Step 1: The Mash
BRWIT Kit Method (Brew-in-a-bag)
1. Heat 7L of water to around 70 degrees Celsius. Don’t fill the pan to the brim as you will need some room to add your ingredients.
2. Line the inside of the pan with the mesh brewing bag. Use a spoon or other utensil for this… The water is hot!3. Add all of the grain from the bag labelled ‘GRIST’, stirring as you do to avoid the grains clumping together.4. When the grain is mixed take a second to enjoy the smell… This is your mash.5. Start a countdown timer for 60 mins.
6. The temperature inside the pan will drop a little when the grain is added. The goal is to keep the temperature between 65 and 67 degrees Celsius. Your brewing bag may not be suitable for direct heating. So, if the temperature drops below 65 degrees, add SMALL amounts of boiling water, from a kettle, and stir until you’re back on track. If the temperature raises too much, simply add some cold water. Don’t worry about diluting the beer too much and don’t worry too much if it goes high or low for a few minutes, it’s not a bomb, it’s beer!
7. Around 60 mins after you added the grain, CAREFULLY pinch together the mouth of the bag or pull the drawstring. Remove the bag and grain from the pan SLOWLY. The bag will be hot… Hold the grain bag over the pan to allow the wort to drain. You don’t have to get it all, but the more the better. You just made wort.
Used grain can be composted, reserved for use in baking or can simply be thrown away.
Grain will retain around 1 L of liquid. There’s unfortunately nothing you can do about that. But don’t worry, we’ve designed the recipe with this in mind.
No Gear Method (Mash and Sparge)
1. Heat 4L of water to around 70 degrees Celsius. Don’t fill the pan to the brim as you will need some room to add your ingredients.
2. Add all of the grain from the bag labelled ‘GRIST’, stirring as you do to avoid the grains clumping together. This grain-water mixture is now your mash.
3. The temperature inside the pan will drop a little when the grain is added. Try to keep the temperature between 65 and 67 degrees Celsius. If the temperature drops too low simply turn on the heat. If you over-shoot then a small amount of cold water can be added. Bear in mind that this is brewing and not brain surgery, you don’t need to be perfect!
4. Start a countdown timer for 60 mins.
5. After around 30 mins. In a separate pan, heat a further 3 L of water to 80 degrees Celsius. This water is your sparge water.
6. After 45 mins, gently raise the temperature of the rest of the mash to 80 degrees Celsius. Keep the temperature at 80 degrees until the countdown timer has finished.
7. Around 60 mins after you added the grain, using a sieve, filter the mash to separate the grain and the wort.
8. Using your sparge water, rinse the grain.
Step 2: The Boil
After the mash, you must boil your beer. Your beer will be boiled for 60 minutes. This serves a few purposes, but mainly, the boiling process helps to release all that delicious bitterness locked in the hops provided in your Brwit Recipe Kit. Boiling beer is the same, no matter what equipment you have.
Each packet of hops contains a precisely weighed amount of hops. These are labelled with information on the variety and amount of hops each contains for your information. This label also has important information about when to add each packet. Note that the time listed on the packet refers to the time remaining. For example, a packet labelled as 60 mins is added at the START of the boil, not the end.
Your pan lid shouldn’t be used during the boil stage. It’s normal for your wort to reduce in volume.
The longer hops are boiled, the more bitterness is extracted. This is accounted for when your recipe was designed.
1. Raise the temperature of the remaining wort to a boil. At this point you’ll see a skin appear on the top. This is called hot break and it will dissipate.
2. When the wort is boiling vigorously (a rolling boil) add the small bag labelled ‘HOP ADDITION 1’.
3. Start a countdown timer for 60 minutes.
4. Feel free to keep an eye on the boil, making sure that it remains vigorous without boiling over, but your work is done here until the next hop addition.
5. As the boil continues, add each packet of hops according to the time listed on the packet.
6. With 10 minutes remaining, consider sanitising a wooden spoon, thermometer and sieve using whichever sanitiser you find best.
7. With 2 minutes remaining, using the sanitised wooden spoon and sieve, remove as much of the hop material as possible. This is optional at this stage but it will drastically improve the quality of your beer.
8. If your kit contains hops listed as 1 min or 0 mins, these can be added now. These must also be removed before the beer is transferred to the fermenter.
9. When the countdown timer finishes, remove the pan from the heat. Now allow your beer to cool to 25 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible. This can be done by simply allowing to cool naturally or, for faster results, an ice bath can be used.
