Tutorial for Partial-Boil Beer Kits


 

Partial-Boil Beer Ingredient Kit Tutorial

This type of beer kit in brewing steps and difficulty falls between a No-Boil Beer Kit and a Partial Mash Beer Kit. Partial-Boil Beer Ingredient Kits are a great way to make beer and are designed to be simple enough for the beginner yet challenging enough for the intermediate home beer brewer. They are an easy way to make excellent beer and build confidence before moving on to the more complicated Partial Mash and All Grain methods of brewing beer. However, the partial-boil beer kits are such great beer kits many beer makers never seek any of the other methods of beer making. Partial Mash beer kits being the next step and require about an hour of boil time and add the boil of specialty grains, All Grain brewing not utilizing and malt extracts.

Unlike the No-Boil Beer Kits the Partial-Boil Beer Ingredient Kits contain everything you need to make beer and typically contain one can of Liquid Malt Extract (LME) and either a package of Dry Malt Extract (DME) or a second can of LME, Specialty Hops and Sugars, Beer Yeast, and Instructions.

To brew beer from a Partial-Boil Beer Kit:
1. Sanitize Your Brewing Equipment
2. Bring 1 to 3 gallons (depending on beer kit) of quality water to a boil and turn off heat

  • Stir in the Liquid Malt from your can(s) and your Dry Malt and Dextrose Sugar if Applicable
  • Stir until all is dissolved
  • Turn heat back on and boil for approx. 20 to 30 minutes 
  • Stir in your Specialty Hops and Specialty Sugars per your beer kit instructions and schedule (some beer kits may have you add the specialty hops and sugars before the boil)

3. At this point you have what is called Wort which is simply unfermented beer
4. Cool your Wort as quickly as possible to 80 degrees by putting your pot of Wort in a bath of cool water, or better yet on ice in a sink or bath tub. The quicker you cool your wort the clearer your beer will be.

  • Now that your Wort has cooled pour it into your 6 gallon or larger fermenter. Usually plastic but a glass carboy is often used. Be sure to allow your wort to splash while transferring to this container as the splashing will add oxygen needed by your beer yeast during fermentation.

5. Add cool water (if not boiled) or cold water (if boiled) to your wort to bring the quantity to the recommended amount as outlined in your beer kit instructions, typically 5 gallons.

  • Colder water typically needs to be added to further bring down the temperature of your wort prior to adding yeast if you boiled your extract

6. Open, sprinkle in and stir your beer yeast into your Wort. Not necessary but believed to be more effective is to rehydrate your dry yeast prior to adding to your wort.
7. Put the lid on your fermenter, fill your airlock with water or sterile solution and insert your airlock into the grommetted hole in your fermenter lid.
8. You should see bubble activity from fermentation begin in your airlock starting anywhere from 12 to 48 hours. The room where your beer/wort is during fermentation should be 65F to 75F. (Different yeasts call for different temperatures – Refer to your beer kit instructions)
9. Fermentation usually takes about a week. The last couple of days leading up to the end of fermentation the bubbling in the airlock will gradually decrease.
10. When there has been no bubble activity in the airlock for a few days it is time to bottle your beer. Sanitize your beer bottles and your bottling bucket or siphon/racking equipment and bottle filler.
11. To create carbonation you need to introduce new sugar to the beer as the yeast during the fermentation process consumed all available sugar from the wort. To do this add 5oz. of Corn Sugar aka Priming Sugar (Dextrose) to 8 oz. of water and boil in a sauce pan. Allow to cool prior to adding to your beer. Pour this priming solution into the bottom of your empty bottling bucket. The residual yeast in your beer will consume this priming sugar resulting in carbonation.

  • Alternatively - Carbonation Drops can be added to each bottle of beer when bottling. How many carbonation drops to add to each bottle will depend on manufacturer, size of drops, bottle size, and how much carbonation is desired.

12. Transfer/rack your beer from your fermenter into your bottling bucket which contains your priming solution leaving sediment behind in your fermenter. Gently mix your priming solution with your beer in your bottling bucket.

  • Alternatively – You can transfer/rack your beer from your fermenter into another plastic fermenter or carboy leaving the sediment behind and then use a racking cane, siphon hose and bottle filler to siphon your beer from this carboy or fermenter to your beer bottles.

13. Boil your beer caps to sanitize, cap your beer bottles and store at room temperature for approximately two weeks while they condition and carbonate. Storing at cooler temperatures will result in a longer time to condition and carbonate.

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