Do It! Brew It Yourself!

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After the yeast is added, continue to pour cold water into the jug until the liquid reaches a point about five or six inches from the top. (The upper portion of the jug is left empty to allow room for the head of foam that will form.)

Once the brew is ready to "work", it's time to insert the stopper and air trap into the jug's opening (if you use a commercial air trap, don't forget to put water in it). Then, place the container somewhere dark but not too cool. Beer takes much longer to brew if the temperature is chilly.

One easy way to make sure your homemade suds are kept in the dark is to construct a nightie out of a big paper bag. Just cut a hole—a little larger than the jug's neck—in the center of the sack's bottom. Then turn the bag upside down, slip it over your container of working beer, and you've got yourself some inexpensive shade.

With your jug stowed away, all you have to do is wait. . . and, occasionally, count the number of bubbles per minute that rise through the air trap. These bubbles will peak at 60 to 100 per minute. The "working time" for a batch of beer varies according to the surrounding temperature and the ingredients used, but my fermentation process usually takes about a week to reach the "bottling point" of three bubbles a minute.

CONTAINERS AND CAPS

If you plan to mix up five gallons of home brew, you'll need 48 clean, 12-ounce bottles. Of course, you could simply buy two cases of beer and empty 'em yourself, but it's less expensive to purchase the bottles—already empty—from a party store. Or, better yet, you could pick them up at a recycling center or scrounge them from your beer-drinking friends.

Whatever the source, you must soak the bottles in a weak bleach and hot water solution, scour their insides with a bottle brush, and then rinse them well with hot water.

Then, of course, you'll need some way to get the beer into the bottles. I've found that a siphon hose (which is simply a flexible piece of plastic tubing) is the best tool for this job. Another accessory that will come in handy is a flow-stop clip ... a simple gadget that slips over the hose and can stop the flow of liquid without breaking the siphoning action.

There are at least two types of bottle cappers on the market that can be used to seal your new brew. The first (and simplest) of these is a hand-held device that uses a hammer to drive the cap in place. I doubt that anyone would go out of his or her way to use one of these things, though.

There's a much better little machine that looks something like a shotgun shell loader. To use this capper, just lay a crown cap on the bottle, place the vessel under the piston, and pull down firmly on the machine's handle. Such a model will cost you between $10 and $15—which is a lot—but the capper does a nice job and will last for the rest of your beer-drinking days. You'll find this handy item at winemaking shops, in many hardware stores, and through Sears and Roebuck outlets.

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