If you are looking to give home brewing a try, my only words of advice are to have fun! It takes a lot of dedication and research to get it right, so you must be willing to invest both time and money in educating yourself and getting your equipment collection started.
There are tons of resources for home brewers, and here at Heavy Soul Brewing Company we started out with a few books that outline everything that you need to know. Pick one that really fits your style, and get reading. I encourage you to take notes and follow up your reading with a bit of online research. You can find a lot of information out there, especially in the American Home Brewers Association’s forums, where you can meet fellow home brewers if you are looking for guidance or advice.
Once you have your background knowledge in place, it’s time to get your equipment.
Your local home brew shop will be able to help you gather the equipment that you need, as well as educate you on how to use it properly.
Then it’s time to find a recipe and get brewing. If you have never brewed before, I encourage you to start with something simple so that you can really get a feel for the process. Just remember that you will need to dedicate plenty of time for cleaning your equipment as well as for the brewing process. Once you brew a few batches, you will have a much better knowledge of the steps involved and you will be able to streamline everything more efficiently.
If you are looking to try something a bit more adventurous, check out one of our personal favorite creations on the next page. I have outlined our ingredients and steps into a recipe, and all of the brewing terms can be found in any of the resources (books or online) that you decide to use.
Kaitlyn Retherford and her partner Steve Buller are the brewing masterminds behind Heavy Soul Brewing Co., a local home brewing company that pairs with Central PA businesses to raise funds for charities. Be on the lookout for their creative brews at Black Gryphon Dining & Spirits in Elizabethtown.
A few basic things that you will need are:
• Kettle that is at least five gallons (the bigger the better) • Heating device (stove or outdoor propane burner) • Long brewing spatula • Mash/lauter tun (fancy word for cooler with a drain system) with hose • Hot liquor tank setup, if you want to get a little more complex • Large sink or container to chill your beer after the boil • Fermentation container(s) with air lock or blow-off hose • Sanitizer • Siphon • Thermometer • Bottles or keg • Hydrometer (if you want to measure alcohol percentage)
Heavy Soul’s American Pale Ale with Spicy Plum Juice
Recipe yields 5 gallons of beer with an estimated ABV (alcohol by volume) of 5.25 percent.
Main ingredients can be found at most home brew stores. To purchase our favorite local hot pepper powder used in this recipe, contact our friends at Hurley’s Heat at www.facebook.com/hurleysheat.
Ingredients:
Malts: • 9.5 pounds 2 Row • 0.5 pounds Crystal Caramel 60L • 0.3 pounds Special Roast • 0.25 pounds Carared • 0.2 pounds Chocolate Wheat Hops: • 4 ounces Nelson Sauvin pellets Yeast: • 1 vial of San Diego Super Yeast WLP090 or a Southern California style yeast • 1 teaspoon Irish Moss (to help clarify the beer) • 1 gallon of plum juice (we use homemade) with Hurley’s Heat pepper powder (we like its spicy!)
Instructions:
• Sanitize and set up all equipment. After the water is heated to the appropriate temperature, add grains to the mash tun slowly while stirring the grain to prevent clumping. You will have to stir the mash every 10 to 15 minutes to keep it from clumping, or creating a cool spot, and to help improve the yield of the mash. Prepare the Mash Out and Fly Sparge water ahead of time to anticipate the 60 and 10 minute marks.
Mash Steps (Steeping Grains to Extract Sugars):
• Mash In: Heat 14.44 quarts of water to 162.8
° F to get a step temperature of 152 ° F. Add heated water into the mash tun with the grain. Stir, put lid on mash tun, and let sit for 60 minutes.
• Mash Out: Heat 7.53 quarts of water to 202.9
° F to get a step temperature of 168° F. Add heated water into the mash tun with the grain and water. Stir, put lid back on mash tun, and let sit for 10 minutes.
• Fly Sparge: Heat 7.64 quarts of water to 168
° F and add to sparging container. Remove lid from mash tun and open the valve on the sparging container to slowly release the hot water into the mash tun. At the same time, open the valve on the mash tun to slowly release wort (liquid extracted from grains) into your brew kettle.
*Hint: Slower is better. Gravity is your friend in this step. Arrange your equipment so that your sparging container is higher than your mash tun, and your mash tun is higher than your brew kettle, which will help everything flow.
Boil Steps (Boiling Wort):
• Add water to wort in kettle (what you extracted from the grains) to achieve a boil volume of 5.86 gallons.
• Bring to a light rolling boil before setting a timer for 60 minutes.
• Add 1.00 ounce of hop pellets when timer reads 60 minutes; stir well.
• Add 0.75 ounces of hop pellets when timer reads 15 minutes; stir well.
• Add 1 teaspoon of Irish moss (for clarity) when timer reads 10 minutes; stir well.
• When timer ends, turn off heat and add 1.25 ounces of hop pellets for an aroma steep for 25 minutes.
Cooling and Fermentation Preparation:
• Cool wort to a fermentation temperature of approximately 70 ° F. A low-cost way to do this is by placing your kettle into an ice water bath, and carefully stirring to bring down the temperature. This can take a bit of time since the wort will be very hot after boiling.
• Transfer wort into fermentation container. We like to use glass carboys, but an Ale Pail will work as well.
• Add spicy plum juice to fermentation container to achieve a final volume of 5 gallons.
• Lightly shake vial of yeast and add to fermentation container. Either plug the carboy or place lid on Ale Pail, and put air lock in place.
Fermentation:
• Primary Fermentation: 4 days. Let beer sit
in original fermentation container.
• Secondary Fermentation: 10 days. Transfer beer into a second fermentation container for this step by using a siphon.
• Dry Hopping: Add 1.00 ounce of Nelson
Sauvin hop pellets when you start secondary fermentation.
Finishing Steps:
• Once the beer has finished fermenting, you can siphon it slowly into a keg or bottling bucket to bottle it for consumption. For bottling, you will need to create a simple syrup (preferably with corn sugar) in order to produce carbonation. The amount will vary depending on the style of beer, so you will need to research how to properly do this. Once you finish, chill to an appropriate temperature and enjoy!
