Continuing from How to Brew an Oak Aged IPA Part 1, about half an hour into the 60 minutes, it’s time to add the flavoring hops to the mixture. Keep in mind that you put the hops in while the mixture is still boiling.
Lastly, time to add in the aroma hops in the last few minutes of the 60-minute boil. Unfortunately, I skipped the aroma hops step, so hopefully, my brew still comes out great with just the bittering and flavoring hops.
Before the 60 minutes is up, I would advise you to get ready for the next step before the time is up, which is to add a lot of ice to your sink. I used a cooler. Both work the same just as long as the pot fits, and there is a lot of ice.
Once the 60 minutes are over, you now have your wort. You want to put a lid on the pot, and place it in the sink full of ice. You want the pot to cool as fast as possible, so there is no contamination. So, I recommend setting up the sink beforehand with ice.
The reason you do this is so your wort will be under 75℉. The wort is the mixture that is in your pot. Yeast must only be added to the wort once it’s lower than 75℉, or it’s ruined.
While cooling, it’s time to sanitize all equipment. Sanitizing is the most important part of the process. If the yeast is combined with any kind of bacteria, it will ruin the whole batch of beer. Ensure all equipment is properly sanitized, even the 1-gallon carboy fermentor. The pack of sanitizer that the kit came with is used twice, once for the brewing process and once for bottling. So, you should only use half of the pack of sanitizer.
Get a glass bowl and mix the sanitizer with water. Once mixed, add the airlock, funnel, rubber stopper, tubing clamp, transfer tubing, racking cane, and thermometer to the mix. Let them sit in the glass bowl for 60 seconds. Then, use the funnel to add some of the sanitized water to the 1-gallon glass carboy. Place your clean thumb on top of the hole, and vigorously shake, making sure the Glass Carboy is completely sanitized.
Next, use the funnel to transfer the cooled down wort into the glass carboy. If it looks like the wort is not enough to fill the 1-gallon glass carboy, add cold water until it fills.
Add the yeast to the glass carboy. Important – make sure to sanitize the scissors you use to cut open the yeast package.
Once the yeast is in the glass carboy, insert the rubber stopper on the top, put a clean finger on top of the rubber stopper hole, and vigorously shake to aerate the mixture. I would say at least a minute of shaking.
Place the transfer tubing inside of the rubber stopper (at least half an inch in) and place the other end in a cup of water. This side of the transfer tubing should also have the tubing clamp attached. This is a “blow-off” assembly to ensure that the beer foam does not overflow while it’s fermenting.
Keep this in a cool and dark area for 2 weeks while it’s fermenting.
In Beer at Home Part 4, I will go over the bottling process.
A huge thanks to Craft a Brew for helping me in the process of brewing my own beer.
-Cheers