A fermenter/bucket with lots of headspace is best. The airlock is used to let CO2 out but no air in. The syphon tube is used for transferring beer
to bottles (or keg). Only use proper beer bottles, designed to handle the pressure (swing top bottles, crown cap bottles or PET beer bottles). Kegs come in many types, the best have a float system inside so you can draw the beer sooner. The economy models have a bottom tap and no float system so you must wait for full clearing before drawing beer.

- Hydrometer (for checking fermentation progress)
- Thermometer
- Heat tray or brew belt (if your room is too cold)
- Beer paddle (for stirring)
- A bag Carbonation Drops

We are pleased that you have chosen a Bulldog Brews Premium Beer Kit, the first true Brewery Quality kit available to the home brewer! Bulldog Brews are
made using exceptional amounts and quality of raw materials, combining traditional brewing values with modern techniques.

If you are happy to follow our standard recipe you don’t need to read this section - If you like to tweak things - keep reading.

This kit contains Finishing Hop Pellets. These are not intended to provide the main bitterness of your beer, we have already added hops to the malt extract for this purpose. Instead, the hop pellets are intended to add a finishing touch of extra fresh hop flavour and aroma. Our normal instruction tells you to add the hop pellets half way through fermentation (see instruction 7) but you can actually adjust the level of hop aroma by adding the pellets at fermentation start instead (less aroma) or just before bottling/kegging (more aroma). For Craft Beers, always add hops near bottling.

1) Clean all equipment with a good homebrew cleaner/steriliser.

2) Place the malt bag in hot water for 15 minutes to soften the liquid malt extract.

3) Empty the contents of the malt bag into your sterilised container. Rinse out any remaining extract from the bag with hot water and add to fermenter as well.

4) Add 3L of hot water to the container and stir the mix until all malt has dissolved well. Make sure not to exceed the temperature your fermenter can stand and be especially careful with glass vessels. Once your wort is well mixed, stir and splash the wort vigorously for 1-2 minutes. This is important. It oxygenates the wort which secures a rapid start of fermentation.

5) Top up your fermenter to 23L in total using a mix of hot and cold water so you achieve a final liquid temperature in the range 20°C - 25°C. Check with
a thermometer that your brew is max 25°C, then add the contents of the yeast sachet.

6) Fit a water filled airlock to your fermenter and leave it to ferment for 8-10 days at 18°C - 24°C ambient temperature. In cooler conditions, use a heat pad or brew belt. Place somewhere safe in case of leaks or frothing over. Bulldog Brews premium beer kits contain genuine slow fermenting varietal brewers beer yeast which does require 8-15 days to ferment out fully. To prevent contamination, open fermenter as little as possible during this period.

7) After 4 days of fermentation (note: For American Craft Beers, wait until 1-2 days before you bottle, see instruction 8) – open hop pellet sachet(-s) carefully and soak inner “teabag(-s)” in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes. Then add the mixture including “teabag” to the brew and mix. Leave in the brew during rest of fermentation. Adding the hop pellets late is important for the Craft Beers to achieve their powerful aroma.

8) After 8-10 days of fermentation, check if your hydrometer now shows a reading of 1008-1010 or below for lager types (1008-1014 for darker types
and high alcohol ones) before proceeding to bottling/kegging. If your reading is a little higher, then leave for a few more days, up to two full weeks of fermentation (not unusual for high gravity beers or the Craft beers). Check gravity every day and proceed when gravity does not drop any further for
two days.

Note: For Craft Beers, add the hop pellets (as per instruction 7) at this stage, ideally 1-2 days before you bottle your beer.

9) Syphon the beer into clean sterilised bottles, use bottles with “swing tops”, beer bottles with crown caps or PET beer bottles with screw caps.

10) Add 1 level teaspoon of sugar or 1 Bulldog Carbonation Drop per 330ml or 500ml bottle. Use 1 rounded teaspoon / 2 Bulldog Carbonation Drops to a 750ml bottle. Be careful not to add too much or your bottles could explode.

11) Seal the bottles and transfer to a warm place for at least one week for secondary fermentation.

12) After at least one week of secondary fermentation, move the bottles to a cool place until the beer is perfectly clear (about another week).

13) Syphon the beer into a clean and sterilised S30 equipped keg (pure S30 valve, or S30 pin valve for 8g bulbs).

14) Add 110g of sugar, seal thoroughly.

15) Leave in a warm place for at least a week for secondary fermentation to take place, then transfer to a cool place for clearing.

That’s it, you are done, enjoy your beer!

We said initially that the hop pellets are not there to add bitterness to the beer. We already hopped the malt extract to the right level when we manufactured the kit. However, there is of course no such thing as the “right” level. For more bitterness than our standard recipe, you can use the following method.

Take approximately 3 litres of the wort (before you add the yeast). Add this to a large saucepan with the “teabag” of hops and boil for 30 minutes. After cooling down, add the liquid (but not the hop bag) back to your brew. Only do this at the start, otherwise you will boil some yeast as well which may produce off flavours. This method adds some extra bitterness, but because you add the hops at the beginning of fermentation, you will get a slightly weaker hop aroma than if you just add the hop pellets half way through fermentation, or at the end. For this reason, it is not recommended for the American Craft Beers which need the extra aroma. It is of course possible to combine the two methods. If you buy a separate bag of hop pellets, you can use one bag for bitterness and the other for aroma.