Weighing the hops pellets. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

The process is a lot like cooking, a lot like running science experiments, and a little bit like keeping a pet, all mixed up with a dash of “sticking it to the man.” The beer has been delicious – the best part has been tasting it as it changes over time. Pairing it with food (like last weekend’s homemade pretzels) has been great. My one complaint is that it never seems to stick around very long. Here are some pictures of the process.

Enamelled steel brew kettle on gas stove. That's the primary fermenter in the background. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

Grain bag after removal from brewing kettle. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

Sanitized and stoppered glass carboy used as primary fermenter. Shown with handle. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

Immersion-type wort chiller in kettle during last 15 minutes of boiling the wort. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

I was lucky enough to be given an immersion-type wort chiller along with all the rest of the brewing gear. It’s just a spiral of copper tubing, about 25 feet long, with hoses attached to each end of the tubing. You connect one end to a faucet, run cold water through it, and it drains out the other end into the sink. The chilled water doesn’t mix in with the wort; it’s only there for heat transfer: it picks up the heat from the wort in the kettle, and cools that 5 gallons of 212-degree wort to 70-degrees in about 15 minutes. I like to put it (unconnected) into the kettle for the last 15 minutes of the brewing, so it can get sanitized by the heat.

Rehydrating the yeast in temperature-controlled, pre-boiled water. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

For this recipe, the provided yeast is dry and comes in a little envelope. I like to rehydrate the yeast in warm water before pitching it into the fermenter – it just makes more sense to me than sprinkling in dry yeast. The water inside the jar has been sanitized by boiling in a small pot on the stove next to the brewing kettle. I then put the jar of boiled water in a water bath of cold water to get it down to the right temperature before adding the yeast. That’s the bucket full of sanitizer in the background – it’s a weak iodine solution.

Rehydrating the yeast in warm, pre-boiled water. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

The yeast gets sprinkled onto the surface of the pre-boiled water, and sits there for about 15 minutes before you really mix it in. It’s absolutely a living organism, which always amuses me.

Measurement of original gravity, using hydrometer in graduated cylinder after transferring chilled wort to primary fermenter. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

At the end of the boil, the kettle is moved over near the sink, and the wort chiller is connected to cold running water. After chilling the wort it gets transferred into the primary fermenter. The period between the end of the boil and the transfer into the primary fermenter is a vulnerable time for the wort, when it is most likely to get some kind of unwelcome bacteria in it. It’s a big quantity of warm, sugary liquid, and would make a nice home for a lot of unwelcome guests, so it’s important to chill it quickly and get it transferred. This explains why I have no pictures of this part of the brewing process. (Sorry.) A small portion of the wort is collected in a graduated cylinder in order to take a measurement of the density of the liquid, which is used to calculate the original gravity, or “OG,” which is essentially a measure of how much sugar is in the liquid, and therefore of the potential of the wort to ferment.

Closeup of measurement of original gravity, using hydrometer in graduated cylinder after transferring chilled wort to primary fermenter. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

Closeup of the hydrometer reading. A small portion of the wort is collected in a graduated cylinder in order to take a measurement of the density of the wort, which is used to calculate the original gravity, or “OG,” which is essentially a measure of the potential of the wort to ferment.

Primary fermenter sitting in the corner on top of homemade crates of beer bottles. Homebrewing: brewing beer at home. Photo by David Ettinger.

Primary fermenter in its place, sitting on top of two homemade wooden crates filled with beer bottles. The fermenter sits in an out of the way corner and stays undisturbed while the yeast does its work of eating up the sugars and producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. You can see a thick layer of “krausen” on the surface of the beer. (Now that it has all of its ingredients in it, it’s no longer called “wort.”) The krausen is mostly foam and bits of hops that didn’t get filtered out during the transfer from the brewing kettle. Hard to see here is the little airlock at the top of the fermenter, which allows carbon dioxide gas to escape but keeps outside contaminants from getting in. I keep a thermometer beside the fermenter, on the right, to monitor the temperature. This picture was taken the day after brewing day, in the morning. The layer of krausen is big, but not as big as it reached in this batch, which was about 4 inches thick. For this batch, I left it in the primary fermenter for 13 days. On day 13 I bottled half of it and transferred the other half to a secondary fermenter, where it sat for another 14 days. It’s not a full 5 gallons, in case you were wondering. After taking the picture I covered the fermenter with a cloth to keep the beer in the dark while it ferments.

Bubbles in the airlock of the primary fermenter, which is wrapped in cloth to keep the beer in the dark. Homebrewing - home beer brewing. Photo by David Ettinger.

This is the airlock at the top of the primary fermenter, which is wrapped in cloth to keep the light out. You can see the bubbles in the airlock.

Maximum krausen on top of beer in primary fermenter, about 4" thick. Homebrewing - home beer brewing. Photo by David Ettinger.

This is the greatest height reached by the krausen foam sitting on top of the beer in the fermenter. It’s certainly not very pretty – my brother calls it “swamp water” – but there’s nothing nasty about it. Actually, it’s amazingly sanitary in there.

Bubbles in the airlock of the primary fermenter. Homebrewing - home beer brewing. Photo by David Ettinger.

Bubbles in the airlock of the primary fermenter. The beer gives off carbon dioxide as the yeast consumes the sugars. The airlock allows the CO2 to come out and prevents anything from getting in and causing contamination. Some call it “infection” which is accurate but just a bit too evocative.  Well, now we wait!