Beginner Brewer:  is as easy as boiling a galloon of water and adding malt extract kit to it.

Intermediate Brewer:  Recommend using the ingredient kits that combine the processes of using malt extract and steeping your own grains for that individual flavor.

Advanced Brewer:  called “mashing” of grains where you convert the starches in malted barley to sugar.

Commonly Used Acronyms in Brewing:
OG = Starting or Original Gravity
FG = Finishing Gravity
IBU = International Bittering Units
ABV = Alcohol By Volume

The Recommended Items Needed to Brew an Extract Batch at Home:

Stove or Burner (outside burner) will make the process go a lot faster since most burners are a lot hotter than normal cooking stoves and if you have a boil over not so much mess to clean up.

Pot for boiling.  Minimum size you can get by with is 4 gallons, but 5-gallon pots will give you more room to boil more of your wort.  Stainless steel is the preferred pot, as aluminum has been known to give metallic flavors to some beers. 

Cooking Spoon

Primary Fermenter 6.5 gallons. Either a glass carboy or a food grade plastic bucket with a tight fitting top.

Airlock that fits in the top of a bucket lid with a stopper

Racking (transfer) Equipment should compose of racking cane and tubing. Using just tubing will cause you to pick up a lot of sediment

Secondary Fermenter (optional) using a secondary will give you a smoother and clearer beer. Recommend 5-6 gallon glass carboy. You can see the sediment as it settles to the bottom.

Bottling bucket w/ spigot  an open 5 gallon bucket with spigot to be used only for bottling.  You can mix the priming sugar without having any sediment mixing in as well.

Bottle Filler  fits on the spigot of the bottling bucket with a plunger tip that sets on the bottom of the bottle to fill your bottles from the bottom up. Less possibility of oxidation.

Bottle Capper used to tighten caps on to bottles.

Sanitizing agent use bleach and water, sanitizers such as One-Shot / Star Bright, or other sanitizers sold at brew shops. This is the number one thing in getting good beer. Clean, Clean, Clean!!!  Any item that comes in contact with your beer must be sanitized.

Brushes used to clean bottle and carboys.

Hydrometer used to check specific gravity of beer before and after fermentation.

Thermometer used to check temperature of steeping grains and wort.

Bottles 53 - 12 ounce or 24 - 22 ounce brown bottles. Do not use twist off type bottles.

This is only a basic list for beginning brewers. There are several items that can make home brewing easier. An all grain batch takes specialty items such as a mash and lauter tuns. Some brewers choose to use 5-gallon kegs and a CO2 tank instead of bottles.

Basic Procedure for Home Brewing Beer:  (Ingredient kit instruction sheets vary with style of beer)

1.   Thoroughly clean and sanitize all brewing equipment.

2.   Add 2 gallons of water to your pot.  Take the bag of grains and empty into the steeping bag.  Tie bag and place into pot.  Bring temperature of water and grains to 155 degrees and steep for 30 minutes.

3.   Remove the grain bag from the steeping water and squeeze excess water and discard bag and Grains.

4.   Bring this to a boil.

5.   Remove from heat (to avoid boil-over) and add all Malt Extract.

6.   Bring this mixture to a boil and add Bittering hops directly into the pot.

7.   Allow the wort to boil for 45 minutes.  Add the flavoring hops to hop bag and add to boil.

8.   Boil for an additional 15-min.

9.   (Relax, have a homebrew)

10. Put 3 ½ gallons of cold water in your 6.5-gallon primary fermenter and add the wort. 

11. Put on the lid and airlock.  Fill airlock half way with water.

12. Allow the wort to cool to 75 degrees or below.  The stick-on thermometer can monitor temperature.

13. When the temperature reaches 75 degrees it is time to pitch your yeast.  Before the yeast is pitched   take your original Gravity reading. Never drop the hydrometer directly into the wort, but pull some wort out and test in a tube or large glass.

14. Follow the directions on the package of yeast before pitching.

15. Put the lid and airlock back on fermenter.

16. Keep the fermenter in an area which will maintain a constant temperature of below 75 degrees, but no lower than 60 degrees.  Fermentation should start in 8 to 48 hours.

17. Between 3 and 5 days the fermentation will slow or appear to stop.  This is a good time to use your hydrometer to test your specific gravity.

18. After 5 days transfer to your secondary if you are using one.  Add the Aroma hops now.  This is called Dry Hopping.

19.  Condition your beer for 7 to 10 days or until it clears,

20. It is now time to bottle your beer.  Wash all bottles in hot soapy water and rinse.  Use the sanitizer of your chose to sanitize your bottles.

21. Dissolve 5 oz of priming sugar in 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.  Allow to cool to room temperature.  Place this in your sanitized bottling bucket.

22.  Using the siphon equipment transfer your beer to the bottling bucket. 

23. Attach your tubing to the spigot on your bottling bucket and fill your sanitized bottles.  Leave at least 1” of air space in each bottle.

24.  Using your capper cap all bottles immediately.

25. Store your beer at 70 to 75 degrees to carbonate and age in the bottle for at least 10 days.  Aging time varies from type and style of beer.  Chill and enjoy!