Whether you're an experienced homebrewer or complete beginner, brewing at The Brewers Apprentice is a great learning experience and a lot of fun. There are several steps involved in making great beer and you'll need to visit our store twice before you can take your brew home. There's no need to fret however, as we'll guide you along every step of the way. Below we've provided a guide that will go into all of the basic details you should be aware of if you're thinking about coming to brew on our premises. Before you come to brew, you'll need to call us at the store and schedule an appointment. We always suggest that you schedule your appointment at least a week in advance... The closer you get to the date you want to brew on, the less chance you'll have of getting a spot, especially on the weekends. When you make your appointment, you will need to let us know how many kettles you want to reserve and you will need to provide us with a credit card in order to secure an appointment. For more information on booking an appointment and why a credit card is required, please visit our store rules page. During your first appointment, you will be at our store for about two and a half hours. We have six kettles available which means you can brew anywhere from one to six batches at a time. Each "batch" is 15 gallons which equal 6 cases of beer. As of 2012, our recipes range in price from $190 - $300+ (not including bottles). We allow up to four people total per batch... please keep this in mind when scheduling your appointment. If you have any questions about any of the information above, please ask while you are making your appointment, not on the day that you are brewing. With the formalities out of the way, now comes the fun! Below, we've broken the brewing process into its basic steps. You can also watch our brewing on premises video on WineAndDineWeb.com! Step 1: Selecting Your Recipe With close to 200 recipes, you'll be sure to find one that suits you perfectly. It's a good idea to start thinking about the style of beer you'll want to make before your visit, as it will make your decision a lot easier. If you can't decide, no worries, there's always someone on staff that will be glad to help you hone in on what you want. Visit our recipe page to view our recipes!     Step 2: Gather Your Ingredients Once you've selected your recipe, it's time to get your ingredients. We'll show you where to find everything and how to measure it. Once you've procured everything you'll need for your brew, we'll get you familiar with your kettle and equipment that you'll be using. Step 3: BREW! We'll show you when and how to add your ingredients and how to brew your beer... from steeping grains to boiling wort, to adding hops. We'll explain what each ingredient does and why timing is so important when adding them. Voila! You're brewing!     Step 4: Cool The Wort & Add The Yeast When you've finished brewing, we will cool down your wort ("wort" is the term for unfermented beer), we'll then take its gravity ("gravity" helps us understand how much 'stuff' is in your wort and allows us to predict the amount of alcohol in your finished beer), and then finally pitch yeast into it. We'll explain in detail as we complete each of these steps in front of you. Step 5: Fermentation & Filtering Over the course of a week or so your beer will ferment in our climatically controlled fermenting room. After your beer is done fermenting, we will move it to our cold room for final processing. Depending on the type of beer you made, we will either filter it or pour it directly into a keg.     Step 6: Bottling Finally! In as soon as two weeks you can return to The Brewers Apprentice and bottle your beer. We will show you how to use our sanitizing machine, bottle filler, and capper. One batch of beer takes an average of an hour and a half to bottle. That's it! Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Congratulations! You've finished brewing the best beer there is... Your Beer! If you'd like to get a jump start on figuring out what type of beer you'd like to make before you come to brew, we now have all of our recipes online on our recipe page! If you don't see what you're looking for, you're always welcome to call us at 732-863-411. Don't forget you can also make your own mead and wine on our premises as well! If you have any questions that you don't see answered here, feel free to contact us! The Brewer's Apprentice, Inc. ~ 865 Route 33 West, Suite 4, Freehold, NJ 07728 ~ 732-863-9411 Store Hours: Monday, Wednesday - Friday: 1pm - 8pm ~ Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 4pm Copyright © 2012 The Brewer's Apprentice. All rights reserved. Website Created By: Inner Eye Design.