First Brew Recipe Guideline Part 1 of 3, steps #1-#11

Brewing the Batch

1. Yeast preparation: Remove your vial of White Labs yeast from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before you begin step #2. The yeast needs 4-6 hours to warm up before you pitch it into your wort. See step #11

2. Steeping the Specialty Grains: Place the cracked specialty malt (such as Crystal Malt, Chocolate Malt & Roasted Barley) into your mesh bag and add it to your boil pot with 3.0 gallons of cold water. Turn the heat on med-high and bring the water up to 170 degrees. Turn off the heat and steep the specialty malt for another 20 minutes. Hint: Do not allow the grain bag to sit on the bottom of the pot, as it will melt!

3. Dissolving the malt extract: After you have steeped the malts remove the bag and allow it to drain into your boil pot. Either throw the malt away or compost it. Your mesh bag it is good for many more batches of beer so rinse it in cold water and allow it to dry. While stirring pour in the malt extract and dissolve it completely. Once it is thoroughly dissolved  other wise it may burn or caramelize- turn the heat up on your stove and bring the wort to a boil. Hint: Use the warm water in your pot to rinse all of the malt extract out of the pail.

4. Boiling the wort: When the wort (beer without yeast) has begun to boil and you have adjusted the heat to prevent future boil-overs set your clock for one hour. The amount of time that you will boil your wort is 60 minutes. The potential for your wort to boil over is great! Take heed, as caramelized wort on the stovetop is a significant enough reason for your significant other to kick you right out of the house! If your are a bachelorette, no worries, eh? Well, lets just say that once is enough to learn the lesson of what caramelized wort on the stove top is all about! If you notice, at the start of a boil, proteins that coagulates into a cruddy sea foam-looking mass that forms when a boil begins. Hot Break formation will help to produce a cleaner and clearer finished beer.

5. Adding the hops: In beer hops add bitterness, flavor and aroma. The longer a hop is in a boil the fewer aromas and flavors it will provide as heat degrades the flavor and floral qualities of hops. The longer a hop is in the boil the bitterer the beer will become. So, hops added for 60 minutes will produce only bitterness. Hops added for the last 15 - 5 minutes will produce a minimal amount of bitterness, lots of hop flavor and no aroma. Hops added the last 10 - 0 minutes will add no bitterness, very little flavor and lots of aroma. Add your hops according to the times listed in parenthesis on page one. Stir hops in until saturated and free flowing in wortotherwise they will create a thermal blanket and cause a boil over!!

6. Irish moss: Irish moss is not really Irish, nor is it moss. Irish moss is actually seaweed and it helps to clarify your beer by coagulating proteins and than settling them out. Its a little like seeding a rain cloud. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish moss 1/2 hour before the end of the boil.

7. Gypsum: Gypsum increases the hardness of water and aids in clarification of the beer. Gypsum also helps to accentuate hop profile. Depending upon your water source you may or may not need to use brewing salts. In the Mid-Willamette Valley it typically is good to add some, but not necessary. Add the gypsum 30 minutes into the boil.

8. Sanitizing your fermenter: While the wort is boiling, the primary fermenter needs to be cleaned and sanitized. 3 caps of Idophore to 6 gallons of water in your bucket is a sufficient enough solution for sanitizing. Use the Idophor as a color indicator; a light yellow-color is a good to have if your solution is amber in color than you have mixed it too strong which makes it difficult to volatize off your equipment. Soak the fermenter for 5 or more minutes and invert it to drain. Air dry the bucket for 20 minutes prior to adding your wort to it. Hint: You do not need 6 gallons of sanitizer to sanitize your fermenter. A gallon of sanitizing solution sloshed around for 5 minutes will accomplish the same sanitizing task.

9. Cooling the Wort: After you have boiled your wort the next goal is to get the yeast pitched ("brewspeak" for adding it to your wort) as soon as possible. Do not pitch the yeast into boiling wort, as it will die! The wort in you primary fermenter needs to be 70- 75 degrees. To chill your wort put the kettle into a cold water or ice bath. A kitchen sink works great for this! Try to knock 125-150 degrees off before putting the wort into your primary fermenter. You may need to stir the wort occasionally to mix the hot with the chilled. You may also need to change the bath water several times. Pour the wort into the primary fermenter through a strainer to keep the hops out of the fermenter. Use cold water to rinse the hops and to bring your volume up to 5.0- 5.25 gallons of liquid. Remember Hot Break? Cold Break, is the re-coagulation of proteins during rapid cooling of the wort,

10. Taking a Hydrometer Reading: Mix your beer thoroughly with a sterile spoon and carefully remove enough wort to take a hydrometer reading. Hint: a turkey baster works really well for this. Don't dump the beer back into the fermenter after taking the reading because you should also taste your unfermented beer. It is a good idea to taste the beer in its many different stages so that you may begin to get an idea of how the flavors will change during fermentation and during bottle conditioning. Record your Original Gravity. Hint: Now is a good time to start a beer journal! One day you may want to recreate this beer (or maybe not!!)

11. Pitching the Yeast: Snap the lid of the bucket on tight and rock the fermenter for a couple of minutes to aerate your beer and to get the yeast worked up into a frothy frenzy. Hint: At this point in time oxygen is very necessary for proper yeast respiration; More is better at this time Shake your vial of yeast to break up the deposit of yeast cells. Open the lid and pitch the yeast into the fermenter! Now put the air lock on the fermenter. Remember to put a small amount of water in the trap! Congratulations! You have just made beer!!

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