Extract Brewing Process:

1. Sanitize, rinse and dry all of your brewing equipment prior to brewing.

   You can either use a sanitizer from your homebrew supply shop or household bleach. If you're using a sanitizer, use it according to the manufacturer's instructions. If you're using bleach, it must be regular, non-scented bleach and heavily diluted. If cleaning with bleach, create a solution using 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. If sanitizing with bleach, use 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. It may not be necessary to rinse your equipment after cleaning it with a sanitizer, but if you are using bleach, you must rinse your equipment several times with hot water to remove any traces of the bleach. Some experts do not recommend using bleach because it will impart off-flavors in your beer if you don't rinse your equipment properly. Be guided by your own counsel in this regard.

2. If you're using malt extract syrup, place the cans in a bucket or sink filed with hot water for at least 15 minutes to make the syrup easier to pour. (Needless to say, this step is unnecessary if you're using DME.)

    

3. Bring at least 3 gallons of water to a boil in the brew kettle.

    

4. Once the water reaches a boil, remove the brew kettle from the heat source then stir in the malt extract.

   Removing the pot from the heat source to stir in the extract prevents it from burning on the bottom of the brew kettle and imparting unwanted burnt flavors into your beer.

5. Once the malt extract is thoroughly dissolved into the water, return the brew kettle to the heat and resume a boil.

   You do not have beer just yet. At this point, the water-extract solution is called "wort" (pronounced "wert"). Not until the yeast is added is it technically beer.

6. Once the wort is boiling again, add 1 ounce of the Cascade hop pellets.

   Hops added at the beginning of a boil will produce hop bitterness in the beer. Bittering hops in extract-based beers should be boiled for at least 60 minutes to obtain optimum hop utilization. Because of the length of the boil, all of the delicate flavor and aroma components of the hops are boiled away, so flavoring and aroma hops - often referred to as "finishing hops" - are added later in the boil. One option here is the use of a hop bag - a nylon or muslin sack with a drawstring that keeps loose hop particles from floating freely about the boiling wort. While a hop bag is not required, I recommend using one to keep the wort cleaner, to make siphoning the wort easier once the boil is complete and to cut down on messy clean-up. Nylon hop bags are reusable, muslin bags are not, so nylon hop bags are a wise investment.

7. Once the bittering hops are added, you will boil the wort for a total of 60 minutes.

   Keep a close watch on the wort to prevent it from foaming up and boiling over. Boilovers are messy and a tremendous pain in the ass to clean up. If your wort is headed for a boil-over, simply remove the brew kettle from the burner until it calms down or reduce the heat.

8. After 45 minutes have passed since the beginning of the boil (15 minutes before the end of the boil), place 1/2 ounce of the Cascade hop pellets into the wort.

   The addition of hops at this point in the boil produces hop flavor in the beer. Use another hop bag if desired.

9. After 55 minutes have passed since the beginning of the boil (5 minutes before the end of the boil), place the final 1/2 ounce of the Cascade hop pellets into the wort.

   The addition of hops at the end of the boil produces hop aroma in the beer. Again, a hop bag is not a bad idea.

10. Once the 60 minutes are up, remove the brew kettle from the heat source, cover it with a tight-fitting lid and drop the temperature of the wort as quickly as possible.

    Once the wort is no longer boiling, it is highly susceptible to contamination by air-borne bacteria, so it is essential to make sure that the brewing equipment and environment remain as sanitary as possible! For now, the easiest way to do this is to place the brew kettle in a sink full of cold water and ice cubes. (You might also add water dropped to near-freezing temperatures to your brew kettle, but remember that your brew kettle may not hold a full 5 gallons of liquid and, even if it does, 5 gallons of water is relatively heavy.) There are more effective means of chilling the wort, but for your first batch or two, an ice bath is sufficient.

11. Once the wort has cooled to approximately 70º F, siphon the wort from the brew kettle into the 5-gallon plastic bucket.

    The plastic bucket will be the vessel in which you ferment your beer. The vessel in which you begin the fermentation of your beer is known as the primary fermenter. Most experienced brewers conduct a secondary fermentation, but for your first few batches you don't need to worry about this. Just get comfortable with the process down before adding additional steps.

    Siphoning may sound hard if you've never done it before, but nothing could be easier. The key to a good siphon is placing the vessel you are siphoning from at a higher level than the vessel you are siphoning to and letting gravity do the rest. For example, I place the brew kettle on a countertop and the primary fermenter on the floor. Connect the siphon hose to the racking stem and sanitize as usual if you haven't done so already. Next, fill the siphon hose with water and clip it tight. (Your siphon hose should have a clip on it to cut off the flow. If not, placing your sanitized thumb at the end of the siphon hose will suffice.) Place the tip of the racking stem down into the bottom of your brew kettle and the end of the siphon hose into your primary fermenter. Release the clip (or your thumb) and let gravity do the rest.

    • After the wort has been racked to the fermenter, pour enough water into the fermenter to reach 5 gallons, gently mix the wort to bring the water into solution, then take an original gravity reading with the hydrometer. The original gravity of this beer should be around 1.045.

      Specific gravity is a measurement of the density of a liquid relative to water. Water has a specific gravity of 1.000. Anything with a specific gravity reading higher than 1.000 is more dense than water. For the homebrewer, the original gravity reading will measure the amount of fermentable sugars in the wort. The higher the reading, the more fermentable sugars that are present and the higher the potential final alcohol content. Therefore, one purpose of this reading is to determine the alcohol content of your finished beer.

      To take an original gravity reading, draw off a few ounces of the wort into a sanitized hydrometer tube, drop in the hydrometer and make a note of the reading. If you're working with a plastic bucket, this should be easy enough, but how do you get wort out of a carboy without siphoning it? Remember how fascinated you were when you learned that soda would stay in the straw if you closed the top of the straw with your thumb? Use the same concept here. There are gadgets on the market to help with this. Hydrometers are only accurate at 60º F, so the reading you get must be adjusted if the temperature of the wort is not 60º F. (See the Hydrometer Temperature Correction chart on the measurements and conversions page).

    • After taking your original gravity reading, pitch the yeast into the fermenter.

      "Pitching" is brewer slang for adding yeast to the wort. If your fermenter is a plastic bucket, simply pour the yeast in. If you're using a glass carboy, pour the yeast in through a sanitized funnel.

    • Finally, seal the primary fermenter with an airlock and shake the carboy vigorously for a few minutes before starting fermentation.

      One of the keys to a strong, healthy fermentation is plenty of oxygen in the wort. Shaking the carboy aerates the wort. Although there are much more effective and less laborious methods of aerating the wort, this will suffice for now.