Basic Homebrew recipe

Our kits have all been specialised to work with one easy to use recipe. From this you are able to make store quality ale, it has been designed to be easy to understand for beginners without hurting the product.

But we also encourage experimentation. Some aspects like only exposing your yeast to sub 30°C water should not be changed, but others like length of the boil can be. Boiling for longer will get more alpha acids out of hops leading to more bitterness. You can easily use our recipe as a base because the general structure of a brew is sound.

Recipe

The initial process will take approximately 3 hours to complete, then wait a minimum 5 days to brew in the bucket and two weeks in the bottles.

• Preparation

1. Take out all the equipment stated on the other sheet. If you are using one of our buckets, put the washer on the outside.

2. Boil 200ml of water and let it cool to 30°C. Then pour in the 「yeast」. Any hotter and the 「yeast」will die. Cover it with Clingfilm, you won’t need it until much later.

3. Use your steriliser to clean your fermentation bucket and then rinse with water.

4. Prepare some ice to use later.

• Mashing

Temperature is very important here, it changes quickly and if needed, take the pot off the hob.

1. Heat 3L of「water」to 60°C in a large pot.

2. Stretch the muslin bag around the rim of the pot and pour in both parts of「bag A」so that it is submerged in water. This may need clips.

3. Keep the temperature around 55-65 C for 75 minutes. The thermometer can be held in place by piercing the muslin bag with it.

4. Stir regularly and keep a close eye on the temperature as it changes quickly.

5. At 55 minutes boil 3L of「water」in another pot or kettle and then allow it to slightly cool.

6. For the last 5 minutes of the process slowly raise the temperature to 75°C.

• Boiling

1. Remove the muslin bag containing「bag A」and place in a sieve over your pot

2. .Begin raising the pot’s temperature so it will start to boil.

3. As you do this pour your 3L of「water」over「bag A」allowing it to drain, then remove the bag and contents. The liquid left is known as a wort.

4. When the pot is at a boil, pour in「bag B」and then keep at a strong rolling boil for 50 minutes. Stir regularly.

5. Pour in「bag C」and keep at a rolling boil for another 10 minutes.

• Cooling

1. Fill a sink with cold water. Add the tray of ice prepared earlier to cool the water in the sink.

2. Take your pot and place it in the sink.

3. Add 1L of cold tap water to the pot. Then let the pot cool to 30°C, this may take up to 30 minutes so keep checking the wort.

• Transfer

1. Place a sieve over your fermentation bucket and transfer the wort to it. Try not to let contents from「bag B or C」get into the bucket.

2. Add any extra tap「water」needed to reach the 4.5L mark. Some will have boiled off or been soaked up by the grains and hops.

3. Add the「yeast」you rehydrated earlier.

4. Seal the bucket with the lid, making sure it clicks in place and add the airlock (not too far) with a small amount of「water」in it.

5. Leave in a tray in an area around 21 – 22°C.

The first fermentation will take a minimum of 5 days. Once it is done you need to bottle your beer.

1. Clean all your bottles (you will need at least 8) with the other sterilizing tablet. Rinse with water after.

2. Add one「sugar pellet」to each bottle.

3. Now simply fill the bottle leaving some room at the top and sealing with a cap.

4. Leave the bottles for two weeks to a month at 21-22 C.

5. Then transfer them to a cold area around 10°C. This process is known as cellaring.