This is the easiest wasy to get started making beer. The skills learned from making beer from extracts will be valuable should you decide to try your hand at all-grain. Your recipe will give you the list of ingredients that you need to make the beer.
Here is how you make it.
1. This is all the equipment that you will need and/or want.
Brewpot: A minimum of 12 quarts, larger if you can get it.
Stirring Spoon: A plastic or metal spoon is best, but a wooden spoon will work also. Just be careful about sanitizing
Grain bag: If your recipes call for grain to be added, you will want this. You can also add grains directly to the wort, but they will need to be strained out later.
Measuring Cup: Larger is better.
Syphone/ Hose: This can be as simple as clear plastic tubing, or the nice syphon tubes available. Depending on the primary fermenter that you are using, this may be optional at the brewing phase.
Primary Fermenter: This needs to be a container large enough to hold about 5 gallons with extra room. The 6.5 gallon plastic food grade pails with lid work really well. Make sure the lid has a provision for an air lock. A 6 gallon glass carboy can also be used.
Secondary Fermenter: This may be optional, depending on the type of beer you are making. It should be a 5 gallon glass carboy with a stopper.
Air Lock: Several styles are available, or you can make your own.
Bottle Caper: Unless you plan on kegging, you will need a good bottle capper.
Hydrometer: Optional, but useful if you want to verify the original and final specific gravity.
Thermometer: Optional, but good to have.
Bottle Filler: Optional, but very handy.
Funnel: Will be needed if your primary fermenter is the carboy.
The Brewing Process:
1 Fill your primary fermenter with 5 gallons of water and make a mark on the outside of the container. This will serve as a reference later when you fill the fermenter. If your primary is a glass carboy, use a piece of electrical tape to mark the 5 gallon level. For a plastic container, a permanent marker works well. Empty the container.
2 Start by cleaning and sanitizing your primary fermenter, syphon and hose (inside and out) air lock, funnel, wort chiller and hydrometer. This cannot be over emphasized. The easiest way to make bad beer is to not properly clean and sanitize the surfaces of the equipment that will come into contact with the wort. The brewpot is the only exception to the sanitizing rule since the boiling will effectively kill any micro-organisms. There are several cleaners and sanitizers available. Follow the manufacturers instructions.
3. Measure 2 gallons of water ( 8 quarts) and add it to the brew pot.
4. If your recipe calls for the addition of specialty grains, then you have a couple options. How you decide to execute it will have an effect on the flavor of your beer. There is not a right or wrong way to do this, but this is what I recommend. Crush your grains and place them in a grain bag The crushing can be done by placing them in a heavy duty plastic bag and rolling them with a rolling pin. If your local supplier has a grain mill, then they may let you use it to crush the grain. A coffee grinder or a food processor can also be used, however be careful! The point is to crush the grains, not powder them. With the food processor / coffee grinder it will be difficult to control and reproduce the amount of crush.
Alternately, the grains can be left whole. You will not extract the same amount of flavor from the grains as you would by grinding them. They can then be added either to the grain bag, or directly to the water. If you do add them to the water, you will need to strain them out later.
Add the grains into the brewpot and bring the bring the water up to 170 degrees, then remove the grains.
Keep in mind, this is one way of using the grains. There is no real right or wrong way of doing this. The beer will be as unique as you choose to make it. Some recipes may specify that the grains remain in the pot during the boil, while others may have you remove the grains well before the boil.
However you choose to do this, take good notes throughout the entire process. It will make easier to replicate the recipe later, or change characteristis as you like.
5. Add the malt extract to the brewpot. This can be done when the water is heating up, or after the grains are removed. Be careful to stir constantly until all the malt is dissolved. I recommend that the heat be turned down until all the malt is added, then turn the heat back up and bring the pot to a boil.
Be careful! The malt and water mix will want to boil over! This can happen in only a couple seconds if you are not paying attention. As the mix gets near the boiling point, keep the stove on low, and stir constantly. This will help to reduce the risk of boilover and burning of the malt to the bottom of the pot. Heat gently at first. After a few minutes, the foamy head will subside, and the risk of boilover will be significantly reduced.
6. Add bittering hops and take note of the time. After the bittering hops are added, you will want to boil the mix for one hour.
7. After the wort has boiled for 45 minutes, add the flavoring hops if the recipe call for it. Cotinue the boil.
8. After 50 minutes of boiling, Irish Moss can be added to the wort. Approximately 1 -2 tablespoons is sufficient This is not mandatory. The Irish Moss helps to clarify the beer. It does not contribute directly to the flavor of the beer.
9. After 55-60 minutes of boiling, add the aroma hops if the recipe calls for it. Remove the brewpot from the heat.
10. The brewpot must now be chilled down to 70 - 80 degrees F. This can be done by using the wort chiller if you have one, or by placing the brewpot into a sink filled with cold water. Note that if you are placing the pot in the sink, that you do not want to get any water in the pot. Float the pot in the water. Keep the water level in the sink slightly lower than the level of liquid in the brew pot. As the pot is lowered in the water, the level in the sink will rise. If the level is too high, the pot may not be stable and could tip over. Stir the wort to help chill it as quickly as possible. If the water in the sink gets warm, then it may need to be drained and filled with more cold water. Ice is very handy to use to get the water temperature down.
As the temperature drops, it becomes extremely improtant that anything that comes in contact with the wort is sanitized!
11. At his point, transfer the wort to your primary fermenter. If you are using an open top pail, the wort can simply be poured into the container. At the bottom of the pot there will probably be a fair amount of sediment. Leave as much of this behind as possible. If you do add some into the primary, don't worry. It won't harm the beer.
12. Add room temperature water to the primary until it is just over the 5 gallon mark. If you are not sure about the quality of your water, you may want to boil it first to kill micro-organisms, then cool it down. If you are using a carboy for your primary, you may want to only add a little water at first, complete the next step, then finish this step.
13. There is very little oxygen in the wort, since it was driven off in the boiling process. Add oxygen to the wort by stirring it vigorously if you are using the open top fermenter, or by shaking the carboy. When shaking the carboy, use a clean, sanitized piece of plastic wrap over the opening to prevent making a mess, and introducing micro-organisms. Air stones, like the type used in aquariums, are used by some. If you choose to do this, then make sure the equipment is strerilized. The stone has a lot of surface area for harboring micro-organisms, so take care to sterilize!!!!
14. At this point, the yeast can be added. Follow the manufacturers directions. Most dry yeasts recommend activating it first by adding it to warm water. This is fine, however the dry yeast can also be sprinkled directly to the top of the wort. Liquid yeasts require more care, and may actually involve making a starter the day before. If using a liquid yeast, definately follow the manufacturers directions. In either case, just remember that the yeast cells do not like drastic changes in temperature, so try to make sure they are at the same temperature when added.
15. Install the air lock. Use boiled water, a sanitizer solution, or vodka in the airlock. This is just in case some of the liquid makes its way back in to the primary. Place the primary in a dark place to begin fermentation. For ales, this will need to be at least 70 degrees F.. If your primary is a glass carboy, wrap a towel or blanket around it to help keep out the light. Fermentation should begin within 12 - 48 hours. If not, you may need to add more yeast.
16. After the wort has fermented for several days, the foamy head will reside. At this point you may want to transfer the liquid to a secondary fermenter. The purpose of this is to seperate the liquid from the dead yeast and other proteins that have accumulated at the bottom of the container. This is called "trub", pronounced troob. If the brew is allowed to stay in contact with the dead yeast, it will result in an off flavor in the beer. By transfering the liquid to the secondary you will be able to allow the beer to clarify more before bottling and condition more. Once in the secondary, the beer is safe to keep for a few more weeks before bottling.
If you do not have a secondary, then allow the beer to continue fermenting for several more days, until all bubbling has ceased. The beer should not sit in the primary any longer than necessary, even if you do not have a secondary. Two weeks should be the longest it stays in this container. The only downside to using only a primary fermenter is that you may end up bottling beer when the beer has not clarified as much as you would like. Eventually the beer will clarify in the bottle, you may just have a little more yeast at the bottom of the bottle.
Start by cleaning and sanitizing all equipment that will cone in contact with the beer.
To transfer the liquid, use a syphon. Buy one! (See the equipment list) While it is possible to start a syphon by just using a length of tubing and sucking on the outlet end of the tube, do not do this! The few dollars that you save by not buying a syphon will be wasted by ruining an entire batch of beer.
For the liquid to continue to flow, the level of the outlet end of the syphon hose will need to be lower than the level of liquid in the first container. Keep the inlet side of the syphon as far from the bottom as possible. This will prevent sucking yeast into your second container. Remember, we are trying to seperate the liquid from the yeast at the bottom of the primary. Keep the outlet side of the syphon submerged if possible. If not then allow the liquid to discharge onto the inside of the container. The point here is to prevent adding any oxygen to the beer. This will spoil it.
