One Gallon Brew

Process

Decide on a recipe

• Search for extract brewing, (not all-grain) recipes and modify them to suit batch size, and ingredients available
• When you start to design your own recipes, the recipe calculator at Brewer's Friend is very helpful - input different combinations of Dry Malt Extract, grains and hops to calculate predicted alcohol content, bitterness and colour
• Light Dry Malt Extract is a good choice for all types of beers
• This grain guide has a table of speciality grains that don't require mashing (suitable for extract brewing)
• Different types of hops have different bittering strengths (alpha acid or AA) and different aromas
• Boiling hops early in the brew gives more bitterness but less aroma
• Adding hops late gives more aroma but less bitterness
• Beers with sweet tasting cereals might need more hoppy bitterness to balance them
• Brewing sugar adds alcohol without adding malt flavour, so can be useful with higher alcohol beers
• Different yeast strains, water chemistry... designing beer recipes can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be

Prepare equipment and measure ingredients

• Anything that comes into contact with the beer (after boiling) needs to be sterile, so clean all kitchen surfaces thoroughly
• Hard plastic items can be microwaved, but a bucket of sterilizing solution is needed for bungs, siphon tubes and hydrometers
• Glassware can be cleaned in the dishwasher

Soak any speciality grains in hot water

• The grains should be held in the brew bag in heated clean drinking water at about 66-70°C for half an hour
• This process is known as steeping
• The grains need to be removed from the brew bag afterwards and discarded, as excess soaking can lead to astringent flavours
• The liquid is now called wort

Boil the wort and add hops to the brew bag

• Unused hops should be stored in an airtight container in the freezer

Add the dry malt extract

• Add a quarter of the DME at the start of the boil, and the rest nearer the end
• It needs to be boiled for >15 minutes to sterilize and to dissolve any clumps
• When boiling, the wort gives off a strong malty-caramel smell

Cool down the pot of wort in a sink filled with water or ice

• Cool the wort as quickly as possible to help prevent the formation of unpleasant tasting sulphide compounds
• Once the wort is no longer boiling it becomes important to ensure that anything that comes into contact with it is sterile

Pour into the demijohn and top up with cold clean water

• The water needs to be free of bacteria but cold drinking water from the kitchen tap is usually fine
• Top up to 4 litres – where the demijohn starts to curve inwards at the top

Take a hydrometer reading to get the original gravity

• Fill the measuring cylinder with wort using a pipette
• Float the hydrometer in the wort, read the number (e.g. 1.050) on the side and make a note of it
• The wort can be returned to the demijohn (if all equipment is sterile)

Add yeast

• Shake the wort to aerate it before adding the yeast (this is the only time oxygen is good for the wort)
• Temperatures of >40°C kill yeast, so make sure the wort is cool enough
• Some yeast strains need to be rehydrated first (check the instructions on the packet)

Fit blow-off tube first, and then change to airlock bubbler

• Use the siphon pipe and tube fitted into the bung as a blow-off tube
• This allows excess froth caused by fermentation to overflow
• Keep the end of the tube under water to keep bacteria out
• When fermentation calms down after a day or two replace the blow off tube with an airlock bubbler half-filled with water
• The fermenting beer should be kept in a place that has a steady but not-too-warm temperature (usually around 15-24°C, but this varies depending on the type of yeast)

After two weeks take another hydrometer reading to get the final gravity

• Remember to sterilise all equipment that will come into contact with the beer
• Put the original and final gravity readings into a calculator to calculate the ABV (alcohol by volume)
• If the reading is too high it may mean that fermentation is incomplete (leave for a few days and test again to check)

Bottle the beer, and add priming sugar

• Siphon into bottles that have been sterilised (or fresh from the dishwasher)
• Priming sugar can be calculated using an online calculator
• Be careful with sugar measurements - too much and the bottles may shatter
• Leave the bottles in a cool, but not cold place

After another two weeks it is ready to drink!

• Pour the beer into a glass slowly, taking care not to disturb the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle