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HOMEBREWING

Brewing your first batch

This is an American-Style Microbrewed Pale Ale that is easy to make and easy to drink. It provides an excellent introduction to the art of brewing for the first time brewer.

Before beginning to brew this recipe, youâll need to make sure you have all the required equipment and ingredients. See Basic Brewing Equipment for a list.

Ingredients

1 can (3.75 lbs) Coopers "Bitter" Brewing Kit
2 lbs of gold or light dry malt extract
1 oz Cascade hops (pellets)
These items, along with the basic equipment needed, can be purchased at any homebrew store. Check our listing of homebrew stores to order by mail or try your local telephone directory.

Once you have all the needed equipment, you are ready to make the first batch. It shouldnât take more than an 90 minutes from start to finish.

Procedure

Bring one gallon of water to a boil in an uncovered pan large enough to hold 1.5 to 2 gallons.

While heating the water:

Remove the plastic lid and yeast packet from the top of the Cooperâs extract can. Put the can in a container of very hot tap water so that the thick paste inside will soften.

Clean and sanitize your "brew day" equipment according to the directions found in Sanitation.

When the water has come to a boil:

Open the can of extract from the bottom, pour the contents into the pan with the water. (Scrape out with a spatula, rinse with a small amount of hot water.) Stir until dissolved. Add the dry malt extract. Stir until dissolved. When this comes back to a boil, add the hop pellets and boil for 5 more minutes.

During the boil, empty the sanitizing solution from fermenter. Then fill the fermenter about one-half to two-thirds full (approximately 3 gallons) with cold tap water.

At the end of the boil time, turn off the fire under the kettle. The strong, unfermented beer now contained in the pot is called "wort." (Pronounced "wirt.")

Carefully pour this wort into the fermenter containing the cold water. If your fermenter is marked in gallons, add additional cold water, if needed, to bring to total volume to 5 gallons.

Put the clean, sanitized floating thermometer into the fermenter so that you can check the temperature periodically. Set the lid for the fermentation bucket loosely on top while the wort is cooling.

See notes on Managing Fermentation.

Batch No. 2: Adding grain

Batch No. 3: Beyond kits




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