At Handbrewed Soaps, we believe that brewing beer and soap
are both a science and an art. Just like
a science experiment, you must follow some basic rules in order to produce the
desired outcome or product—in our case, beer and soap. And, as with art, individual interpretation,
experimentation, and improvisation are encouraged and expected. While many brewers
feel that they have found the “best way” to brew beer, there are so many
variables in the brewing process, that there’s a good chance that a homebrewer
in your own neighborhood is doing something radically different or just subtly
unique enough that you could apply to your own brewing process to make more
interesting or flavorful beers… and soaps!
At Handbrewed Soaps, we have developed our own unique style of brewing
and soap-making by reading, researching, and hanging out with fellow
homebrewers and soapmakers. We hope that
you enjoy the methods, tips, and tricks that we use in our brewing and
soapmaking process!
If you are new to brewing beer or soap, and want to learn
more about the basics of either (or both!), we highly recommend How to Brew by John
Palmer and The Soapmaker’s Companion
by Susan Miller Cavitch. Of course there
are hundreds, if not thousands, of resources online to help you get started and
support you every step along the way. Below
is an overview of how Brew Master Eric Swihart brews the beer, and how Soap
Lady Alyson Swihart transforms the beer into soap. Don’t worry, we don’t use all of the beer to
make soap-- we drink a lot of it too!!!
The VERY basics of
Homebrewing
We’re going to assume that you already have some basic
brewing supplies (boiling pots or kettles, buckets, fermentation vessels (glass
or plastic carboys), etc.). If not, head
down to your local homebrew store, and they will hook you up with everything
you need to get started. Likewise, we
assume you already have some basic soap making supplies including stainless steel
pots, hand mixer, and molds.Don’t go overboard.
Start small and keep it manageable.
It’s no fun to jump in over your head, only to get discouraged and
quit. Do what’s manageable for you right
now. Don’t jump in to all-grain brewing
until you have the time, equipment, and brewing experience to make the
jump. I brewed about 10 extract batches
before making the jump to all-grain. I’m
very glad I did, but if I had jumped in to all-grain brewing before getting
some experience with simple extract kits, I would have been very
overwhelmed. Have fun, start small, and
grow your homebrewing setup as your brewing skills advance.
Put together a recipe
What kind of beer should you brew? Brew the beer that you (and your friends)
like to drink. You’re going to be making
5 to 10 gallons of beer, and it would take one person a long time to drink that
much beer. So, make the kind of beer
that you—and your helpful/thirsty friends like to drink. At Handbrewed Soaps, our three most popular beers
(and soaps) are I.P.A., Oatmeal Stout, and Hefeweizen (American Wheat Beer, to be specific.) We decided to share our Orange Honey Wheat
Ale Recipe with you. We will first
explain the beer-making process, and then describe how Alyson transforms Eric’s
beer into soap.
Clean and sanitize!
Everything that comes in contact with your brewing
ingredients needs to be clean and sanitized.
I personally recommend PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash), which is an
environmentally-friendly, biodegradeable alkali cleaner. After everything is clean, I sanitize it with
Star-San, an odorless, tasteless, food-grade sanitizer made from phosphoric
acid. I have never lost a beer to contamination
or infection, when I have used these two products to clean and sanitize my
equipment. Of all of the steps in the
brewing process, this is one of the most important.
Let’s make beer!
After everything has been clean and sanitized, you can and
should start making beer! In order to
make beer, you need four main ingredients: Water, Grain, Hops, and Yeast. Technically, any combination of grain can be
used to make beer, but the most common grain is malted barley, which serves as
the “base” for most beers. Additonal
grains (rye, oats, and wheat) and a supporting cast of specialty grains
(carmel/crystal, roasted, and dark malts) and adjuncts (honey, spices, herbs,
etc.) can be used to make some very tasty homebrew. Typically, the grain bill for wheat beers
(hefeweizens) is 30-70% wheat. The
grain bill for our orange honey wheat ale is going to be 40% wheat, with some
additional support from orange honey wheat and orange zest.
All-Grain Brewing
All of the beer we brew at Handbrewed Soaps (for drinking
and soap-making) is brewed on a three-tier, all-grain brewing setup built by
our friend and fellow homebrewer Jaston Hopkins, (aka Jaston of the
Woods).
Starch Conversion
The first part of all-grain brewing involves cracking or
“crushing” the grain you’ve selected. By
cracking the grain, two things are accomplished: 1) you’re making the starch accessible for
conversion, and 2) the husk of the grain settles in the bottom of the mash tun
and acts as a filter to prevent grain from transferring into the boil
kettle. We are going to soak our grain
in hot water (at approximately 152° F) for about 60- 90 minutes. At this
temperature, enzymes in the grain start acting on the starch to convert it to
sugar (fermentable). This is a process
called saccharification.
Lautering and Sparging
Once the starches in the grain have been converted into
sugar, you need to separate the sugars from the grain. This is a process called lautering. Sprinkle 170° water over the top of the grain
to 1) stop the enzymes from converting starch and 2) wash the sugar off the
grain and into your boil kettle. The
process of sprinkling water over the grain to remove the sugar is called
sparging, which literally means “sprinkling.”
The sugar water resulting from the mashing and lautering process is
called wort. (We have to go through a
few more steps before we have actual beer.)
Boiling
Once you’ve collected the wort in the boil kettle, and the wort
is boiling, add your hops at the times indicated on your recipe. Hops
added at the beginning of the boil are called bittering hops, because the
extended boiling time allows you to extract the highest amount of oils
(bittering qualities) from the hops. The
hops added during the middle part of the boil are for flavor, and the hops
added at the end of the boil are used to give the beer aroma. After 60 or 90 minutes, depending on your
recipe (and the style of beer you’re brewing), cool the wort with a wort
chiller.
*Wort is what we call beer before the yeast has eaten the
sugar and created alcohol.
Fermentation
1)
Once wort reaches 75° (people have their own
preferences for higher and lower temps) transfer the wort to a sterilized carboy,
aerating it as much as possible in the process.
Aerating the wort is helpful to ensure a vigorous, efficient, and
complete fermentation.
2)
Leave 4” of headroom at the top of the carboy. During peak fermentation, the yeast will rise
(“krausen”) up to 4-6” above the liquid level in the carboy, and if you haven’t
allowed room for this to occur, prepare for a very messy result!
3)
Put on
airlock or blowoff hoses, to allow for the yeast to “burp” off CO2 while
preventing external air from coming into contact with the beer
4)
Put in a
cool dark place, and monitor frequently.
When the “peak krausen” has dissipated and the airlock bubbles less than
once per minute, transfer the beer to secondary fermentation.
5)
After 7-14
days, transfer the beer into keg or bottles, for carbonation. Beer can be carbonated in a keg in 2-3 days,
with forced CO2. Bottle-conditioned beer
takes approximately 2 weeks to become fully carbonated, by adding corn sugar to
the bottle prior to filling it with beer.
At this point, we take the beer to make the soap. See Part Two of our from Grains to Soap series to learn more!
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