But you’ll likely want to upgrade to a purpose-built brewing kettle at some point (or to an all-in-one electric brewing machine). If you already have an adequately sized vessel in your kitchen arsenal (like a lobster pot or a turkey fryer), you can use that. Kettles with roomy, cushioned handles also make it easier to move the kettle around when it’s full of hot liquid. When possible, we prefer kettles with a ball valve, which makes it easier to transfer your beer after the boil (but these are rare in entry-level kits). These larger kettles can be slightly awkward to use in a kitchen setting, but they should work fine on a full-size range. Better, more-expensive kits include 8- or 10-gallon kettles, which give you more room to work with and allow for all-grain brewing. For a 5-gallon extract kit, the bare minimum is a 5-gallon stainless steel kettle. Not all kits include one, but since most people don’t have a large enough pot in their kitchen arsenal, we prefer kits that do. Kettle: You can’t brew without a kettle, which in brewing just means a stock pot large enough to boil wort.Once that’s done, the only thing left to do is to refrigerate it and pop the cap on your first bottle of homebrew. Wait for the beer to carbonate, and then drink: After you’ve packaged the beer, it takes about seven to 14 days at room temperature to fully carbonate.These items, plus a bottle capper and caps, are included in the kits we recommend. But the short version is that you mix a bit of sugar into the finished beer to prime it, giving the yeast just enough sugar to carbonate it in the bottle, and then use a bit of vinyl tubing and a bottling wand to transfer it into bottles. Your recipe kit will include instructions on how to bottle. Most beginners bottle their beer rather than kegging it because it’s easy and economical to reuse commercial crown-cap bottles. Package the beer: When the beer has finished fermenting, it’s time to package it.Lagers take significantly longer to finish than ales, since they are commonly fermented at colder temperatures. But it’s generally recommended to let the beer sit for another week or so, to allow the yeast to clean up any undesirable fermentation byproducts. Primary fermentation of most ales usually takes anywhere from five to 14 days to finish. After a day or so, you’ll see your airlock start to bubble-slowly at first, and then almost nonstop as the yeast multiplies exponentially. Ferment the wort to make beer: Wort becomes beer through the magic of fermentation, as yeast consumes sugar to make alcohol and carbon dioxide.Simply sprinkle it on the surface of the wort in the fermenter, put the top on, and add an airlock to keep out unwanted wild yeast and bacteria. (If you’re pouring into a narrow-necked carboy, you might need to use a sanitized funnel.) Yeast comes in both dry and liquid forms, but most recipe kits use dry yeast for its longevity and reliability. Transferring wort is easy, especially with bucket fermenters simply ensure that your fermenter is properly sanitized, and pour the wort directly into the bucket.
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