Basic Beer Recipe: Part 2

Basic Home Brew Beer Recipe

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 below 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) Equipment:
5-7 gallon Stainless Steel Pot
Thermometer
5 gallon glass Carboy fermenter
Bottle capper and caps
Air lock
Kitchen scale
Bottle filler with tubing and siphon hose
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Mesh strainers
Rubber stops
Large spoons
Large funnel
Bottle brush for cleaning bottles
Wort chiller
48 beer bottles

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.

Adapted from All About Beer Magazine