GUIDE: Here's how you can brew your own beer at home
Looking for a hobby?
Brewing your own beer is becoming increasingly popular and can even turn into a business, as evidenced by many local craft beer brands that have sprouted up over the last few years.
This alcoholic beverage is a fun and fizzy drink made from grains. By fermenting sugary extracts from grains like barley or other starchy stuff, you can make your own craft beer, which is made the old-fashioned way by small, independent breweries that focus on quality, flavor, and unique brewing techniques.
Beer comes in two main types. There are lagers, which are light and refreshing, fizzy and crisp, with a smooth and mellow taste and clean and balanced flavors; and ales, which are bold and full of flavor, fruity and aromatic, and can be more bitter with complex flavors.
Interested in learning how to brew your own beer at home?
What you'll need
Manila Mashers, an informal beer homebrewing club, recently held a homebrew class at Boondocks Brewery Corp. led by its current president, Lee David. Also in attendance was its former president, Jun Flores, who now owns Cubao X Brewery and El Depository Brewery.
According to Flores, there are two parts of homebrewing: the art side and the science side. "At the end of the day, how the beers are made is science. The art part comes in where you try to offer something different," he told PhilSTAR L!fe.
How exactly is beer made? David said it starts with water (preferably filtered with minerals for the best results) and malt that adds sweetness, flavor, and color to the beer. "Malted barley is a type of grain that you use to extract sugars from. When you mix it with water, you get the sugars from the malted barley," he explained.
In making beer, you would also need hops that gives beer some spice, bitterness, and aroma as well as yeast that eats sugar and turns it into alcohol and bubbles.
Make sure to have the necessary tools like a brew pot, fermenter, thermometer, airlock, and cleaning supplies to get started.
Knowing the basic ingredients and equipment can go a long way in your first trials. Keep it simple at the start.
Step-by-step
There are different steps when it comes to homebrewing, and the fun part is learning how to do it properly until you have it down pat. From there, you can start to experiment.
- Milling and mashing: Crack open the barley kernels, but don’t grind them into dust. Mix the barley with hot water (60–68°C) to turn the starches into sugar.
- Lautering and sparging: Separate the sugary liquid (called wort) from the solids. Rinse the mash with hot water to get every last bit of sugar.
- Boiling: Boil the wort for 60 to 90 minutes to kill any unwanted bacteria and add hops for flavor. Adding hops at different times gives different results—bitter at the start, and fruity or aromatic at the end.
- Chilling and pitching yeast: Cool the wort fast to prevent contamination, lock in flavors, and keep your beer fresh. Add yeast once it’s cool enough.
- Fermentation and conditioning: Let the yeast do its thing. It eats the sugar, creating alcohol and bubbles that turns it into beer. After fermentation, leave the beer to mature for a few days.
The Manila Mashers Club suggests using fresh ingredients since fresh malt, hops, and yeast make better beer as well as keeping your tools and hands clean to avoid contamination during the homebrewing process.
If you're planning to turn it into a business, David pointed out that while it's much easier now than a decade ago due to technological advances, it can still be difficult as it could take a lot of time. "But whether you continue with the hobby or not, it's still good because those people who never homebrew again will still drink commercially available craft beers. And those who develop a passion for it can continue on and put up their own brands," he told L!fe.
Homebrewing is fun and creative—so, grab your ingredients, follow the steps, and start brewing your very own beer.