Step 3: Ferment
Fermentation is where all the action takes place! It’s the point in the brewing process where you hand the reigns over to your army of yeast to turn that delicious, hard-earned wort into beer! Whilst fermentation may be a largely hands-off process, it is extremely important to do the correct prep-work. Namely: make sure that everything that comes into contact with your beer from now on is sanitised and make sure that your beer is properly cooled to at least 25 degrees Celsius before adding the yeast. Some recipes contain ‘dry hops’. These are added directly into the fermentor. Pay close attention to the hop packets for when to add these hops.
- Sanitise the fermentor, fermentor lid, air lock and your thermometer. If planning to use a sieve, sanitise this also.
- When the wort has cooled to below 25 degrees Celsius the liquid can be transferred into the fermentor. Transferring is best done by decanting the liquid the pre-sanitised sieve, leaving as much of the hop and solid material (‘trub’) behind as possible. Whilst trub does not negatively affect your beer, it does take up fermentor space. If large amounts of hop material are transferred into the fermentor, this will change the character of the beer.
- If using a wide-knecked fermentor such as those available in the Brwit equipment kits then the liquid can be directly decanted easily. If using a standard narrow-knecked fermentor then a sanitised funnel can be used as an aid. Alternatively, a length of tubing may be used to siphon the liquid into the fermentor.
- Once the liquid is in the fermentor, add enough cold water to bring the level of the liquid up to the 4.5 L mark.
- If using a hydrometer to monitor fermentation, a small sample can now be removed to measure the original gravity (OG) of the wort using your hydrometer. See our ‘using a hydrometer guide’ for instructions on how to do this (not essential).
- Sprinkle the yeast into the fermentor and stir well. The liquid will now be cloudy but will clear over time.
- Place the airlock into the hole and put a small amount of water into the airlock.
- Place the fermentor somewhere cool, ideally between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius.
- You should see (and hear) bubbles pass through the fermentor within 24 hours. The bubbling should last a few days. When the bubbles stop, wait 24-48 hours and move on to bottling*!
*Some recipes require dry hops to be added at this point. If you are making one of these recipes, do not bottle at this stage. Instead, add the dry hops and wait a further 3 days before removing the dry hops and bottling.
Dry-hopping is the technique of adding hops directly into the fermentor. This adds intense hop aroma and flavour to the beer. Dry hopping is done at varying times, depending on the style of beer. Some add dry hops early (24 hours or so into fermentation) and some styles require the dry hops to be added late (after fermentation is finished). In either case, for the best results, dry hops should only be in contact with beer for 3 days. This can sometimes mean removing the hops with a sieve during fermentation if adding dry hops early.
Step 4: Bottling
A few days after your fermentation stops bubbling, it’s time to bottle your beer! Whilst this step is the quickest and easiest, there are a lot of ‘moving parts’ during bottling so please read this guide to the end before starting your bottling day. During this (final) step, we transfer the finished beer into bottles and also add a small amount of sugar to each bottle. This is known as ‘priming sugar’ and is responsible for carbonation. Too little and your beer may not carbonate, too much and your beer may well redecorate your kitchen, so take care when adding priming sugar.
Each kit makes approximately 12-13 x 330ml bottles or 8-9 x 500ml bottles however ANY bottle of any size can be used to store beer in as long as it can be sealed.
If you can’t source glass bottles or don’t want to invest in a capper, fizzy drink bottles work just as well.
When filling bottles try to avoid disturbing the yeast sitting at the bottom of your fermenter. This won’t harm you or the beer if it is transferred but will affect the aesthetic of your beer
- Clean and sanitize all equipment that will come into contact with your beer including bottles, caps, sieve, spoons and any tubing.
- If your beer recipe used ‘dry hops’ remove these using a sieve or slotted spoon. This is best done in advance of bottling to avoid disturbing the yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter.
- To each bottle add 5g or 1 flat teaspoon of priming sugar to each bottle. This is independent of the size of the bottle you are using. 5g or 1 flat teaspoon is the maximum amount of sugar per bottle.*add a note box here*
- If you are using a BRWIT fermentor or another brand with a tap, slowly fill your bottles dispensing from the tap on the fermentor. Do not fill bottles to the brim, leave a little head space.
- If your fermentation vessel does not have a tap, transfer your beer using either a sanitized jug/funnel or siphon the liquid using a length of sanitized tubing.
- Once the liquid is transferred, quickly seal the bottles such that they are air tight.
- Invert the bottles several times to allow the priming sugar to mix with the liquid, don’t worry if this doesn’t entirely dissolve, it will dissolve completely over time.
- Store the bottles upright at room temperature for 1-2 weeks, until fully carbonated.
