One of the more technical aspects of brewing your own beer at home is with using a hydrometer.  One of these little devices is important because it serves two functions during any brewing cycle.  Not only is a hydrometer important to know when the fermentation process is over, but it can also assist you in calculating the alcohol potential of your beer.  This can be important with letting you figure out how strong a beer will be when you serve it to your friends or guests.  The stronger the beer, the less you may want to hand out.

When you use a hydrometer, you will need to take a portion of your mixture and place it into a long tube.  From there, you will place your hydrometer into the mix.  The hydrometer itself is a cylindrical device which is weighted at the bottom.  While in the mixture, the hydrometer projects the liquid at a height which is measured against the density of the liquid.  This density is read on the hydrometer at the surface of the liquid and will help to determine a number of factors about the batch of beer.

Taking a reading before the batch has been fermented will let you measure the alcohol potential of the brew.  This, naturally, is a potential because it allows you to see just how much sugar is already located in the batch.  The sugar is what will turn into alcohol and knowing how much is there in the beginning is what will help you to determine how strong the alcohol content of your beer is.  It will also tell you what the original gravity of your brew is before fermentation.

After this fermentation process is over, during whatever length of time that it takes to complete, another hydrometer reading needs to be taken.  This will give you the final gravity of the beer and will also, in turn, allow you to determine the approximate alcohol content of your beer.  When you take the original gravity or the original alcohol potential and subtract from that the final gravity or alcohol potential, you will get a number.  The difference between these numbers will indicate how much of the sugar in the mixture was eaten by the yeast and turned into alcohol.  The number that you get is the alcohol content of the brew.  The lower the final gravity is, the higher the alcohol content of the beer.

Two important things to keep in mind, however, are that when getting a reading from your hydrometer, your liquid must always be around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is what the water readings are based on with a hydrometer.  Additionally, if your final gravity reading is not at least a 65% loss, your brew has not fermented long enough and must be left alone for a longer amount of time.  This is what will provide the best brew possible.

When you are learning all you need to know in order to make your own beer, you will also want to know an important concept called “Making a Yeast Starter”. This is a method that you will use to prepare your yeast for the fermentation process by adding a small amount of yeast into the Wort. By doing this you are encouraging the yeast to multiply and create the right amount of yeast cells in order to create an ideal fermentation situation.

Amount of Yeast Needed

For most home brews, you will need to produce approximately 3.75 billion active yeast cells for only 5 gallons of ale. You will need even more than that for a Lager due to the fact that the process of fermentation lasts longer and is usually kept at colder temperatures. Because of this you will need to increase the amount of yeast so that you will have enough cells for the optimum fermentation situation.

Generally the rule is that if you have a bigger starter, the more reproduction you can expect because you have more sugar to create fuel for the process.  Some brewing books will have mathematic formulas and research that will show you how to calculate the proper amount of starter you will need, however the easier way is to simply purchase a pitching rate calculator.

Prepare your Wort

The next thing you will need to do is to make some Wort for use in the starter, you will need this to feed your yeast, and to help you gage whether you will need table sugar in your starter. You will also want to take into account that it will also have to eat the sugar from the beer sugars (like maltose), having too much sugar may prove to be detrimental to your yeast and may cause them to give up on the fermentation process long before your beer is ready.

The next thing you will need is the right equipment which means a glass container, airlock, foil, and a stopper in order to get started with this process. You will want to boil your Wort and cover quickly when done to keep bacteria out, cool at room temperature. Be sure to clean your equipment to be used at a later date.

You will also want to ensure that the temperature you use for your starter should be the one you use before fermentation. You will want to add a small amount of yeast to your Wort so that you can start growing yeast cells. Lastly keep you starter covered, you would not want to have some bacteria ruin your beer.

When you have done this you may want to add yeast nutrient at this point it is to ensure that levels optimum for the fermentation is available.

Give your Starter Oxygen

In order for your active yeast to continue reproducing quickly, you will need to get oxygen to your starter fermentation. The right amount of oxygen will cause your starter to maximize in the quickest amount of time.  Shaking your starter will help you when you are trying to give it more oxygen. Some enthusiast may even recommend the purchase of an aquarium pump to give it more oxygen. Making sure your Wort is oxygenated is the best way of ensuring that your yeast will reply.

