Alan Robert Clark's Brewing Page

or, Brewing my way in South Africa, Disclaimer, inc.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Beginners' Equipment List
• Ingredients
• Preparation
• The Boil
• The Brew
• The Bottling
• The Conditioning
• The Consuming

Introduction 

I started this in good faith, but I see that my penchant for turgidity has struck again :-) Apologies for the length of it!!!!!! Please let me know your opinion on this page!

ie. The trouble with all the English and American intro's are that they are:

• Too bloody complicated. (Postscript: Might be less wordy though :-)
• Way too worried about infections. (Keep things clean and hygenic, yes, paranoid, no. I haven't had a hint of an infection in 43 batches so far.)
• Using archaic Units :-)
• Using Yeasts, Extracts, Hops and Malts generally unavailable in South Africa.
• FAR FAR too much hard work. These instructions contain several short-cuts which make things quite a pleasure really :-)

Beginners' Equipment List 

I use ``The Homebrew Shop'', aka National Food Products at 9 Komatie Road in Emmarentia (ie Mazoe Road off Barry Hertzog, behind the Checkers) which supplies good kits at reasonable prices. A shoestring budget beginner will need:

• A 25l brewing (food-grade) bucket with grommeted hole in lid.
• Vinty Bubbler Air-lock to fit in grommet.
• An Ale Extract Kit.
• A 2-lever ``inart'' crown capper.
• Some Crown Corks.
• Syphon Tube, Racking Cane, Stopcock.
• Sterilising Powder.
• Bottle Brush.
• Long Handled Spoon.
• Funnel.

The above setup will cost you about R267 at 1997 prices. (Includes the Ale Pack)

You can get your bottles from your local bottle store---the simplest method being to buy them with the beer :-), but with very little persuasion, you can ``redeem'' the bottles for the price of the deposit. Note that they still belong to SAB, you are simply borrowing them for a longer time than is usual :-) It is absolutely essential to get them in the very sturdy plastic crates, and finally, don't bother with the ``pints'', get the ``quarts''. You have enough capping and cleaning to worry about as it is!

Note for non-South African readers: a quart isn't :-). It is 750ml, which is neither an imperial nor USA quart. No idea.

Ingredients 

• 1 NFP Ale Kit (R 32.00)
• 1/2 of a 2.5kg White Sugar (for a Pale Ale) or
• 1 and 1/2 of the 750g ``Soft Brown'' Sugar, commonly known as ``Treacle Sugar'' (For a Brown Ale). This is the thick gooey dark brown stuff, NOT the loose, light brown ``Brown Sugar'', which is as bad as using White Sugar!

Preparation

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Throw away all instructions on can :-) :-) :-) :-)
• Make sure you have a little bucket filled with Sterilising liquid. My approach is to have a little bucket with a ((n) originally new) sponge/pot-scourer thingy in it with about 1l of steri at all times.
• Take your standard Aluminium ``Presto'' pressure pot and roughly half-fill it with water ie about 3l or so. Take your can of Extract and clean the outsides well. Put it unopened in the pot and put the pot on the stove on high.
• Clean out the bucket (and lid) well, using some steri and the sponge to scrub off any residue, although there shouldn't be any!!!
• Fill the bucket with about 10l of cold tap water. I use a permanent OHP pen to mark a line at 10l and at 22l on the bucket. Since it is a permanent pen, it needs remarking every 5th brew or so :-) :-)
• Put the Sugar in the bucket. The treacle sugar is the best, although more expensive, since it contains a large amount of non-fermenting sugar types which adds ``body'' to the beer. The White sugar does make a decent Ale though. If money is not an object, use TWO Ale kits instead of the sugar.
• At this stage, the water in the pot should be slightly more than lukewarm, turn the can over so that the other side of the malt heats up. When the water gets hot (almost boiling) take the can out and open it, the first piercing done carefully :-) Being hot, it can be poured into the pot much easier. Clean out the can with a bit of the hot water and the spoon. Don't waste all that lovely extract! There is usually a bit of crystallised stuff at one end which comes off with a bit of the water and spoon treatment.