As you get close to the bottom of the primary, there will be a little bit of liquid, and a lot of yeast. By tilting the container slightly (slowly and carefully) you will be bale to get most of the liquid out without the yeast. Don't be tempted to get every last bit out of the container. You may end up sacrificing a bottle of beer or two, but this is better than sucking a bunch of yeast into the secondary.
17. Just before bottling, make sure you have enough bottles for the amount of beer that you have made. For a five gallon batch this will be about two cases (48)12 oz bottles. Always have a few extra, in case you have more liquid than expected. The bottles need to be washed, scrubbed with a bottle brush,and rinsed to make sure there is no foreign material on the inside of the bottle. After they have been washed, sanitize the bottles and keep stored upside down to drain out any liquid, and allow them to dry. A bottle tree works well for this, or they can be placed back in the carton upside-down. place several sheets clean paper towel in the bottom of the carton to absorb any liquid that drains Remember, your bottles will be the home for you beer for the next several weeks to months, so it needs to be as absolutely clean and sanitary as possible.
18. Add about 3/4 cup of corn sugar and an equal amount of water to a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil. This extra sugar wil allow carbonation to form in the bottle. Do not use regular cane sugar!!!! This will give your beer a cidery taste, and it also will convert into much more carbonation than the corn sugar. You risk blowing up bottles if you use cane sugar. The corn sugar should be the dry corn sugar available from you homebrew supplier. Do not use the liquid corn sugar available in the grocery store.
19. Sanitize you bottle caps. The best way of doing this is to soak them in a sanitizing solution. Alternately, they can be placed in boiling water.
20. Clean and sanitize a container large enough to hold the full five gallons of beer. A standard 5 gallon pail works fine for this. Ale Pails are a good example of what to use. These are nice because they have a spigot on the bottom that can be used to fill the bottles. If you are going to do this, then remember to clean and sanitize the inside of the spigot out too.
Add the corn sugar mix that you boiled in the previous step.
Transfer the beer using the same procedure as above for transferring beer into the secondary fermenter.
21. Stir the beer carefully and slowly to mix the corn sugar with the rest of the beer. Be careful to not introduce air into the beer.
22. Fill the bottles to within 1/2 - 1 inch from the top of the bottle. Once again, be careful to not allow the beer to foam while you are filling the bottles. With the spigot, the beer can be dispensed directly into the bottles, and the level controlled by opening and closing the spigot. The other option is the bottle filler attached to the syphon tube. This works by starting a syphon into the bottle filling tube. There is a plunger on the bottom of the filler. As long as the plunger is down, no liquid will flow. Insert the filler into the bottle until the plunger is on the bottom. Beer will begin to flow and fill the bottle. When the liquid level reaches the top, remove the filler. As the plunger comes off the bottom of the bottle, the liquid will stop flowing. As the filler is removed from the bottle, the volume that was occupied by the filler will be reduced, and the level of liquid should be correct.
23. Place a cap on the bottle, and secure it using the bottle capper. Place the bottles back into the carton and store them for ar least 1 - 2 weeks. This time is necessary for carbonation to become complete. If you drink it sooner than this, the beer may be flat. Also, the flavor of the beer will improve as it ages. If you can wait at least 4 to 6 weeks, that would be best. (If you can't wait that long, I can't bame you.)
Serving Your Beer:
Different beers are intended to be served at different temperatures. I suggest that you serve it at the temperature that you enjoy it best.
Because your beer is naturally carbonated, there will be yeast in the beer. This will settle out with time and form a layer on the bottom of the bottle. For that reason, your beer will best be served in a chilled glass. After you open the bottle, pour it carefully so as not to "chug" it from the bottle. This can stir up the yeast layer. While the yeast won't hurt you, it does not look as nice if your beer is cloudy. As you get the the bottom of the bottle, watch for the sediment layer. Stop pouring just before the yeast gets to the neck of the bottle. You will end up with about a 1/2 inch or less of beer left in the bottom of the bottle.
After you have poured out the beer, wash, rinse and store the bottle upside down. This will make cleaning bottles for your next batch much less work.
Relax and enjoy your beer.
Pour Carefully. Drink Responsibly.