| Basic Brewing Instructions (Malt Extract Kits) |
Are you ready to brew beer in your own home that can rival and even surpass the quality of the commercial brands? Well besides the ingredients,
here's what you’re going to need:
(2) 5 gallon glass carboy (fermenter) or 6.5 plastic fermenter bucket
(1) Stainless steel brewing pot (at least 16 quart capacity)
(2) Fermentation Lock
(1) Rubber carboy stopper with hole for fermentation lock
(1-3) Sparge bags (depending on recipe)
(1) Large plastic funnel
(1) Hydrometer (optional, but highly recommended)
(1) Thermometer
(1) Idophore or a bottle of unscented bleach for sanitizing all equipment
(1) Container with a sturdy base
(3 feet) 1 1/4" outside diameter clear plastic hose
(5-6 feet) 3/8" inside diameter clear plastic hose
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These instructions are for brewing a 5 gallon batch of beer. You may need to alter the process depending on the type of beer or the exact
equipment you're using (if you purchased a kit).
Basic Brewing Instructions (Malt Extract Kits)
1. WYeast Preparation Activator: Remove your yeast packet from the refrigerator. The yeast needs 4-6 hours to warm up before you pitch it into
your wort.
2. Steeping the Specialty Grains: Heat 2.0 gallons of water to 170 degrees in your boil pot place the cracked specialty malt (such as Crystal Malt,
Chocolate Malt & Roasted Barley) into your mesh bag and add it to your boil pot. Turn off the heat and steep the specialty malt for 20-30 minutes.
Hint: Do not allow the grain bag to sit on the bottom of the pot, as it will melt!
3. Dissolving the malt extract: After you have steeped the malts remove the bag and allow it to drain into your boil pot. Either throw the malt away or
compost it. Your mesh bag is good for many more batches of beer so rinse it in cold water and allow it to dry. While stirring pour in the malt extract
and dissolve it completely and top off to 5.5 gallons of water. Once it is thoroughly dissolved (Make sure it is dissolved or it will burn or caramelize)
turn the heat up on your stove and bring the wort to a boil. Hint: Use the warm water in your malt container to rinse all of the malt extract out to top off
to 5.5 gallons.
4. Boiling the wort: When the wort (beer without yeast) has begun to boil and you have adjusted the heat to prevent future boil-overs set your clock
for one hour. The amount of time that you will boil your wort is 60 minutes. The potential for your wort to boil over is great! If you notice, at the start
of a boil, proteins that coagulates into a cruddy sea foam-looking mass that forms when a boil begins (this is the Hot Break formation). Hot Break
formation will help to produce a cleaner and clearer finished beer.
5. Adding the hops: Hops add bitterness, flavor and aroma. The longer a hop is in a boil the fewer aromas and flavors it will provide as heat degrades
the flavor and floral qualities of hops. The longer a hop is in the boil the bitterer the beer will become. So, hops added for 60 minutes will produce
only bitterness. Hops added for the last 20 - 5 minutes will produce a minimal amount of bitterness, lots of hop flavor and no aroma. Hops added the
last 15 - 0 minutes will add no bitterness, very little flavor and lots of aroma. Add your hops according to the times listed on your Promash recipe
sheet. Stir hops in until saturated and free flowing in wort…otherwise they will create a thermal blanket and cause a boil over!!
6. Irish moss: Irish moss is not really Irish, nor is it moss. Irish moss is actually seaweed and it helps to clarify your beer by coagulating proteins and
than settling them out. It’s a little like seeding a rain cloud. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish moss ½ hour to 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
7. Sanitizing your fermenter: While the wort is boiling, the primary fermenter needs to be cleaned and sanitized. 3 caps of Idophore to 6 gallons of
water in your bucket is a sufficient enough solution for sanitizing. Use the Idophor as a color indicator; a light yellow-color is a good to have…if your
solution is amber in color than you have mixed it too strong which makes it difficult to volatize off your equipment. Soak the fermenter for 5 or more
minutes and invert it to drain. Air dry the bucket for 20 minutes prior to adding your wort to it. Hint: You do not need 6 gallons of sanitizer to sanitize
your fermenter. A gallon of sanitizing solution sloshed around for 5 minutes will accomplish the same sanitizing task.
