Everything that comes in contact with your wort needs to be cleaned and sanitized. Your brew pot doesn’t actually need to be sterilized, because the heat from the boil will keep the pot sterile. You still should check and make sure that their is no visible debris before starting though. Cleaning is the process of removing any debris you can see, but cleaning wont take care of the germs you can see. Sanitizing your equipment actually kills the bacteria you cant see.

Cleaning the Equipment:

It is best to use bleach or OxiClean to clean your equipment, but it is ok to clean your equipment with a household detergent (like dish soap). If you must use a detergent, dont use anything scented and make sure you carefully rinse after cleaning. Rinsing is really important during this step, because any of these chemicals can ruin your beer if they make it past this step. Also it is important to never use anything abrasive when cleaning as it could scratch your equipment (making it much harder to properly sanitize).

Do: Rinse thoroughly            Don’t: Use a scented detergent or abrasive cleaning tools

Sanitizing the Equipment:

There are lots of products out their made specifically for sanitizing home brewing equipment.  Bleach and Iodophors would be the most common, however there is Potassium Metabisulfite, Sodium Metabisulfite, Napisan… and the list goes on!

I highly recomend Star-San, which is a iodophor. The main ingredient is phosphoric acid, and it is no rinse (which makes it really simple). This is probably the most popular and widely available sanitizing agent for home brewers.

Star San Sanitizer

What equipment to sanitize:

• Carboys / Fermenters
• Bottling Bucket
• Stiring Spoon
• Tubing
• Bottles or Keg
• Chillers
• Airlocks, Plugs, Lids

The process of cleaning and sterilizing your equipment may not be as fun as brewing, but it is just as important! This method can be used with any of the home brewing kits and equipment on this blog, so don’t risk it. Some equipment has advantages / disadvantages when sterilizing, so make sure you check out some of the equipment variations.

Cheers!

Glass Garboy Advantages: 

Glass Carboy with Rubber Plug, Airlock, and Brush

• Visibility (watch the fermentation process and know when it is complete)
•  Smaller Diameter Opening (Easier to get a tight seal)
• Easy to sanitize (reduced risk of scratching).
• No leaching

You can use a glass carboy as your primary fermenter and/or your secondary fermenter as well. A really common set-up for a good home brewing kit would have a plastic ale pail as the primary and a glass carboy as the secondary fermenter. One of the drawbacks that I mentioned with plastic is that it can scratch, which could make sanitation more difficult and ultimately contaminate your brew. Glass wont scratch with any normal cleaning brush (they make special carboy brushes, and sanitation is much easier / effective.

Another problem that plastic fermenters have is the diameter of the opening at the top. This is great for access and cleaning, however it makes it difficult to seal for storage. If the rubber seal on the inside of the lid doesn’t contact the pail around its circumference at any certain point it will cause oxygen to seep in. This will cause your beer to oxidize and could potentially contaminate your beer as the environment is no longer sterile. Glass Carboys have a small aperture (about 2″ diameter) which makes it extremely easy to seal with a rubber stopper.

Glass Carboy Disadvantages (and Solutions)

There are a couple disadvantages to Glass Carboys that you need to be careful of (don’t worry I’ve got solutions!). The glass carboy is considerably heavier than it’s plastic equivalent on its own, and when you add in you brew it can get really tough to maneuver. Worst case scenario would be that the glass carboy gets dropped and you loose all your hard work when it breaks (not fun).  Carboy straps add handles – much easier to carry – a really cheap/worthwhile investment. Finally when you store your brew in a glass carboy, make sure to keep it out of direct sunlight. Put it in the closet, cover it in blankets – anything to keep the sunlight from reaching your beer.

When buying a glass carboy I would recommend getting one that holds 5 gallons or more. The majority of extract recipes out there are for 5 gallon batches. You do have the option of doing smaller batches with the larger fermenters without any problems if you happen to come across a 3 gallon recipe you want to try.  Here is a home brewing kit that comes with a glass carboy if your new to brewing, or you can check out these other home brewing kits for beginners. 

I received a comment this morning on the “Beginners Home Brewing Kit” article that was posted on September 20th. It brought up some important questions about Primary Fermenters and Carboy options for home brewing that I want to share. Here is the comment:

Primary Fermenter / Carboy Comment

My original post was about a beginners home brewing kit that came with an “Ale Pail” as the primary fermenter. Although it looks like a large paint bucket that you may get at a home improvement store, the plastic it is made from is completely different. Ale pails are made with food grade plastic, otherwise known as PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate). PET wont leach into your beer over the two weeks it’s stored there, and you could have this problem with a basic paint bucket. They’re not expensive, so they’re definitely a worthwhile investment. There are also plastic carboys that are clear that do a pretty good job. The advantages of a clear plastic carboy is that you can see whats going on at all times, just make sure to not expose your wort to direct sunlight. I’ll be doing an article on glass carboys in the future also. Here are some of the plastic options out there:

Primary Fermenting Bucket

Better Bottle Plastic Carboy

I’ve NEVER had an issue with mold, but that is probably unrelated to the type of plastic being used. Mold can be caused when the bucket isn’t 100% sanitized. Scratches and gouges can create creases that your sanitizer may not be able to penetrate. Fermenters are stored at room temperature and have a lot of trapped moisture, which makes it an environment conducive for mold if not sanitized properly.

