Basic Extract Brewing

Ingredients:

22l water (this needs to be unchlorinated). Tap water that has been boiled and allowed to cool is fine, but for your first batch you may be better using spring water.
450g amber malt grain, crushed (for a lighter beer use mild ale malt grain)
3.2kg unhopped amber malt extract
100g bittering hops (Eroica or Galena)
100g finishing hops (eg Fuggles or a mix of Fuggles and Cascade)
Yeast (a variety like safale us-56 [beer yeast] or for a more genuine ale, Gervin Yeast – English Ale). Use dried yeast for your first batch of beer.

120g demerara sugar

Note that almost all the ingredients above can be obtained from any shop specializing in home brews.

Method:

If you are using liquid yeast then you will need to prepare it beforehand. Skip this section if you are using dried yeast. The yeast culture needs to be prepared 2–3 days before it's needed. Most liquid yeasts come in a packet. First burst the blister bubble in this to release the yeast cells into a sugar solution where they will begin to multiply. Once the packet has swelled to about an inch think, open the packet and pitch (pour) the yeast into a sterilized 1l container half-filled with water, into which about 3 tablespoons of sugar have been dissolved. Shake the container well to aerate, and loosen the lid slightly to let some air escape.

Place your large stainless steel pot on a high heat and add 11l of water. Put your crushed malt grains in a muslin bag, tie this off and add to the water. Bring the water to the boil and remove the muslin bag just before it reaches boiling point (about 80°C). At this point take the pot off the heat and stir-in your malt extract. This may be easier if the can of syrup has been sitting in warm water before hand. Whilst adding the syrup, stir vigourously to ensure that the sugars do not burn on the bottom of the pan.

Once the syrup has been added and dissolved return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil. At this point add the bittering hops. Turn the heat down so that the wort (as the liquid is now called) is on a rolling boil rather than a rapid one (you need to be careful here as too much heat can extract tannins from the hops and can caramelize the sugars within the wort, which will foul the taste of your beer). Be careful near this boiling liquid as the sugars in the wort will make if very hot and sticky.

After 55 minutes of boiling add the finishing hops. After boiling for a further five minutes (60 minutes' boil in total) remove the pot from the heat and strain off the hops (leaving them in longer will make the beer too bitter). Leave the pot to sit for 30 minutes for the wort to settle and cool.

You will now need a completely sterilized fermentation barrel or bucket into which 9l of cold water should be poured. Now carefully pour the word through the strainer and sterilized filter combination into the barrel or bucket. Splashing is good here as it helps aerate the wort.

Next the yeast solution should be prepared. If using dried yeast place about 80ml of warm water (36–40°C) in a shallow dish (it is best to boil the water and allow it to cool naturally in a covered dish. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the surface of the water and allow to rehydrate for ten minutes. At the end of this time gently stir the yeast and add to the wort. If using liquid yeast add a tablespoon of corn sugar and shake the bottle again to aerate the solution.

Once the yeast has been added to the wort (do not add until the temperature has cooled to 24°C), stir vigourously with a sterilized long-handled spoon to aerate. At this point take a hydrometer reading and record the Specific Gravity (known at this point as the Original Gravity). Affix the lid (or bung) and fermentation airlock. This should normally be active (bubbling) in 24 hours. Place the fermentation vessel in a dark place at between 18–24°C and leave to ferment.

Beer will normally ferment and clear normally within 10–14 days (as a rule of thumb beer needs 1 week's fermentation time per 1.5kg of malt extract sugar used. If the fermentation airlock has reduced its bubbling rate to more than once per minute the beer is ready to be bottled, however, if it is still bubbling rapidly the beer needs more time to ferment.

The next stage is to rack and prime the beer. Place your racking tube into the fermentation barrel/bucket and rack (decant) the beer into a sterile bucket (known as a bottling bucket). I'm making a traditional (low carbonation) ale here. As a result the priming sugar mix is 120g of demerara (or any brown cane sugar) dissolved in 200ml boiling water (for a fizzier beer double the amount of sugar and water). This is allowed to cool slightly and poured into the bottling bucket (don't aerate this time).

Finally, clean and sterilize your siphon and use this to begin filling your bottles. You need about 3cm of head space, which you should get when you remove the siphon (to prevent the bottle over-flowing get a bottle-filler end-piece for your siphon hose). Cap the bottles and store the beer at or slightly above 18°C in a dark place for about three weeks to finish conditioning. This allows the beer to carbonate naturally (though for a traditional ale this is only between 1.5–2.0 volumes of CO₂ (a lager would be between 2.2–2.7 volumes of CO₂).

You can now open your first bottle of home-brewed beer and enjoy the fruit of your labours.

If you wish to make a more authentic Medieval ale then do not add hops to your ale (though you may add the finishing hops to add flavour if you wish).