Intermediate Brewing Guide

So, are you ready to take the step from beginning to intermediate brewing? The following improvements to the techniques outlined in the Beginner's Brewing Guide will be added:

Improvements

1. Use of a glass carboy as a secondary fermenter. This will result in both a clearer beer as well as a better finished product.
2. Use of a yeast starter flask in order to achieve a higher pitching rate of yeast to the wort.
3. Use of specialty grains to improve the complexity of your beer.
4. Use of a 7 gallon brew pot to perform a full wort boil.
5. Use of a wort chiller to quickly cool the wort to pitching temperature.

Equipment
In addition to the equipment listed in the Lee's Brewery Beginner's Brewing Guide, you'll also need the following:

Recipes

See Extract/Specialty grain recipes in Lee's Brewery Recipes page.

Brewing Process

1. 3 or 4 days before brew day, activate the liquid yeast pack.
2. After 1 or 2 days, the liquid yeast pack will swell to 1-2 inch thickness.
3. Add the liquid yeast to a yeast starter. Refer to the Yeast guide page for instructions on preparing a yeast starter.
4. The yeast starter should be at the height of it's fermentation by the time brew day arrives.
5. On brew day, crush the specialty grains using the grain mill. If you don't have a grain mill you can use a rolling pin to crack the grains spread out on a cookie sheet.
6. Place the specialty grains in a grain bag and place it in the kettle filled with 6 gallons of water.
7. Heat the kettle to 170°F. Periodically swirl the grain bag in the water while it is heating.
8. When 170°F is reached, remove the grain bag from the the kettle. Note: Leaving the specialty grains in the water at temperatures above 170°F will impart off flavors to your beer.
9. Heat the water to boiling, add ingredients and follow procedure called for in the recipe. Boil for at least 60 minutes.
10. After boiling, transfer wort into fermentation bucket with the immersion wort chiller already inside.
11. Cool wort with chiller for 30-40 minutes. Agitate wort periodically for quickest cooling times.
12. After wort has been cooled to 65-70°F, take a specific gravity reading.
13. Add yeast starter and stir vigorously to oxygenate the wort.
14. Seal primary fermenter with airlock and ferment for approximately 3 days or until airlock bubbling activity has subsided somewhat.
15. Siphon the beer to the sanitized carboy and seal with airlock. Try to transfer as little of the trub or sediment from the primary fermenter as possible.
16. Ferment the beer in the secondary for 7 to 10 days before bottling.

For books on beer and brewing visit The Beer Book Store:

Sorry, your browser does not support.JAVA.

Revised: Sunday, December 21, 1997 22:19:02
Copyright © 1996 by [Lee's Brewery].
All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.