How to Make Beer

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." --Benjamin Franklin

My husband, our friends and I decided that at this point in our lives, true enjoyment of beer will come with patience and knowledge. We have decided to make beer. We have been through this process once before, and recognized our need and desire for some good, homemade beer once again. I knew that there were many steps to making beer, but never realized how technical it would be. Here is a photo journal of what we have done so far:

We started by deciding how to bottle up our beer. 48 glass bottles and 24 plastic, just so we can see the if there is a difference in the taste.

First you boil water and a syrup made of molasses together. Then add cheesecloth bags of barley and hops to the mixture and let them soak for 45 minutes.

Now you need to cool the "beer mix" down from around 155 degrees to 70 degrees while stirring. When making beer, you can only used metal utinsils because plastic is too pourous and hard to keep completely sanitize.

After the liquid is cooled to the right temperature, you pour it into your fermentation barrel (aka: the Ale Pail) while straining any chunks of hops and barely from getting in your ale. You must stir again to help the "head" (foam that is created when pouring kinda like fizz from a Coke) mix in with the rest of the liquid.

And then you do some more cooling. This is to make it the right temperature for the next step.

Now you add the yeast. Yeast when it is boiled with water looks like a foamy light brown mixture. It is also what makes beer, beer. When you talk about fermentation, that is the key ingredient. No yeast, no beer.

Now you shake it. Of course the guys get to do this because there is no way that I could lift that bucket full of liquid.

If there is no vent for gases from the fermentation process to escape, in couple of weeks you could have a stinky, warm liquid all over your house. That's what the black dot that Shane's thumb is covering is for.

This little shiny thing sticking out of the barrel is to let the gases out and not let anything else back in. At this point you put the barrel in a warm, dark place and let it ferment for about 3 weeks. Stay tuned for more about our beer.