These instructions will take you through the basic extract brewing process for all Brewer's Apprentice extract homebrew kits. Please review the specific recipe and instructions given to you with your homebrew kit; while the following instructions hold true for almost all extract homebrew recipes, some recipes go beyond the normal instructions and/or add or remove certain steps. If there are any additional steps for your specific recipe, it will be noted on your recipe printout. If, after reading the instructions below, you have any remaining questions regarding your specific recipe, feel free to give us a call at the store! There's a lot of instructions on this page, so we've done our best to format this webpage for easy printing; It makes life a lot easier to have the instructions with you while you're in the kitchen! Step 1) "Mise En Place" The first step in homebrewing, and one of the most critical steps, is preparation. A French phrase used by chefs and culinary schools around the world, "Mise En Place" literally means to "get everything into place"... and it's a great thing for the homebrewer to remember. Making sure that all of your ingredients are in place and that all of your equipment is sanitized and ready to be used before you brew makes homebrewing a whole lot more fun because it makes things go more smoothly and reduces the chances of something going wrong. Make sure that you've completed the following tasks before you brew: a) Double check your recipe kit. Make sure that you have all of the ingredients that are listed on your recipe printout. If you think something is missing, call us before you brew! b) Make sure that you have the proper equipment. At the minimum, this includes: A brewing pot (at least 16 quarts or larger) A candy or brewing thermometer (preferably with clip) A large, heat-resistant paddle or spoon A fermenter (either a 6.5 gallon bucket or 6 gallon carboy) An airlock If using a carboy - a funnel (for pouring wort into carboy) A cleanser/sanitizer (such as One-Step or B-Brite) Plenty of ice or a chiller (to cool the wort down before the yeast is pitched) 5 gallons of filtered tap water or distilled water (we do not recommend spring water!) c) Review what type of yeast you will be using. If your recipe uses dry yeast, simply have it on the counter next to your other brewing ingredients and we will touch on what to do with it later. If you are using liquid yeast, first remember that liquid yeast should be stored in the refrigerator up until the very moment you are about to use it. If you are making a standard beer with a vial of White Labs yeast, simply remove the liquid yeast from the refrigerator and place it in your pocket to help warm it up; as you brew make sure to shake the vial now and then to help ensure that the yeast is well mixed. If you are making a standard beer with a SmackPack of Wyeast, remove the yeast from the refrigerator, at the least, a few hours before you begin to brew and smack the pack according to the directions on the packaging; DO NOT pitch the Wyeast unless the SmackPack fully expands. If you are brewing a higher gravity beer (such as barleywine, Belgian trippel, imperial stout, etc.) with either White Labs or Wyeast, we highly recommended that you prepare a yeast "starter" 24 to 48 hours before you brew. For instructions on making a yeast starter, scroll to the very bottom of these instructions or click here. Step 2) Preparing The Water & Steeping The Grains a) First, review the size of your brew pot. If it is on the small side (16 - 20 quarts {4 - 5 gallons}), collect and heat 2 - 2.5 gallons of water. If you have a full-sized (30 quart {7.5 gallon} or larger) pot, collect and heat 5 gallons of water. Heat your water to 170°. *If your recipe doesn't include grains, skip step "2b" below and proceed to step 3* b) Once your water has reached 170°, remove the thermometer and turn off the heat. Place your crushed grains into the long cheese cloth sock (a.k.a. grain sock) and tie it off. Place the sock into the pot of water, making sure to let the knotted end hang outside of the pot. Close the lid and let the grains steep for 30 minutes. Occasionally lift the pot lid and bob the grains up and down in the water, returning it to its normal steeping position when done. Step 3) Preparing For The Boil a) Before you get ready to boil your beer, you'll want to make sure and double check that you've prepared all of your ingredients and equipment. If you're using liquid malt extract, make sure it's not too cold, as this will make it hard to pour... If it is too cold, simply fill your sink with some hot tap water and let the malt containers bathe for a few minutes or so... this will help to warm it up and make it easier to pour. If you're using dry malt extract, make sure to have a good pair of scissors at the ready. Also make sure to sanitize any equipment that will be touching the wort after it has cooled. For tips on sanitizing your brewing equipment, scroll to the very bottom of these instructions or click here. b) Once you're sure that all of your ingredients and equipment are ready to go, you can then prepare to boil your wort ("wort" is what beer is called before the yeast is added). If you were steeping grains, lift the grain sock after 30 minutes and carefully (and gently) squeeze any remaining liquid from the sock... there's lots of flavorful wort in there! However, it's important not to squeeze the grains too hard, or else you'll run the risk of releasing tannins into your beer... and that's not a good thing... Just squeeze gently and leave it at that. Next, discard the grain sock. Turn on the heat to your pot. You'll want to use the highest heat setting that you have. Put your thermometer back into the pot if you removed it. You will now wait and do nothing until the liquid in your pot reaches about 200°. As your kettle approaches 200°, it's time to have your malt extract(s) and your spoon or paddle in place... it's time to boil! Step 4) Boiling The Wort a) Once your pot reaches 200°, it's time to start adding your malt extracts. If you're using liquid malt extract, make sure to get every last drop of extract out of the containers (a spatula makes this job a lot easier). If you're using dry malt extract, cut the bag(s) open and carefully (but quickly) pour the dry malt extract into the pot... be careful... if you pour too slowly, dry malt extract tends to coagulate... it's not the end of the world if this happens, but it can be a bit messy! If your recipe uses any other brewing sugars (such as Belgian candi, brown sugar, honey, etc.), put those into the pot as well. DO NOT add the bag of priming sugar. Priming sugar is added at bottling time, not during the brew! b) Once you've gotten all of the malt extract (and any other sugars) into the pot, it's time to stir. Make sure to stir well, making sure that there's no malt sugars on the bottom of the pot. Within a minute the malt extract should be totally dissolved into the liquid. If you leave any clumps of sugar on the bottom of the pot, they may burn and create off flavors, so stir thoroughly! c) Now you're getting into the thick of things! From here on out, you have to be careful and watch your pot at all times. Despite the old saying, a watched pot does boil! If a brew pot is left unattended it can easily boil over, leaving a terrible mess behind. The moment your wort starts to boil, temporarily shut off the heat (from here on out, whenever you are about to add another ingredient to your pot, we highly recommend temporarily turning off the heat to your pot, as this will help avoid suddend flair ups and boil overs). d) Once your pot hits a boil, and after you've temporarily turned off the heat, it's time to add your first hops (a.k.a. bittering or flavoring hops). Unless your recipe says otherwise, bittering hops are always added at the beginning of your boil. When you add the hops you will notice that they usually react quite violently. Wait for the hop reaction to subside, there is no need for stirring. Once the hops have settled down, you can turn the heat back on to full. Unless your recipe says otherwise, you will boil your homebrew for 60 minutes. Don't forget, for the next 60 minutes someone should always be watching the pot. e) A Note On Hop Additions... While there are some recipes that stray from the rule, most homebrew recipes follow a pretty strict hop addition schedule. Specifically, most recipes have 2 hop additions: the bittering (a.k.a. flavoring) hops and the finishing (a.k.a. aroma) hops. Here are some general rules: Bittering hops are almost always added at the very begining of the boil and boil in the wort for 60 minutes. Finishing hops are almost always added when there are 15 minutes left in the boil. If a recipe uses spices, they are most often added with the finishing hops. If your recipe has "dry hops", place them in the smaller cheese cloth sock (a.k.a a hop sock) that was provided with your recipe and tie the sock off. When you are seconds away from the end of your 60 minute boil, grab the hop sock with a pair of tongs and fully submerge it in the boiling wort for a couple of seconds... this will help to sanitize it. Immediately put the sanitized hop sock into your fermenter... you will later pour your cooled wort onto the hop sock and it will steep in your beer whilst it ferments. If your recipe goes beyond a normal recipe it will have specific instructions, telling you when to add a specific ingredient. f) Continue on, boiling your wort, adding hops or other ingredients as indicated in your recipe. When you have completed the boiling process for your recipe it will be time to cool your wort. When you are done boiling, turn off the heat and put the lid on the pot. Step 5) Cooling The Wort a) Now that you have brewed your wort, you must cool it down to 60° - 80°. Most new homebrewers will use an icebath to do this and some will use a "wort chiller". If you are like most beginners, you will simply use an icebath. To do this, make sure to have lots of ice on hand. Fill your sink with plenty of ice and just