Milling/ Crushing

After the correct measurement you have to mill the grains with machine. You can choose electric or manual one. Ensure that you crush the grains not too fine nor coarse. The finely crushed grain could cause difficulties filtering the wort and hazy beer. On the other hand, coarse grain might result low yield efficiency due to insufficient conversion. Having said that, "the finer your grind the more enzymes you can have".

Brewing process

• Infusion system,

After crushing the malt, You can start mashing by steeping the crushed grains into the strike water at the temperature of 62°c. This is called β-amylase extracting fermentable sugar (glucose and maltose) from the grist. After 30 minutes you can increase the temperature up to 72°c which is called α-amylase. This extracts unfermentable sugar (dextrins). Which is later the "body" in beer. Finally after 15 minutes you can raise the temperature up to 78°c to mash out, the wort is pasteurized here meaning most of the harmful bacteria are killed. Which is also very important for viscosity, lautering/filtering and stopping the enzyme activity. Never mash above 78°c, it could denature all the enzyme in wort. Mashing is over now. keep in mind “mashing is not cooking nor boiling”

However, some people prefer single rest infusion. In here, they mash between 65-67°c for 1 hour without fluctuating the temperature and "mash out". This is easiest way of infusing. But if you want to play with time and temperature, go for multiple rests.

• Decoction system,

This system is common for pills beer. Because they use unmalted grains like rice and corn in pills beer. Those grains are extracted separately before being mixed with mash. You can do this for 10 - 20 min. at the temperature of 80 - 100°c.

Lodine test

Lautering/ Filtering

Separating the wort from the grain just after mash out. It is just like traditional way of filtering milk-tea in tea shop in Nepal. You just drain the wort from the grain through strainer (fine sieve) but slowly and gently. Do not squeeze or squash the wort, now keep the liquid wort ready for boil. There are many ways for doing this but you need to try them first. Advanced kettles have efficient filter included. However inexpensive one also works fine.

Sparging/ Rinsing

Filtering and sparging go simultaneously through the strainer/filter bag whatever you use. You should pour all the wort slowly down. Make sure you have heated up the sparging water at 78°c temperature in separate pot. The remaining spent grain has to be sparged (rinsed) gently with hot water. Do not squeeze or stir the wort. Follow down in "measurement" about how much sparging water you need. I would recommend to watch this in youtube: Comparing Sparge Methods: Fly Sparging vs Batch Sparging (youtube.com)

Boiling

One of most important part of brewing. Do not mix up boiling with mashing! they are different processes. We mash at temperature between 62 to 78°c and boil at 100°c.

Here we can sterilize the wort by killing most of the living micro organisms. This is also important for viscosity and stability of the wort. We add the hop as soon as the wort boils, be careful ! adding hop in boiling wort could cause boil-over. So turn the heat little bit down then add it. Let it boil and evaporate for at least 1h. Never cover the pot while boiling. Add more hops depending on your beer type. At the end of the boiling you can add your secret herbs as well like coriander seed, pepper, orange peel etc.

Chilling

Chilling is cooling the wort. After boiling you can whirlpool the wort for 5 to 10 min. It helps for clarity. Now you need to have chiller connected to your tap water. Turn the cold water on then your wort. In chiller cold water passes against hot wort. so wort gets chilled.

There is another type of chiller as well. Put it directly into the kettle, then turn the cold water on, so it passes through the spiral pipe and cools the wort. Plate Chiller vs. Counterflow Chiller | BrüTech (youtube.com)

Wort aeration

Once your wort is chilled, you now prepare for the yeast. Before pitching yeast you should aerate the wort meaning put extra oxygen into it. So that yeast can have enough oxygen. Now you can pitch the yeast and place it in room temperature at 18°c to 20°c for 1 to 2 weeks depending on your beer style. Some hobby brewers skip the aeration considering there is already oxygen in wort. True!