Brewing a batch of beer at Kuhnhenn´s is a great learning experience and a lot of fun. There are several steps
involved, and you'll need to return to our store two weeks after you brew
(to bottle your creation), but we will guide you through every procedure.
Let's take a look at how you'll do it.
You'll first select your recipe from our extensive collection. You can choose from beers
of every type and taste, from light lagers and pilsners to rich stouts and
porters. We have a brew for everyone! If you have a particular commercial
brew you favor, one of our staff members can recommend a recipe that closely
matches (and in most cases, out-tastes!) most of the beers available in
the stores. We can even create a recipe that will meet your needs. Great beer is our specialty!
From there, it's off to Brewing World, our Home Brewing Supply Store next door to gather
your ingredients. Kuhnhenn´s provides our customers
with only the finest top-quality grains, malts, hops, and yeast. Now, it's
time to start brewing your beer!
For the most part that is how it happens, if you want more details, here's how it goes:
Select Your Recipe
With many recipes to choose from, you'll be sure to find one that's got just the
right combination of flavor, color, and body to suit you. If you're having
trouble deciding, just ask a staff member for their recommendation. They will be more than willing to help you find a recipe
based on your general tastes.
Gather Your Ingredients
Once you've selected a recipe, we'll show you where
all the ingredients are, and give you a brief overview of how to prepare
the ingredients. You'll be assigned a kettle, which will already be pre-filled
and heated. We'll also give you a detailed instruction sheet, and a copy of the recipe you've chosen to help you with your brew. As always, if you have any questions, a staff
member is available to help.
Add Ingredients To Your Kettle
If you're using a grain recipe, you'll gather and crush the grains, and
add them into the grain. While the grains steep,
you'll measure out your malt extracts and gather the hops you'll need later.
Bringing your kettle to a rolling boil, you'll slowly add the first hop
(called "boiling" or "bittering" hops). This provides
the quality of acidity which plays against the sweetness of the malt and
extract. The mixture will continue to brew. Now is a good time to remove
a small sample of the liquid from the kettle. This will be mixed with cool
water and used to re-hydrate the yeast.
Add The Finishing Hops
Back at the kettle, shortly before the completion
of the brew, you will add the second ("finishing" or "aroma")
hop to add fragrance to the brew. You may also be adding Irish Moss, a clarifying
agent, at this time.
Add The Yeast
When the brew (now properly called "wort")
is completed, you're ready to pull it off the kettle. Valves will be opened
by the staff member, and the wort will pass through a heat exchanger served
by our glycol chiller unit. The chiller immediately drops the temperature
of the wort from around 200° F to near 80° F. Our staff
member will have a lined, food-grade-plastic fermenting tank standing by,
and the wort will be directed into it for storage and fermentation. At this
point, you'll add any dry hops the recipe called for, and the yeast. The staff
member will take an initial gravity (checking for the level
of available fermentable sugars), and air-seal the fermentor. The fermentor
will then be stored in our Fermentation room until the yeast has
consumed the sugars. A few days before you return to bottle, the brew will
be taken to the 36° room, allowed to settle, and then be filtered and
carbonated. (The only exception to this last step is when the recipe calls
for bottle conditioning, which involves no filtration or carbonation, although
the beer needs to sit for two weeks after adding priming sugar for carbonation)
In two weeks, you'll return for the final steps: Bottling and Labeling.
Fermentation and Filtering
It's been two weeks since you brewed your beer, during
which time our special yeasts have been busy converting the sugars in your
brew to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During this time, the labels you chose
will have been printed for you as well. Additionally, your brew will have
been filtered and transferred from the fermenting vessel to a pressure keg
for carbonation, in preparation for the bottling phase.
Bottling
The first step is to get your bottles from a staff member. Bottles may be purchased from Brewing World (call for current prices.)
(Return brewers
bring their bottles with them.) Your brew will normally
fill 72 22-oz. ("bomber") bottles or 144 12-oz. Long Neck Bottles. You will then go to a bottling
station. As each bottle fills to the proper level, you will remove it and cap
it using one of our lever-operated cappers. If you're working with a partner,
one of you might be filling the bottles, and the other capping.
Labelling
After the bottles are capped off, you can wipe them dry and place them
in the boxes. Our labels are self-adhesive and sized to fit the large bottles,
though we recommend that for best results you apply them to dry bottles,
rather than right after you've filled the bottles. With each batch of beer,
we provide 4 sheets (24 labels) of complimentary labels, which you will
select from our standard labels. If you like, we will print your own labels
using your design, or work with you to create a special label.
After loading your bottles into their cases, one of our staff members
will help you place them in your car to take home and enjoy with friends
and family.
You may wish to allow your brew to "age" for up to two weeks,
in the bottle, to bring out the final subtle flavors.
Enjoy!