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World’s Easiest Brewing Instructions-Extract Brews! (Perhaps…)
- Fill a stock pot (brewing kettle) with about 3 gallons of water. Place your crushed grains in a grain bag, tie-off and place in the water.
- Bring your water to a steaming temperature (around 150F), but not to boiling. You are now steeping your grains and creating the brewer’s wort! After about 20 minutes, remove the grain bag (don’t squeeze it, just let the juice drain out naturally through your grain bag).
- Place your container of liquid malt extract (LME), in a separate pot of water & heat it up on a very low temperature. This will allow it to pour easier in the next step (4).
- After steeping your grain for around 20 minutes, remove the pot from the heat temporarily and add the tub of liquid malt extract (LME). This will prevent scorching the extract. Also, add the dry malt extract (1 lb), if your kit contains this.
- Place back on the burner and bring to a gentle boil. You are now starting a 60 minute boil of the wort. If your kit has 3 packs of hops, add the first hop now, packet #1 (60). At 30 minutes, add the 2nd packet, #2(30), and with fifteen minutes left in the boil, or 45 minutes, add your last pack, #3(15 or 10). If you are only using two types of hops, add the 1st hop in the beginning of the boil, #1(60) and add the finishing hops with 15 minutes left, #2(15). If your kit has Maltodextrine, Lactose, Candi Sugar, or Spices, add with 5 minutes left in the boil.
- After your 60 minute boil, remove pot from the stove and chill in a sink full of ice water or by utilizing a wort-chilling system. It’s important to keep your wort clear of dripping faucets or anything else that could contaminate the batch during the chilling phase. **It’s very important that your wort is chilled to below 80 degrees F before pitching your yeast.
- Pour the chilled wort (between 70-75F), through a strainer or filtered funnel into your sanitized primary fermenting bucket or carboy. Then top off the fermenter to just beyond the 5-gallon mark with cold water. On a 6-gallon brew bucket, this will be the bottom-most lip. Now it is time to use a sanitized hydrometer (optional) to check your original gravity following the instructions that came with the instrument. Next, use a stick-on or sanitized floating thermometer to make sure the wort is less than 80 degrees F, then stir the mixture with a sterilized kettle spoon, and pour in your reconstituted yeast (pitching).
- Cover the fermenter with a sanitized sealed/grometted lid (or use drilled stopper with carboy) and move to a storage area out of direct sunlight. (option #1) Insert one end of a section of clear tubing (1/4 id X 3/8 od) into the grometted hole in the lid. Place the other end into a small bucket or glass partially filled with water. This is called a blow-off tube and will allow your yeast to activate quickly, due to the larger exhaust. After 2-3 days remove the tubing and replace with a sterilized airlock. (option #2), If you do not wish to use a blow-off tube, simply use an airlock filled to the line with water. Cover your container with a towel or blanket to maintain a consistent temperature and to keep out any light. Soon your beer will start burping! Whoohoo!
- After about 7 to 10 days, the brewer has a choice to either leave the brewing beer in the container for another two weeks (approximately), or transfer it to a glass carboy. Transferring to a secondary container will add clarity (and some folks argue, “quality”, to your beer). To transfer, place the full bucket in a high place and use a sterilized siphon w/tubing to transfer into a carboy (other container). Place a drilled stopper into the mouth of the carboy (lid) and insert a sanitized airlock filled with water.
- After two weeks in the secondary fermenter or about one month in the primary fermenter, it’s time to bottle. Take a final gravity reading using your hydrometer (optional), write it down, and go to step 11.
- Sterilize all your bottles, the bottling bucket, bottle filler, spigot and tubing using no-rinse sanitizer and boil your caps in water, to sanitize these.
- Dissolve 5 oz of priming sugar into a small amount of boiling water and poor into the bottom of bottling bucket. You can adjust the amount of sugar, based on desired carbonation.
- Transfer your beer into the bottling bucket and attach one end of clear tubing to your spigot and the other end to a bottle filler.
- Turn on the spigot and fill each bottle, then cap, and store the beer in a cool, dark place. Conditioning the beer will take about 10-14 days.
*One of the best choices you can make to help ensure success when brewing is to sterilize everything that comes into contact with your beer. Also, patience produces the best brews!
Warning! Brewing your own beer may lead to increased happiness, a larger social network, and overall life satisfaction.