Ingredients combine with craft to make beer
This page is continually improving.​
This page is not intended as a sole source of information but as a general reference for those interested in learning basic homebrewing.​
​We've attempted to present the right amount of information in the best possible format.
Fermenting: Wort Becomes Beer
Yeast has a sole purpose, to convert simple sugars into alcohol and CO2. This is a basic biological process.​​
Brewers make wort - Yeast makes beer
Hops in Temperate Climates
Hops can be found throughout the temperate zone but are most prevalent in select geographical regions. While they vary greatly in their bitterness and aroma based on these factors, their primary use is in beer production.
Hops in Brewing
Hops are available for brewing in 4 types:
Pellets: This is the most common format, given the ease of storage and use. Measure the desired quantity and add at prescribed interval.
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Dried: Common with non-commercial hops, cones are dried. You need about twice the volume as pelletized hops given relative weight.
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Fresh ("Wet"): Hops recently harvested, cones are green. You need about 2.5 the volume as pelletized hops given relative weight.
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Hop Extract: Produced via
Growing & Harvesting your own Hops
Hops prefer slightly acidic soil and require a vertical trellis (pole, etc) and lines. They grow in clumps using a rhizome system, but those rhizomes also form hard nodes after continued growth. Bines (since they grow vertically, vines grow horizontally) grow up the trellised wires. Upon reaching full height, the bines either grow outward or hang. Hops also can strangle themselves, if they are not managed.
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Cones develop and within them are contained the lupulin glands that secrete the hop oils needed in brewing.
Adding Bitterness & Aroma
You can buy your hops pelletized, loose leaf, or fresh...or you can even grow your own.
Adding Hops to the Boil
You'll need a scale, mill, and grain collector.
Note: A homebrewer's mill is not the same as a flour mill since grist used for brewing is coarser. If grain is milled too finely without being processed (aka made into malt extract), it will not break down enough in the wort for the yeast.​
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Small homebrewers' mills run $100-$800 depending on size and quality. Most use a power drill to provide the required torque.
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To mill, simply weigh out the selected grains and mill them in the appropriate mill. This is a fairly easy but sometimes dusty process.
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Remember: The color of the grain you use, based on the Loviband or SRM value, will determine the color of your beer and its "body"/"mouth feel." Be sure to research this a bit before you start.
Brew - Innovate - Enjoy - Repeat​