Brewing Beer at Home

A delicious Grapefruit Bavarian Hefeweizen formula

By Micah Simmerman

Topics: brewing your own beer at home, instructions to brew beer, beer how, how to make beer

Answers: What is the easiest beer making? What is the hardest beer to brew at home?

The following instruction article about brewing your own beer will tell you everything you need to know to make delicious Grapefruit Bavarian Hefeweizen at home.

Brewing Beer at Home: Brewing Day

What you will need:

• 7 gallon plastic fermentation bucket with sealing lid and rubber airlock grommet
• A plastic airlock that fits your brewer’s bucket lid
• A self-sealing bulk head nozzle to fit the brewer’s bucket (tested ahead of time)
• A homebrewing wort chiller (immersion chiller) with polyethylene tubing
• A small water pump with an output nozzle to match the wort chiller tubing
• A container to hold cold water, such as a medium sized pot
• Two 3.3lb cans of wheat liquid malt extract (LME)
• 1lb of wheat dry malt extract (DME)
• Large brew kettle, approximately 5 gallons in volume
• 18” plastic homebrewing spoon
• Potable water (tap water is fine)
• One packet of brewer’s yeast
• One step instant sanitizing powder
• A one gallon water jug that has only held water
• 1 to 2 ounces of hop pellets (depending on bitterness preference)
• Two red grapefruits, washed
• A citrus reamer
• A citrus zester

Fill your brew kettle with approximately 3 gallons of tap water and bring it to boil on a hot stove top set to a level of 10/10. Bring the pot to a boil and add 3.3lb can of liquid malt extract. Stir vigorously to dissolve the LME completely, then bring the pot back up to a boil and reduce the heat to 8/10. Carefully add an ounce of hop pellets and stir it into the wort. Activate a timer set for 60 minutes.

Continue stirring the wort until 30 minutes are left on the timer then begin reaming and zesting the grapefruits. I like to use a coffee cup to collect the juice and the zest. You don’t need to be precise at this point, just collect as much juice and zest as you want to add to your beer. You can add more hops into the wort at this step if you feel like it.

When there are 20 minutes left on the timer, vigorously add an additional 3.3lb can of LME, followed by the DME. Continue stirring until you achieve a complete dissolution of the added ingredients. At this point your wort should smell pretty good, and you can add the grapefruit juice and zest that you collected earlier. Almost there!

When the timer ends, turn off the stove top and move the brew kettle to the side. Mix up a gallon of the one-step sanitizer according to the instructions, then take apart the air lock, bulkhead nozzle and the other small parts that will be used to ferment your beer and immerse them in sanitizer solution. Soak a clean wash cloth in sanitizer and use it to wipe down the surfaces of your brew bucket and lid. You should also sanitize your wort chiller at this point.

Connect the sanitized wort chiller to the water pump using the (also sanitized) tubing you had on hand when you started. When you are certain that the contact surfaces of your equipment are clean and sterile, immerse the wort chiller into the hot wort, fill the container holding the water pump with cold tap water, and turn on the pump. The outflow from the wort chiller should be pointed toward the drain of your sink.

While you are waiting for the wort to chill to room temperature, it is a good time to sterilize your bucket and strainer bag in one step sanitizer. Wipe down all surfaces of the brewing bucket with a clean cloth and sanitizer (again), and assemble the bulk head nozzle securely to the bucket, making sure to close the valve. Sanitize your bucket lid with the damp sanitizer cloth, pouring sanitizer into any hard-to-reach areas and coating the entire surface evenly. Allow the bucket and lid to drip-dry, and then insert the rubber grommet into the bucket lid. Squeeze out your strainer bag, which should be immersed in one-step sanitizer at this point, and let the net drip-dry on a sterilized surface while you progress to the next step.

Let the water circulate through the wort chiller (you may have to refill it with cold water a few times) until the side of the brewing kettle feels cool to the touch. Insert the strainer bag into the plastic brewing bucket, using the drawstring to secure it to the top of the rim. Move your wort chiller coil into the sink and pour the wort into the bucket through the strainer bag. Wash and sanitize your hands, then remove the strainer bag and squeeze it’s contents back into the bucket until no more liquid escapes.

Fill the fermentation bucket with tap water to the 6 gallon water mark and use the clean and sanitized homebrewing spoon to mix the contents thoroughly. Pitch the packet of yeast into the wort mixture and stir it until it dissolves. Wipe the rim of the bucket with a clean sanitizer rag to remove any sticky wort residue, then give your bucket lid a quick once-over with a sanitizer rag and seal the container. Fill the air lock to the line with sanitizer, then assemble it and insert it into the bucket lid rubber grommet.

Place the fermenter in a clean, dark, quiet place. Leave the bucket overnight, then come back to check on it the next morning. The airlock will likely be full of beer at this point, so you should soak another clean rag in sanitizer and clean up the bucket lid. Clean and sanitize the rag again, using it to cover the grommet hole of the lid while you clean and refill the airlock with fresh sanitizer solution. Do this as many times as needed until the airlock is no longer filling with beer.

Ferment for 10 days.

Brewing Beer at Home: Bottling Day

What you will need:

• Three (24 pack) cases of reusable beer bottles
• 70+ bottle caps
• A bottle cap crimper (with high preference for the lever action variety)
• One-step sanitizer powder
• A set of very clean hands
• Corn sugar (AKA dextrose or charging sugar)
• An accurate kitchen scale that can weigh in ounces

You are going to need about 70 bottles for this step. Make sure the bottles are as clean as possible and give all of them a rinse in one-step sanitizer.

Bring approximately one and a half cups of tap water to a boil. Add 3.72 ounces of corn sugar and mix until it fully dissolves. Then place the hot container into an ice water bath to cool to room temperature and move on to the next step.

Carefully open the lid and mix in the corn sugar solution, then stir well making sure that everything is evenly mixed. The next step won’t work with an air lock attached, so use a clean sanitizer rag to cover the grommet hole. Place as many beer bottle tops as you will need in a small container (e.g., a mixing bowl) filled with sanitizer solution. If you haven’t already done so, it is a good idea to wipe clean and sanitize the counter tops that you will be working on.

Find yourself a comfy section of countertop where you will be comfortable filling and crimping bottle caps for the next hour or so. Usually this involves keeping an empty bottle case nearby to place the filled bottles into it when you are done filling and crimping with them. Rinse the bulkhead nozzle with sanitizer thoroughly before you get started (a good rule is 3 times). Then, fill each bottle to the neck with beer and crimp it with a sanitized cap.

Brewing Beer at Home: Carbonation

Place the filled bottles in a cold, cooled area for a period of about 2 weeks. Remember to fully refrigerate your beer before you drink it, as this step is essential for good carbonation. Enjoy!