beer-brewing-kit

I love craft beer. And like most of my pas­sions, there comes a point when I want to know what makes it tick, or in this case ferment.

So late last year I sought out one of Knoxville’s two home­brew sup­ply stores to find out if I could really brew beer as good as that I bought off the shelf.

The answer: Not yet, but I’m get­ting there. But it’s cer­tainly bet­ter than any­thing from Bud­weiser, Mich­e­lob, or Coors.

Where to find home­brew sup­plies in Knoxville

Knoxville’s two home­brew sup­ply stores are well located for res­i­dents liv­ing near down­town or out west. Both offer all the equip­ment and ingre­di­ents you’ll need to get started in addi­tion to brew­ing more com­plex beers.

Allen Bier­mak­ens is the older of the two, hav­ing been around some 35 years, and is located off Chap­man High­way just south of Down­town in Vestal.

But folks in West Knoxville will be more con­vi­nent to Fer­ment Sta­tion, located just off Kingston Pike near the Cedar Bluff inter­sec­tion. This store is decid­edly more upscale then Allen Bier­mak­ens, though this isn’t say­ing a lot for a home­brew supply.

Both stores offer a sim­i­lar assort­ment of wine and beer mak­ing equip­ment, books, kits and ingre­di­ents at a price com­pet­i­tive to any­thing I’ve found on the Inter­net. And it’s hard to beat first-hand trou­bleshoot­ing when that IPA you just tasted doesn’t quite stand up right.

What you’ll need to get started homebrewing

Like most things in life, you have two choices here: read the instruc­tions, or dive in blind. If you’re of the for­mer, pick up a copy of The Com­plete Joy of Home­brew­ing by Char­lie Papaz­ian. (Even if you’re of the lat­ter you should still get this book; it’s that good.)

The more adven­tur­ous types can get started right away with a the pur­chase of both an equip­ment and malt-extract kit. I went this route, and found every­thing quite easy to use.

Think­ing back, I found the ingre­di­ent kits a lit­tle too easy. You’ll have more fun buy­ing the malt extract, hops and yeast indi­vid­u­ally to make a recipe, many of which are in the book I mentioned.

The process of homebrewing

Brew­ing can be a sim­ple process or a very com­plex one. But here’s the gist for a new­bie (mak­ing five gallons):

  1. Clean your equip­ment (san­i­ta­tion is very important)
  2. Boil water
  3. Add malt extract and hops
  4. Add more hops *
  5. Add even more hops *
  6. Sparge, or pour/strain, your wort (the boiled liq­uid from pre­vi­ous steps) into your carboy/bucket filled with the appro­pri­ate amount of water
  7. Let cool to a degree called for by your yeast
  8. Pitch, or add, your yeast
  9. Add your air­lock or blow-off hose to your fermenter
  10. Let sit until the fer­men­ta­tion process ends
  11. Rack, or trans­fer, your fer­mented beer into a prim­ing con­tainer with a lit­tle corn sugar
  12. Bot­tle
  13. Let rest for two to three weeks
  14. Enjoy!

* Depends wildly on the recipe you use. I love hops!

Brew­ing your own beer is cheaper than buy­ing craft beer after the ini­tial equip­ment pur­chase. But if you’re a Coors Light kinda drinker, you’ll prob­a­bly scoff at $30 to $50 for ingre­di­ents to make a five gal­lon batch.

Brew­ing beer takes time and patience. But when fin­ished, you’ll under­stand more about the process involved in one of the world’s old­est and favorite bev­er­ages. And you’ll have a won­der­ful prod­uct to call your own.

Share your home­brew story

I’m on my third batch of beer cur­rently, hav­ing gone after two IPAs and a Ger­man Pils (still in the fer­ment­ing stage). Each batch has been notice­ably bet­ter than the last, and none awful.

Have you brewed your own beer or wine? Post your expe­ri­ence in the comments!

Also, think about join­ing the Ten­nessee Val­ley Home­brew­ers. These folks don’t mess around with their beer — the sam­ples I’ve had rival any­thing you can buy off the shelf. And it’s a great com­mu­nity to boot.

Knoxville brew­ing links

Creative Commons License Photo by bill­read