All equipment that comes in contact with your beer after the boil MUST be sanitized.

Please make sure that your kit contains Yeast, Malt Extract, Specialty Grains and Hops before brewing.

1. Fill your brew pot with 2 1/2 gallons of water. Place the specialty grains inside a muslin bag and tie. Add the bag to the brew pot. Turn on the heat. Remove the bag just before the water boils. Discard the grain bag.

2. Turn off the heat and add all of your liquid and/or dry malt extract to the brew pot while stirring. If adding other sugars, add them now. Do not add priming sugar or fruit extract, save them for bottling.

3. Return heat to the brew pot and bring to a vigorous boil without boiling over. Add the bittering hops to the brew pot. You will boil this mixture, called wort(wert), for 60 minutes. Stir the wort periodically, leaving the lid offset to prevent a boil over.

4. Add the finishing hops to the brew pot with 5 minutes left in the 60 minute boil. If using Irish moss and/or yeast nutrient, add them now. When the boil is complete, turn off the heat.

5. Now place your brew pot in an ice bath in the kitchen sink. Gently stir the wort to speed cooling. Continue to cool until the brew pot under the water is warm, but not hot to the touch. This usually takes 15-20 minutes.

6. Now add 2 1/2 gallons of ice cold water to your sanitized fermenter.

7. Pour your wort into the fermenter and add the liquid or dry brewing yeast. Stir with a sanitized spoon. If you're using dry brewing yeast, do not re-hydrate as directed on the package.

8. Secure the sanitized lid to the fermenter. Sanitize the airlock and fill it half full with sanitizing solution, place the airlock into the lid.Shake or rock your sealed fermenter for 5 minutes. Aeration is good at this time.

9. If you're using a hydrometer, reopen the fermenter and remove 8 oz. of wort with a sanitized cup. Avoid touching the wort with your hands. Put the sample aside and replace the lid and airlock.

10. Place the fermenter in a warm place(65-73degrees)/ This is the ideal temp range for ales. Fermentation will usually begin in 12-36 hours and continue for 3-5 days. Fermentation rates vary, cooler temps mean slower fermentation.

11. Take your wort sample and pour it into the hydrometer test tube,leaving the hydrometer in it until it floats. Record the specific(original) gravity and the potential alcohol readings. Pour the sample into an old beer bottle, place a paper towel in the neck and keep it next to your fermenter. This is called a satellite fermenter. It is used to take hydrometer  readings without opening the fermenter. It is accurate, even if it becomes infected.

12. Five to seven days after brewing, take a hydrometer reading and record it. When the readings stay the same for 2 days your fermentation is complete.To determine the alcohol content,  subtract the final alcohol percentage from the original potential alcohol. Once you're sure  the fermentation is done you can allow the beer to sit a few days to settle, then bottle, transfer to a secondary fermenter for at least 5 days, then bottle or bottle immediately.


BOTTLING TIME
 
1. Clean and sanitize all bottles. You need approximately 48-12 oz. bottles or 27-22 oz. bottles. Use only non twist top bottles. Keep them out of direct sunlight. Swing top bottles are ok, replace gaskets as needed.

2. Boil 16 oz. of water, remove from the heat and add the primming sugar(3/4 cup corn sugar) to water and stir until dissolved. Add this hot solution to your sanitized bottling bucket.

3. Siphon your beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. Avoid splashing during the transfer and leave as much sediment behind as possible. To start the siphon, place the fermenter on a table and the bottling bucket below it. Remove the fermenter lid. Fill the siphon with sanitizer, once filled it will start itself when placed in the beer. Place the racking cane end(hard, curved plastic with black tip) into the fermenter and the other end in the bottling bucket(drain the sanitizer in the siphon into a cup first). Be sure the bottling bucket spigot is closed.

4. Now you have the beer and priming solution in the bottling bucket. If you're adding fruit extract,add it now. Put the bucket on a table. Remove the curved racking cane from the siphon unit and attach the sanitized siphon hose to the spigot and attach the
bottle filler on the other end. Open the spigot and allow the beer to fill the hose. Fill each bottle by pressing the bottle filler onto the bottom of each bottle. Leave 1 1/2 inch of head space in each bottle.

5.Soak your caps in sanitizing solution. To cap your bottles,place a cap on each bottle and crimp with your capper. Do not apply excessive pressure, let the capper do the work.

6. Natural carbonation happens as a result of the suspended yeast in your beer consuming the priming sugar. Allow the beer to carbonate at room temp(60-70degrees) for about 10 days before refrigerating. 

Longer aging will improve the clarity and flavor. Pour your home brew into a glass, leaving the sediment behind. 
ENJOY!!!