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It's really
easy & what's more, you will discover that the beer you make is very good
quality. Here is some information about what you need to make beer & also
a description of the process which shows you how very easy it is. It takes 1
to 3 weeks to make a batch & during that time you will spend a couple of
hours of your time on the brew.
Once you have your Home Brewery Kit, you are
ready to make your first batch. You will be using a canned beer ingredient kit
which is extremely easy.
However, don't think the quality of the beer you make will be poor. You will
make great beers this way as long as you remember that it is important to use
really good quality ingredients.
Basically, home brewing from a can of beer
ingredient kit can be done in 4 stages:
| Stage
1 - Preparation
|
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| Stage
2 - Fermentation
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| Stage
3 - Bottling
|
| Stage
4 - Maturation |
| Stage 1 -
Preparation |
| 1 |
Clean
& sterilise your equipment. |
| 2 |
Put
the yeast aside for the fermentation stage. |
| 3 |
Dissolve
the contents of the can in 2 to 4 litres of very hot water in a
sterilised bucket. Use less hot water in hot weather & more in
cold weather. Add 1kg of glucose, dextrose or maltose and stir to dissolve. DO
NOT USE NORMAL SUGAR. |
| 4 |
Use ice bath to cool the mixture immediately or
add about 10 litres of cold water to your fermenter and mix
thoroughly. Top up with cold water to the 23 litre mark. |
| Stage 2 -
Fermentation |
| 1 |
Sprinkle the yeast onto the surface and stir for
a minute. |
| 2 |
Seal
the fermenter, fit the airlock and half fill it with cool boiled
water. |
| 3 |
Allow
the brew to ferment. Try to keep the temperature in the fermenter
reasonably constant in the mid 20's (depending on the stated range
from the beer ingredient kit) and try to avoid it falling below about
18șC. Typically this takes about 5 days. |
| 4 |
Fermentation
is finished when the reading from the hydrometer stablised. Another
indication is when the airlock stops bubbling and the brew itself begins
to clear. Allow a further 48 hours for it to clear thoroughly. |
| Stage 3 -
Bottling |
| 1 |
Sterilise
the bottles & rinse with cool boiled water. |
| 2 |
Use
your priming scoop to put a measured amount of sugar into each bottle. |
| 3 |
Fill
each bottle to within 5cm of the top. |
| 4 |
Close
each bottle with a crown cap and seal it firmly with a capping tool. |
| 5 |
Shake
thoroughly then stand the bottles in a warm spot (around 25 to 28șC.)
for about a week. It is ready for sampling. |
| Stage 4 -
Maturation |
| 1 |
Homebrew
improves greatly with bottle ageing and will not go off in the bottle
at all. A three month old beer will be very much better than a one month
old beer. So, try to age your beers, you will enjoy them much more. In
fact, you will be amazed at how much your aged beers have improved. |
| 2 |
Don't
forget to label and date each batch. Keep samples to try at 3, 6 and
12 months old. Take notes about how they taste then you will see for
yourself how this amazing improvement works. |
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