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Essential Detailed Home Brew Guide
You will need all this for your brewing day:
Brew Pot (5 gal) and lid
Fermenter (6 gal) and lid
1.5 Liter Bottle of Water (for Measuring)
Yeast Starter Jar (Big enough for half of the water in the 1.5 liter bottle. It is cool if this has measuring units but not near essential).
Other Pot(s) and lids to hold sanitized water
Plastic Wrap to cover Yeast Starter Jar
Bathtub or Large Sink or Chilling Coil or Snowbank
2 stirring spoons
Ordinary table spoon
Thermometer
Airlock
Bag of Ice
Strainer
Iodophor (or other solution; I don't know about the other ones)
Grain (if your recipe asks)
Yeast
Hops (bittering and finishing)
Malt Extract
Sanitize -
Put 5 gal of water in brew pot, put 1/2 fl. oz of Iodophor in the solution. Put the brew lid in the pot. Let it sit for ten minutes and rotate the brew lid at 5 minutes. If the Iodophor turns clear from brown, it's not sanitizing anymore and you need to use more.
Pour all of the water into the fermenter. In the fermenter put anything that's gonna touch the brew.
your airlock,
a small pot (about the size of a Pyrex measuring cup),
a stirring spoon (long enough to touch the bottom of the brew pot and more, not wooden),
another stirring spoon
ordinary house spoon
thermometer
the fermenter lid, rotate at 5 minutes
strainer
Hang up everything or put it in containers that have been sterilized. Cover the fermentor and yeast jar lid to keep out air.
Boil 3 gallons of water in the brew pot. 3 gallons is about 7.5 bottles of 1.5 liter water. Pour it into the fermenter or another sanitized container and let it cool. Hopefully it will cool or be chiller than room temperature by the time the wort is done.
Boil 3 gallons of water in the brew pot. 3 gallons is about 7.5 bottles of 1.5 liter water. Some of this water will evaporate during the boil.
Steeping Grain
Pour 3 quarts of water (about 2 bottles of 1.5 liter water) into a pot and boil it to 150-170. Pour in the grain. Keep the water at this temperature for 20-30 minutes. Pour this through a strainer into the brew pot. Or if you have a grainbag, steep the grain at 150-170 directly in the brew pot.
Fill a 1.5 liter water bottle a quarter of the way then pour this into a pot. Boil this water then let it cool to 95-105 degrees. Pour in a packet of yeast. Take a sanitized ordinary spoon and scoop it full of malt extract and pour this in the cup. Stir it. Cover this cup and wait 30 mins.
The brew pot should be warm, maybe not boiling yet. Turn off the heat. Add the grain if you didn't have a grainbag. Add the malt extract. Make sure you stir it well enough that none sticks to the bottom, if you turn on the heat again and there's stuff sticking to the bottom it'll burn and taste awful.
Bring the water to full boil! You probably need to cover the pot with the lid to get to a full boil. THere should be foam on a smooth surface. There should be a Hot break within 5-20 minutes where there is a big risk of boiling over. After the Hot break you're ready to add your first hops. Set a timer for 60 minutes when you add your first hops. Stir them into the wort.
Prepare a cool area to chuck the pot in. This could be a bathtub with a ton of ice.
Don't cover your pot all the way - leave a little bit open so sulphur can escape the pot otherwise your beer will taste a like cabbage.
Stir your pot occasionally.
Add finishing hops according to your recipe.
Ok once the timer's done you want to rapidly cool your wort. Be careful not to contaminate the wart with your hands or water dripping from your hands or fingerprints. Carry it over to the bathtub and put the lid on. If the water surrounding the pot gets warm replace it with colder water.
If your yeast is foaming its ready to go. Pour it into the fermenter.
Ok let your pot cool to 80 F. This should take about 30 minutes.
Hopefully the water you poured in the fermenter earlier has cooled. Or if you were keeping it in a different container. After it's cooled pour your brew pot wort through the strainer into the fermenter. Try to do it violently. Hopefully the water level is around 5 gal. If lower add more water. If higher start with less water in the fermenter.
Fill the airlock up to the line with cheap vodka or whiskey. Replace it on top of the fermenter. Store the fermenter in a cool place.
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