How to brew your own beer step by step - The Mash
The brewing process, step by step
We’ve tried to simplify the brewing process as much as possible for first time brewers. Here is a step-by-step guide to mashing, boiling, cooling, fermentation and bottling.
1️⃣ Part 1 - mashing
▷ Get a recipe
The first thing you’ll need is a recipe. You can find a number of recipes on our website 🍻. Once you have your recipe and have weighed the ingredients, it’s time to mash in. During the mash you are converting the starches found in the malted barley into sugars, which will later be converted to alcohol.
🌐 Beer Recipes (http://beerguevara.com/recipies/)
▷ Strike water
You’ll need a mash tun – you can build your own or buy a 25-litre converted cooler box mash tun 🍻 from BeerGuevara. First, heat up your “strike water” – the water you’ll use to steep your grains. The strike temperature will be specified in the recipe. Once the water is added, check the temperature with a thermometer. The thermometer is an essential piece of kit for brewing – you can opt for a digital thermometer 🍻 or a glass version 🍻.
🌐 Mash tun (http://beerguevara.com/product/mash-t...)
🌐 Digital Thermometer (http://beerguevara.com/product/digita...)
🌐 Glass Thermometer (http://beerguevara.com/product/thermo...)
▷ Adding the grains
Next add your pre-crushed malted barley (usually just called malt) to the mash tun. We will conveniently mill your grain for a small fee if you don’t have your own grain mill. Stir the grains to make sure there are no clumps, check the temperature then close the lid and leave to steep as per your recipe (usually an hour)
▷ Sparging
You now need to separate the liquid from the grains. You will need a large pot, capable of holding a few litres more than you’ll actually be boiling. You can usually find something suitable at Shoprite or Game. The liquid – known as wort – is now sweet and malty. Have a taste! The Beerguevara mash tun comes with a handy tap that allows you to drain off the wort. You’ll also need a plastic jug.
Open the tap and collect about a litre in your jug. You will notice that it is cloudy and probably has some particles of grain. Close the tap and gently pour the wort from your jug over the grain bed – this is called recirculation. The grain works as a filter. Repeat a couple of times until the wort becomes clearer.
You can now drain the remainder of the wort into the pot. This is called the first runnings. However, there is still plenty of sugar to be found in the grain. Have you ever made a second cup of tea with the same teabag? That’s what you’re going to do now. In brewing, it’s called sparging. Close the tap and add the sparge water as per your recipe, gently stirring. Let it sit for a few minutes and then recirculate again before draining the wort into the pot.
2️⃣ Part 2 - boiling
Once you have separated the wort from the grains, it’s time to boil. Boiling is a crucial part of the process – it helps to remove volatile compounds that could make your beer taste unpleasant. It is also when we add the hops 🍻. Most recipes require a full, rolling boil for at least 60 minutes.
🌐 Hops (http://beerguevara.com/product-catego...)
Important: never put a lid on your pot while the wort is boiling. There are certain compounds that need to be allowed to escape!
Watch out for our video on boiling for a more in-depth description of the process!
3️⃣ Part 3 - cooling
Once you have concluded the boil, it is important to cool the wort as quickly as possible. There is a sweet spot where bacteria thrives and you don’t want your wort sitting within that temperature range. On a basic level, you can cool the pot in a bathtub full of cold water and ice. However, this is not ideal as it can be quite a slow process. Better is to invest in an immersion chiller 🍻.
🌐 Immersion chiller (http://beerguevara.com/product/copper...)
Watch out for our video on chilling for a more in-depth description of the process!
4️⃣ Part 4 - fermentation
Once your wort has cooled to about 24°C or below, transfer it to your clean, sanitised fermenter 🍻. Keeping everything sanitised is crucial at this stage of the process. It is now time to add the yeast 🍻. Fermentation will take about 5—7 days. Try to keep your fermenter in the coolest place in the house. Elevated temperatures can cause unpleasant flavours.
🌐 Fermenter (http://beerguevara.com/product/fermen...)
🌐 Yeast (http://beerguevara.com/product-catego...)
5️⃣ Part 5 - bottling
Once fermentation is complete, it’s time to bottle your beer. BeerGuevara sells everything you’ll need from siphon tubing to caps, a range of cappers and even bottles. You can of course reuse empty beer bottles as long as they are properly cleaned and sanitised. It is important to use the right amount of priming sugar otherwise you run the risk of creating a bottle bomb!
Watch out for our video on bottling for a more in-depth description of the process!