One of the things that Eric and I enjoy doing here on the 172 is brewing beer. This is how we turn water into beer on the 172. The actual brewing only takes about 5 hours, the fermenting and aging takes roughly 40 days. Fermenting time can very.
Eric usually brews 10-gallon patches and I do 5 gallons. My favorite thing to brew is Queen Margaret’s Imperial Stout. It is like drinking liquid chocolate gold goodness and I do not usually drink that style. We brew a lot of different styles of beer on the 172. Hold that thought, I am getting ahead of myself.
Water Turns to Beer Step One
Let us start at the beginning. First you need water, at least 5 gallons (more for a 10-gallon batch). Then you heat the water to 160 degrees to 170 degrees, depending on what the recipe says. This is for mashing (mashing is the brewers term for the steeping process). After the water is heated you put it in the mash-tun along with the grains and let it steep for 60 minutes. This extracts the sugars from the grains. The number and type of grains depends on the style of beer you are making. We whole grain brew, so technically we have to grind the grain first. But you can also extract brew and the mash part is done for you. Been there done that.
Step Two
The next step is to heat the sparge water. We usually do a two-step process; we divide the necessary water by two and work in batches. Part hot water in the mash-tun and you have to wait about 10 minutes then vorlauf. This is done by putting a lid (what we use) in the mash-tun on the grain and running the wort (liquid after the sugar is extracted from the grain) back onto itself until it runs clear. Once it runs clear we hook the hose to the boil kettle and drain the wort into it. Then we repeat the process.
Step Three
Next, we boil the wort and add the hops. Which hops you use and when you add them depends on the style of beer. Some hops go in right away and some go in at flame out (turn heat off). The hops can keep beer fresher, longer; help beer retain its head of foam and is a key component in a beer’s aroma and flavor. Hops can also determine the bitterness of the beer. (I think really hoppy beer tastes like grapefruit pith.) Eric likes hoppy beers. The boil time varies between one hour and an hour and a half depending on the amount of beer you are making.
Step Four
After that we cool the wort. (Nope, still not beer.) We run it through a cooling chamber thing and right into the carboy or demi john (who knew). Once it is cool enough, temperature depends on yeast, the yeast is pitched (add yeast).
Final Steps for Turning Water to Beer
This then goes into the fermentation chamber for a week or two. Eric made us one out of a chest freezer using a heater and a thermostat. The temperature is set according to the optimal fermentation temperature for that style of beer. After that it can be kegged and put on gas. We usually like to let it ferment/age for about forty days.
Once the yeast eats the sugars in the wort and poops out the alcohol it becomes beer.
Different Styles of Beer we Brew
Now back to the different styles of beer that we brew. We do browns, IPAs, whites, wheats, saisons, stouts, cream, hefeweizen, Kolsch, summer shandy, almost any type. We do not do sour beers because Eric read that once you do a sour you may not be able to brew any other style due to the yeast. (I think). We also do not do Gose beers because they take forever to brew. It takes days just to do the actual brew part.
So that is how we turn water into beer on the 172. Other people may do things a little different, but the steps are pretty much the same. In the end, it’s beer!
We got our mash-tun at Home Depot (Homer bucket revised) https://www.homedepot.com/
Most of the rest of our supplies we got from Norther Brewer https://www.northernbrewer.com/
Here is our little beer brewing helper:
Remember:
- Life is short, do what you love!
- In a world you can be anything, be kind
- Nice maters
- Brew good beer