Just think, you can make your very own beer at home and not have to make all those trips to the market. All you need to get started is a little bit of money, a kitchen, some basic equipment and ingredients and some time-a lot of time.
Instructions
Brewing the Beer
1. Fill the pot 2/3 full of water and bring to a boil. When the water starts to get hot, add the malt extract syrup. Be sure to stir constantly until the syrup is completely dissolved. After the mixture, known as wort, begins to boil you won't need to stir any longer because the natural agitation of the bubbles will keep things moving.
2. Boil the wort for at least an hour. This process kills any living organisms that may be in the wort, which will spoil the beer.
3. Add about an ounce of hops, or more depending on your taste. More hops creates a more bitter beer. For a milder beer, add less than an ounce.
4. Add the "finishing hops" to the pot right before you turn off the heat. You can add a quarter or so of an ounce. The addition of these hops are not going to add much bitterness because they are added late in the boiling cycle.
5. Remove the wort from the heat and cover with a tight lid immediately. Put the pot into an ice bath. Add ice to the bath as necessary to cool the mixture as quickly as possible. Make sure that the lid stays on the wort to ensure it stays bacteria-free.
6. Transfer the cooled wort to your fermenter and top off with cold tap water. You can use chilled, pre-boiled water if you are concerned about contamination. Shake or stir the liquid every so often to add air to the mixture.
7. Add the yeast to the wort. You can either add the yeast straight from the envelope or rehydrate it in boiled, cooled water and then add it. Once you've added the yeast, apply the lid and airlock. It will be at least a week before you will bottle the brew.
Bottling the Beer
8. Sanitize everything you will be using, including the bottles. Anything that comes in contact with the beer has the potential to contaminate it and that will ruin the beer and the effort you've made so far.
9. Transfer the beer from the fermenter to the bucket using the siphon. Placing the fermenter on a table or chair will help with the siphoning process. Try to get as much of the beer out of the fermenter as possible without getting the layer of yeast on the bottom.
10. Prime the beer by adding sugar. The yeast will ferment the sugar, adding carbonation. Adding corn sugar or dry malt extract will give you the desired results. Before you add the sugar, you must mix it with boiling water and then let it cool. Boiling the sugar water will sanitize it. When the sugar water is cooled, it can be added to the bucket.
11. Bottle the beer by pouring the liquid from the bucket into the bottles. Fill one bottle at a time, using the siphon. Fill the bottle to within an inch of the top of the bottle. Cap the bottles within an hour of when you add the sugar to the beer mixture.
12. Wait. You will need to wait at least two weeks until your bottled beers are ready to drink. It is ideal to keep the bottles at room temperature to promote the fermentation and aging process.
Tags: Fill bottle, malt extract, sugar water, using siphon, water then