Beer. I love it. And someone who loves me got me the Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Kit as well as their Beer Making Book
I love the story of the couple behind the kit making beer in their Brooklyn apartment and turning that into a business (why didn’t I think of this?). The design of the kit, the book, and the website are all well done. As a designer, I appreciate the quality and craft that appear to have gone into their product and service. While their recipe instructions and how to brew video are helpful, I thought I’d share me experience to help the other newbies out there, as I did have a few unanswered questions and difficulties.
Pre-Brew
It took me an hour or more just to orient myself around the directions and the preparation, which mostly involves sanitizing all the equipment. This does not include the time I spent days earlier reading about the few items I needed to supply (medium pot, funnel, and metal strainer) and buying a new pot.
The kit comes with sanitizer called C-Brite. There are some amazingly scary warnings on that tiny little packet. From my recollection, it said that if it touches your skin or your eyes or your clothes or you even breath the wrong way while handling the sanitizer YOU WILL DIE. This scared me a bit, so I used rubber gloves after asking my girlfriend* to search the Internet for C-Brite related deaths (she didn’t find any). Though in the video above, you will see they don’t use gloves. (*I highly recommend a partner to help decipher instructions, hold pots, and other two-brained, four-handed tasks.)
Also, I didn’t have enough ice that would be needed for the ice bath later in the process. So I had to run to the local shop (fortunately 100 feet from my apartment) to get a bag of ice.
Finally, I could not figure out how it was possible to make beer in just one pot, as the book suggested was possible, or two, which they recommend. My best guess was that it would take at least three pots (I was correct).
After a good hour of doing all this and stressing myself out, I was ready to make some beer!
The Mash
Here you can see two of the pots I needed. The first for mashing in the malt. The second for the water needed for the sparge.
The mash was supposed to look like oatmeal, and it did. Early success!
For an hour I monitored the temperature to ensure it stayed between 144 and 152 degrees Fahrenheit. As indicated, I did not need to keep the heat on after adding the malt.
The Sparge
The real trouble came during the sparge phase, where I needed to separate the grains from the wort (If you don’t understand these terms, neither did I. But the recipe book is super helpful.). I needed to pour the mash through a strainer to collect the grains. But as the mash was in pot 1, and pot 2 contained water that was trying to reach 170 degrees Fahrenheit, I used a third pot to catch the wort.
I then put the strainer full of grains over pot 1 and poured the wort from pot 3 over the grains. Then I poured the water from pot 2 over the grains. Then I recirculated the wort through the grains as indicated.
In conclusion, I recommend three pots. (Ideally, each of these are 6 to 10 quarts. But I suggest two of them be at least 8 quarts.)
The Boil
Now I had wort! Yippee! Smelled like a brewery or sour bread. The next step involved boiling and adding the hops. No real trouble there, except I got scared by the warning in the instructions to make sure to keep it at a low boil. As soon as it got to a crazy boil, which took 45 minutes, I turned the heat down. Later, I wondered if this was a mistake, as the video shows crazy boiling.
Anyway hops smell great! These are cascade hops.
After the boil, cooling worked just as instructed: an ice cold bath.
Fermentation
When it cooled, I funneled the liquid into the fermenter and learned that I wanted a larger funnel and a finer strainer. But I had plenty of liquid to fill the fermenter, so it was all good. You can see the sanitizer liquid in the container to the left of the sink. At this point in the process, I needed to sanitize this and that as well as my hands a lot. I ended up overcoming my fears of death and dipping my hands in the sanitizer mixture. And I didn’t die. So that was good. I guess touching the powder will kill you, but after it’s dissolved in water it won’t. Either that or I’m super human.
Here you see my fermenting beer, just after adding the yeast. Nothing exciting happened until the following morning, when whirling and twirling bubbles flew around inside the fermenter like a violent storm. I hope that means it’s working!
All in all, it took me about four hours. I learned a lot about beer in the process. And I’ve likely changed my understanding of beer for life. In two to three days the bubbling will stop, and I’ll remove the tube and cap it. Then I’ll put it in a dark place for 11 days. Then bottle. The wait another two weeks.
Afterwards, I looked up other recipes, suppliers, and kits. I’m glad I got this one. I really dig the one-gallon jug. It makes about 10 beers. That seems like a good amount for me and my San Francisco apartment. I am considering a second kit so I can get two different recipes going and have new beer every two weeks or so instead of every month.
