling already cooked wort. It is more convenient to use a separate gauze for each stage, but this is not necessary. Gauze size approx. 1x1.5 m. Fold it in half and pull it over capacity.
15. Rope. To secure gauze on containers you will need some kind of rope.
16. Blades for removing pulp. When filtering the wort through gauze (as you already know, this happens in two stages) on gauze will remain on top cake, from which, in fact, we filter wort. To remove it you will need some spatulas or spoons. I use 2 plastic spatulas.
17. Bath. To cool a pot of freshly cooked wort, you will need a cold water bath.
18. Iodine. When wort will be welded, only disinfected instruments can come into contact with it, in order to avoid contamination unwanted microflora. If disinfection is neglected, the beer may simply turn sour. Therefore you you will need to prepare a solution– a bottle of iodine on 30 liters water. This solution is prepared in fermentation tank, since this tank must be disinfected. Then we just need to throw into the solution all the tools that we need to work with the brewed wort. Further in the article you will find a list of these tools.
19. Bottles for bottling. It is advisable to use plastic bottles. If you have used bottles, great. If not, buy new ones :)
20. Hose for bottling. To bottle beer from a tank, you'll need some kind of tube. Transparent works well PVC tube. I also use piece of metal pipe on one side of the tube, and, on the other hand, a special faucet with valve. When bottling metal tube falls into the tank, and faucet with valve into a bottle. Very convenient because valve beer doesn't spill when you carry it phone from bottle to bottle. But an assistant wouldn't hurt. After all metal tube you need to hold it and control it so that it doesn’t suck in yeast from the bottom of the tank.
Don’t be intimidated by such a huge list - difficulties may arise only on some items; most of this list is found in every home. Personally, I had to buy: 30-liter saucepan, fermentation tank, water seal, gauze, bottles, tap with bottling valve, ingredients (malt, hops, yeast) And consumables (iodine for disinfection). Everything else was found at home (or at work).
Preparatory work
Buy everything you need for the process. Make a hole in the lid of the fermentation tank and insert it there water seal. The water seal must fit tightly; it is usually sold complete with it. rubber gasket.
Grinding
The malt needs to be ground. This can be done normally coffee grinder. On 5 liters you need to take water 1 kg malt. We usually cook 24 liters, so let's take 4.8 kg malt.
In the photo you can see the required degree of grinding:
Mashing
Here it is necessary to briefly explain the essence of mashing. Our task is activate all necessary enzymes malt. Different enzymes are activated at different temperatures. In order to influence taste, strength, density And foaminess, brewers use temperature pauses. For example, there are enzymes that are responsible for the strength of future beer. They are especially active at temperatures 62-63°C. That is, if you hold the mash in this temperature range longer, the beer will be stronger, if quickly "to slip through" this range - the strength will be slightly lower. Experienced brewers use multi-pause mashing– that is, they withstand the mash as it heats up in different temperature ranges. But since we are looking for the simplest way - we will use just one pause, the most important (72°C). During this pause there will be saccharification wort. The wort will also pass through other temperature ranges, but, so to speak, "endless".
Fill a saucepan with water (in our example – 24 liters) and put it on the stove. Control the water temperature. When the temperature reaches 30-35°C, add malt. Next, stirring slowly, bring the temperature to 72°C(it is very important not to overshoot this temperature) and, wrapping the pan with insulation, leave it on 30 minutes. This the main pause during which it occurs saccharification wort.
While the wort is saccharifying, you need cook rinsing water , which we will need when mash filtration. Rinse water should be taken at the rate of: 1 liter rinsing water for 3 liters initially filled with water. In our case it turns out 8 liters. We heat it up to 80-90°C and leave you to wait in the wings.
After 30 minute break, put the pan on the stove and bring it to 78°C. It is called Mash-out . At Mash-out enzymes stop working. This is what we need.
We insulate again and leave it on 10 minutes.
Straining
Now we take the tank, stretch gauze over it, secure it with a rope and begin to filter the wort into the tank. Cake, remaining on the gauze, we periodically remove it with spatulas, after washing it with rinsing water. Try to use the rinsing water evenly so that there is enough for the entire cake, but also so that there is no excess left. All rinsing water must be used.
After all the wort has been strained, we place the gauze on the pan in which the wort was mashed, after washing it first. And then we filter the wort again, pouring it back into the pan through cheesecloth.
Cooking
Now you can start cooking. Place the pan with the strained wort on the stove and start boiling, adding the first part of the hops (more about hops in the next paragraph). At all, you need to cook the wort with the lid open, in order to boil down all the unwanted substances from it. However, in order for the wort to boil faster, you can keep the lid open at the beginning of the process, and as it boils, open it first partially, and when the boiling becomes stable, you can remove the lid completely.
Cooking time - approx. 2 hours from the moment the stove is turned on.
Yeast fermentation
You can start this procedure somewhere in the middle of cooking. (read – an hour after the start). Usually a bag from the store contains 11.5 g dry yeast. This is just enough for 24 liters (the bags usually indicate how much wort it is designed for).
