All Hopped Up:
How to Brew Your Own Beer
By Veronica Kawk a | photography by Megan wylie ruffing
photos courtesy eric matson

“Pennsylvania is probably the best place to go for beer on the East Coast” says Ray Messmer of Barley’s and Hop’s Beer Café. There are more than 70 breweries in Pennsylvania, including one of the oldest and nationally recognized, D.G. Yuengling & Son, commonly known as Yuengling. With the summer months bringing in the heat, Sean McIntyre at North Country Brewing Company suggests choosing a refreshing local beer for tailgating, such as a wheat beer or a lighter ale. One of his favorites, The Slippery Rock Dew, is a honey ale. There are plenty of varieties to choose during the late summer because most breweries begin brewing their Octoberfest beer selections.

Although the experts at North Country Brewing Company are quite good at making beer, they recommended Porterhouse Brew Shop for home brewing equipment, ingredients, and wisdom.  Brewing your own beer is “as easy as following a recipe,” says Ruth Whisel of Porterhouse Brew Shop.

Beer is made up of four ingredients: water, malt, hops, and yeast.  The equipment will cost you around $100 to $150 dollars and the ingredients are another $50 (to make about two cases of beer). However, the pleasures of serving guests beer that you’ve brewed yourself can certainly outweigh the costs. Porterhouse Brew Shop sells beer equipment kits and even holds classes starting in the fall to help firsttime home brewers. Whisel offers us some expert advice on the step-bystep process for creating our own home brewed beer. But we also call on expert Chris Meta, from the Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Home brewers (TRASH) and our friend, Eric Matson, who keeps a photo journal of every batch he brews at his home in Belle Vernon, to help us with this step-by-step guide for aspiring home brewers.

You Will Need: Stainless steel brew kettle (at least 6-gallon) + Airlock (device that lets carbon dioxide escape) + Two cases of clean, non-twist-top beer bottles Bottle capper and a package of crown caps + Thermometer + 2/3 cup dextrose Sanitizer (so the taste of the beer isn’t affected) + Racking cane + Siphon hose (6-foot tube that fits over the racking cane) + 6-gallon glass carboy (fermenter) + Funnel with strainer + 5-gallon (or larger) food-grade plastic bucket with spicket + Heat-resistant spoon (for stirring) + Grain bag (mesh bag to store grains)

Ingredients: Spring water (about 7 gallons) + 1 (11 g) package of dry beer yeast + 2 ounces of hops (choose preferred flavor) + 2 (3.3 lbs/can) cans of unhopped, liquid malt extract + 3 lbs. of grains (barley or wheat)

9 Steps to Home-Brewed Beer

STEP 1: Pick a Flavor

Choose the type of beer you want to brew, and then find the ingredients to match. Tim Santoro from Barley’s and Hop’s Beer Café recommends a wheat beer or pilsner for a lighter, refreshing choice. If you prefer something a bit heavier, try brewing a stout.  Also, set aside at least two-and-a-half hours to make the brew, and sanitize all your equipment first.

STEP 2: The Boil

Fill the kettle two-thirds of the way with water, and put the burner on high. Put the grains into the grain bag and steep them in the kettle of hot water around 165 degrees for about 25 minutes. Remove the grains, and allow the water to drip out of the grain bag. Do not squeeze the bag because this extracts tannins that will give your beer an astringent flavor. Bring the water to a boil and add the malt extract syrup, stirring occasionally, so that it dissolves completely. The mixture is now referred to as “wort” (pronounced “wert”) or raw beer liquid before it has been fermented using yeast. Boil the wort mixture for an hour, to ensure it is free of bacteria and to fully dissolve the malt extract.

STEP 3: Adding Hops

Add about an ounce of hops, or a little more if you prefer a more bitter beer, when the wort has reached a steady rolling boil. Boil for an hour. Add the “finishing hops,” about a quarter ounce, near the end of the boil to bring back an herbaceous aroma of the wort.

STEP 4: Cooling the Wort

Put the lid on the kettle, and chill in an ice bath in a sink or bathtub, but be careful not to get ice in the wort.

STEP 5: Sanitizing

Sanitize the carboy, funnel, siphon, spoon, and racking cane.

STEP 6: Yeast

Add the cooled wort (66-70 degrees) to the carboy using a funnel, and top it off with cold spring water. Stir the wort rapidly with a large spoon to incorporate lots of air into the mixture. Add package of yeast. Put the lid and airlock onto the carboy.

STEP 7: Fermentation

Keep the carboy in a fairly warm spot for eight to 10 days. Some recipes require fermentation for two weeks, so be sure to check the requirements depending on your ingredients. A day or two before bottling, move the carboy up to a table so that all the sediment can settle at the bottom prior to bottling.

STEP 8: Transferring to the bucket

Sanitize the bucket, and put in the dextrose. Transfer the unconditioned beer from the carboy to the bucket using the siphon. To siphon, place the carboy on a table above the bucket. Also, make certain the siphon tube reaches the bottom of the bucket to minimize splashing. Slide the siphon hose onto the handle end of the racking cane and put a clean thumb over the hose end. Invert the cane and plunge it smoothly into your carboy. Lower the hose end below the carboy and into the bucket. Try to avoid siphoning the sediment at the bottom of the carboy. Once you have siphoned all the liquid into the bucket, take out the siphon and racking cane, and place the bucket full of beer on the table.

STEP 9: Bottling

Place the bottle under the spicket and open it to fill. Repeat until you have filled all the bottles. Cap off the bottles, and let them sit at room temperature for one to three weeks to let the beer naturally carbonate. Chill before serving. Cheers!