How to brew beer at home: brewing day

These are the steps to brew approximately 5 gallons of Dead Ringer American Style IPA. All of the ingredients are pre-measured (except the water).

Included in the kit are: 1 lb Briess Caramel 40, 9.15 lbs gold malt extract, 5 1-oz packages of Centennial hops, specific recipe and directions. Yeast is ordered separately.

A couple of days before brewing, remove yeast pack from fridge and "smack" as shown on the package. Leave it in a warm place to incubate (make take a couple of hours-a couple of days).

On brewing day, collect 2.5 gallons of water in your brew kettle.

While water is heating, prepare the grain bag.

Pour crushed grains into mesh bag and tie a knot on the open end.

Add grain bag to heating water in the kettle.

Steep bag for 20 minutes or until water reaches 170 degrees F.

Remove grain bag and discard.

Bring to a boil.

Remove kettle from the heat to add malt syrup.

Add the 9.15 lbs of gold malt syrup and stir.

The mixture is now called "wort", the brewer's term for unfermented beer. Return wort to the heat and bring to a boil.

Once the wort returns to boiling, it's my favorite time...hops time! This recipe has calls for 4 oz to be added during brewing and another oz to be added later, during dry hopping.

I wish you could smell these fragrant hop pellets! Florally and piney! Mmmmmmm!

This is the 60-minute boil. Add 1 oz at the beginning, another oz at 40 mins, and the final 2 oz for the last five minutes of the boil. The hoppy fragrance gets better and better!

During the 60-minute boil, you've got to watch the clock carefully.

If you're lucky, you may also catch a nice sunset before it's time to cool the wort.

Bring the wort to 100 degrees as quickly as possible by putting the kettle in an ice bath in the sink.

Sanitize fermenting equipment and yeast pack. Fill primary fermenter (brew bucket or carboy) with two gallons of distilled water. Pour in cooled wort, leaving any sludge at the bottom of the kettle.

Add more water as needed until the volume is at 5 gallons. Seal the fermenter and aerate the wort by rocking it back and forth.

Measure and record the gravity of the wort with a hydrometer.

When wort reaches 78 degrees F, it's time to add the yeast.

Seal the fermenter. Add sanitized water to the air lock and insert into the stopper. Make sure fermenter is sealed and move fermenter to a warm, dark, quiet spot until fermentation begins.

Active fermentation will begin within 48 hours of brewing. When it begins, there will be a cap of foam on the surface of the beer. Keep at 60-72 degrees F. Active fermentation ends in about 1-2 weeks.

I'll be back with part two when the active fermentation is finished.