Making Beer The Brewery Lane Way

The most important and crucial factor in making good beer is cleanliness. You have to make sure everything that comes in contact with your beer is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. You should use a chlorine based sanitizer at 1 tablespoon per gallon of cold water. Soak everything that will come in contact with your beer ( spoons, measuring cups, strainers, etc.) in this solution for 10 minutes or longer, then rinse it with warm tap water to remove the chlorine. While your equipment is standing in the chlorine solution you can get down to business and start making your beer!

Here's a recipe to make a good quality beer. This will produce a good tasting beer between 4.5 - 5 % alcohol by volume. If you want to increase the alcohol level, adding 1/2 kilogram of malt extract will give you a beer with between 5.5 - 6% alcohol. You can also reduce the water to make 4 gallons of beer to get the same results.

You'll need
Equipment:

• Large boiler (12 litres or larger recommended)
• Long handle stainless or plastic stirring spoon
• 25 litre or larger food grade plastic or glass fermenting
  vessel fitted with a lid bored for an air lock.
• Air lock and rubber stopper.
• 5 feet of siphon hose with rigid racking tube.
• Bottle filler or shut off clip or bottling bucket.
• 20 litres worth of bottles and caps.
• Bottle capper if using glass bottles
• Chlorine sanitizer.
• Optional: 20 or 23 litre carboy for a 2-stage fermentation.

Ingredients:

• 1 beer kit ( 1.5 or 1.8 kg.)
• 1 kg. dry malt extract or 1 tub of Hi-Maltose syrup or 1kg. corn sugar
• 2 packets of ale yeast.
• 25 G or 1 oz. hops ( Optional: adds extra flavour and aroma).
• 180 G or 1 cup of priming sugar (dextrose) for bottling.

Bring to boil 4 litres of water. Remove from heat and add your beer kit, and malt extract or hi-maltose syrup or corn sugar. Stir to dissolve. Return to heat and bring to a boil. Be careful, don't let it boil over or you'll have a huge mess to clean. Boil for 15 minutes. If you are using hops add them now and boil for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir vigorously for a few seconds. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.* Pour the hot mixture (called wort) into your sanitized and rinsed bucket trying to keep most of the hop debris behind, but don't worry if some goes into the fermenter it will settle out with the yeast. Top up to the 20 litre mark with cold water. Stir vigorously 3 - 4 minutes with a sanitized plastic or stainless steel spoon to aerate. Now this is a very critical time. Your brew will be very susceptible to contamination at this time. You should keep it covered and mess around with it as little as possible. You have to bring the temperature down to 25º to 30º Celsius before adding the yeast. When the temperature is 30º Celsius or lower, you should sprinkle your yeast on top of the mixture. DO NOT STIR ANY FURTHER. Seal the cover and fix the air lock. Don't forget to half fill the air lock with water. Keep in a room between 20º to 25º Celsius. When fermentation begins (about 12 to 24 hours.), the air lock will start bubbling. You should now adjust the temperature of your room to 18º - 25º Celsius, with 20º C being the optimum. At first the air lock will bubble slow but will eventually pick up speed, and then slow down again. When the activity slows down to 1 bubble every 2 minutes,** fermentation is over. Raise your bucket on a table, preferably in a cool spot until day 14. This will aid in clearing your beer. Optional: If you wish to conduct a 2-stage fermentation, transfer your beer into a carboy on day 7, being careful not to splash. Top up to within 2" of the top if needed, with cooled boiled water. Let stand for 7 days before bottling.

You are now ready to bottle! The way you bottle your beer can have a marked affect on the finished product. The method we give here will give you uniform carbonation and will decrease the chance of oxidizing your beer. Sanitize all equipment including beer caps by using a chlorine solution (1 tbls per gallon of water). Rinse well with warm tap water. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan and add your priming sugar. Bring to a boil again until you get a clear syrup. Siphon your beer into the bottling bucket,*** making sure not to splash. Putting the output end of your siphon hose to the bottom of your bottling bucket prevents this. Add your sugar syrup to the beer and stir gently. You can then bottle your beer using either a bottle filler, shut off clamp or a bottle filling device attached to the bottom of your bucket. Fill the bottles to within 1/2 " of the top. Cap and store at 20º - 25º C. for 14 days. You can now try one of the best beers you have ever tasted, because you made it yourself! Remember all naturally carbonated beer has some sediment on the bottom of the bottles, so be careful when pouring or you will cloud your beer. As soon as you see sediment entering the neck of the bottle stop pouring. Congratulations! You're a home brewer! You can now move your beer to a cool place for aging. Your beer improves after another 2 to 4 weeks aging.

*It may take some time for the mixture to cool down to the proper temperature before adding the yeast. To speed up the process you can submerge your covered boiler into a sink of cold water for 15 minutes before pouring it into the fermenter.

**Fermentation is usually complete in 5 - 10 days, but it is not unusual to have a complete fermentation in 48 hours.

***If you don't have a bottling bucket, pour the sugar solution into the brew bucket and stir very gently. Cover and let stand for 1/2 hour before bottling.