Law Brewing Company

 Until you've tried a bottle of fine crafted beer you have not lived.  People who like beer will not tell you that they drink Miller, Bud, or Coors.  Why?  Because those aforementioned products are not beer...they are swill, and yes, that's a technical term.  Beer is fairly simple when you get right down to it, it's just malted grains, hops, yeast and water.  In fact, one of the oldest food laws on record is the Reinheitsgebot, or German Purity Law.  This law stated that the only ingredients allowed in beer are barley, hops and water.  Note that yeast is not mentioned.  It was not until the 1800s that Louis Pasteur discovered the role of microorganisms in the process of fermentation; therefore, yeast was not known to be an ingredient of beer. Brewers generally took some sediment from the previous fermentation and added it to the next, the sediment contained the necessary organisms to perform fermentation. If no sediment was available, they would set up a number of vats, relying on natural yeast to inoculate the brew.  Don't worry, Law Brewing Company is not a beer Nazi like Beck's, we're ok with using other ingredients such as fruit, vegetables, and spices.  Enough with the history lesson, let's get the brewing process for all you wannabe Beer Ninjas out there.

The setup I have is geared towards making beer using all grains.  Less equipment is needed when extract brewing, but we're looking to bring out the Beer Ninja inside us, not take the easy way out with extract brewing.  If you're just starting out, extract is definately the way to go.  Extract brewing lets you get a feel for brewing.  You'll learn how the beer is supposed to taste after each step and what different ingredients add to the brew.  Tasting your creation after each step is very important, this will assist you in pinpointing any errors that may a occur along the way.  The main pieces of equipment needed are the lauter tun (cooler), boiling kettle, and fermentor (not pictured).  The equipment can be as expensive or as cheap as you'd like.  I chose to make my own lauter tun by converting a 15 gallon cooler.  The lauter tun and mash tun should be about the same size but you can go as big or small as you'd like.  The standard homebrewing amount is 5 gallons, that is what my system is set up for.

Once the grains have been soaked for about an hour, the sweet wort (pronounced wert) is drained as slowly as possible from the lauter tun.  When I say slow, I mean slow, it should take about an hour to drain 5 gallons of sweet wort.  At this point, the liquid cannot technically be called beer yet because the fermentation process has not yet begun...hence the term sweet wort.  If you try the liquid at this stage, it will taste like flavored sugar water since the bitterness in beer is derived from the hops.  If you check out the picture to the left, you'll see that there's a tube on the bottom of the cooler.  This is a braided stainless steel tube that allows liquid to pass through but not the grains.  The reason why you want to drain the liquid as slowly as possible is because liquid will always take the path of least resistance.  If the liquid is drained quickly, it will create channels through the grain bed.  You want to extract as much sugar from each grain as you possibly can, but if the liquid is allowed to create channels, you won't rinse the grains evenly.

After all that sweet, sweet wort is collected, the party moves to the boiling kettle.  The time in the kettle depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  Typically, the wort is boiled for atleast an hour, but it is often boiled longer for a variety of reasons:

1) Sanatizes the wort - as a side note, nothing that can harm you can survive in a fermented beer.  It may taste awful, but rest assured that you'll live to tell about it!

2) Coagulates unwanted proteins - clarifies the beer

3) Extraction of alpha acids from hops - bitterness

4) Removes water which increases the starting gravity of the wort

During the boil, hops are added at different intervals according to what you want them to add to the beer.  If you want bitterness, hops are added to the boil early, if you're looking to get a nice hop aroma they are added to the boil late.  There's no right or wrong time to add hops, add them early, late and everywhere in between!

After the boil, the wort is cooled to between 70 and 80^oF as quickly as possible.  This is the best time to measure the starting gravity of your wort.  The gravity of a liquid is basically the density.  For all you chemistry nerds out there, the process of fermentation goes something like this: Glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆), the main sugar that will be converted to alcohol, is convert by the yeast into two molecules of ethyl alcohol (CH₃CH₂OH) and two molecules of carbon dioxide (CO₂).  Yes, I had to look that up.  In the fermentation stage, the carbon dioxide molecules are allowed to escape through the airlock so what was once a glucose molecule is now just ethanol.  Because of this change, you can measure the starting gravity, final gravity and then figure out the alcohol by volume with a simple calculation: 

(Starting Gravity - Final Gravity)/0.75

Once the wort has been cooled the proper temperature and the gravity has been measured, it's time to toss in the yeast.  The yeast should innoculate the wort within 24 hours.  When brewing ales, the yeast will form a crust on top of the wort (above).  A few airlocks may be devestated during the fermentation process but it's a small price to pay for some sweet, sweet beer.  Fermentation usually takes about 10-15 days to finish but the activity will significantly subside after the first few days.  Once fermentation is complete, the crust, or krausen, will fall to the bottom of the bucket.  This doesn't mean that all the yeast is dead though, and that's a good thing.

After fermentation is complete, an ounce of corn sugar (dextrose) per gallon of beer is boiled with about 2 cups of water for about 10 minutes.  The liquid is then mixed into the fermented beer and it's all siphoned into bottles.  This small amount of added sugar is important because it will cause a very small fermentation in each bottle.  As stated earlier, during fermentation the glucose is converted into carbon dioxide and ethanol.  This same process occurs during the small fermentation in the bottles, however the carbon dioxide is not allowed to escape.  Since the CO₂ is trapped in the bottle, it is absorbed into the beer and creates a natural carbonation.  This process is called bottle conditioning and takes about 10-14 days to complete.  Once conditioned, your beer is ready for consumption.  Of course, you can let your beer age but I say drink a few now and drink a few later!  There you have it, you're ready to brew your first batch of beer.  There's no excuse to ever drink another bottle of swill again!

The Revolution Begins...