If you are using any kind of plastic fermenter in your home brewing kit, thoroughly inspect your pail before transferring your wort. I look for any scratches or gouges thicker than my fingernail. A common mistake is using an abrasive pad or abrasive brush when cleaning the bucket. The plastic itself is not very rigid, and anything abrasive can end up scratching the surface making it more susceptible to contamination. It’s also not a good idea to store anything in the buckets between batches (especially nothing metal like stirring spoons or cans of Liquid Malt Extract).

As long as your ale pail is sanitized and sealed shut, there is no possibility for mold. I’m going to do some follow-up posts on proper sanitizing procedures as this is often neglected step that can lead to some frustration. Feel free to check out some of the beginner home brewing kits if you’re new to home brewing and you’re looking for a good place to start.

Have fun choosing your next primary fermenter – Cheers!

One good way to try new craft beers is joining a craft beer club. They select unique craft beer from the best brewers in the country and send them to you directly. Craft Beer Club offers the best value and selection; they also offer free shipping which saves time and money.

Craft Beer

Of course brewing your own beer is ideal, but if you don’t have the time – this is the next best thing. Craft beer always provides me with inspiration for my next brew, and I’ve gotten some great ideas from them. Craft Beer Club is a great gift idea for friends and relatives (it sure beats the heck out of fruit of the month!). I thought it would be a good time to mention Craft Beer Club because they are giving away Beer Tasting Glasses and Bottle Openers with the first shipment.

Take a look at my posts on types of beer and basic beer ingredients if you need more information on how craft beer is made.

Cheers, and have fun tasting new craft beers!

Beginner Home Brewing Kit

• 6.5 Gallon “Ale Pail” Primary Fermenter with Drilled & Grommeted Lid
• 6.5 Gallon “Ale Pail” Bottling Bucket with Bottling Spigot
• Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser
• Airlock
• Siphon & Bottling Set-up
• Home Beermaking Text
• Hydrometer
• Bottle Brush
• Twin Lever Capper
• Liquid Crystal Thermometer
• Bucket Clip

Here is a basic diagram of the bottling process in most Home Brewing Kits:

Bottling Your Home Brewed Beer

You will know when fermentation is complete when your stop seeing bubbles/activity in your airlock. This can be anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks, because it depends heavily on the ingredients/recipe that you’re using for your beer.

At this point your wort has no carbonation, and if you were to bottle your wort without priming you would end up with flat beer. Priming is the process of adding a small amount of sugar (or dry malt extract) to the wort before sealing the wort in the bottles. There is just enough yeast left at this point to eat some of the sugar from priming and produce CO2 as a bi-product. Since the bottle is sealed, the CO2 is trapped in the bottle and gets absorbed into the beer.  I like to use a small amount of dry malt extract to prime, because I find it gives the beer a nice thick head.

Your recipe or Home Brewing Kit should have instructions on what to prime with and how much to prime with. You want to follow these instructions carefully. Too much sugar could cause the bottle caps to pop off (too much pressure), and not enough could prevent your beer from carbonating at all.

Tips for bottling your beer:

1. Make sure you sanitize all the equipment that comes in contact with the beer. Sanitize the bottling bucket, lines, bottles, and even the caps.
2. If you’re using a bottling bucket, try to minimize the amount of oxygen you expose the wort to when transferring. The best way to do this is to use an auto siphon in your carboy and run the line to your bottling bucket.
3. If priming with DME or sugar, you usually boil it first and then add it to your wort. I find that adding it to the bottom you your bottling bucket and then placing the line from your carboy in the bottling bucket at an angle gives me the best results. When you transfer the wort through your line it will “swirl” with the sugar / DME and make sure it mixes properly while exposing the wort to a minimum amount of oxygen.
4. Don’t put the bottles in the fridge until it’s done carbonating. The fridge will prevent your beer from carbonating properly.

After you have your beer into the bottle, you need to wait for it to carbonate. My beer usually takes about 3 weeks to carbonate. Again, however, the amount of time to properly carbonate varies on the ingredients / recipe that you are using. It’s good to have a couple of “test” bottles. Try a test bottle every week until the beer is carbonated to your preference.

Good Luck Carbonating your beer -

Cheers!

