Getting Started

Before You Begin
If you purchased a pack of liquid yeast, you will want to take it out of the fridge a few hours in advance of brewing. If using a smack pack, you will also want to smack the inner bubble at this time to activate the yeast. If you are using dried yeast then you can skip this step.

Getting Started
Always have all of your required equipment close at hand and your brew area well organized. Brewing beer involves periods of inactivity followed by frantic activity. If you do not have all your equipment close at hand, you may find yourself needing to do multiple things at the same time. These are general instructions that can be used with any of our kits (or your own recipe).

Brewing Water
Good clean water is important to brewing, because your beer is mostly water! However, when using malt extracts, the particular water chemistry is not usually critical. The general rule is if your water tastes good to drink, it is good to brew with. If your water has a chlorine smell or taste, you should use a charcoal filter system or treat it by using Campden tablets to remove the chloramines. You may also use bottled drinking water. You will need about 6 1/2 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer.