The Recipe for a Home Brewery - Tips for Beginners

How much time should one expect to dedicate to brewing one batch?

For extract brewing, two to three hours are required on brew day to get the wort into the fermenter.  For all grain brewing, it takes six to eight  hours to do so.  From there the durations are the same for a given type of beer.  For ales, which ferment at comparatively warmer temperatures (70-72 deg.), the beer ferments out in two weeks or a bit less.  For lagers, which are characterized by greater subtlety of flavor and which ferment cooler (38-45 deg.), fermentation takes at least four weeks, usually followed by an extended period (up to several months) of storage at near-freezing temperatures to fully develop the flavors.  It is straightforward to plan one’s brewing to accommodate these different time requirements.

Could you recommend a book or two for the beginning brewer?

My favorite homebrewing book is How To Brew by John Palmer (full disclosure, he’s a friend, but it’s still a great book!).  John really knows his stuff and his book is clearly written and very well organized.  Great for beginners, and plenty there for more advanced brewers too.  For the more advanced brewer, it’s hard to beat Principles of Brewing Science by the late, great Dr. George Fix.  George was a mathematician at Univ. Texas at Arlington and a passionate homebrewer whose encyclopedic grasp of the science of brewing was unparalleled outside of professional brewers (and maybe even within).  This is not light reading, but it’s packed with really good information.

What is the most common mistake beginners make when brewing their first batch?

There are two: being careless about cleaning and/or sanitizing the equipment, and lack of patience when waiting for the beer to be ready to drink (assuming one begins with bottles).  One really must pay attention to cleanliness and sanitation, because the wort that goes into the fermenter is a wonderful growth medium for bacteria, wild yeast, and molds.

One trick to help new brewers from prematurely opening many bottles before their beer is fully carbonated: use a couple of soda pop bottles made of plastic with the screw-on caps.  Clean and sanitize them as the other bottles, and screw the cap on tightly.  At first the walls of the bottle will feel soft, but as carbon dioxide builds up in the bottle over days, it will feel firmer and firmer.  When it feels as firm as an unopened soda, you know your beer is done!

If you could summarize homebrewing into one quote, what would it be?

Keep it clean and sanitized, use good ingredients, and you can make great beer.