8. Cooling the Wort: After you have boiled your wort the next goal is to get the yeast pitched ("brewspeak" for adding it to your wort) as soon as
possible. Do not pitch the yeast into boiling wort, as it will die! The wort in you primary fermenter needs to be 70- 75 degrees to add the yeast. To
chill your wort put the kettle into a cold water or ice bath. A kitchen sink works great for this! Try to knock 125-150 degrees off before putting the wort
into your primary fermenter. You may need to stir the wort occasionally to mix the hot with the chilled. You may also need to change the bath water
several times. You can also add cold water to bring your volume up to 5.0- 5.25 gallons of liquid if you do not already have 5 gallons of wort.
Remember “Hot Break”? Cold Break, is the re-coagulation of proteins during rapid cooling of the wort,
9. Taking a Hydrometer Reading: Mix your beer thoroughly with a sterile spoon and carefully remove enough wort to take a hydrometer reading. Hint:
a turkey bastor works really well for this. Don’t dump the beer back into the fermenter after taking the reading because you should also taste your
unfermented beer. It is a good idea to taste the beer in its many different stages so that you may begin to get an idea of how the flavors will change
during fermentation and during bottle conditioning. Record your Original Gravity. Hint: Now is a good time to start a beer journal! One day you may
want to recreate this beer (or maybe not!!)
10. Pitching the Yeast: Snap the lid of the bucket on tight and rock the fermenter for a couple of minutes to aerate your beer and to get the yeast
worked up into a frothy frenzy. Hint: At this point in time oxygen is very necessary for proper yeast respiration; “More is better” at this time shake your
vial of yeast to break up the deposit of yeast cells. Open the lid and pitch the yeast into the fermenter! Now put the air lock on the fermenter.
Remember to put a small amount of water in the trap! Congratulations! You have just made beer!!
11. Fermentation of Your Beer: Your yeast will be very happy if left alone at a temperature of (Ale) 60-70 Lager 48-56 degrees and out of the light.
Find a quiet place to put the fermenter to allow the yeast to work at converting the sugar to alcohol. It will take 18-24 hours for your yeast to begin
fermentation. You can reduce this lag time by swirling your fermenter every 2-4 hours. This will pick the yeast up off the bottom of the fermenter and
get it energized! Try to resist the temptation of peeking into the fermenter as this will only introduce oxygen (now oxygen is not good!!) and bacteria.
After flocculation, which is the settling out of the yeast, your beer will be ready to "rack" (that’s brewspeak for “siphoning”) to your secondary
fermenter. It will be hard to see your beer while it is in the opaque bucket, so to tell if your beer is ready for racking look for this other sign: If your
airlock is releasing less than one bubble per minute than it is o.k. To rack. Your beer will be in the primary fermenter for approx. 7-10 days. If you
leave your beer in the primary fermenter longer than one week after fermentation has ceased it will begin to pick-up a yeast bite (white bread-yeasty
flavor) from the dead yeast cells. This is one reason why it is important to rack the beer from the primary to the secondary as soon as yeast
flocculation has taken place.
12. The Secondary Fermenter: Your beer ought to be ready to bottle about 7-10 days after racking into the secondary. The purpose of the
secondary is to age and clarify the beer in a clean environment. If racked carefully the beer in the secondary fermenter is not sitting on a lot of dead
yeast cells. It is o.k. To let the beer sit in the secondary fermenter for many weeks or months...in fact it is even encouraged!!
13. Taking a Second Hydrometer Reading: When you get a siphon-started take the first bit of the flow for a hydrometer reading. After noting the
number in your log put a small amount of foil or saran wrap over the top. Put the sample where it won't get accidentally dumped The sample will
continue to ferment and it will make for an easy daily measurement of gravity changes.