enough water so that you'll be able to easily put the pot into the sink. Make sure that the water level in the sink isn't too high! The water level in your sink should go somewhere in between a 1/2 to 3/4 of the height of the pot. Make sure to jostle the pot around every few minutes. After 15 to 20 minutes, sanitize your brewing thermometer and check the temperature of your wort. Once it's between 60° - 80° your ready to put it into the fermenter. b) When the wort is cooled to the proper temperature, it's time to pour it into your fermenter. Again, make sure that your fermenter is sanitized. If you're using a bucket, remove the lid. If you're using a carboy, put a sanitized brewing funnel in the top. Pour the wort into the fermenter. There's no need to be delicate at this stage, just make sure you don't spill any wort on the floor. The rougher you pour the beer, the more it sloshes around and foams up... this is a good thing. When you pour the wort in this manner it's folding in lots of air and oxygen which the yeast will use as they ferment. Please note, however, that this is the last time you will be rough with your beer, as introducing oxygen later on down the line after it has fermented can oxydize the beer and spoil it. c) Please note: you should never pour hot wort directly into an empty fermenter, nor should you ever pour hot wort directly into a fermenter full of cold water. Some brewers do this thinking that they can cool the wort, get the beer to volume, and save time... but this is one of the worst things you can do, for a number of reasons. We highly recommend either using an ice bath or wort chiller to cool your wort down. If you need to add water to get your beer to 5 gallons, make sure the water is at room temperature. Step 6) Taking The Gravity a) This is a step often neglected by the beginner and seasoned homebrewer alike. For some reason, it seems that a lot of people think that this step is too complicated or difficult and don't bother with it... but nothing could be further from the truth. Taking the gravity of your beer is extremely quick and easy and offers way more positives than negatives. b) Taking your beers gravity allows you to first confirm if your beer was brewed properly. Second, it can be used to see if your beer is fermenting or not. Finally, by taking both the original gravity (before the beer ferments) and final gravity (after the beer is done fermenting), you can do some simple math and figure out the ABV (alcohol by volume) of your beer. c) To take your beers gravity all you need is a "thief", a hydrometer, and a hydrometer test stand (a.k.a. hydrometer test jar). A thief is a device that allows you to take a sample of a fermented beverage in a sanitary fashion. A hydrometer is a glass device shaped like a long, narrow buoy. It has a long neck with lots of numbers on it. A hydrometer test stand is a tall, narrow vessel that holds your sample of beer and allows the hydrometer to float. The first step is to sanitize your thief. Then simply use the thief (per the manufacturer's instructions) to take a sample of your beer and put that sample into the hydrometer test stand along with the hydrometer. You want to take enough of a beer sample so that the beer fills the entire test stand. This makes it much easier to read where the meniscus (the surface of the beer) touches the scale on the hydrometer. Most homebrewers use a triple scale hydrometer; the scale that you want to use is the gravity scale, which usually has numbers from .990 - 1.170. When the beer sample is in the test stand, give the hydrometer a good spin (in the same way you would spin a top), this will help dislodge any bubbles that could give a false reading. When it's done spinning, find where the level of the beer meets the gravity scale, record this number... this is your original gravity (or O.G. for short). An average beer will have an original gravity of around 1.045. d) When you think your beer is done and the airlock no longer bubbles, carefully take another sample of beer and take the gravity again... this will be called your final gravity (or F.G. for short). This time the gravity should be noticeably lower. An average final gravity will be around 1.010. To be sure that your beer is actually done fermenting, we strongly recommend that you take a final gravity and then wait a couple of days and take it again... if there is a difference in the gravity then the beer is still fermenting, if the gravities are the same, then your beer is most likely done ferementing. e) To figure out your ABV% (alcohol by volume), simply minus the final gravity from the original gravity and divide the sum by 7.5. For example, if your original gravity was 1.045 and your final gravity was 1.010, then the difference would be 35. So, divide 35 by 7.5... the answer is 4.66, so you now know that your ABV is 4.66%! Easy! Step 7) Pitching The Yeast a) "Pitching" is the term brewers use for putting yeast into beer. Regardless of what type of yeast you are using, first make sure that your beer is