Illustrated Beer Brewing Primer

Paul's Brewing Home Page
Illustrated Brewing Primer
Simple All Grain Brewing
German Pilsner Ingredients
Equipment List
Partial Mash Brewing Procedure
Fermenting
Corny Keg Rebuild
Racking
Reusing Yeast
Transferring Beer
Carbonation
All Grain Decoction
El Cheapo Mash Tun
Favorite Websites

Preparing for Brew Day

Most of the work happens on brew day. Figure on about four or five hours start to finish. Take your time and enjoy the process, this is supposed to be fun, not work!

Smack the Yeast Packet

The evening before, or the morning before, you should pop the inner package in the yeast. Follow the directions on the packet. It helps to get the inner bag over to one end of the pack, and keep it there with your fingers while allowing liquid to move between your fingers. Then put the base of your other hand on it and push down smartly on the inner plastic bag. Sometimes it doesn't break easy, but keep trying and don't get violent with it or you could break the outer package. Make sure you use a sturdy table when smacking the pack.

The bag will inflate in a few hours if left at room temperature. If you still need time before beginning to brew, put it in the refrigerator.

Many times you will hear that you have to brew a yeast starter. A starter is not a bad idea, but is not necessary, you can use liquid yeast right out of the package, even right after smacking the pack. I have always used the yeast straight out of the packet, and never felt the need for a starter. I have also forgotten to pop the packet until just before brewing, and it has worked fine. In this case, I forgot to smack the pack until almost done with the boil (oops!). It worked fine and started foaming after 20 hours. Usually I try to smack the pack about 8-12 hours before brewing.

Measure Water

This is something you only have to do the first time. Take a gallon milk jug or pitcher with volume gradiations and fill the carboy with 5 gallons of water. Mark or note the height of the water. The tape will fall off, so try to remember how high 5 gallons fills the carboy. Empty the carboy.

Fill the boil pot with 6 gallons of water and mark or note the height. The boil pot gets 6 gallons after addition of the liquid malt because of the water lost in evaporation during the process of boiling. Start with 6 gallons, boil one hour, end up with 5 gallons.

6 gallons fills my boil pot up to the upper rivets.

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Illustrated Beer Brewing Primer

Ingredients :: Equipment :: Preparation :: Steeping :: Sanitation :: Mash Out :: Add Extract :: Boil :: Bittering Hops :: Wort Chiller :: Flavor Hops :: Aroma Hops :: Chill Wort :: Remove Chiller :: Aerate :: Carboy :: Pitch Yeast :: Cap :: Cool the Carboy :: Fermenting :: Corny Keg Rebuild :: Racking :: Reusing Yeast :: Transferring Beer :: Carbonation :: Prost!