If you’re looking to make a little magic in your basement, homebrewing may be for you. The act of fermenting plant matter into a tasty alcoholic beverage is found in nearly every culture and is thought to be older than humans themselves.
So if a monkey can make booze, it should be no problem for our readers. Here’s a quick guide to the process of making your first homebrewed beer — and before you get too deep, consider talking to the pros over at Corvallis Brewing Supply. They’ll get you sorted and answer all of the questions you might have.
So let’s start with the basics — how is beer made? There are four primary ingredients: hops, water, yeast, and malted barley. These each create different processes that lead to your finished product of a delectable beer.
You begin the process by combining, or mashing, hot water and malted barley. This process allows the starches to turn into sugars — an important step in the creation of alcohol. According to Jeff Clawson, OSU’s Pilot Brewery Manager for the College of Food Science and Technology, brewing beer is equal parts art and science.
Clawson explained the science behind fermentation and brewing in words that may have been too big for this reporter to fully grasp. But the basic concept is that your mash is what’s called a “bioreactor” — in other words, it’s the foundation for alcohol. The residual sugars created by this process eventually turn into alcohol, and the “unfermentables” that are left over provide the beer’s mouthfeel and texture.
The next step after rinsing the barley grains is to begin your boil and add everyone’s favorite bittering and preservation agent — hops. These can be added for flavor and aroma, and according to Clawson, the time at which you add them will drastically alter the final product. For example, an IPA will have hops added much earlier in the process than, say, a hefeweizen or lager.
This mixture is referred to as wort. According to Joel Rea, the owner of Corvallis Brewing Supply, this is when you cool the mixture to room temperature and add the yeast — colloquially referred to as “pitching” the yeast.
The fermentation process will happen over the course of several weeks, or days if you have access to Clawson’s advanced and automated brewing equipment. Upon the fermentation’s completion, there are really only two more steps — bottling and drinking the brew.
Before bottling the beer, you add a small amount of “priming sugar” to the bottle and throw a cap on that bad boy. This sugar, in combination with those already present in the beer, provides your yeast with food. All that’s left to do is to allow your yeast to feed and do its thing in the contained bottle.
Capping the bottle prevents the gases created by your yeast from escaping, resulting in the carbonation that we all know and love. All that’s left is to sip the brew and take notes for your next endeavor.
But what makes a good starter beer? Not all beers are created equally, and even Clawson has difficulty with some beers. Lighter beers such as lagers are often difficult to create, as they have fewer places to hide imperfections, according to Clawson. And trying to flavor-match your favorite beer will likely not turn out great. He said that even matching “simple” beers like Coors or Bud Light will often result in disappointment, as those who make them have had years to perfect the recipe.
Rea suggests that beginners start with brown or American pale ales and wheat beers.
“Stay away from higher gravity beers like imperial stouts, double IPAs, or barleywines,” said Rea. “They take a bit more practice to get honed in.”
The final bit of advice that Rea had to give was to look locally for kits and help.
“Ingredients from mail order and Amazon were put together in a large batch and stood on a shelf waiting for someone to place the order,” he said. “They’ll show up stale. Your beer won’t turn out well and you’ll be like, ‘Well, this sucks.’”
Sure, you can order cheap kits online, but if something goes wrong or is missing, you’re likely out of luck. Going to a local homebrew shop will not only give you friendly faces for help, but will ensure you get it in a timely manner.
If you’re interested in the ins and outs of homebrewing beer, Corvallis Brewing Supply can be found at 121 SW 4th St. in Corvallis. They’re open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, closed on Mondays, and have altered hours on the weekend. If you have questions or need advice, they can be reached at 541-758-1674 during normal business hours.
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