in between 60° - 80°... different yeasts prefer different temperatures, but most want to start somewhere in that range. So review your yeasts packaging to see what they specifically recommend. b) If you are using dry yeast in a packet, you have two choices. You can either simply pitch the dry yeast into the fermenter and give it a good shake, or, more ideally, you can "proof" the yeast beforehand. To proof dry yeast all you have to do is collect a cup or so of filtered or distilled water. Place the water into a sanitized, microwavable container and heat it just long enough to get it in the range of 60° - 80°... this should take less than 30 seconds. When you're sure the water is in the ideal range, pitch the yeast into the container of water and stir it with a sanitized spoon. Next, cover the container over with a lid or platic wrap. Let the yeast stand for about 10 mintues. After about 10 minutes the yeast should have "proved" itself... it should be foamy and smell of fresh, yeasty bread... If it does, pitch it into your fermenter and give the fermenter a good shake to help mix the yeast in. If the yeast does not proof, give it up to 30 minutes to prove it self... if it still doesn't, we recommend that you get new yeast. c) If you are using liquid yeast, make sure you have prepared it as described at the beginning of these instructions. Give the yeast one last shake to make sure that it is thoroughly mixed and fluid. If you are using White Labs yeast in a vial, first sanitize the cap either by spraying or dipping it in a homebrew sanitizer or alcohol. Shake off any excess sanitizer, carfully twist off the cap and pour the yeast into the fermenter. If you're using a Wyeast SmackPack, spray or dip it into sanitizer or alcohol. Shake off any excess sanitizer, cut off one of the top corners, and carfully pour the yeast into the fermenter. Once your White Labs or Wyeast yeast has been poured, give the fermenter a good shake to make sure that the yeast has been thoroughly mixed in with the beer. Now it's fermentation time! Step 8) Fermentation a) Within 24 to 48 hours from the time you pitched your yeast, you beer should begin to ferment. Make sure that you do your best to put your fermenter in the temperature range that the yeast prefer so that they can ferment quickly and healthfully... if you don't, this can potentenially prevent fermentation or create off flavors. As the yeast start to eat the sugars in the beer, they will produce alcohol and burp out CO2... this is fermentation in a nutshell. This phase of fermentation is called "primary fermentation" and it usually will last between 1 to 2 weeks. b) As primary fermentation is winding down, being a new homebrewer, you'll have a decision to make... whether or not to do a secondary fermentation (more on this below). If you decide not to do a secondary fermentation, then you need to be absolutely sure that you beer is done fermenting before you move on to the bottling stage. When you notice that your airlock is no longer bubbling, take your final gravity (as described previously). Wait two more days and take the gravity again. If the gravity has changed, then your beer is still fermenting and you should wait a few more days and repeat the gravity taking process. If the gravity doesn't change after two days, then it is most likely done fermenting and you can move on to the bottling stage. c) Secondary fermentation is more about refining your homebrew than it is about actual fermentation. It allows your beer to settle down, letting any remnant particles fall to the bottom; any last bits of sugar are fermented by the yeast; and all of the flavors can start to marry together, getting a head start before bottling time. If you choose to put your beer into a secondary fermentor, we highly recommend that you use a 5 or 6 gallon carboy. One of the reasons you are putting your beer into secondary fermentation is for clarity, and it's very hard to tell how clear your beer is in a bucket... in a carboy, on the other hand, it's very easy to tell how clear your beer is. The best time to move your beer into a secondary fermenter is when it is just about done fermenting... 1 bubble from the airlock per minute is a good rough guide for ales and 1 bubble per two minutes is a good rough guide for lagers. When you are ready to move your beer to a secondary fermenter, siphon it delicately; you don't want to introduce any oxygen. Once the beer has been moved, replace the airlock and put the fermenter somewhere that is cool and dark. If you're using a carboy as suggested, it's a good idea to wrap a bath towel or blanket around it, as this will both prevent any light from striking the beer as well as help to insulate it. Once beer has been placed into a secondary, it should be left there for a minimum of 2 weeks... if you remove the beer before this time, it really won't have benefitted. Some beers should be allowed to sit even longer. Keep learning as you brew and you'll get better and better at judging how long to age your beer. Step 9) Bottling a) The first step in bottling your beer is preparing your fermenter. Whether you did just the primary fermentation or also did the secondary fermentation, you'll need to be careful with this step. At least an hour before you plan on bottling, ideally the night before, you'll need to carefully lift your fermenter up on to a counter that is at least a couple of feet off the ground. You need to be careful not to disturb any of the trub (the gross stuff that settles to the bottom of your fermenter), as you want this to be left behind when you move your beer into the bottling bucket. b) Next, make sure that you have all of the proper equipment and materials on hand. At the minimum you'll need: A bottling bucket with spigot A bottle filler Siphon equipment (we recommend using an auto-siphon and racking cane) Tubing for siphon equipment (4' - 6') and bottle filler (3") Bottles (approximately 2 cases of 12 oz. or 22 oz.) Crown caps (if using cap-able amber bottles*) A bottle capper (if using cap-able amber bottles*) A small sauce pot A spoon 5 oz. of priming sugar *We strongly recommend that you avoid using clear or green beer bottles! c) Make sure to sanitize everything but the capper, pot, and spoon. The easiest way to do this is to put 6 tablespoons of One-Step or B-Brite into the bottling bucket (make sure the spigot is closed!) along with the bottle filler, siphon equipment, and tubing... then fill it to the brim with warm tap water. In a small bowl, put the crown caps with a small sprinkle of sanitizer and fill that with warm tap water as well. In a large laundry sink, or container, mix an appropriate amount of One-Step or B-Brite with warm tap water and submerge all of your bottles in the solution. Let the equipment and bottles soak for 10 to 15 minutes. d) After 10 or 15 minutes, quickly rinse the bottles out and put them on a bottle tree or upside down in their original cases. Next, empty the bottling bucket through it's spigot... this will ensure that there's no bacteria hiding within the spigot. When the bucket is drained of sanitizer, rinse it, and the equipment within, making sure that there's no sanitizing chemicals left behind. Don't forget to let some water drain through the spigot as well! e) Delicately attach 4 to 6 feet of tubing to the cane within the sanitized auto-siphon and attach the other end to a racking cane. Next, carefully slide the auto-siphon into the beer that is sitting on the counter. Make sure not to jam the bottom of the siphon into the trub at the bottom! Then place the bottling bucket on the floor beneath the fermenter. Place the racking cane into the bottling bucket. Gently start the auto-siphon and siphon the beer to the bottom of the bottling bucket. Make sure that the racking cane is at the very bottom of the bottling bucket so that no splashing occurs. It's a good idea to place a lid on top of the bottling bucket at this point... you won't be able to put it on all the way obviously (becuase of the racking cane), and that's okay. You're just trying to prevent any germs from falling into the bucket as it fills. f) As the beer is siphoning into the bottling bucket, pour about a pint of filtered or distilled water into the pot and bring it to a boil. When the water begins to boil, add all of the priming sugar from the 5 oz. packet that was provided with your recipe kit. Stir the sugar to dissolve. Boil the sugar water for a few minutes and then turn the heat off. When the beer is almost done siphoning into the bottling bucket, gently and evenly pour the sugar water into the beer (it's okay that the sugar water is hot). Use the racking cane as a spoon, and carefully, but thoroughly, stir the the sugar into the beer. It's extremely important to make sure that the sugar is evenly distributed throughout the beer so that all of the beer bottles carbonate evenly later on! g) Once all of the beer has been siphoned into the bottling bucket, move the fermenter and siphon equipment out of the way, and then carefully lift the bottling bucket up on to the counter. Make sure you have a lid on top of the bucket and that the spigot is facing you and pointing down. Now, carefully attach the bottle filler to the spigot with small piece of tubing (same diameter tubing that you used for siphoning, just a few inches is fine). Once the spigot is securely connected to the bottle filler, open the spigot up... the beer will flow to the bottom of the bottle filler. h) It's finally time to bottle! Pour the sanitzer out of your bowl of caps and rinse them. Make sure that your bottles and capper are nearby. Grab a bottle and bring it up to the bottle filler, allowing the bottle filler to slide inside the bottle... as soon as the bottom of the bottle filler hits the bottom of the bottle it will begin to fill. Allow the bottle to fill all the way to the top and then quickly remove it from the filler... the beer should drop to about half way up the neck. Carefully grab a crown cap, trying to avoid touching the inside of the cap (to help prevent infections later on) and