210 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
210 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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Beginners' Getting Started Guide
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I hope that the following guide can help some beginners with their
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first batches. I obviously can't cover every little detail of homebrewing
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here, but I have tried to give an easily followed outline of the process,
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along with most of the common pitfalls faced by beginners. I would
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welcome any comments or criticism on this section, as it will probably
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appear again, in hopefully better form.
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[1] The first thing I recommend to the new brewer is to find a source
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of brewing supplies. It may be a local brew shop or a mail order
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store. Check out books on homebrew either at a library or bookstore.
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The book I recommend getting is Charlie Papazian's "Complete Joy of
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Homebrewing." This is easily one of the best homebrewing books around,
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and it is very useful for both beginners and experienced brewers.
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There are lots of other good books around, so don't worry if you can't
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find this one. One caveat: stay away from books published in the UK,
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as these can be confusing and/or misleading for the beginner. They
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specify ingredients that aren't found in the US, and generally give
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poor advice, like adding lots of sugar.
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[2] The next thing to do is buy a kit. Most brew stores sell kits
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that contain everything you need to make your first batch, except for
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bottles. They'll cost anywhere from $35-$60 depending on how fancy
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they are. I'd recommend getting a kit that includes a 5 gallon glass
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carboy as well as a plastic pail. Other useful items that the kit
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might not include are thermometer and hydrometer. The kit should
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include: 10 gallon plastic pail, siphon equipment, bottle filler,
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bottle brush, bottle caps, bottle capper, fermentation lock, chlorine
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cleaner, and perhaps ingredients. If the kit includes a carboy, it
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should also include a short length of plastic hose for the "blow-by,"
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and a funnel. There might be some other odd items, such as a stirring
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spoon. The major difference between one kit and another will be the
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presence of a glass carboy, so in this article I will indicate when a
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difference in technique is called for. If the kit does not include
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ingredients, there are usually several kinds of malt extract to choose
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from. Try to pick something not too heavy for the first time; a light
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or amber ale is a very good choice. Also try to get a hopped malt
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extract the first time to keep it simple. If none is available, then
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get 2 ounces of fresh hops if available. Failing that, get 2 ounces
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of hop pellets.
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[3] Relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew. Now you are about ready
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to start brewing. If possible, it is extraordinarily helpful at this
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point to find somebody who's done it before, and have them help you.
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Doing this will greatly improve your chances of success the first
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time, but don't worry if you can't swing it, your chances are still
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pretty good. Remember to tell yourself, "Relax, don't worry, and have
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a homebrew." The first time, ordinary beer will have to do, but do try
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to drink homebrew whenever you brew - it will help you to not worry.
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(Worrying can ruin the taste of your homebrew.)
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[4] To begin, you'll need a large pot to boil the malt extract in.
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The pot should be large enough to hold at least 2 gallons of water -
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the bigger the better. Fill the pot up about half way (whatever that
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happens to be) with water and boil it. The idea is to boil as much
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water as possible, but to have room in the pot for foam that will be
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produced by boiling. While the water is heating up, remove the label
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from the can(s) of malt extract, and put the can(s) in some hot water
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to soften the extract. When the water boils, put in the extract and
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let it boil again, stirring frequently so the extract doesn't burn.
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When it comes to a second boil, watch out - it has a strong tendency
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to foam up and make a legendary mess on your stove. When the foam
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rises, remove the pot from the fire and let it settle down a minute.
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When you put it back, it will have (slightly) less tendency to boil
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over, but it needs watching.
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[5] If you have hops or hop pellets, add them now, and boil the wort
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(wort == unfermented beer) for at least a half hour (an hour is
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better.) If you're not using hops, but instead, hopped malt extract,
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then it is not necessary to boil very long - 15 minutes is sufficient.
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[6] While the wort is boiling, you should sanitize everything that
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will come in contact with the beer. This includes the fermentation
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container, fermentation lock if any, utensils, everything. Sanitizing
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is done by soaking in a solution of water and the sanitizing chemical
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that came with your kit. A few teaspoons of household bleach in a
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gallon of water is quite effective also. I generally fill a large
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bowl with bleach solution and throw in everything to be sanitized.
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After sanitizing, rinse well with clean water at least 3 times.
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Notice I keep saying "sanitize" and not "sterilize." Well, it would be
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nice if you could sterilize, but you can't. Sterilization is very
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difficult, i.e., boiling under pressure for an hour, so sanitizing is
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the best we can do. Needless to say, be careful not to breath the
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fumes or get any sanitizing solution in your eyes. Sanitizing might
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sound like a pain, but that's only because it is. However, it's
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absolutely the most important thing you can do to make your beer a
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success. You can screw up a dozen other things, but if you keep
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everything clean, you'll still liable to brew a good beer. But if
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you're not sanitary, the finest ingredients and techniques won't help
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- you'll brew quite undrinkable beer.