The Boil 

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Stir the wort in the pot. Never just dump the extract into rapidly boiling water and spend 5 minutes cleaning the can, the extract will burn. Burn't extract beer is Blecch.
• Add the Finings. (Make sure its NOT the yeast :-)
• The wort will now begin to simmer again. This is dangerous ground. Do not Multitask at this stage. Mask all Interrupts. Yes, I have had a boil-over. Once. It took a good 2 years to get rid of all that lovely schticky malt off the knobs, innards, oven, baking trays (stored in oven), warming drawer, etc. Don't.
• As the wort begins to boil it will start to foam. Keep stirring and wait until there is a fair build-up of foam before cranking down the heat to a simmering position. The foam will continue to build up through ``hot-break'' where some of the necesary chemical conversions take place.
• Once through Hot-Break, the wort will calm down, and Interrupts may be turned on again. Allow enough heat to keep it simmering, leave for a good quarter hour. This is the point at which I bottle the previous batch.
• Pour the Hot Wort into the bucket. This is sufficient to get a Cold Break effect. Then add sufficient cold water to it to make up 22l. Add this by pouring it into the pot (thus cleaning it) and thence the bucket. This will aerate the wort for the yeast's sake. (Aeration is a two-edged sword---when the wort is very hot it doesn't matter, when it's cold it doesn't matter and is beneficial to the yeast, in between you brew cardboard. The 10l of cold water ensures a low enough temp to allow aeration)
• Take your bucket to the brewing room. Highly recommended to be put on table or shelf for bottling purposes. Wait until wort reaches below about 28 degrees before sprinkling the yeast evenly over the top. Generally the wort is about this temp after all the faffing about, but wait half an hour if it makes you feel good. Alternatively buy the thermometer!. I have not found this to be critical, and always dump the yeast in immediately even in summer when your'e lucky if the tap water is below 28 :-)
• Take the Original Gravity(OG), using your hydrometer, if you have one. Should be about 1.040.

The Brew 

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Ignore instructions to the contrary. WAIT TWO FULL Weeks. Bubbling should begin the day after brewing, and stop within 5 days. In winter, I use a 40W bulb next to the bucket, under a bit of a blanket to keep it generally warmish. Yeast Autolysis will not occur in 2 weeks, don't worry! By the time that 2 weeks is over, you will effectively had a week in ``secondary ferment'' and the wort will be quite clear. You can scrape the ``crud'' off the sides as brewing goes on, but I do not find a difference in the taste, so I don't bother.

The Bottling 

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Take your Final Gravity(FG), if you have a hydrometer. Should be around 1.004. Do Not bottle if it is more than 1.008. If you have waited 2 weeks, with a 40W bulb in winter, you will be fine! Don't forget that Specific Gravity is temp dependant. (Tables avainable at...)
• Calculate your percentage alcohol: (OG-FG*1000/7) There are about 40 different ``formula's''. I use this one :-)
• Clean the bottles. TIP: Whenever you pour a beer, Wash the bottle out IMMEDIATELY, and return it, UPSIDE down to the plastic crate. I never have to wash bottles etc before bottling, just keep things nice and clean, and wipe the top of the bottle with a steri sponge before bottling!
• Put a 15mm high block of wood under one end of the bucket to tilt it towards you. Cut a 50mm piece and a 150mm piece off the supplied racking tubing. If you can find a 150mm bit of the pipe with quite a bend in it, it will cause less agitation whilst bottling. Clamp the racking cane to the bucket, taking care not disturb the yeast bed (I use a block of wood with a hole for the racking cane, and clamp the wood to the side of the bucket.) If you disturb the yeast bed, all that muck that has taken a week to settle will end up in the bottle. Any agitation that has occured can now settle while the bottles are primed:
• Now place 5ml of sugar in each bottle (Use white sugar for this as it is free-running) using the funnel. You will need two crates and three bottles, ie 27! Wipe bottle tops and crown corks with steri sponge.
• Get syphon going. Take the 50mm section of pipe and put it on the end of the stopcock, open stopcock, suck the wort up the syphon pipe until it is just beyond the stopcock. Turn off stopcock. Take off 50mm pipe, drop in steri. Take bent 150mm pipe out of steri and shove on stopcock. Proceed to fill bottles, leaving air about 30mm from neck. Ensure that the racking pipe is not admitting air at the top of the racking cane. Do not ever allow the pipe that you have sucked on get anywhere near the bottling process. Your mouth contains the dreaded ``lacto'' which is anaerobic and can happily breed in the bottle!
• Put a clean crown cork on each bottle.
• CLEAN the bucket IMMEDIATELY, using steri too. If you are not brewing immediately again, make sure it is dry, and kept upsided down in a clean place. (Well, that's for Gauteng, in Durbs, its probably better to fill it with a weak steri; otherwise the humidity will allow all sorts of gogga's)

The Conditioning 

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Open a bottle of HomeBrew.
• Wait three weeks. The more the better. Some of my 3 Month stuff has been EXCELLENT. Its not too bad after 2 weeks, but still decidedly green.

The Consuming 

• Open a bottle of HomeBrew. (Oh, Sorry, these are the instructions)
• Buy a bottle-opener. (You'd be surprised :-) Seriously, buy an el-cheapo Italian ``Thea'' type with a re-sealable cap. Keeps the beer lovely and fresh for the next day in the fridge.
• Pour carefully. Officially you should pour the whole bottle at one sitting, since it is clearer that way. But if 1) you have left in in Primary for 2 weeks, and 2) have poured carefully, and returned the bottle to the vertical carefully, the second pouring will not be terribly cloudy.

Mail me with your comments at Alan Robert Clark (clark@YingTongDiddleipo.ee.wits.ac.za)

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