place it on top of the bottle and cap it with the capper. Don't push too hard with the capper! If you see a dimple in the cap after capping, then you probably pushed to hard. Step 10) Conditioning a) Once your beer is bottled you will want to store it for at least 2 weeks at the right temperature. For ales, room temperature is ideal (around 68°) and for lagers, the high 50's to low 60's is best. Usually the basement suits this purpose perfectly for most households. If you don't have a basement, a closet will work. By no means, do you ever want to condition or store your beer in the garage! Keeping your beer in the garage is about the same thing as keeping your beer outside, and the yeast will suffer from the temperature fluctuations as the day turns into night and night into day. In short, keep your beer in a place that consistently has a temperature that is as close as possible to the ranges mentioned above. b) After two weeks or so, you should test one of your bottles for carbonation. Open it up and listen for positive "phhfffssst!" sound that you're used to hearing when you open any good bottle of beer. If that sound is there, then pour some of the beer into a glass and look at the carbonation... If it looks carbonated, taste it. If you are happy with the level of carbonation, then you can continue to store the beer where it is, or put it in a fridge. If the beer isn't completely carbonated, then the only thing you can do is wait. Sometimes homebrew will carbonate quickly and sometimes it will take longer than expected. A biological process is occuring in each and ever bottle that you capped, and just like everything else in life, you can't always predict what will happen. Most average beers should be completely carbonated within a month if they are stored at the right temperature. If you bottled beer that is higher in alcohol, this can greatly increase the time it takes to bottle condition... some beers are known to take months to carbonate! Step 11) Drink! a) At least two weeks have past and you've waited until the beer had a good carbonation level. Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor!. Assuming you didn't make any major mistakes, you should be enjoying a beer that is probably better than you expected... and it will only get better! b) Despite what a lot of larger breweries tell you, you don't want to drink your beer as quickly as possible. "Born On Dates" are a gimmick used by companies that want to move lots of beer, and move it fast. But you are a homebrewer... you've produced a beer that is better than most commerical beers, and you're just starting out. Even the lightest of homebrews will get better with age. Pilsners and lagers will develop better and better flavor for 3 to 6 months after bottling. Then they will plateau for another 3 to 6 months... giving you up to a year to enjoy your homebrew. If you brew bigger beers, they can develop even more flavor and age even longer. As a general rule, the more alcohol and/or hops a beer has, the longer it can age. Barleywines, some IPAs and stouts, etc., don't even hit their full potential until they've aged 6 months to a year! Cheers! Making A Yeast Starter If you're making a higher gravity beer and you're using liquid yeast, it's imperative that you have as many yeast cells as possible. If a beer is going to have a gravity over 1.060, we highly recommend that you make a yeast starter. Some brewers make it a standard practice, making a yeast starter regardless of the gravity of the beer they're about to brew... and these brewer's rarely have a bad beer. If you're using dry yeast, there's is less of a need to make a starter, but you should, at the least proof it, as described earlier. There are a quite a few reasons to make a yeast starter and the benefits will most likely improve any beer that is fermented with one. Let's look at the reasons for making a starter: Increase the yeast cell count. Starting yeast properly can double, even triple, the yeast cell count. This greatly reduces the chances of infection and greatly increases the ability of the yeast to ferment higher gravity beers. Improve yeast vigor. Making a starter improves the health of a yeast colony and makes it more viable. Healthy yeast cells ferment faster, produce less undesirable byproducts, are more likely to attenuate or ferment to their full potential, and have an improved resistance to alcohol. Shorten the lag time. A yeast starter provides more healthy yeast that are actively reproducing (and fermenting) which can drastically cut down on the lag time between when you pitch the yeast and the time that it actually strarts to ferment the beer. This allows your beer to be fermented more healthfully and greatly reduces the chance for infection. Reduces the stress on the yeast. If yeast is under-pitched, the cells can become stressed, which can lead to chemicals that lead to off flavors, poor reproduction (and therefore poor fermentation), as well as poor resistance to other organisms and alcohol... making it less able to fend off