Yup, just got it going last weekend.
Without getting too technical, you boil 1.5 gallons of water with about 10 lbs of malt extract syrup for 1 hour, adding hops at predetermined times. Then you cool the wort (unfermented beer) as rapidly as possible, pour it into a sanitized 6 gallon glass jug, add 3.5 gallons water, and add the yeast. After the yeast is in, you top the jug with an airlock (filled with water, lets CO2 escape while keeping oxygen and bacteria out) and let it sit and ferment for 2 weeks or so.
After that you dump it into another glass jug, minus the dormant yeast laying on the bottom. Another 2 weeks or so to sit and clarify, letting all the solids drop out.
When that's done it gets put in the keg and force carbonated (ready to consume immediately) or mixed with simple syrup and bottled. The remaining yeast chew up the simple sugars in the bottle which naturally carbonates the beer.
Presto, there you have it. One batch makes approx 2 cases (48 bottles) of beer!
I'm gonna grow some hops this summer, now if I could just figure out how to grow my own barley.
Without getting too technical, you boil 1.5 gallons of water with about 10 lbs of malt extract syrup for 1 hour, adding hops at predetermined times. Then you cool the wort (unfermented beer) as rapidly as possible, pour it into a sanitized 6 gallon glass jug, add 3.5 gallons water, and add the yeast. After the yeast is in, you top the jug with an airlock (filled with water, lets CO2 escape while keeping oxygen and bacteria out) and let it sit and ferment for 2 weeks or so.
After that you dump it into another glass jug, minus the dormant yeast laying on the bottom. Another 2 weeks or so to sit and clarify, letting all the solids drop out.
When that's done it gets put in the keg and force carbonated (ready to consume immediately) or mixed with simple syrup and bottled. The remaining yeast chew up the simple sugars in the bottle which naturally carbonates the beer.
Presto, there you have it. One batch makes approx 2 cases (48 bottles) of beer!
I'm gonna grow some hops this summer, now if I could just figure out how to grow my own barley.