I just received the kit on the mail a few mins ago and i love it. But the instructions are kind of vague, i wonder if anyone can help wit the fermentation process and the bottling, i see i got a big plastic tube or siphon i think is called but not sure hows supposed to be used. Is there a more specific guide on the site ? Also noticed the pack of yeast is a small bag im suppose to just put it in like that ?
Do they provide you with a DVD in the starter kit now? If not, watch this:
That’s what came in my first kit, and it all still applies. Walks you right through the process.
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thank you, i didn’t see any dvds so this is really helpful, i get the main idea just confused in some of the steps
Keep your yeast in the refrigerator. Absolutely necessary for liquid yeast, not essential for dry yeast but is good for the long term storage of dry yeast.
Which brewing equipment kit did you order? Which beer will you start out with for your first brew?
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Which kit did you purchase? I assume you have an extract kit to work with? If you got the Brew, share, enjoy kit from our host, it appears to come with Block Party Amber Ale. Typically for an extract kit, you will have LME (liquid malt extract, big jug of syrup) or DME (Dry malt extract, big bag of tanish looking powder) and some hops. The picture on the page shows this also comes with specialty grains. You should open the specialty grains bag and dump them into the mesh bag that should also come with the kit. Tie off the top of this bag and dunk the bag into your water as it comes up to a boil. Typical extract brewing would start with 2.5 gallons of water in a pot, bring the water to a boil (take out your specialty grains bag before water temp gets to 170), turn off burner, add LME or DME and turn the burner back on. Then as that gets back to boiling, you will have to stir and maybe turn down the heat on your burner or stove because it will foam on you as the Malt extract comes to a boil.
Once you get past the foaming stage (hot break), you typically would be boiling your wort for an hour. Add the hops according to the time table in the recipe. At the end of the hour, turn of your burner, put a lid on your pot and put your pot in an ice water bath. Once your wort has cooled below 70 degrees (this can take time and a decent bit of ice) then you would pour your wort into the fermenting bucket that came with your kit (make sure you sanitize the bucket before you do this!). You would then top off with enough water to get to just over 5 gallons and stir that all together. At this point your wort should be mid 60’s depending on your top off water temperature. Then you take your pack of yeast and put that in on top of your wort and seal up your bucket. Make sure you put a bubbler in the opening in the lid to allow CO2 to escape. You can fill the bubbler with sanitizer solution or vodka.
Patience is now your friend but will feel like your enemy. 
Put your bucket somewhere cool if possible (I keep mine in my basement) you ideally want to keep it under 70 degrees because the beer will ferment warmer than room temperature. If you don’t have anywhere below 70 degrees, you can make a simple swamp cooler with a larger tub for a water bath and rotate frozen water bottles once or twice a day to help keep the temp down. Ideally you want to keep it in mid-upper 60’s for temperature. Wait 2 weeks. At this point, you would need to sanitize your bottling bucket with your sanitizer as well as your bottling wand and autosiphon. You also want to sanitize all the bottles you will be filling and all your caps you will need.
Once everything is ready, you would use your autosiphon to “rack” your beer out of the fermenting bucket into your bottling bucket. This is done fairly easily, you just want to make sure your bottling bucket is lower than your fermenting bucket (IE fermenting bucket on counter, bottling bucket on chair or floor). Once this is complete, you attach the hose to your bottling wand to the spigot on your bucket and start filling bottles. You want to fill until the foam reaches the top of your bottle then add a fizz drop to the bottle and cap. Once all your bottles are filled, put them in a container of some sort to contain any leaks someplace around 70 degrees for another 1-2 weeks. You can start checking your carbonation one bottle at a time. Simply pop a bottle in the fridge a few hours ahead of when you want to try it. Once they are properly carbed, pop them all into the fridge and enjoy! Hope this helps!
Rad
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You want to avoid using water for brewing or sanitizing that has been treated with chlorine or chloramines. This means you cannot use municipal water. All municipal water is treated with either one or both. Municipal water can be treated with Campden tablets to remove the chlorine and chloramines but water related problems would not be a concern if you start out with distilled or RO water for your first brew.
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morning you should have fun brewing .your first beer. me now brewing a year i did learn lots from this forum. haha yes instructions kind of vague .but what i do i do boil 5 gallon water first and steep grains separate in a galon of water once ready do add them to the 5 gal boilling water . it takes a bit longer to reach boil temp .but have a brew while waiting once ready add dme and 1/2 lme. than 15 min before end put rest of lme and i use irish moss as well end of boil you end up with 5 gal of worth no need to add cold water to get five gall of beer .yes you can pitch yeast in .once you worth is cold one thing i do i make a yeast starter best thing i ever did good luck with your brew day
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Carbon filters will also remove chlorine and chloramines. I believe that just leaving the lid off the brew kettle overnight will cause chlorine to evaporate. This will not work with chloramine though.
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thank you this is the kit i got from amazon http://www.amazon.com/Share-Enjoy-Homebrew-Brewing-Starter/dp/B0179ZH89Y?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 and yes is the block party ale. @radagast awesome instructions thank you so much, waiting for my thermometer to cook the wort and start brewing, only 1 question left is how does the siphon activates, since i notice the bottling spigot opens when u press it against the bottle
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The autosiphon works like this:
Put the thin rigid tube inside the bigger rigid tube
Slip tubing over end of thin rigid tube (soaking tubing in hot water makes this easier)
Put assembly into liquid
Pump once or twice by sliding the thinner tube in and out. This should get liquid up and into the tubing. Gravity does the rest.
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pick up a copy of this book
it’s fantastic for both the beginning brewer and the more experienced brewer.
