3. COOK UP SOME BEER

Clean and sanitize your equipment

Cleanliness is incredibly important. You must clean and sanitize all of your equipment right before you start brewing, and keep everything clean throughout the process. Bacteria and fungi are everywhere and if enough of them get into your beer they will completely ruin it. The good part is that if you do clean everything you will make an excellent first batch of beer. At the first stage of brewing, you will need to clean and sanitize the following items:

At the first stage of brewing, you will need to clean and sanitize the following items:

  • Brewpot
  • Primary fermenter
  • Brew spoon
  • Airlock and stopper
  • Saucepan
  • Small bowl
  • Rubber spatula
  • Big mixing spoon

Later stages will also require you to clean and sanitize other items, and when we say that you should refer to the following cleaning and sanitizing instructions.

Cleaning refers to the removal of any visible crud, sediment, film, dust, etc. from all of your equipment. This can be accomplished with dish soap and a cloth or brush. Or if you're lucky enough to have one, you can just use a dishwasher.

Sanitizing is a separate procedure from cleaning, and it requires the use of heat, chlorine or iodine mixed with water to kill off any remaining bacteria. If your dishwasher has a "heat dry" cycle, you're in luck. Turn it on and let the steam in the dry cycle do the work for you.

If you are not blessed with a dishwasher (no doubt, one of man's greatest inventions) you will need to sanitize the old fashion way.

  1. First, you need to mix up some sanitizing solution, using either unscented chlorine bleach (2 ounces per 5 gallons of water) or pure iodine (not the stuff your mom put on your wounds, but stuff you have to buy at a brewing or restaurant supply store) and cold water.

  2. Mix this up in a big basin, a sink or a bathtub, so long as whatever equipment you put it in has been thoroughly cleaned.

  3. The primary fermenter and the bottling bucket don't need to be soaked; you can mix up sanitizing solution right in them. You can even soak your other items in these two pieces.

  4. All small items should be completely immersed in the sanitizing solution in the sink or in one of the large pieces of equipment. Once everything is full of or immersed in sanitizing solution, you can kick back and wait (30 minutes if you are using bleach, 5 minutes with the iodine solution) while the solution does its work. If you are using bleach you need to rinse everything thoroughly after it is sanitized. Set everything somewhere clean and let it dry. Don't allow small children, pets or gypsies to rummage through the equipment, don't sneeze on it. We want everything to be nice and clean for the brewing. OK. Let's make some liquid nirvana!

Instructions for making great beer from a beer kit

  1. Bring 2 quarts of water to 160-180F, basically steaming but not boiling. Then remove from heat.

  2. Add your beer kit and additional fermentables according to the directions. Suggested fermentables, as we mentioned before, include brewers sugar, dry malt extract, liquid malt extract, rice syrup, demerera sugar, Belgian candi sugar or any combination of the above. Each will impart its own unique flavor profile. Ask your local shop owner for advice on how to get what you want.

  3. Stir aggressively to ensure that everything gets dissolved. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit for 10-15 minutes on the lowest heat setting. This will ensure that you achieve sanitation.

  4. Add the contents of your pot to 4 gallons of cold water already in your primary fermenter. Mix well, at least a minute or two. This helps add oxygen to your wort prior to adding your yeast. Trust us, your yeast will thank you for it later (if you know what we mean). When the side of your fermenter feels cool to the touch, it is safe to add your yeast. Some kits recommend re-hydrating your yeast in water first. This is not really neccessary.

  5. Ferment as close to recommended temperature range as possible.