In my case I was brewing a simple ale so I set my little oven timer to 60 minutes once I saw some constant bubbling has started.
At the same time - and arguably equally important - I start to make notes in my little brewing handbook (basically just an A4 bound book I keep in my brewer's chest) – I start writing out the base malts that I have used and in what quantities, the amount of water used for the mash, the amount of water I used to sparge, temperatures, any and everything...I even write notes on what I could adjust or possibly improve for the next session.
Basic recipes will tell you exactly how long you need to boil, what hops to add at what time interval which is usually expressed as boil time remaining (so generally if it says Cascade at 15min it means after 45min of boiling or when you have 15min left of a 60min boil). There is one specific line I remember from something I watched on beer brewing once: the earlier in the boil something is added, the more of the flavour it will affect, in contrast the later something is added the more it will contribute to the aroma. Not sure how accurate this is or if I remember it correctly, but I have applied this principle with most of my brews.
- anything that touches your wort from now on must must must be sterile or you risk infection spoiling your hard work.
- you need to cool that puppy down to a yeast-friendly temperature as soon as possible so you can get the yeast in there and feeding before anything else gets the chance to.
During this time you can rehydrate your dry yeast (if you like) by simply making a mix of two parts cold to one part warm water and then adding the yeast. Not sure if I do this correctly, but so far I have had it work for me and other times I just add the dry yeast straight into the wort – honestly I have been getting a better reaction/result out of just adding the dry yeast straight from the packet...
- my syphon tube
- mixing spoon
- scissors that will open yeast packet (some even say the yeast packet, but that might be bit much)
- airlock and bung
- funnel for pouring yeast into the mix (optional)
- poured some of the mix into my glass carboy (fermenting vessel) and swirled it around
As you might have noticed I have not taken any gravity readings with this brew as this is geared to very basic brewing with minimal equipment. If you are interested in working out alcohol content or accurately determining if the fermentation is complete, this would be the time to get some of that wort into a separate tube and drop in your hydrometer. Some recipes come with a target Original Gravity (OG) and Final Gravity (FG) so you can compare yours to see if you are on the right track. This is something I will delve into in a separate post with another batch probably. If you would like to do a preview taster of your beer, this would also be the place to do so to give you an idea of where it is going...