The Beer Machine Home Brewing Kit

It’s really great that the Beer Machine fits right in the fridge. It’s got a built in tap – it would be nice to have beer on tap in my fridge. It also comes with some really nice features, including an airlock that allows the CO2 to exit during fermentation while prevention air from entering the fermenter. The airlock also allows you to see when fermentation is complete and it is time to brew your beer. It has a built in pressure gauge, which tells you if you have the proper carbonation in your brew (which up until this point I’ve only seen on full scale Home Brewing Keg Systems).

They offer premium beer mixes, and at about 30 cents a glass, it’s cheaper than PBR (you can’t really go wrong with that, right?). Check out out the Beer Machine compares to the other Home Brewing Kits.

The only the better than good beer is good cheap beer -

Cheers!

Coopers DIY Home Brewing Kit

The kit comes with the following items:

• 30 Liter Fermenter to Make 6 Gallon Batches of Beer
• Durable Beer Hydrometer and Measuring Flask
• Mixing Spoon
• “Little Bottler” Tube and Bottling Valve
• Tap
• Lid and Krausen Collar
• Brewers Log and Dry Erase Marker
• Thermometer
• 30 740ml PET Bottles and Caps
• Instruction Booklet
• Instructional DVD-ROM
• Cooper’s Lager Beer Kit Package – which includes:
• 1.7kg Coopers Lager Beer Kit Concentrate with Yeast
• 1 kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 1
• Bag of Carbonation Drops

The 30 Liter Fementer makes 6 gallon batches, which makes bout 30 bottles (they’re about 25oz each). Considering a can of beer is 12oz, that amount of beer should last you awhile.

*** I had never used a Krausen Collar before (I honestly didn’t even know what it was), but it may be the best tool in this kit. It fits flush on the inside rim of the fermenter, and it collects all of the crud that forms and the ferementer walls around the surface of your beer. When the beer is done fermenting, you can simply pull out the Krausen Collar (aka the crap collar) out and stick it in your dishwasher. It cuts way down on your clean up time and greatly reduces the chance that you’ll get any large particles in your beer when you bottle – very smart. As far as I know Coopers DIY Beer Home Brewing Kit is the only complete kit that comes with a Krausen Collar.

If you already have a home brewing kit, I would look into some of Coopers Beer Ingredient Packages. Thy come with the extract for the style of beer you want, as well as a brew enhancer and carbonation drops. Brewing Stout Style beer can be difficult, but the Coopers Stout Package was really easy and it turned out great (Nice Chocolaty Finish).

A big plus about this system is it comes with an instructional DVD that walks you through brewing basics. You don’t need to have any previous experience brewing beer, because this will explain everything. Check out how Coopers DIY compares to these other Home Brewing Kits.

Mix, Brew, Bottle, and most importantly – get Tipsy!

Cheers!

How Alcohol Is Made In Home Brewing Kits

After making the wort, you transfer it to a carboy where fermentation will take place. The carboy for home brewing kits are made out of plastic or glass; I plan on doing an article on the advantages/disadvantages of each at a later date. After transferring your wort, the next step is to pitch the yeast. The yeast feeds on the sugar in the wort, and the byproducts of this process are CO2 and Alcohol.

In this particular example the CO2 is actually released through an airlock at the top of the carboy. The airlock allows the CO2 to be released, while preventing oxygen from entering the carboy and contaminating/oxidizing your brew. The wort stays in the carboy for about 2 weeks or until fermentation is complete (when you stop seeing bubbles coming out of the airlock on a regular basis.

More to follow on this topic, including bottling, kegging, and carbonation. I’ve posted some reviews on Home Brewing Kits if you’re looking to start brewing.

Cheers!

Mr Beer makes a great Home Brewing Kit, it comes with all the equipment and ingredients you need to make your first batch (See Below).

Mr Beer Home Brewing Kit

Two Gallon Fermenter: I like that it has the built in airlock and tap. (Great features that sometimes cost extra with other brands). The size is perfect for a kitchen counter or even a cupboard.

Ingredients: Mr Beer Brewing Kits include the ingredients to make the beer. It can be difficult to source some of the items on your own (depending on where you live), so it’s nice that they send everything to you. *** They also include sanitizer which is very important.

Bottles: The bottles are plastic, so they’re easy to clean and reuse.

Overall I think this is a great home brewing kit for someone new to brewing. It’s simple, easy to use, and makes good quality beer that you can be proud of. Although this kit is great for people new to brewing, it still has a lot to offer more advanced brewers. This kit is supported with tons of premium beer style ingredients to experiment with, and it’s compact size makes it really easy to store for those who are short on space.

Mr. Beer Premium Edition Beer Kit

Home Brewing Kit

Thanks for checking out my Mr Beer Home Brewing Kit Review. Check out how Mr Beer compares to these other Home Brewing Kits.

Cheers!