Fill a wide glass with some water at room temperature. Sprinkle the yeast evenly onto the surface of the water. Don't stir (the yeast needs to “breathe”). Cover the glass with a napkin and leave for 15-20 minutes, then they need to be shaken thoroughly so that the substance becomes homogeneous. We leave the yeast to wait for its "Dolce Vita" 🙂
Adding hops
For the entire brew you need to take the amount of hops from the calculation 2 grams per liter of water
. That is, if in your pan initially 24 liters water, then for the entire cooking we will need 48 grams hops Hops during boiling introduced in 3 stages:
- At the very beginning of cooking - for bitterness
- In the middle of cooking (about an hour after the start) – for taste
- At the end of cooking (no more than 5 minutes until the end) – for aroma
You can experiment with proportions, enhancing the effect you want to get as a result. I usually lean on aromatics, and for bitterness I put less hops.
For example: 1 grain - 12 grams, 2 grains - 16 grams, 3 grains - 20 grams.
But, I repeat once again, you can experiment here as you please. You can, for example, not put hops at all “for taste” (2 grains), dividing its share by "bitterness" And "aroma".
Preparation of disinfection
Fill the tank in which we will ferment the wort with water and pour a bottle of iodine into it. Iodine is good because you don’t need to rinse anything after it.– in the air it becomes absolutely harmless to beer, but at the same time protects against unwanted microbes.
We also put the following tools that we will need into the tank:
- Bruch removal blades
- Primer bottles
- A saucepan (into which you will strain the primer)
- Small kettle (to make it easier to pour the primer from the pan into the bottles)
- Gauze
- Thermometer
- Fermentation tank cover
- A spatula for stirring the wort while measuring its temperature
- Large mug (used as a ladle when straining)
After boiling, the wort is needed Cool as quickly as possible.
From the moment you remove the pan from the stove, the wort is susceptible to contamination by unwanted microorganisms that can spoil the beer. Therefore you:
a) quickly cool it to 28°C so that you can quickly pour it into the fermentation tank and add yeast
b) disinfect everything that will come into contact with the wort
Basically, you take the pan off the stove and put it in a bathtub of cold water. You control the temperature with a disinfected thermometer. Before each temperature measurement, the wort must be stirred with a disinfected spatula. When the wort has cooled to 28°C, you can start pouring into the fermentation tank.
Bottling for fermentation
Pour fermented yeast into a disinfected container. Then you stretch the disinfected gauze over the fermentation container, securing it with a rope. You scoop up the wort with a disinfected mug and pour it through cheesecloth into the tank.
Also, at this stage you need select primer. Primer called unfermented wort, which will be useful to us later. Just strain part of the wort not into the tank, but into sanitized bottles (for convenience, you can use a saucepan and a kettle as intermediary vessels), and put these bottles in the freezer. The primer should be approximately 10% from the original volume of water. Accordingly, if there was water 24 liters, That 2.5 liters The primer will be just right. That is, litrushka And one and a half. Okay, we'll come back to the primer later, and I'll tell you why we need it.
So, after you strain a little wort into the fermentation tank in which the yeast is located, you need to shake it thoroughly so that the wort splashes well there and the yeast aerated (to put it simply, in this way you need to saturate the wort with oxygen, which the yeast needs for a comfortable existence). Then strain the remaining wort, removing with a sanitized spatula bruh, which remains on the gauze. Bruh- this is a substance (consistency like puree), consisting of coagulated protein, hops and others insoluble substances.
After all the wort has been strained, tightly close the tank with a lid with a water seal. Pour disinfectant liquid into the water seal (iodine solution or some strong alcohol).
Congratulations, the most difficult stage is over! Now the main thing is for fermentation to begin. Leave the tank at temperature 18-23°C on 2 weeks. Active fermentation should begin within a few hours. It usually lasts about a day (depending on the type of yeast), then fermentation goes into a calmer mode.
Bottling for carbonation
After a couple of weeks, the beer in the tank should be ready. Yes, this is already beer. But she is still still and young (“green”). Therefore it must be subjected carbonation (carbonation) and endure. In order to carbonate you'll need beer primer, which you carefully stored in the freezer. Before bottling primer needs to be defrosted. For this take it out of the freezer about a day before bottling, and pour it into the tank about an hour before filling (the tank, of course, needs to be closed again after filling with primer). The fact is that the yeast in the tank has already eaten up all the sugars contained in the wort, and by adding a primer (which is a sweet wort) you will start the fermentation process again, accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide (which is what you need at this stage). By the way, if you forgot to select for fermentation at the bottling stage primer (and this will happen 🙂)- no problem! Can be used dextrose (can be purchased at a beer ingredients store), or, at worst, glucose. Not recommended for carbonation regular sugar, as this will give the beer an unpleasant beer taste and smell. Dextrose And glucose– more "clean" products in this regard do not have such unpleasant effects.
An hour after applying the primer, you can start bottling. Bottles and filling equipment (tube, faucet, etc.) need to be disinfected with iodine solution.
