User Rating:  / 2

Details

Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 15:12

Mixing the Wort or Mixing up a Brew

Definitely the most fun part of home brewing is mixing up a brew or more correctly termed, mixing the wort. The wort is the initial, un-fermented beer. Doing the mixing is very simple and the main purpose of this article is to highlight some of the areas where you can make mistakes. But realistically, it is pretty hard to go wrong here.

Before starting, this is the equipment you will need:

• Your ingredients.
• A fermenter
• A mixing spoon or paddle.
• 2 coffee cups (if using finishing hops)
• A medium sized pot.
• A water jug.
• A kettle for boiling water.
• Beer hydrometer.

Firstly make sure everything that is going to touch the wort is completely cleaned and sanitized. Take no chances with sanitizing as this is where mistakes are most commonly made. Worst of all you may not find out about your mistake until your beer is supposedly ready to drink which means you wasted a lot of effort and time. Best it get it right up front so have a look through the section on sanitizing for tips.

If you can remember, get a coupe of water jugs full of cols water into the fridge a few hours before brewing. These are used to get the temperature of the wort down before pitching the yeast. Alternatively, have some big blocks of ice ready to put around the fermenter while it sits in a sink or batch. See the section of pitching the yeast for more details.

Get your kettle boiling as quickly as possible. You are going to need several kettles of boiling water. If you don't have a fast boil kettle, consider getting one.

Find a pot that fits the beer extract can with a bit or room around it to spare. Take the top off the can and remove the instructions and yeast. Place the can into the pot. Then fill the pot with boiling water and let the can sit in it. This is to soften the very thick mixture in the can to make it easier to pour out. After 5 minutes or so, turn the can upside down in the pot and give it at least 10 minutes in the hot water to soften properly.

While you are getting your can softening, also get your finishing hops steeping. To do this, use a clean and sanitized coffee cup and place the steeping bag containing the finishing hops into it. Or place the mulled wine cage or cheese cloth containing hops pellets in the cup if this is what you are using. Pour boiling water over the hops and fill the cup.

Steeping the hops is just like making tea. Let it sit in the boiling water for at least 10 minutes and give it a jiggle every now and then. For an even stronger aroma from this hops if you prefer, give the bag a light squeeze with a teaspoon every now and then. I only recommend squeezing the bag if you are racking your brew as it squeezes some of the particles out as well which adds to the sediment.

Also at this point, get your yeast re-hydrating if you don't want to pitch it in dry. Do this by pouring the dry yeast into a coffee cup and adding luke warm water. Stir every now and then until dissolved. See the Pitching the Yeast section for more details on re-hydrating the brewing yeast and why you do it.

So your can of brew extract is softened, your finishing hops are steeped and you have another jug of water boiled. Now it is time to start mixing.

Throw all of the dry ingredients such as brew booster and dextrose into your sanitized fermenter. It is important to do this before adding the water or the steam will make the sugars stick to the bag. The other reason to do it this way around is so the dry malt doesn't form clumps.

Adding the water to the dry ingredients prevents this from happening. I once did it the other way around and the dry malt in the brew booster formed lumps or clumps that took ages to dissolve. This has never happened to me when adding the water to the dry ingredients.

Pour in about 2 litres of boiling water and start stirring with your mixing spoon as quickly as possible. Keep stirring quite vigorously until everything is dissolved. You can add more boiled water if you prefer. The more boiled water you use the easier it is to dissolve the ingredients. But it you use more boiling water it is harder to get the wort down to the right temperature for pitching the yeast. So I recommend using as little boiling water as possible.

Open the can of malt extract or beer mix and pout it into the fermenter. Mix well until this is also dissolved.

After tipping a jug of boiling water into the fermenter and mixing it up, I put another litre back on to boil straight away for rinsing out the can. Tip a bit of the boiled water into the beer mix can to get the last bit out (optional).

After you are sure all the sugars are dissolved, add in the finishing hops and give it a bit more of a stir.

Next you need to both top up the fermenter with cold water and get the temperature down. If you chilled some water in a jug, then add it now. Otherwise, use the jug to top up the fermenter with the coldest water you have available. Keep stirring the mixture every time you add a jug. At this point also, if you have a big enough sink or you want to use a batch (a baby bath works well), then sit your fermenter into cold water and put ice around it to get the temperature down to the ideal temp fr pitching the yeast. This isn't completely essential but the correct pitching temperature produces the best results. read the section on pitching the yeast for more details.

Fill the fermenter up to around the 23 litre mark with cold water. Stir the wort well. Take the empty brew mix can and fill it up from the tap and pour back into the top of the fermenter. Do this 2 or three times. The reason I do this is because firstly there will be sugar-rich wort stuck in the tap. Secondly, my mixing spoon isn't long enough to reach the bottom when the fermenter is full so this just makes sure everything is well mixed.

Next pour in your re-hydrated yeast. or if you are using it dry, sprinkle it over the surface of the wort. Do this as quick as possible after you have finished mixing for the reasons described in the Pitching the Yeast section.

Screw on the lid and move the fermenter to where it will sit until ready for bottling or racking.

I like to place my full fermenter on top of a table or bar with the tap hanging well out away from the top. This is so it is in the right position ready to go when it is time to rack or bottle. This means the sediment doesn't get disturbed by moving the fementer around.

At this point take an initial hydrometer reading if you like by filling the test tube from the tap.

Fit the air lock and fill the air lock with water to the line.

Clean up your mess and you are done! Now just keep an eye on the brew and monitor the temperature. Either after the right number of days or when the SG reading is right it is ready to rack or bottle.

How many days it takes varies with different brews. Most of the pale ale recipes I make take about 4 days. But the Little creatures Pale Ale for example takes at least 7 days. You will get to know how long with experience and by measuring the specific gravity. See the section on measuring specific gravity for more details.

If in doubt, give your beer longer time in the fermenter rather than a shorter time. If you bottle too soon you risk having exploding bottles.

• Next >