Continuing from Brewing Beer at Home – Craft a Brew, it’s time for me to brew my own beer.
Brewing the Oak Aged IPA
If you use my instructions, please review all of the steps before starting. The steps can be different depending on which beer you have. Mine is the Oak Aged IPA.
Start with 1 gallon of water and start heating on the stove. I used a pasta pot for mine since it gave me a lot of room to work with even after adding the 1 gallon of water.
Using the thermometer from the beer kit, bring the water temperature up to 155℉. When it rises to this temperature, bring out the cheesecloth pouch that came with the kit, and place the specialty grains in it. Tie a knot above the grain pouch so the specialty grains are concealed inside the pouch.
Next, steep the grains in the 155℉ water, making sure all the specialty grain is in the water. Steep in the water for 15 minutes. This is a great time to grab a brew and wait.
Once the 15 minutes are up, take out the steeping grains. Make sure not to squeeze the pouch of grain. The flavor profile will be ruined. Once the grain is out of the water, bring the water to a boil.
Once the boiling point is reached (when you see the first bubbles in the boiling water) take the water off the stove, and add in your malt extract. Stir around the mixture while slowly adding the malt. If you don’t mix while adding malt, the mixture will clump up on the bottom of the pot.
Once the malt is mixed in, put the pot back on the stove, and bring back to a boil.
Once the mixture is boiling once again, it’s time to add in the bittering hops. Put the hops in while stirring.
Next, set a timer for 60 minutes after the hops are added. Caution – you have to be very careful for these 60 minutes. The mixture could boil over, so you should be watching the pot attentively. If it looks like it is going to boil over, turn off the stove, and blow on the bubbles boiling up. This will help slow the boiling. This is a great time for you to get that second brew out to drink while waiting!
In How to Brew an Oak Aged IPA Part 2, we will finish the Brewing Process.