Brewing Beer Onboard

A couple of threads on Cruisers Forum discussed the practicality of brewing beer onboard.  I brewed up a batch yesterday... so took the opportunity to document what has worked for me. 

Having brewed my own beer since 1982, I wasn't about to stop just because my home is now a boat.  Few supplies are required and, due to the lack of space, I have minimized the process and the size of everything involved. 



Rather than cooking whole grain and sparging, I use powered malt.  

Rather than dry hopping, I use pellets.  








And rather than fermenting in a 5-6 gal carboy I use 1 gal glass jugs. In the old days cider and vinegar came in these, but I haven't seen glass in grocery stores for a long time.  You can buys jugs like these at a brewing store for about $3 ea.  I usually shop at Steinbart's in Portland, OR or Bader's in Vancouver, WA... both have an online stores and ship if you don't happen to live in Beervana. 


I first went to F.H.Steinbart Company when I was 10 yrs old (1964).  My father owned a draft beer equipment company in Boise, ID and we would make an annual pilgrimage to the warehouse of plenty... so they know a thing or two about beer.  But I digress...


After washing everything with a mild chlorine bleach solution (I think I read 1 oz of bleach per 5 gallons of water was enough, so I just use a splash)... I fill the bottom of my 1 gal jugs with a few inches of fresh cool water while bringing (1.5 qt) water to a boil in my pasta pot. I also heat water in a smaller pan to a boil at the same time. 



I stir in about 1 lb of powdered malt per gallon of brew. Careful not to boil over, it's a sticky mess! I also stir in a tad of malt to the small pan of water, but turn the burner off, cover, and let it cool.  Keep the larger pot at almost a boil (simmer?) and stir the wort for about 15-20 minutes. 





Add a packet of hop pellets to the small pan and stir until the pellets dissolve and the hop powder is well suspended in the mixture.  


Carefully pour the wort from the large pot into the glass jugs. The cool water in the bottom of the jugs keeps them from cracking... there's no hurry, so relax and avoid burns... the wort needs to cool anyway before you add the yeast.  



When the wort in the 1 gal bottles is cooled to room temperature, dissolve the packet of yeast in the small pan of room temperature hopped wort and pour into the jugs.

Tada!!! It's on it's way to being beer, and now just wait about 1 week or so while nature to take its course.  Then we can bottle.





There is one little detail... During the first few days of initial fermentation, the beer foams and sometimes bubbles out the top of the carboy/jugs.  So, with a 5 gal carboy and dry hops, I put the carboy in a big wash tub and run a 1 in diameter hose from the mouth of the carboy to a gal bucket 1/4 full of water. This acts as an air trap.  


With the 1 gal jugs I plug a small diameter hose into the airlock corks run it to a container 1/4 full of water.  I'm leaving town for a week, so I won't miss my french press...






I forgot to take pix of the airlocks, but you can see them in the coffee cup. When I return, I'll fill them half full of water and replace the hoses with them. The airlocks should burp, blup, blup, blup... until the blups are about 30 secs apart. 




Then I'll disolve 1/4 cup of corn sugar into simmering water, add that to the wort and siphon or pour the wort into snap cap beer bottles to condition for a little over a month.

The yeast settles in the bottom of the bottle, so I pour my beer into a glass for drinking and rinse the bottle immediately. In my opinion, the most difficult and crucial part of brewing is washing the bottles. 




I fill the bottles with a couple inches of chlorinated water and spin/scrub with a brush like this.  The wire handle bends to facilitate cleaning tough to reach locations like the top of the carboy/jug.

Tip: I wrap a wash rag around the mouth of the bottle of when pulling out the brush so the bristles won't splatter chlorine water all over. 

15 Bottles capped, I'll allow 4-8 weeks before opening the bottles and drinking. It depends a lot on conditions, mostly temperature, so bottling on New Years Eve, it'll probably be March 1 before this batch will be ready to drink.



I think one advantage of 1gallon carboys is that I can easily get another gallon or two brewing while these bottles condition and with good timing have some beer to drink, some bottle conditioning, and gallons in fermentation. 

Cheers and enjoy brewing. Try it, it is easy and rewarding.