Drunk Man Talking

Obtain a 3 gallon
container in which to conduct the primary fermentation. It should be
constructed of a material that will not leech out toxic chemicals in
the presence of alcohol. It should have a lid to keep bugs from getting
in but which will allow carbon dioxide gas to escape. I use a plastic
garbage can with a faucet at the bottom and a lid with an airlock at
the top (available from beer supply stores).

Pour in about 1.5 lb of
hop-flavoured malt extract (most economically obtained at grocery
stores). For strong beer, add about 6 cups of sugar. Optionally, add
about 2 tsp of fruit acid (if you are making a low alcohol beer, the
acid helps retard spoilage - which should not be necessary if you drink
it all up as fast as I do). Any fruit acid will do; I have used citric,
which is cheap. Lemon juice could be used. Do not use ascorbic acid, it
will retard the fermentation. A tsp of di-ammonium-phosphate (yeast
nutrient, fertilizer) will speed the fermentation, especially in
high-alcohol beers, but is not necessary.

Now, add water, 60-90
degrees Fahrenheit, up to a few inches below the top of your container.
Do not fill it too full, or the fermenting mess will come out. Stir it
all up thoroughly. If you have a beer hydrometer, (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
check the specific gravity. It should be about 1.06, corrected for
temperature. I suggest you buy a floating thermometer so you can
correct for temperature. A beer hydrometer will also tell you what the
alcohol content will be in the finished brew. The more sugar, the
denser the liquid will be now (higher specific gravity) and the more
alcohol the yeast will make. Six cups of sugar will give you about 7%
alcohol (most commercial beer in the US is about 3.5%). Do not go above
9 or 10%, or you will kill the yeast and end up with a sweet,
uncarbonated beverage. Also, do not drink 7% beer like 3.5% beer and
don't drive after drinking a pint or more! If using a hydrometer, it is
best to start out with less sugar than you think you will need and then
adjust the specific gravity by adding more.

Now you are ready to add
the yeast. I use dry yeast, available in beermaking supply stores. You
could use bread yeast, but I don't recommend it. It gives the beer a
yeasty taste and does not stand up to high alcohol contents. If you
can't wait to get beer yeast, wild yeast (bound to be there unless you
used sterilized ingredients) may do for low alcohol beer. If you have
already made beer before, the sediment from the bottom of a freshly
opened bottle contains enough yeast to start your new batch. Add the
yeast, put the top on the container, place in a warm place (70-90
degrees F), and wait a week or two.

If you have a hydrometer,
you may want to monitor the specific gravity. When it drops to 1.005,
it is ready to bottle. I let the beer go to draught, when the
fermentation (bubbling) stops entirely - no sugar left. At that point,
the specific gravity will be a bit below 1.000 (alcohol being less
dense than water). I "rack" the beer at this point, that is, siphon (or
use faucet) it off of the inch or so of yuck at the bottom of the
container. I rack it into a second 3 gallon container with faucet.

At this point, you need to
add more sugar for the secondary fermentation, which carbonates the
beer (and raises the alcohol content yet more). I use about 10 tbsp
sugar. Start with less and check the gravity. You want the gravity to
be 1.005. Be sure to correct the gravity for temperature (instructions
with the hydrometer will tell you how). DO NOT allow the gravity to
exceed 1.005! If there is too much sugar, your bottled beer will
EXPLODE, which could be FATAL (I'm not kidding - I've seen exploding
bottles drive pieces of glass through wooden cabinets!). Now, bottle
the beer (use siphon or faucet). Do not use disposable bottles, they
can't stand the pressure and are dangerous. I use one pint returnable
soft drink bottles which I collected while they were still in common
use. You can buy similar bottles from stores that sell beer making
supplies. You need bottle caps and a capper. Alternatively, use the
European beer bottles which have reusable caps and don't require a
capper. Keep the beer at 70-90 degrees F. in a safe place for a week or
so. Then put one bottle in the refrigerator. When cold, give it a try
to see if it is adequately carbonated yet. If not, let the rest of the
beer ferment in the bottles a few days longer. It yes, move it all into
the refrigerator (I got a second refrigerator to hold all of my beer).

When you pour the beer out
of the bottle (don't drink from the bottle), do it in one continuous
movement. Watch the crud (spent yeast, cream of tartar) at the bottom
of the bottle and stop pouring before it comes out. While there are
lots of B vitamins in this crud, it looks nasty, does not taste good,
and is a mild laxative (generates flatus too). This crud is not in
commercial US beer because they artificially carbonate their beer. They
also add all sorts of chemicals - detergent to make a head, for
example. By the way, soft drinks can still legally contain 0.5 %
alcohol, because that is the amount produced during a natural
carbonation fermentation, as used to be done by the industry.

Cheap folks who refuse to
buy a beer hydrometer can use this alternative method: Put the draught
beer (no sugar left, fermentation completely stopped) into bottles and
add sugar to the bottles. Use 0.5 to 1 tsp per bottle (12 to 16 oz), or
use 0.5 tbsp of a 50% sugar solution (one cup sugar in one cup water).
I do not recommend this method, given the great danger of explosion,
great frustration of an undercarbonated batch, and cheap price (about
$4 and up) of a hydrometer.

Keep your bottles,
containers, etc. clean to avoid microorganisms that cause spoilage (you
don't want 3 gal. of malt vinegar, do you?). Some folks routinely
sterilize equipment with boiling water or chemicals, but I find that
unnecessary except after having had a spoilage problem.

There are various laws
regulating homemade beer production. An adult can make 100 gal. (200
per household) a year under federal law. I used to register as a wine
producer with the Dept. of Firearms, Tobacco, & Alcohol, but I
don't bother anymore, the law may not even require that any more. N. C.
State law is fuzzy (says you must use native N. C. fruits). In any
case, if you keep it at home, don't sell it, and don't give it away to
narcs (alchs?, revenuers), you should not get in any trouble.

Supplies (including kits for beginners) are available by mail from E. C. Kraus,
P. O. Box 7850, Independence, MO 64053 and from other places. I have no
connection with this firm, but I have been so pleased with their
products, prices, and service that I buy all of my supplies from them,
excepting things I can get cheaply locally.

This has been a brief
introduction to home brewing. Once you are into it, you may want to
modify the recipe and try fancier methods. Think of the money you will
save and the chemical-free delicious beer you will have.

You may wonder what a
statistician is doing brewing beer. Well, modern statistics got its
start in German astronomy, American agriculture, and European beer
brewing. Famous statistician Gosset
used the pen name "Student" because his employer, Guiness Brewery,
didn't want competitors to know what statistics they were using to
fine-tune their brewing process. Another explanation involves a more
personal bit of history. I attended the University of Salzburg in
Austria one summer, and having spent more time in the beer halls than
in the lecture halls, I acquired a taste for strong, dark beer. As a
poor graduate student in the southern and then the midwestern U. S. I
could not afford to buy such beer, so I learned to make it myself. In
fact, most of the ingredients could be bought with food stamps at
grocery stores! I can better afford to buy such beer now, but I still
make several batches a year.

If you are not of legal drinking age, I recommend that you check out my page on Underaged Drinking.

Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch

# posted by Shelby @ 12:45 PM