Brewing your own beer is fairly easy, especially if you aren’t willing just yet to spend that cash on an entry level kit. A few simple pieces of equipment and ingredients can make you your own mini batch.
Equipment
” A large kitchen pot that can hold a few gallons of water
” Strainer
” Kitchen thermometer
” Large funnel
” Rolling pin
” Bottled water [3 gallons]
” Bottling container
” 3 feet of 3/8″ clear poly-vinyl tubing
” Bottles
Ingredients
” Simple Ale
” 3 lbs light dried malt extract
” 8 oz crushed crystal malt
” 1 oz Northern Brewer pellet hops
” 1 pkg brewers yeast
” 3/8 cup sugar for bottling
Method:
1. Pour the crystal malt into a large freezer bag and use the rolling pin to crush the grain.
2. Steeping – pour ½ gallon of water and place a mark at the 2½ gallon level. Then pour the remaining water into the pot and add the crushed grains. Turn the heat to medium high and bring the temperature up to 150-155°. Turn off the heat and cover the brew power for 30 minutes.
3. Use a strainer to remove as much of the spent grain as possible.
4. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the malt extract.
5. Return to heat and bring to a boil.
6. Add 2/3 of the hop pellets and maintain the boil for 60 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and add remaining hop pellets. Let it steep.
8. Now you have wort or unfermented beer. Put together a cold water bath in your sink and lower the pot partially in until completely cooled down.
9. Pour cooled wort through your sanitized strainer and funnel into the empty fermentation bottle, upto the 2½ mark made earlier.
10. Pour half the package of brewers’ yeast into the fermenter.
11. The yeast will work its magic over the next week to 10 days. Place the fermenter in a cool, dark place.
12. Priming – boil 3/8 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes. Let it cool and then pour into a sanitized container. Siphon the beer from the fermenter into the bottling container.
Congratulations! Your beer is now primed and ready for bottling.