If you are new to this or just interested, I hope this was helpful. If you’re an expert and noticed a glaring fault in my process, please let me know!
Comments
39 responses to “Making Beer with the Brooklyn Brew Shop Kit”
Thank you for this blog. I’ve been think about making beer for a while. Will get the appropriate tools for the evening, thank again.
Thank you so much for posting this and for the pictures! My experience was identical to yours, on every single point and comment! I couldn’t have written it any differently :-) My 4 hours of fun were on Dec 29. But now I’m a bit nervous and worried because it looks like nothing is going on now. I have a big pile of something (yeast, sludge, ?) in the bottom. the liquid has a beautiful color but nothing else is chnaging day to day. Or maybe it’s just subtle changes I won’t notice until next week. I would be happy to send you a picture of my beer so we can compare. How can I do that?
Michele, I only noticed the yeast working for the first two days, when there were lots of bubbles. After that stopped, I removed the tubing and capped it as instructed. Between that point and bottling, I didn’t notice any physical changes.
Hi Jamin. I received and am currently fermenting the same set as a gift and after reading your blog and looking at the pics you took a majority of my concerns have been relieved. Quick question though, at what point did you see the bubbling stop (or in the site’s words the vigorous bubbling subsided) and put in the airlock? It hasn’t been quite 24 hours yet since I put it in the fermentor and was wondering what your experience was.
Scott, I put the airlock on two days after adding the beer to the fermenter. That’s when the head on top of the beer cleared up.
Hi Jamin,
Making my first batch (of Chestnut Brown Ale minus the chestnuts). The stuff was as active as a freshly poured Guinness this morning (not a whole lot of head though), but now after only 24 hours its settled down with a bubble every 5 seconds or so. So I went ahead and moved on to “step 2” and put it in the closet with the airlock. I’m concerned that I didn’t get close to the 2-3 days before it settled down and afraid I may have contaminated it and killed yeast or something. Also that my closet may be too warm. Well, guess I’ll know more in a month. Thanks for the site, didn’t get the book and your photos were helpful.
Joe
I just got my kit with the Chestnut Brown Ale mix. I was wondering, why does the beer making mix come with the hops and yeast already in there? I thought that this kit was not premixed and you actually added the hops and yeast at different periods of the brewing process?
The yeast and hops are separate. They should be in their own pouches within the grain bag.
I actually just realized that. I thought the packets in the bag were some type of keeping the malt fresh packets. It makes sense now. Anyway, looking forward to making my first batch this weekend. I only have one 6 quart pot and a 2.5 quart pot. Looks like I need at least another 6 quart pot?
Yes. 2.5 quarts won’t be big enough. Also, you may want to go with 8+ because the strainer may dip into your wert when sparging if your pot isn’t deep enough.
Hey Jamin,
Going to spend today brewing for the first time! I have a question about the C-Brite that comes with the kit. I don’t see instructions on the package so I am not sure how much to use. Do I use the whole packlet? How much water?
Thanks!
Gerry
Are you following the instructions?
“Dissolve half of your C-Brite packet with a gallon of water in a container. Save the second half for when you bottle.”
I only used C Brite the first time, as you need to make sure you rinse everything. Star San is better, as it’s no rinse. I’ve that for the last three batches.\
Good luck!
Oh ok, got it. So you just rinse the C-Brite off with tap water?
Thanks again.
That’s what I did. Seemed to work.
Sweet! Thanks for all the info. One last question that I don’t believe has been covered here, HOW WAS THE BEER?!!!
Thank you for posting your pics and tips. This is not an easy process and you definitely have to “study” before you even begin. I was unsure of if the rubber tube in the “blow off” portion should be placed in the wort liquid or airspace between wort and top of the gallon bottle?? Can’t tell by the pic. Thank you!!
Katie, do not put the blow off tube in the wort. You will learn by doing. Throw yourself into it. Good luck!
I completed my first batch of Everyday IPA and it turned out awesome. I made sure to follow the instructions carefully and have been totally stoked by the entire process. Tonight we are having the inlaws over for my beer and I really couldn’t be happier with how it came out. My only concern during fermentation was that I didn’t have a lot of foam (krausen) in my carboy like a lot of YouTube videos but it ended up fine. Good luck to everyone thinking about dipping your toe into homebrewing because it is incredibly fulfilling.
Mine came without yeast what do I do?
You’re going to need yeast. Either pick some up at a brew supply shop, go to northernbrewer.com, or contact the Brooklyn Brew Shop or return it.
What other necessary “tools” (bottles, funnel, etc…) are required that are not included in the kit?
I picked up a large mesh strainer, a small bucket for sparging, a funnel, bottles and bottle caps, a spring tip bottle filler.
Finished my first Chestnut Brown Ale and it was absolutely horrible. It’s my fault however. I think I either forgot to sanitize a pot, didn’t sanitize long enough, didn’t shake the carboy long enough adding sufficient O2 to the wort, OR my blow off valve wasn’t air tight. Who knows..but ACK. Horrible. Also, I recommend when bottling that you mix the honey with warm water so it will dissolve and pay attention to how much beer you have in the carboy. <1 gallon use less honey/sugar.
I screwed this up because the honey didn't dissolve well and consequently some of my beers were over carbonated and some were under.
Hey Steve,
Glad to hear you didn’t have a ton of krausen. If you were looking up other kits, some people say it crept up their blowoff hose… and here I have just a few stains on the side of the glass. So I was worried! Good to know It’s over nothing.
I got my kit as a christmas gift and am excited to start. Im looking at double fine strainers. What size are you using?
I bought the biggest one I could find in stores. I believe it’s about 9 inches in diameter, which is big enough for 90 percent of the recipes in the book. I only have problems when I’m working with more than four pounds of grain, which is needed for some of the high alcohol or 90 minute recipes. Still, it’s manageable for those as well, if I’m careful. Good luck!
Thanks for taking pictures and jotting all of this down. WAY MORE helpful than Brooklyn Brewery’s idiotic and vague videos. Really appreciate it.
It says to use 1 quart of water per pound for the mix, but how many pounds is the bag of mixer?
Amanda,
Are you referencing a Brooklyn Brew recipe? Do you mean for the mash? Most recipes call for between 2 to 4 pounds of grain. I don’t think the recipe kits tell you how much grain you’re starting with. I haven’t made beer from the kit in two years. The majority of the recipes start with 2 quarts of water.
Hope that helps!
Yes, it comes in a bag and doesn’t say how much is in it! Thank you
Thank you SO MUCH for this! Just about to buy the kit for my brother-in-law for Christmas and your guide will be invaluable.
I would definitely second the “you need three pots” approach. The instructions say you need one, and two would be good, but you really do need three.
Nice job on this. An alternative I use for these small batches to needing 3 pots is a Grain Bag. I can lift all of the grain out of the mash and put the bag into my strainer. I can then pour the water over the grain while it is still in the bag. I then take the bag and gently teabag it an the grain back into the water to get the extra sugars out and then replace the bag into the strainer after to let the rest of the water drip back into the pot while I prepare my ice bath.
Thanks! It’s been a long time and many brews since this post. I have definitely refined my process. I too now have a grain bag. It works great!
Thank you so much for this blog post. The only thing missing from their site and documentation is how to store for the first 2 days. I see here you did not store it in the dark for the first two days.
Armand, I think I took that photo before I put the fermentor in the closet, which is where I usually keep it. And not just for two days, but for the first two weeks. Then bottle. Then I usually keep those in a cool, dark place till they’re ready to drink.
I think I understand, and it certainly makes sense to have a third pot to catch the wort. Using the plastic tub for the ice bath is a good idea (luckily for me, my fridge door has one of those ice-making things).
Question: what kind of bottles did you use? I was thinking of sterilizing and recycling 12-ounce Budweiser bottles. Also, what kind of capper are you using, 26mm or 28mm. My guess is that, with Bud bottles, you’d use 26mm caps.
When I started, I recycled bottles from various beers. For a bottle capper, I use this.
Excellent review. My first brew. I only got 8 bottles. Should I have filled the jug to the One Gallon imprints? Did not take me long in the boil and sparge process to throw in pot 3… My grandson gave me kit for Xmas and he was wise to include a nice funnel -strainer which reviews on Amazon suggested.. Bottled this morning, wort smelled great. Friend is a bee keeper and I had his honey which bees collect from our palm tree fruits in spring, an awesome rich honey.