Brewing Your First Extract Beer

Okay … Everything’s cleaned, sanitized and gathered up for your first extract brewing session way to go! These instructions will work no matter which fermenter type you choose.

First Question

What size batch are you brewing? Select the pot size according to the batch size you will be brewing from the table below.

Pot Sizes Required (in quarts)
Batch Size in Gallons	1	2.5	3	5	5.5	6	10
Minimum Pot Size	4	10	12	20	24	24	40

Brewing an All Extract Wort

For our example we will produce a 5 gallon batch of beer, for a 2.5 gallon batch just reduce the ingredients by half.

1. Boil 2 gallons of water set it aside and let it cool to room temperature covered.

2. Place 3 gallons of water in a pot turn on the heat.

3. When the water begins to boil turn off the heat and add all extracts and stir well to dissolve - you don’t want it to stick to the bottom – this mixture is called Wort.

4. Once the extracts are dissolved turn the heat back on to boil the wort for 30 minutes. Stir frequently.

NOTE: Once wort begins to foam (Hot Break) watch carefully to prevent boiling over! If it looks like it’s going to boil over turn off heat briefly or blow on the foam.

5. Turn off the heat – cool down to 70° - 90°F as quickly as possible by placing pot in a sink or tub filled with cold water, or a snow bank stirring constantly or if you have one use a wort chiller.

6. When the temperature is down to 70° - 90°F aerate the wort by stirring up quickly or using a wire whisk. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort before it’s added.

7. Take a hydrometer reading if you have one and record this number correcting for temperature. Drink the wort from the hydrometer test tube.

Never pour this back into the beer. Make notes on your readings and what you’ve tasted for later. It will be really sweet!

8. When there are plenty of bubbles in the wort add the yeast now stir gently you don’t want to add air to the wort once the yeast has been added. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

9. Transfer wort to your fermenter of choice being careful to leave as much of the sediment and trub behind as you can.

10. Place Air lock on ferementer (if there is one).

11. Place fermenter in a place where it will be out of the sunlight and undisturbed for several days to a few weeks depending on the recipe. In about 24 hours you should see bubbling in the airlock. Keep an eye on the temperatures!

12. Clean up!

Now Wasn’t That easy?

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