First Time Extract Brewing Using Dried Yeast

1. You will need a pot that will hold about 3-4 gallons of water. Fill this with 2 gallons and start to heat on the stove.

2. If you are using liquid malt extract, fill your sink with hot water and put the malt extract can or container in to soak. This will help the malt flow easier when you pour into the pot.

3. When the water just starts to boil take off the heat and pour the malt extract in. Dip some of the water into the container to get all of the malt out. If you are using dry malt extract be careful when adding to the pot. It always seems to rush into the pot and the dust goes everywhere. Add the dry very slowly.

4. Stir this with a long heat resistant spoon until it is completely dissolved.

5. Put pot back on the eye and heat until boiling.

6. It is helpful to have a glass of water handy just in case of boil over. If a boil over starts to happen, pour the water in and it will go down very quickly. You will need to watch the pot very carefully since boil over's happen quickly. I usually will turn the heat off and adjust as necessary. After about a couple of minutes of boiling it will usually settle down. Watch very carefully since a boil over is very nasty and a pain to clean up.

7. After the wort (this is what unfermented beer is called) has boiled about 10 minutes, add your boiling or bittering hops. You normally boil these anywhere from 50-90 minutes depending on the recipe.

8. While you are boiling your wort, get everything that will touch be wort after the boil sanitized. I have been using Iodophor (which is a iodine sanitizer). This will include: carboy, spoon, bubbler, stopper, funnel, etc.

9. Add your flavor hops 15-20 minutes before end of boil depending on the recipe.

10. Add your aroma or finishing hops 2-5 minutes before end of boil depending on the recipe.

11. At the end of the boil put pot in your sink and fill with water and ice to cool. You must cool this to less than 80 degrees before you can put into your carboy otherwise you may kill your yeast.

12. After the wort is cooled, add a couple of gallons of tap water to carboy (use the sanitized funnel if needed) and then add wort. Leave behind the gunk at the bottom of the pot (this is called trub). Fill the rest of the way to 5 gallons with tap water.

13. Carefully open the pack of dried yeast and pour into the carboy. It is best you use two packs to jump start the fermentation. (Later as you get more comfortable you can try your hand at liquid yeast).

14. Swirl the carboy around or use a (sanitized) spoon to slosh the wort around to aerate. The reason you do this is, while you boil the wort you are purging most of the oxygen from it. Yeast needs oxygen to work and the sloshing around will assure a quick start of the fermentation.

15. Add the stopper and bubbler.

16. Put carboy somewhere where light will not get to it. I cover with black garbage bag with a hole in the top so the bubbler will be out.

17. After about 7-12 days the fermentation should be slowed down to less than 1 bubble every minute.

18. At this point you can go ahead and transfer to the bottling bucket or move to a glass carboy to continue to clear for another week or two. If this is your first time brewing, I would suggest that you go ahead and bottle.

19. Sanitize everything that will be in contact with the beer which includes: all hoses, racking cane, bottling bucket, bottle filler, and bottles.

20. Once everything is sanitized, start a siphon and transfer the beer to the bottling bucket using your raking cane and hose. Make sure not the splash the beer around. At this point you do not want any oxygen to get into the beer. If it does, it will cause the beer to go stale quicker and have a cardboard taste to it.

21. While this is going on, take a sauce pan and put about two cups of water in it and add the priming sugar to it (this is usually ½ to ¾ cups depending on the recipe) boil for 10 minutes. Take off the heat and allow to cool down some.

22. Also take another sauce pan filled with a few cups water and add your bottle caps and boil for 5-10 minutes to sanitize. Take off heat and allow to cool.

22. After you transfer the beer to the bottling bucket, add the cooled priming sugar water to it and gently stir with a sanitized spoon. Be careful not to splash.

23. Hook up the hose and bottle filler and start to fill the bottles. This will take some getting used to at first but will become easy after a few times. Fill until just at the top and remove filler. This will insure a half to one inch from the top fill. I usually fill about 12 or so and then cap them and continue until all are done.

24. Put bottles in a dark place that is about 70 degrees for about 12 days to carbonate. After that you can open one and see if it is carbonated enough. If it is, move the bottles to a place that is cooler and keep out of light. If continued light hits your beer it will become “skunked” and have a skunky taste. If it is not carbonated enough, let sit another week.

25. Congratulations….on your first batch of beer…welcome to your new obsession!!!