How to brew beer?

Question

How do you do it, how long does it take, how much money does it cost to start out, and how much does it cost per bottle?

Answer 1

That's a lot of questions. I'll try to be consice and clear.

Set aside about four hours for both brewing and bottling.

Two weeks for fermenttaion two weeks conditioning in the bottle before drinking.

Stanard kit @ $135 including ingredients (remember you keep on re-using a lot of your first purchase.

About $1.50 per bottle when all is said and done.

Sam Adams.com has a video on the basics of brewing. Use it as a guide

williamsbrewing has some good kits but try to find a local brew shop

Tip: use two buckest each with one spigot, trust me it's worth it.

Answer 2

Pay strict attention to sanitation. The biggest cause of bad homebrew is contamination. ANYTHING that touches the beer must be sanitized (containers, thermometers, bottles, caps, tools, etc.) or you risk infection. It will not kill you if you drink the beer, but it will taste bad.

The biggest goof-up is usually like laying the thermometer down on the counter for "just a second" and putting it back in your brew. Instant risk of contamination!

Answer 3

Cost per bottle is nowhere near $1.50(at least for 12oz bottles...it is close for 24oz bottles)
Here is what I pay when I make 5 gallons of IPA
Yeast-7.20
hops-7.55(for an IPA which has lots of hops
grain-10.85
hop sock-free
burton water salts-1.00
8 gallons of reverse osmosis water-2.00
propane and CO2(I keg)- about 2.00
grand total including tax=$33.20
assuming you end up with 50 beers, this costs 66 cents per beer.If you brew carefully, it will cost 66.6 per bottle---making it an evil beer....mmmmmm....evil. If you are brewing with extract and bottle conditioning the beer(which is common for beginners due to less equipment needed), the cost per beer will increase slightly because you will need to buy bottle caps and priming sugar. Expect to make beer this way for about 75 cents per beer. Even at 75 cents per beer, that is $4.50 per six pack, tax included. My first two batches of beer sucked, but my third was better than anything I could buy at the grocery store.
From start to finish, you will have "beer" in about 4 weeks, but you should give the beer more time than that, depending on style of beer. 5 weeks is minimum for best results.

Answer 4

You best bet is to go down to your local homebrew shop and talk to them. You'll find them most helpful, at least I've yet to find a homebrew shop that didn't welcome new potential customers with open arms.

They will be able to set you up with everything you need. You'll probably put about $75.00 to $100.00 out as an initial investment for the basic equipment and bottles.

Follow their advice to the letter. One of the problems that homebrew hobbiests have is trying to take shortcuts. If you perform each step, you'll be able to produce some very good beers at home.

Answer 5

Howtobrew.com was my starting point. I'm about 300 dollars into setup, another 500 I should be good to go. I'm building a kegger-freezer though.

If you want to try your hand at it and cheap, pick up a brewing kit.

Answer 6

Here is a great how-to on beer brewing.

http://www.howtobrew.com/images/home/title-home.gif

Cheers!

Answer 7

'How to brew beer'

at howtobrew.com