Introduction
This is a simple beginners beer recipe for a Pale Ale with step-by-step instructions for someone new to brewing. Learning to brew beer can also start by using a beer kit, but if you’re looking to graduate from a kit or if you want to make beer from scratch without spending a lot of money on equipment, please continue reading. This will use the Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method on a stovetop.
There are many exceptions to what is written below, which is fine, so long as it is understood that this is a beginners beer recipe. It’s aimed at developing a basic understanding of the overall process, with the goal of making drinkable beer.
The Basics
Beer has four ingredients and is made in a four-step process.
The four ingredients are:
- Water – if your tap water is drinkable and doesn’t smell funny, use it. Else, use bottled water.
- Malt – crushed/milled malt (preferred), but you can use Dry Malt Extract (DME) or Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
- Hops – whole dried leaf hops or hop pellets (also called T-90)
- Yeast – dried (preferred), but you could use liquid yeast instead.
The four steps in the process are:
- Mash* – letting the malt sit at around 67oC (153oF) for a period of time to get the sugar out
- Lauter* (or Sparge) – separating the wort (i.e., sugar water) from the grains
- Boil – done for sanitation, water reduction, and production of bittering compounds from the hops
- Ferment – yeast consuming most of the sugar to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol.
*If you are using DME or LME instead of malt, steps one and two are skipped.
You will need the equipment and ingredients for the recipe as follows. Leave yourself plenty of time and make sure you have everything together before you start.