14. Taking a Third Hydrometer Reading: When you notice that your secondary reading has stabilized dump it out and take a third sample. If you get
the same reading as the second reading, or very close to it, than you are ready to bottle. Ultimately, what you are measuring is the difference
between fermentable sugars and non-fermentable solids (A.K.A. "body")
15. Bottling Your Beer: Have ready at least 48, 12oz. Or 36, 22oz. Crown cap bottles that are clean and sanitized. Hint: An easy way to clean bottles
is to load them up in your dishwasher. Don’t use any soap though! The rinse and dry cycles are hot enough to clean your bottles. The next step will
be to sanities your bottles. Make up a solution of iodifor in a 5 gallon bucket (you can use a fermentation bucket if you have one) and place the
bottles in it for 5-10 minutes. Take them out and let them dry.
At this point your beer will taste good, but it will be flat. To create carbonation you will need to re-feed the yeast with more sugar. To do this, take one-
to-two pints of water, add 3/4-cup priming sugar and boil the water and sugar for 5-10 minutes. You will also need to sanitize your caps. To sanitize
your caps place them in your iodofor bottle solution. Put the dissolved and cooled priming sugar in your clean and sanitized bucket and than gently
rack your beer out of the secondary fermenter and onto the priming sugar solution. When all of the beer is racked you can use the racking cane to
gently swirl the beer to help completely mix the priming sugar with the beer Hint: when transferring your beer from the secondary into the bottling
bucket be sure that you get some of the yeast off of the bottom…otherwise you may not have enough yeast in your beer to become properly
carbonated You will need about 1 TBSP. of yeast-sediment transferred over. Attach the bottling wand to the end of your siphon tube, create a siphon
and fill each bottle with one inch of headspace. After filling each bottle place a sanitized bottle cap onto each bottle. Do this with all of the beer before
crimping the caps on. This will allow oxygen that is in the bottle to be pushed out by the CO 2 while keeping germs out. When all of the bottles are
filled crimp on all of the caps, starting with the first one filled. After crimping the cap invert the bottle three times to help seal the cap.
16. Storing Your Beer: For the first week you will need to keep the beer at room temperature to allow the yeast to convert the priming sugar to CO 2.
One week after bottling grab one of the bottles and stick it in the fridge for an hour before serving. If it gives up a nice, “pppffffft!” upon opening than
you have developed carbonation. At this point you can move the beer to a colder location. If there is absolutely no carbonation after 2 weeks then
email us to discuss some measures for getting your beer carbonated. You will notice that homebrew reaches its prime, depending upon the style,
after 3 - 4 weeks. It will be tough for you to resist the temptation, but try to wait two weeks before drinking all of the beer!! I recommend that you try
one a week after bottling, than another after 2 weeks. You will note some significant changes for the better! Most homebrews will not last more than a
year. Try to store your beer at a constant temperature below 60 degrees and out of the light. Hint: Don't wait until the last six pack is left before you
ferment up another batch!! “Cheers!” If your beer did not carbonate after a week to two weeks there are several reasons that may be to blame. First,
after bottling you stored the beer in a cold location and the yeast went dormant. Second, you forgot to add priming sugar. Third, you were too careful
in your rackings and did not get enough yeast carried over from your primary to your secondary and to your bottling bucket…Don’t be a
Yeastybeastyphobe! To remedy flat beer you need to either move the beer to a warm area, add priming sugar and/or fresh yeast. Sometimes simply
shaking the bottles 2 – 3 times a day for a week is sufficient for getting the yeast agitated and out of dormancy.
This “malt extract and grain-steeping” recipe is designed to get you into a method of brewing that I think works really well…but hopefully, you will
develop your own opinions and methods! It is also designed as a hand-holding tool so that you can go home and get brewing...I still recommend
reading the first few chapters of Charlie Papazian's book, The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, especially the chapter called "Brewing Better
Brew". To advance your skill think about a “mini-mash” or a stepping up to the bat and playing with the big boys and doing an “all-grain” batch.
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