RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS
These are general, 5-gallon, extract instructions to help keep you on track with your brew. Cheers!!!
Extract Directions:
- Heat 3 Gallons water in 20qt (or bigger) SS pot.
- Raise temperature of water to 160 F.
- Put all grains in muslin bag and steep grains for 30-min. *Turn off heat while steeping
- After 30-minutes grains are removed. Let grains drain thru a strainer before discarding. *No heat, rest grains on a strainer, DO NOT SQUEEZE BAG.
- Once bag is done draining and discarded, raise wort temperature to 190 F, add DME/LME *Remove from heat while adding/stirring DME/LME. Stir, Stir, Stir
- Once stirred, bring wort temperature up to a boil (212F). *Nice, even boil. Not a hard
boil. Watch for boil overs!
- Add hops - *This is a countdown of 60-min. Add hops according to the below chart:
- @60 - 1 oz
- @30 - 1 oz
- @10 - 1 oz
- @0 - 1 oz
- Once boil is complete, cool wort to 80 degrees using reverse osmosis (RO) ice.
* 8# bag of Ice = 1-gallon of water
* You might even need more than the 8#, so buy 2 bags just in case. Stir and take it's temperature until 80F is achieved.
- Transfer wort to primary fermentor.
* If using 6.5-gallon bucket, pour wort through a strainer sitting on top of bucket to capture/filter trub and hop sediment (discard remains captured).
* If using 6.5-gallon carboy, use a funnel and place strainer on top of funnel to filter trub.
- (OPTIONAL) You can also filter your wort into another bucket before racking to primary
fermenter. Bottling buckets work great as you now have a spigot to control how fast your wort goes into the fermenter. A side benefit is you introduce more O2 into your beer to wake up your yeast cells.
- Top off fermenter to the 5-gallon mark with room temperature RO water.
* If using bottling bucket, top off water in bucket to 5-gallons.
- Take your gravity and write it down below (gravity is taken without yeast).
*If you are taking the gravity of the beer, you don't have to, but you won't know your
alcohol if you don't take the reading!
- Add yeast.
- Put on Air lock after putting on lid, or bung, to your fermenter.
- Ferment for 7 to 14-days at 62-72F, or depending on your yeast strain, so check what temperature your yeast likes the best.
(Optional)
Secondary Fermentation (Dry-Hopping)
- After 5-7 days in the primary fermenter, some brewers will transfer (rack) their beer into a 5-gallon glass carboy for “conditioning” and “Dry Hopping”.
- This will help with a few things:
1. Getting your beer off its initial “yeast cake” so no off-flavors can occur
2. Will help clarify the beer
3. Can add in more hops for aroma (Dry-Hopping)
- Take racking cane, or auto-siphon, and attach siphon hose
- Transfer (rack) beer from primary fermenter to secondary fermenter
- Once beer is racked into new fermenter, lid and airlock
- At this time, you can throw in 1oz, or 2, of hops in for “Dry Hopping”.
Bottling
- After fermentation, take gravity of beer. If it's somewhere between
1.015, or lower, it’s time to bottle! *This depends on your style of beer, of course.
- Boil 2 cups of RO water BEFORE racking.
- Add 1oz Dextrose per gallon of beer (or maple syrup or honey) to water once at a boil. stir it up, after 3-4 min of boil, let solution cool.
- Rack (transfer) beer from fermenter to bottling bucket using syphon hose
and racking cane, or auto-siphon.
- During racking, add in your sugar solution after a 1/2 gallon of beer is in bottling bucket. Make sure the solution is cooled (room temp, or a little warmer is fine).
- Once racked into bottling bucket, take syphon hose off of racking cane and put on bottling spigot.
- Attach bottling wand to end of syphon hose, which should be attached to your bottling spigot.
- Dump out sanitizer and start filling your bottles.
- Cap your filled bottles. *Usually, one person fills the bottles and one person caps so there's less chance of oxidation.
- Sit for 10-14-days in bottle at room temp in a darker place (spare closets work great).
* After 7-8 days, feel free to take a bottle and chill it overnight to see if they are ready.
- Once carbonated, put all bottles into the fridge so they don't keep carbonating!
- Now, sit back and enjoy your home-brew!
Readings:
- Date:
- Original Gravity (OG):
- Final Gravity (FG):
- Bottle Date:
- Drink Date:
- ABV%: