Beer Kit Ingredients

Extracts and Adjuncts

Remove the wort from the heat.  Add any liquid or dry malt extracts to the wort.  You should also add honey, candi sugar, or any other sugars at this time.  Stir in all ingredients well.  Make sure none of the syrup from the malt is unmixed on the bottom of the pot.  Heat the solution just to a boil.

Hops
At this point, start your clock.  You will boil the wort for another hour.  Hops are added to the wort at different scheduled times.  Hops that are identified as bittering hops are usually added at the very beginning.  These hops make the beer bitter to balance the sweetness from the malt.  The next schedule of hops is called the flavoring or finishing hops.  These are added very near the end of the boil.  The last schedule of hops added is called the aroma hops.  These add to the aroma of the beer and are usually added immediately after the boil is finished.

Your kit instructions should tell you when to add the hops.  Usually the bittering hops are added at the beginning, the finishing hops are added 50 minutes into the one hour boil, and the aroma hops are added right after the boil is finished and the flame is turned off.

When you add your hops, be prepared for a boil over.  It might take a few minutes before your pot returns to a gentle boil.  Stir the wort and reduce the heat until the boil calms down.

Cool off beer
After 60 minutes of boiling the beer, you will need to cool the beer.  Carefully place your sanitized thermometer into the wort.  Make sure the thermometer is able to read temperatures higher than 212F (100C), otherwise your thermometer will break.  The temperature of the wort should be around 212F (100C).  You need to cool off the wort as quickly as possible.

Prepare an ice bath in your tub.  You can use your bathtub if you need to.  You need something large enough to hold the ice, your pot, and some water.  Do not add the ice directly to the wort.  This could contaminate you beer, and produce some very nasty flavors.  Gently stir the wort in your pot.  This helps cool the wort faster, because the heat exchanged through the pot is constant.

Once the wort is below 80F (26.6C), you are ready to strain the wort into your fermenter.  Remove your thermometer.  Make sure that your fermenter, funnel, and strainer are all sanitized.  Carefully strain your wort into the fermenter.  It is ok if some particles get into the beer.  Fill your fermenter to five gallons with the spring water.  You should not use tap water unless the tap water was previously boiled and then cooled.  Tap water can be a source of contamination.

Remove a small amount of the wort using something sanitized like a sanitized glass or "wine thief", and pour it into your hydrometer jar.  This is so you can tell how much alcohol your beer can potentially contain.  Use the hydrometer to determine how much sugar is in your wort.  Record this in a brew journal.

Yeast
At this point you are almost done.  Open your yeast package and pour it into your beer.  This is called pitching the yeast.  Seal the fermenter, and add the airlock to the lid.  You can use water in the airlock, but vodka would be better.  Any micro-organisms that want in your beer will be deterred by the high alcohol in vodka.  Place your fermenter in a dark cool place.  Basements are perfect.  You want the ambient temperature to be around 65F-75F (18C-24C).  The cooler the better.  At this point you can relax, clean up, and have a beer!   

Fermentation

Large Plastic Fermenter

After some time, the bubbles will slow down or stop.  You are now ready to rack and bottle your beer.

Bottling
Rack your beer into a sanitized bottling bucket.  Racking the beer is simply siphoning the top part of the beer into a new container.  Make sure you leave the sediment (lees) behind.

Your beer kit should come with "bottling sugar".  This sugar is used to carbonate your beer.  Gently mix in the sugar with a sterilized spoon.  The remaining yeast will eat this sugar and produce CO2, the carbonation for your beer.  Fill each bottle with your beer from the bottling bucket.  Leave about 1 1/2 inches of airspace.  Seal the bottles with a capper and store the bottles in a cool place, 65F-75F (18C-24C).  After 2 weeks, your beer should be ready to enjoy.  Chill a bottle, and then open it.  Enjoy!

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.