It’s an affordable way to experiment. It takes up less space, bottling time is reduced and you can create lots of small batches of different beer varieties or styles instead of limiting yourself to one or two full batches of beer.
Ingredients and Recipe: Basic Pale Ale with Flavour/Aroma Hops
500gms (1 pound) Dry Malt Extract
75 gms (3 ounces) Crystal Malt
50 gms (2 ounces) Maltodextrin
50 gms (2 ounces) Dextrose
10gms (1/3 ounce) Centennial Hops (For bittering)
10 gms (1/3 ounce) Galaxy or another flavour/aroma hop
3-4 gms (1/7 ounce) Ale Yeast (US-05) or similar
1. Boil 1 litre of water in pot. Remove from the heat and stir in Crystal Malt. Steep with lid on for 30 mins.
2. While 1. is underway, dissolve Dry Malt Extract and Maltodextrin in 2 litres of cold water in a large pot (5 litres or larger).
3. Sieve liquid from steeped Crystal Malt into large pot containing DME and Malto. Bring to a boil then add Centennial hops and boil for further 30 mins. Then stir in Dextrose
4. Then sieve everything into fermenting barrel/pail. Top up to 5 litres with cold water.
5. Let temperature fall below 26C / 78F and then you can stir in the yeast.
6. Add Galaxy hops in muslim bag and seal lid and add airlock.
7. Ferment for a week at 20-22C (68-72F) and then bottle for 2 weeks before tasting.