Making the Wort:

1. Take your brew kettle and add ~3 gallons of cold water or fill to roughly 4 inches from the top. *There are definite advantages to boiling all 5 gallons, or as much as you can, but this requires a large kettle and a wort chiller.
2. Take your cracked flavoring grains (usually crystal, chocolate, roasted barley, or black patent malts) and put them into the straining bag. Place the bag into the cold water and tie off so the bag does not rest on the bottom of the pot. TIP- I like to use a piece of dental floss to tie off the bag and tie the other end to the handle to keep it suspended in the water.
3. Place the uncovered brew pot on the stove and heat water to 170 degrees. If boiling more than 3 gallons of water you will need to do this on an outside propane burner as your stove does not produce enough BTU’s to make it worthwhile.
4. Remove the grains when the water reaches 170 degrees, allowing roughly 30 minutes doing so. If your water reaches 170 degrees in fewer than 30 mins, turn off the heat and allow grains to steep until a total of 30 mins have passed. DO NOT BOIL THE GRAINS!!!!!
5. Turn off or remove the pot from the heat. Stir in (so it doesn't burn on the bottom) the liquid malt extract, dried malt extract and/or dextrin powder as called for in the recipe. This solution is now called sweet wort. (Pronounced wert)
6. Turn the heat back up and heat to a boil. Stay near your kettle! When your boil starts to commence you will notice the foam starting to rise. You need to be there to turn down the heat. When the foam drops, reapply to heat to get a rolling boil. * Not having a boil over on the kitchen stove is another great reason to do the boil outside!
7. Time to add your bittering hops as noted in your kit instructions and start your 1 hour total boil time. If using pellet hops simply add them to the kettle. If you are using whole hops, you can use a mesh bag which will help when transferring to the primary fermenter (Not absolutely necessary to use a hop bag).
8. Most recipes call for adding flavor hops or aroma hops at different times during the boil, refer to the instructions when to add. Keep a close eye on the boil as adding hops could also cause foaming. If this happens just turn down the heat and reapply when foaming stops.
9. With 20 mins left in the total 60 min boil it is time to add the wort chiller if you are using one. The remaining time in the boil will sanitize the wort chiller.
10. If included in your kit it is also time to add your Irish moss or Whirlfloc tablet. Irish moss & Whirlfloc are natural fining agents that will help to clear your beer by attaching to protein molecules which then precipitate out of solution.

• At the end of the 60 min boil it is time to cool your wort. If you have a wort chiller just hook up cold water to it and cool your wort down to less than 80 degrees. The next best method is to place the brew pot in a sink or tub of ice water to cool down the wort. This is where you want to cover the pot with its lid to prevent anything falling into the wort.
• If you have less than 3 gallons of wort it is not necessary to cool it down to 80 degrees as you can add cold water to bring the volume up to 5 gallons and this will cool it down the rest of the way. Avoid adding ice to your wort from your freezer since it tends to pick up tastes and smells that could taint your beer!

Lets move onto mixing the wort and pitching the yeast!