Over all the most important thing is that when creating a starter is the way to ensure that you are able the right amount of yeast to ensure that your beer has the right taste and consistency.

Sometime during the fermentation process, you will need to transfer (rack) your beer to another vessel so that your liquid is clear. When doing this it is important that you not expose it to the air or to other bacteria. That is why it is important that you learn the proper way to siphon your beer. This will help you to create delicious, and clear beer.

Since most people use carboys for brewing at home, you will find that they do not come with a spigot. This means that you will need to learn the proper siphoning technique. The first step to this process is to have the proper equipment. To siphon beer from a carboy, you will need either a racking tube (plastic transfer hose).

The best siphoning happens when your hose is at the very bottom of the carboy, the closer to the bottom the better. This helps to keep air bubbles out to the hose, and increases your efficiency level. Air bubbles will slow down or even stop the flow of your liquid; it may even oxidize your beer, which will destroy the mix.

While there are many different ways to start your siphon, not every one is good when you are brewing beer at home. The best method and by far the easiest is by simply sucking on the end to get a flow going, however this may cause your beer to end up with contaminants from your mouth. To fix this problem beer brewers say that creating a false end on your hose is the best way to keep out contaminants. You add the hose to such the liquid into the hose, and then remove it quickly once the flow starts.

Another way to such the liquid into the hose and start a good flow is to use a turkey baster, put one end into the hose and with one good inhale you can get your liquid flowing and be able to remove the beer without adding any contaminants.

Yet another way to get the liquid moving is to fill up your hose with water before you connect it to a racking tube. Once you have connected the hose (the tube should already be inside the carboy) then you drop the end into the hose into the new vessel, this will get the flow going right away. You may need to practice this procedure quite a few times before you get it going good. And you will not need to worry about the little bit of water that will be in your Wort.

One more idea would be to buy a piece of equipment known as a siphon starter. With this item you simply add it to your transfer hose and shake, the fluid will rush to the ball bearing and this will get the liquid flowing.

Lastly you can buy the liquid pump, this cost more than all the other options however you will be able to quickly and easily transfer your beer. You must however ensure you have the right size hoses.

Whatever you decide is the best method for your home brew transfer, it is important that you get comfortable with it so that you are doing it correctly every time. The smoother your transfer process, the less occurrences you will have of contaminates entering and destroying your beer. You will also have cleaner and tastier beer.

When you are deciding on home brewing as a hobby, one of the most important things you will need to know is the basic ingredients for making your beer. Beer is usually made up of some very basic ingredients that when mixed a certain way will create very different beer types. Choosing the right ingredients for your home made beer will give you the type of drink you desire.

Ingredients

Adjuncts

In the world of brewing, an adjunct is either rice or corn which is used to produce sugar that can be fermented. This ferment will not have any additional flavors or any extra body to the brew. Another thing about adjuncts is that in most cases it takes the place of other products. It takes the place of malt extract or just plain malt; it is much thinner than these products and will produce a milder tasting beer than using malt.

Hops

When making beer, may people will want to add hops in order to season their beer and make it bitter. Hops take out some of the sweetness that would otherwise come from the malt. Hops are usually added when you have finished boiling the mix. Should you feel that you do not have enough of the hops, you may want to add additional hops to the mix. Hops are flowers and you can buy them as whole flowers or by getting the pellets. Hops come in a wide variety of flavors so that you can choose just the right kind, to make a beer to suit your style.

Malt

Most recipes on the market that people use to make home made beer are malt. Malt comes in many different variations so that you can make many different kinds of malt. While it is possible to make beer at home without malt, it is one of the recommended steps for home brewing.

Malt Extract

Made from either malted barley or a form of malted wheat, malt extract is used to provide the right amount of sugar that is needed in the development of the yeast you will use in the fermentation process.

Water

Most of the ingredients available in your beer, water by far is the most prominent making up most of the volume of the beer. You may use tap water for this process, however for the best results you will want to use one of the many bottled waters available. When choosing bottle water you will also need to keep in mind that having mineral water will severely affect beer so steer clear of any water that has mineral content.