Brew 1: Steam Beer

First our ingredients:


1 1/2 pounds Milled crystal malt.
Milled means it was run through a grain mill to open the hulls.
Not Shown: 1/2 pound milled dextrin malt



















7 pounds Extra light liquid malt extract







Hop Pellets: Northern Brewer is a variety of Hop, and pellets mean that they have been pre-processed to release the resins more easily

Liquid Yeast: This is a lager yeast and not what was recommended by the recipe I am using, however they were out of what I needed, so I asked the hombrew store guy for assistance. Trust your homebrew store people.

Whirfloc tablet: 1 used in the process, it helps settle out sediment so you get less when bottling.

That plus 2 gallons of water is what I started with.


On to the process!

2 gallons of water on the stovetop,
note the candy thermometer, perfect because I need to leave it in for the beginning of the process to monitor the temperatures.

My grain in a steeping bag (think of it like a giant re-usable teabag) ready to go in once the water hits 165 degrees



Grain in the pot and closeup on our thermometer. I need to keep this at 160-170 degrees for half an hour to ensure proper extraction, otherwise I will get less than ideal beer.


Half an hour later, I have removed the grain. At this point I took it off the heat and stirred in the entire bucket of liquid malt extract. I also removed the thermometer, as I no longer was as worried about exact temperature.

After boiling 5 minutes I added 1.75 ounces of the hops for bittering purposes, you can see the cheesecloth sack I used (so I don't have to strain out the hop pieces later).



The I boiled it for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I added another .75 ounces of hops to the bag, for flavor.



After 20 more minutes of boiling I added the last .75 ounces of hops to the bag and dropped a whirfloc tablet into the wort.

Ten more minutes of boiling followed.


Then the whole pot (sans hop bag) went into a water bath in my sink to cool. I wanted to reach around 85 degrees in the sink.



Once cooled enough I funneled it into my carboy (5 gallon glass fermenting jug) and added just over 3 more gallons of cool water. Total volume was approximately 5 gallons (give or take a little)



Then I pitched the yeast. With liquid yeast you just shake it up and dump it in. Then I gave the whole carboy a good shake to aerate (introduce air into) the wort.



Last step was moving in into the
closet and attaching a blow off hose (used during early fermentation to prevent foam from flying everywhere and to keep unwanted micro-organisms from joining the beer party. The end of the tube is in a can of water to keep air from getting in.

Now I wait for a couple weeks, and then bottling. More pictures of fermentation as they happen.

I should have pics of bottling my amber ale soon and I'll be making a red ale soon.