Chapter 1: Brewing Basics

Join us as we dive into the wonderful world of brewing with Ryan and Walter Bowne. Ryan, an engineer with a passion for brewing, particularly enjoys crafting robust meads, while my daughter, Katherine, is pursuing her doctorate in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Katherine shares my enthusiasm for hops—like my wife, Mary Jane, who is affectionately dubbed a "Hop Head." My fondness for hops leads me to employ a technique known as End Hopping: sprinkling dried hop flowers atop the pour, reminiscent of garnishing with parsley, or rubbing hops around the glass's rim like a sweet cinnamon-sugar blend (though I’m not sure if it will catch on).

In today’s session, we will explore two crucial stages of brewing: steeping the grains and sparging. Our goal is to create a flavorful brown ale named after my Irish wife, called The Murphy Brown—much to her chagrin, as she’s not fond of the old TV series that shares its name.

Steeping grains is akin to brewing tea. We fill a bucket with water and allow the grains to soak for an hour, enabling the sugars to separate and infuse some flavor into the liquid.

Before I forget, I make use of the spent grains for my worm composters, ensuring that nothing goes to waste while I cultivate my own hops and grains. My worms thrive on this organic matter!

Next, we move on to sparging the grains—this process involves running water through the grains to extract any remaining sugars. If we keep the grains bundled, the sugars would remain trapped inside. Once we’ve finished sparging, we bring the grains to a vigorous boil for about an hour. Just like brewing tea, if the water isn't boiling, you won't achieve the desired flavor.

At different intervals during this boiling process, we'll be adding our hops—yes, we have plenty of hops, but that’s a topic for Part II.

Ryan has gifted me hop plants that are flourishing along the side of my house. I use twine to train the vines, and nourish them with worm tea and compost. Harvesting them requires a ladder!

Once the boiling is complete, we cool the mixture, known as "wort." As I learned from various brewing videos, we chill the wort by adding ice. After it reaches room temperature, we take a gravity reading, pitch the yeast, and let it ferment for two weeks. The fermentation time varies based on the type of brew.

High ABV beers command a higher price due to their superior ingredients and longer brewing process. For instance, if you prefer Coors Light, I can whip that up in an hour—but you'll probably want to pour it down the drain or use it for some Near-Beer Bread.

In the video titled "Episode #4: Unsung Heroes with Micah Overton (Lilypad) | The Business of Beer," we delve deeper into the nuances of brewing and the craft behind creating unique flavors.

Moving on, we need to prepare three gallons of water—48 cups in total. Ryan typically uses a container marked with gallons for accuracy. While brewing isn't an exact science, having a guideline is beneficial. We're making a brown ale using five different grains, with the base being Pale Male Maris Otter (8 lbs), complemented by Vienna Malt and two varieties of Caramel Malts, as well as Roasted Barley Malts (4 oz each).

My fondness for brown ales dates back to my time in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at university, but nowadays, with so many exceptional options available, it's hard to settle on just one—especially with the popularity of stouts and Double Dry Hopped IPAs.

If you're looking for brewing supplies, I recommend searching for a local Brewery Supply Store. The guy I rely on, known as Fish, is incredibly helpful—just be careful not to jam his grinding machine!

After purchasing four types of base grains in bulk last year, I now have them stored securely in large containers in my garage—similar to those used for bulk dog food.

We need to give our pot a quick rinse. It still carries the delightful aroma of brewing. So, we measure out three gallons of water—something I picked up on Amazon. We’ve changed our bottling process, which we’ll discuss on bottling day.

Now, we turn our attention to Pacific Gravity, which helps determine the alcohol content. I didn’t grasp the concept of gravity until recently, and I’m still unsure about degrees Plato—it might relate to some philosophical king, who knows?

We’re almost at the three-gallon mark—probably a different gravity measurement is involved here.

As we prepare to turn this water into stout—without any miracles or divine intervention—we’re ready to move on. Let’s add some heat until we reach 150 degrees for steeping. I’ll cover the pot and monitor the temperature with my thermometer, which should take about ten minutes.

I asked Ryan if that’s enough time to crack open a beer. “Absolutely,” he replied.

Thus concludes Part One of our brewing journey. Much like preparing ham and bean soup from scratch, brewing beer is a lengthy process. But while we wait, let’s chat, crack open a brew, and enjoy the experience. Sláinte!

There’s an abundance of excellent books on home brewing and various local Home Brewers Associations. Brewers are generally friendly and love sharing knowledge—much like fellow gardeners. However, if you happen to be Sam Adams, a brewer and patriot with British roots, you might not receive a brew; instead, you may find yourself taking a dip in Boston Harbor!

Here’s the recipe we used for the Murphy Brown ale.

In the video "Russian Imperial Stout a tribute to @AlexTheBeerMaster recirculating! Nice and dark!," we explore the deep flavors and techniques behind crafting a rich stout.

Thank you for joining me! For more insights from Walter Bowne on environmental topics:

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Hey, everyone! It’s Walter Bowne—an aspiring Master Gardener!

You can also share your love and concerns for this lovely planet. Just click the below image to write for The Environment.