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[7] Now put about 2 gallons of cold water into your fermenter, and add
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the boiled wort. A funnel is handy at this point if you are using a
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carboy. If your boiling pot is very large, use less than 2
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gallons-remember, we're eventually making 5 gallons. (Do not pour the
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hot wort directly into a carboy with no water in it - you are likely
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to crack the glass!) If you added hops, you'll want to use a strainer
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to remove them, but don't worry if you don't get them all. Now fill
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your fermenter up to 5 gallons with cold water. If you're using the
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plastic pail, it helps if you've previously marked where 5 gallons
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occurs - a magic marker works well. If you're using a carboy, fill it
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up to several inches from the top. Depending on how much water you
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boiled, the temperature of the wort might be too high to add the
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yeast. If so, let it cool until it is below 90 degrees F.
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[8] Now the packet of yeast may be added to the wort. If you like,
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you can "start" the yeast. I usually do this to give it a "running
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start" and also simply to be sure that the yeast is good. To start
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the yeast, sanitize a bottle, and mix 2 teaspoons of corn sugar with a
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half cup of 80 degree water, and add the yeast. Stick a fermentation
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lock on top and let it sit while the wort cools. By the time the wort
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is cooled, the yeast starter should be busy fermenting, and you should
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see bubbles percolating through the fermentation lock. Now just dump
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the yeast mixture into the wort. If you're using a carboy, be careful
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when filling it with water to leave room in it for the yeast mixture.
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[9] After the yeast is added, put the lid on the plastic fermenter and
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attach the fermentation lock. Don't forget to put some water in the
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lock. If you're using a carboy, force the short piece of plastic
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tubing through the stopper a little bit, and put it on the carboy.
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Place the other end of the tube in a bucket of water. This type of
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fermentation lock is known as a "blow-by," and is necessary because
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the fermentation will produce lots of foam and sludge, and it has no
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place to go except out. If you used an ordinary lock, it would
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quickly fill up with garbage. In a plastic pail, there is plenty of
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space for the foam to grow.
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[10] Now put the whole thing into a cool, dark, place to let it
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ferment. Dark is important because sunlight can damage the beer.
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Cool is important because beer-fouling organisms don't thrive as well
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at lower temperatures. Room temperature is usually fine - about 70
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degrees F. If you can get it to 65 or 60, that would be better.
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Don't make it colder than 60, however, because then the yeast won't
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work very well. (Most beginners will be using top fermenting yeast,
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which works best at 60 degrees and above. Bottom fermenting yeast
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works fine all the way down to freezing.) If you can't get the
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temperature below 80, then you should look for a better place to keep
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your beer. If you are using the carboy method, check the bucket daily
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for overflow. Signs of fermentation should appear within a couple of
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hours, and by the next morning, it should be fermenting madly.
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[11] After a few days, it will start to slow down, and will finish
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sometime between 4 and 10 days after you began. If you are using the
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carboy and blow-by, replace the blow-by with a fermentation lock when
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it stops blowing out garbage and starts blowing only bubbles. How
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will you know when it's done fermenting? If you like, you can take
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hydrometer readings, and wait until it stabilizes (same reading on 3
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consecutive days.) However, I've found it works just as well to
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observe the frequency of the bubbles in the airlock. When you watch
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it, but don't see any bubbles for a few minutes, it's quite ready to
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be bottled. When it finishes fermenting, you don't have to bottle it
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immediately, but it's best to bottle it within 3-4 weeks of beginning.
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[12] The first step in bottling is to acquire bottles. Go to a liquor
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store or bar and pay $2.50 for 2 cases of empty deposit bottles. Do
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not use the throwaway kind with the screw-off tops, as these are not
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strong enough. Chances are the bottles will be pretty scummy, so pour
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an inch or two of strong bleach solution into each, and let them sit
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for an hour. Then rinse them well, using your bottle brush if
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necessary, and your bottle washer if you have one (see issue #1.)
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[13] If you fermented your beer in a carboy, siphon(*) the beer into
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the sanitized plastic pail, and add a boiled solution of 3/4 cup corn
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sugar and water. If you used the pail to ferment, then you must
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"prime" the bottles with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar each. This added
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sugar is what produces the carbonation in the bottles. Do not use
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more than 1 cup per 5 gallons or 1 teaspoon per bottle, or you risk
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the danger (and social embarrassment) of exploding bottles.
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[14] Now fill the bottles with the siphon and bottle filler, and cap
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them. Store at room temperature for at least a week, then try to move
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the beer someplace a little cooler. (I keep mine underneath a window.)
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The beer should be drinkable 3 weeks after bottling, depending on
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ingredients. You might want to try a bottle every week after bottling
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just to taste the changes that occur.
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* siphoning: don't suck on the tube to start it, that will introduce lots
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of bacteria into the beer. A good trick is to fill the siphon with
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water to start it. Remember that the level of liquid in the source
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container must be higher off the ground than the top of the destination
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container in order for the siphon to work.
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Now don't rush to brew the second batch quite yet. Why not wait a few
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weeks and see how the first turned out? That way, if you really did
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something wrong, you have a chance to find out what, and avoid the problem
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in the second batch. Good luck!
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Rob Gardner
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Somewhere in HP
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