Extract Beer Brewing

Welcome ! Here, we will go over how to brew an extract beer. If you are new to brewing, this should help and get you going on the right track.

First you need to decide what you would like to brew. A good first time brew would be something easy like a 5 gallon batch of Cream Ale. With this now decided, you need to hurry on down to Homebrew Adventures or Alternative Beverage and pick up the ingredients. We will keep it simple for now and just use about 5 lbs of Dried Malt Extract (DME) and a little dextrin Malt (about 8 oz of Cara Pils) for head retention. The Cara Pils malt should be cracked at the place where you get them - so they will be ready for use when you get home. Don't forget to get a small grain bag to put the Cara Pils into ! We will also use about an ounce of Saaz hops and about an ounce of Perle hops - so get these also along with some Irish Moss.

Light Dried Malt Extract	Cara Pils Dextrin Malt and small grain bag

While you are here, you also need to get a fermentation device. This could be a 7 gallon plastic bucket with a lid or a 5 gallon glass Carboy. This is where the little yeasties convert the sugars from the malts into the alcohol. It is your choice which you want to use and both will do a great job. You will also need to get an Air Lock and cork. This lets the CO2 out of the fermentation vessel and not let bacteria get in. Bacteria is the enemy !

Plastic Bucket Fermenter	Glass Carboy Fermenter	Air Lock and Cork

You also need a good sanitizer to clean all your equipment with.

Star San is a non-rinse sanitizer

Straight A and B-Brite are more good sanitizers.

The final things needed is a boiling vessel. A 16 - 20 quart stainless steel pot will be fine. Something to stir in the DME will also be needed.

OK, so we now have the equipment and ingredients we need to have our first brew session and make an excellent Cream Ale.

We will also use a tube of White Labs Yeast (WLP001) for the fermentation.