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Homebrewing Basics: It's Easy!

It's fun making your own beer. It lets you be creative. You get to make beers that you may not be able to buy locally. You make all natural, additive-free beer. And you save money. Is it difficult? Not at all — it's easy. Just follow these few short steps and you'll soon be enjoying your own handcrafted beer.

1. Bring 8 litres of water to a boil in a large pot (16 L or larger). Remove from heat.
2. (Skip this step if you are not using specialty grains.) Tie the grains up in a cheesecloth bag and steep them for 15 minutes while swirling the bag around as you would a tea bag. Squeeze the bag on side of the pot and remove. Discard the spent grains.
3. (Skip this step if you are not using fresh hops.) Open your can or bag of malt extract and remove one cup of extract. Add it to the boiler of water. Turn on the heat and bring the water to a boil. Add your hops and boil for 30 minutes.
4. Pour the complete contents of the malt extract and any sugar required into the pot of boiling water. Turn off the heat and cover. Let stand for 15 minutes.
5. Put the covered pot into a sink of cold water and let it stand for 15 minutes or longer until the temperature reaches 40º Celsius or less.
6. Pour the contents of the pot (called wort pronounced wert) into a clean and sanitized brewing bucket. Top up to 23 litres. Stir vigorously. Check the temperature periodically until it reaches 30º Celsius or lower then proceed to the next step.(Make sure you keep the bucket covered between temperature checks).
7. Prepare dry yeast by sprinkling it on top of 1/4 cup of warm water (40º C). Do not stir. Wait 15 minutes then stir gently and proceed to the next step. If you are using liquid yeast follow the package instructions.
8. Add the yeast. Seal the lid and insert the airlock. Half fill the airlock with water. Keep the beer at a 25º Celsius for seven days. Your beer will then be ready for bottling.
9. Siphon your beer into a clean and sanitized bucket. Dissolve 1 cup of sugar in 2 cups of boiling water and add it to your beer. Stir gently to disperse.
10. Bottle your beer using a siphon hose. Let it stand for 10 days at 25º Celsius then move it to a cool spot to mature. You can try your beer now but it will improve over the next couple of months (if it lasts that long).

There you go. It's easy. These instructions will make excellent beer and may be all you'll ever need but if you want to do more advanced brewing there is a plethora of information available on the Internet.