The Brewer's Apprentice - New Jersey's Premiere Homebrew Supply Shop & Brew On Premise!

How a BOP Works......

Before you start your Brew

Brewing a batch of beer at The Brewer's Apprentice is a great learning experience and a lot of fun. There are several steps involved, and you'll need to return to our store two weeks after you brew (to bottle your creation), but we will guide you through every procedure. Let's take a look at how you'll do it.

First, we'll have to get some information f Tba_ketl.jpg - 34.7 K or the State! This can be done during your first visit. New Jersey's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control requires that everyone who brews beer for private consumption must obtain a brewing permit. The cost is $15.00 per person. (Plus $1 for a money order if you don't pay by check) We'll help you file when you come in, or you can get the permit directly from the State.

With the formalities out of the way, you'll first select your recipe from our extensive collection. You can choose from beers of every type and taste, from light lagers and pilsners to rich stouts and porters. We have a brew for everyone! If you have a particular commercial brew you favor, one of our staff members can recommend a recipe that closely matches (and in most cases, out-tastes!) most of the beers available in the stores.

From there, it's off to the brewing area to start gathering your ingredients. The Brewer's Apprentice provides our customers with only the finest top-quality grains, malts, hops, and yeast. Now, it's time to start brewing your beer! The following is an overview of the process, but there will be variations in the steps, depending on the recipes chosen. For the most part, here's how it goes:

1. Select Your Recipe:

With over 180 recipes, you'll be sure to find one that's got just the right combination of flavor, color, and body to suit you. If you're having trouble deciding, just ask a staff member for their recommendation, based on your general tastes.

2. Gather Your Ingredients:

Once you've selected a recipe, we'll show you where all the ingredients are, and give you a brief overview of how to prepare the ingredients. You'll be assigned a kettle, which will already be pre-filled with 14.5 gallons of water and heated to 160 Deg. F. We'll also give you a detailed instruction sheet, and a copy of the recipe you've chosen to help you with your brew. As always, if you have any questions, a staff member is available to help.

3. Add Ingredients To Your Kettle:

If you're using a grain recipe, you'll gather and crush the grains, and add them into the grain basket already in the kettle. While the grains steep, you'll measure out your malt extracts and gather the hops you'll need later. Bringing your kettle to a rolling boil, you'll slowly add the first hop (called "boiling" or "bittering" hops). This provides the quality of acidity which plays against the sweetness of the malt and extract. The mixture will continue to brew. Now is a good time to remove a small sample of the liquid from the kettle. This will be mixed with cool water and used to re-hydrate the yeast.

4. Add The Finishing Hops:

Back at the kettle, shortly before the completion of the brew, you will add the second ("finishing" or "aroma") hop to add fragrance to the brew. You'll also be adding Irish Moss, a clarifying agent, at this time.

5. Add The Yeast:

When the brew (now properly called "wort") is completed, you're ready to pull it off the kettle. Valves will be opened by the staff member, and the wort will pass through a hop filter (to remove any large pieces of the hops), then run through a heat exchanger served by our glycol chiller unit. The chiller immediately drops the temperature of the wort from around 200 degrees Fahrenheit to near 70 degrees. Our staff member will have a lined, food-grade-plastic fermenting tank standing by, and the wort will be directed into it for storage and fermentation. At this point, you'll add any dry hops the recipe called for, and the re-hydrated yeast. The staff member will take an initial gravity (checking for the level of available fermentable sugars), and air-seal the fermentor. The fermentor will then be stored in our 68Deg. Fermentation room until the yeast has consumed the sugars. A few days before you return to bottle, the brew will be taken to the 36Deg room, allowed to settle, and then be filtered and carbonated. (The only exception to this last step is when the recipe calls for bottle conditioning, which involves no filtration or carbonation, although the beer needs to sit for two weeks after adding priming sugar for carbonation) In two weeks, you'll return for the final steps: Bottling and Labeling.

6. Fermentation and Filtering:

It's been two weeks since you brewed your beer, during which time our special yeasts have been busy converting the sugars in your brew to alcohol and carbon dioxide. During this time, the labels you chose will have been printed for you as well. Additionally, your brew will have been filtered and transferred from the fermenting vessel to a pressure keg for carbonation, in preparation for the bottling phase.

7. Bottling:

The first step is to get your bottles from a staff member. Return brewers bring their bottles with them, and save money next time you brew. Your brew will normally fill 72 22-oz. ("bomber") bottles. You will then go to a bottling station. The Brewer's Apprentice utilizes overpressure-type injection bottlers, which clamp your bottle in place while filling. This eliminates the home brewer's twin nuisances of slow fills and foaming over. As each bottle fills to the proper level, you will remove it and cap it using one of our lever-operated cappers. If you're working with a partner, one of you might be filling the bottles, and the other capping.

8. Labelling:

After the bottles are capped off, you can wipe them dry and place them in the boxes. Our labels are self-adhesive and sized to fit the large bottles, though we recommend that for best results you apply them to dry bottles, rather than right after you've filled the bottles. With each batch of beer, we provide 4 sheets (24 labels) of complimentary labels, which you will select from our standard labels. If you like, we will print your own labels using your design, or work with you to create a special label.

After loading your bottles into their cases, one of our staff members will help you place them in your car to take home and enjoy with friends and family.

You may wish to allow your brew to "age" for up to two weeks, in the bottle, to bring out the final subtle flavors.

9. Enjoy!

Congratulations!
You've finished creating the best beer there is... Your beer!

One closing note: State law prohibits the sale or distribution of beer or wine made at The Brewer's Apprentice. All beer and wine made at our store is for personal consumption off-premises only.