Produce bottling "driver's method". For this you will need disinfected tube. It will be much more convenient if you put a special tap with a valve on it (also disinfected) to avoid spilling beer when transferring the tube from one bottle to another.
Bottles should not be filled to the very neck., because after you pour beer into a plastic bottle, you need to squeeze it slightly so that the beer reaches the neck and screw the cap on in this state.
That is, there should be a minimum of air in the bottle. As carbonationCarbon dioxide will be released, which will straighten the bottle and make it hard. If you overuse the primer or don't squeeze the bottle as I recommended, the bottle may swell and even explode! Therefore, be careful.
At the output with the above volumes you should get 22-24 liters finished beer.
That's it, now all we have to do is wait. Carbonation lasts 2-3 days. The air temperature in the room with bottles should be the same as during fermentation - 18-25°C (for ales).
You can start tasting beer within a couple of weeks – minimum. No, of course, you can do it earlier - but then the beer will be very young and the taste will not be balanced.
So, at least 2 weeks, Even a month is better. In general, such beer can be stored for up to 2 years at room temperature. Before 1 year aging will only benefit the beer - the longer, the better. Further exposure will begin to have a negative effect.
A few words about why aging has a positive effect on the taste of homemade beer. The fact is that in homemade beer (unlike store-bought) contains live yeast, which first eats sugar, and when there is nothing left for them to eat, they eat up all sorts of "tasteless", thus improving the taste of the beer. This is what endurance is needed for.
Process timing
So, here is an approximate amount of time required by the process:
Malt grinding – 1 hour
Mashing with one pause – 1-1.5 hours
Mash filtration – 1 hour
Cooking – 2 hours
Cooling – 0.5-1 hour
Bottling for fermentation – 0.5-1 hour
Other operations (yeast fermentation, disinfection, etc.) are carried out during these main stages. The malt can be ground in advance. The rest of the process is continuous. After fermentation you will still need to spend an hour and a half on bottling.
Cost of homemade beer
Now let's talk about the economics of the issue. Let's calculate the cost of beer. We will count on the condition that the simplest and most inexpensive ingredients are used. Also, we will not take into account labor costs and equipment costs. Only the simplest ingredients. Prices are rounded.
*subject to using the same yeast for 5 brews
369 rubles behind 24 liters of beer . It turns out 15.38 rubles per liter good beer! 0.5 liters of good beer for 7.69 rubles! At the same time, you can hardly find beer of similar quality in a store cheaper 100 rubles behind half liter bottle.
By the way, Yeast can be used over and over again. The best option is the next brew on the day of bottling to carbonate the already fermented beer. In this case, while the next batch of beer is brewing, you need to bottle the fermented beer (for carbonation). There will be yeast left at the bottom of the tank, into which we will then pour freshly brewed, cooled wort. The plus is that The tank, in this case, does not need to be washed and disinfected. However, some of the yeast (about half) should be selected and thrown away, otherwise from cooking to cooking there will be more and more of them. Follow from cooking to cooking, so that the volume of yeast left is approximately the same. Yeast can be used before 5 brews , then it is advisable to update it, as the taste will begin to deteriorate.
If, when bottling beer for carbonation, you do not brew the next batch of beer, but plan to brew it later, then yeast can be collected in a jar (with a disinfected spatula into a disinfected jar) and put it in the refrigerator (but not in the freezer). I get about 2 cans By 720 ml (this is for 24 liters of beer). They will remain sane and in good physical shape there for up to two weeks :) Then they will slowly begin "to give oak".
Conclusion
Brewing beer is a relatively complex process. The most difficult thing is to cook for the first time. After a couple more brews, you will understand that the process is not so complicated. It just takes time.
I would like to note that I am not a professional and I only spoke about how I brew beer. Therefore, if you are a seasoned brewer, please do not criticize too harshly :) For me, this method is optimal. I do not multi-pause mashing, I don’t measure density And fortress, I do not divide fermentation into primary And secondary. I simplified the process as much as possible, and the result is quite acceptable to me.
Don’t worry if you don’t succeed the first time, or if it’s not entirely successful. For example, our first brew (by the way, the photo in the report is from the first brew) gave us very strong beer. Probably due to the fact that we did not cook 24 liters, A 12 . When cooking, the same amount of liquid boils away, regardless of 24 liters are you cooking or 12 liters, but as a percentage of the original volume there is a big difference. In addition, due to the fact that a large volume of liquid boiled away, it turned out that we primer in the end they went too far. The bottles were very swollen, and to prevent them from exploding, we put them in the refrigerator. When opened, the beer foamed very much and I had to wait tens of minutes, turning the cap millimeter by millimeter for the pressure to go away and the foam to stop pouring out of the bottle. Later we learned that if the beer was cooled well, this problem disappeared. And the taste became more pleasant.
The second cooking was already on 24 liters, and the beer turned out to be much more bearable.
All in all, don't worry if the first pancake turns out to be lumpy. AND I recommend starting right away with 24 liters.
Delicious beer to you, friend! But without a hangover 😉
