Kevin Andrew Shares the Process of Making Your Own Beer

​​​​​Since everyone is spending more time at home, we wanted to share a few unique and productive activities you can do in your free time. It’s a great time to focus on gaining new skills and hobbies, and several members of the Heaven Hill team happen to practice some very interesting activities in their free time.

You may not know that Inventory and Customer Service Manager Kevin Andrew has a very unique hobby – homebre​wing beer. Though he works for a distilled spirits company, Kevin loves to enjoy a good beer from time to time. He also enjoys cooking and decided to combine these two passions to try his hand a homebrewing. It just takes a few ingredients, some patience, and a lot of passion to create something you can easily share with family and friends when social distancing subsides. Below you’ll find two videos outlining what you will need as well as the process to brew your own “California Common” beer. ​

California Common Beer

Ingredients

• 9 lbs. 2-Row Malted Barley
• 1 lb. – Caramel 40L Malt
• 1 lb. – Victory Malt
• 2 oz. – US Northern Brewer Hops
• 1 tsp. – Irish Moss (optional)
• WYEAST 2112 California Lager Yeast
• 10 Gallons Spring Water (or good Louisville Tap water)

Specifications

• Original Gravity – 1.050
• Final Gravity – 1.014
• ABV – 4.7%
• IBU – 35
• SRM Color – 9 (Pale Amber)
• Efficiency – 70%​

Directions​

Note: Sanitation is the key to any good home brew so ensure you are sanitizing anything that will touch the beer after the boil.

Crush/Mill the grains and mix together (You can purchase grains already crushed)

Mash – We want to steep the grains in a mash tun @ 148º for 60 minutes.

• Heat 3.66 gallons (13.85 liters) of water to 160º for the strike temperature
• Add the water to your mash tun
• Slowly & steadily pour in the grains while stirring with a mash paddle at the same time, stirring is important to avoid any clumping or “dough balls”.
• Check your temperature and seal the mash tun, wait 60 minutes.

Sparge – You want to collect 6.5 gallons of wort.

• Heat 5.72 gallons (21.64 liters) of water to 175º
• Open the mash tun and ensure you have about 2 inches of liquid above the grain bed, you will want to monitor this throughout the process.
• Open the mash tun valve and run a pitcher (or multiple passes) off to ensure the liquid coming out is not full of grain.  You can slowly pour the pitcher back on top trying not to disturb the grain bed, repeat as necessary until your wort appears to be only liquid and minimal grain.
• Beginning transferring your wort into a Boil pot, slowly.
• Take your 175º water and slowly pour over your grain bed (trying not to disturb), you can use a spoon for example to create a sprinkling/spraying effect by pouring your water over top.
• Continue this process until you have your 6.5 gallons of wort in a Boil pot.

Boil – This recipe calls for a 60 minute boil.

• Place your Boil pot over heat and bring to a steady rolling boil.
• Once at a rolling boil is when the clock starts.
• Add 1 oz. US Northern Brewer hops with 60 minutes remaining (at each hop addition add them slowly and stir while doing so as to avoid boiling over which can be a mess).
• Add 0.5 oz. US Northern Brewer hops with 20 minutes remaining.
• Add 1 tsp. Irish Moss with 20 minutes remaining. (Optional)
• Add 0.5 oz. US Northern Brewer hops with 0 minutes remaining.
• Note – if you have a chiller you can add it directly to the boil with about 15-20 minutes remaining to sanitize.

Chill the Wort – You will want to remove the wort from heat and chill it down as quickly as possible.  You can utilize a chiller or even place your boil pot directly in an ice bath and stir rapidly to cool the liquid down.  For this Lager you will want to cool the wort to 60º.

Pitch the Yeast – It’s important that the wort is cooled down before pitching as to not kill the yeast. 

• Transfer your wort from the Boil pot to your Fermenter.
• Add 2112 California Lager Yeast
• Stir rapidly or use an oxygenator to promote cell growth within the yeast.
• Seal the fermenter tightly.
• Utilize an “air-lock” to keep any contamination out of the fermenter and allow it to relieve internal pressure.

Fermentation – this Lager will ferment for 7-10 days at a preferred temperature of 60º (so leave it in a basement or someplace cooler than room temperature)

Bottling

• Transfer your beer from the Fermenter into a bottling bucket.
• Utilize some priming sugar and add directly to the bottling bucket, once the bottles are sealed this will help with carbonation.
• Sanitize a bottling wand and the bottles you are going to use.
• Fill and Cap the bottles.
• It will take about a week for carbonation to build in the bottle thanks to the priming sugar, taste test is the best way to find the perfect carbonation.

Fill your fridge and enjoy with friends and family!​​