infections and less able to ferment in the pressence of higher alcohol levels. Yeast starters can be made in a variety of ways. Generally you should shoot for a volume of about 1 quart per 5 gallons of homebrew. If you are using liquid yeast, you will need to prep it before you make a starter. For White Labs, you will simply want to remove the yeast from the refrigerator, keep it in your pocket for approximately a half hour and occasionally shake it well to make sure that it is mixed. For Wyeast, we recommend smacking the SmackPack the night before making the starter. If you are using dry yeast for your starter, no preparation is needed. When your yeast is ready, follow these steps: Prepare your equipment. Ideally, you should use an erlenmeyer flask, but a 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon growler/jug works well too. If using an erlenmeyer flask, skip to step 2, if using a growler or jug, sanitize it with homebrew sanitizer. Also make sure to sanitize a bung and air lock. If using a growler/jug, have a couple of pints of room temperature, filtered or distilled water put off to the side. Boil water. If using an erlenmeyer flask, put 700ml of filtered or distilled water into the flask along with 1/2 to 1 cup of dry malt extract, swirl the mixture so that it is well combined, and gently put flask directly on high heat until it comes to a boil. If using a growler/jug, put 3/4 quart of water into a sauce pot and put over high heat until it is close to a boil; When the water is close to a boil, add 1/2 to 1 cup of dry malt extract and stir or swirl the mixture so that it is well combined. Boil wort. Once the water/malt extract mixture comes to a boil, allow it to do so for approximately 15 minutes. You don't need a raging boil here, just a gentle, constant boil. Cool the wort. After the wort is done boiling, get ready to cool it. If using an erlenmeyer flask, put some aluminum foil over the top of the flask, get a pot holder, pick up the flask, and put it into a sink of cold water. add or drain water as necessary to keep the flask in a cold bath of water for about 15 minutes. If using a growler/jug, get the couple of pints of room temperature water you had on standby and add it to the pot of hot wort; put a sanitized funnel in the top of your growler/jug and pour the warm wort into the growler/jug; if the growler/jug is not between 60° - 80°, put it in a cold water bath as described for the erlenmeyer flask. Pitch the yeast. Once the wort in your container is between 60° - 80°, carefully pitch the yeast into it, and give it a good swirl to make sure it is well mixed. If you had aluminum foil on the top of your container, remove it and replace it with a bung and airlock. Ferment and pitch the starter. Allow your starter to ferment for an absolute minimum of 12 hours before you pitch it into your batch of beer. Ideally, you should give your starter 24 to 48 hours before it is used. Your goal is to pitch the starter after it has shown hours of fermenting acitivity and to also pitch it while it is still visibly active. Before you pitch the starter, give it a good swirl to make sure everything within the container is pitched. Sanitizing tips There are many sanitizers and cleansers on the homebrew market these days, and for the beginning homebrewer it can be a bit confusing as far as knowing what chemicals do what and what is best for their situation. Some chemicals both clean and sanitize, some only clean, and some only sanitize. For the beginning homebrewer, we highly recommend using a product that both cleans and sanitizes. It's much easier to deal with and it's more affordable. Two products that are both cleanser/sanitizers are One-Step and B-Brite. These products are nearly identical. They both have the same dosage of 1 tablespoon per gallon and they work in about the same time. A 30 minute soak (using warm tap water) with either product will remove most organic residue from your equipment. A 10 - 15 minute soak will provide good sanitization. The only real difference between the two is the One-Step claims that it's "no rinse", while B-Brite does not. As far as we're concerned, it's better to get yourself in the practice to rinsing, regardless of the chemicals you're using... it's better to err on the side of caution. Remember that when it comes to sanitizing, the easy way out rarely pays off. DO NOT use your dishwasher to attempt to clean or sanitize your equipment and/or bottles... it will not work. Most cleansers and sanitizers on the market work as a soak rather than a spray because the active chemicals need a certain amount of contact time with the equipment being sanitized. If you cut corners, at some point you're beer is going to get infected, plain and simple. To learn about late breaking news, future events, contests, new products, and much more, join our monthly online newsletter! It only takes a moment of your time and there's plenty to learn! And we never share your email address with anyone. 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