Making the Beer

Pop the yeast bubble inside the Wyeast packet. When the packet begins to bulge (in a day or three), make a yeast starter wort from 5 Tbsp. dry malt extract boiled in 2 cups water for 15 minutes and allow it to cool (a cold water bath for the pan can speed this). Clean and sanitize a beer bottle, stopper and fermentation lock. Place your starter wort in the clean, sanitized beer bottle. When it's at room temperature, add the Wyeast to the starter wort in the bottle and attach the fermentation lock to the bottle with the small rubber stopper.

In ½ to 2 days, the fermentation of the yeast starter will become vigorous and a foamy "kreusen" will form in the starter. Brew when starter kreusen rises.

Place your crystal malt, chocolate malt and American Victory malt in a grain bag or cheesecloth bag and place the loaded grain bag into 1.5 gallons of water in your brewpot. Bring to a boil; immediately remove the grain bag as the water begins to boil. Pour 2 cups hot water through the grain bag and let the "juices" drip into the brewpot. Don't wring out the grain bag into your pot, as this will add bitter, harsh tannins to the beer and make it less drinkable.

Stir in the 5 pounds dry malt extract and Northern Brewer hops. Boil 40 minutes. Add Fuggles hops and continue boiling 15 more minutes. Add Irish Moss and boil 10 more minutes. Add half ounce of Saaz hops, boil 5 more minutes. Add rest of Saaz hops, boil one minute and remove from heat. Place the full brewpot into a cool water bath (or use a wort chiller if you have one) to cool rapidly.

Clean and sanitize your funnel, strainer, fermenter, and "blow-off" tubing or stopper with fermentation lock. Add 3.5 gallons cold water to your sanitized fermenter. Gently strain the wort (unfermented beer) into the cold water in the fermenter (you don't want to vigorously oxygenate the wort until it's cool). Top off the fermenter with cold water, if necessary, to make 5 gallons. Cover the top of the fermenter with a sanitized lid, stopper or plastic wrap.

When the wort is below 80 degrees F (fermenter is room temperature to touch), shake the fermenter to oxygenate the cooled wort. Dump the yeast starter into the fermenter. Measure the original specific gravity with a clean and sanitized hydrometer if you are interested. From this point forward, avoid shaking or stirring the beer as you don't want to oxygenate the beer any further once fermentation is underway. Immediately attach a sanitized rubber stopper with a fermentation lock to the fermenter lid if you're using a 6 gallon pail, or attach a sanitized, thick food-grade hose to the top of the fermenter/lid hole if you're using a 5 gallon pail or glass carboy and submerge the other end of the hose in a clean 1 gallon pail half-full of clean water. This will capture the " blow-off " kreusen as it rises in a day or two.

It may take 12 hours or it may take 3 days for fermentation to take off and the kreusen to rise. Rack (siphon) the beer to a sanitized secondary fermenter when the kreusen falls, leaving behind the ½ inch trub (sediment) layer, and attach a fermentation lock with a rubber stopper. Ferment to completion.

When fermentation is complete (fermentation lock bubbling less than once every 2 minutes), make a priming wort by boiling 1¼ cups dry malt extract or ¾ cups corn sugar in 1 cup of water. Place the priming wort into your clean, sanitized "bottling bucket." Gently rack the fermented beer into the bottling bucket with clean, sanitized tubing (you want to minimize oxygenation). Measure your final specific gravity if you are interested. Clean and sanitize your bottles and boil your bottle caps for 5 minutes. Bottle your beer (with 1 inch airspace in each bottle) using a sanitized siphon hose and cap the bottles. Store in a relatively cool, dark place for 2 to 3 weeks, then enjoy.

Measured original S.G. 1.038.

Final S.G. 1.010, estimated alcohol content 3%