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How to make beer with EZ Caps
#1
Making beer with EZ Caps is easy, fun, and tasty. The advantages of nano-brewing with EZ Caps are that many brewing steps are eliminated. Making beer with EZ Caps is similar to making beer with "Mr Beer" or "The Beer Machine" but since you don't have to buy those creations you save a lot of money.

The following recipe is for 1 gallon of beer. It requires two 2-liter plastic pop bottles, a funnel, two EZ Caps, and ingredients.

Step 1: Select your beer. To make beer with EZ Caps you will need hopped liquid malt extract. It comes in a can that usually makes 5 gallons of beer, although more recently smaller cans that make only 1 gallon have become available. You can get it at any home brew or wine making store, many department stores, or through thousands of online dealers including amazon.com and ebay. The canned malt extract will clearly show what kind of beer it makes. They almost always come with yeast that is particularly selected for that type of beer. Note: Ezcaps yeast CAN be used to make beer, although using the yeast that comes with the beer will result in a more customized flavor.

Step 2: Put 3.5 liters of water into a pot and add 1/4 a can of malt extract. Unless you bought the can that only makes one gallon, then add the entire can. Bring to a gentle boil and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes. Let it cool to room temperature, add yeast, and stir. Using a funnel, carefully pour the contents into the two 2-liter bottles and screw on an EZ Cap. It helps to use a pitcher to transfer from the pot to the 2-liter bottles.

Step 3: Ferment for two weeks.

Step 4: Refrigerate for two days.

[edited] You can also make excellent beer using dried malt extract (DME) Use 2 cups of DME per 1/2 gallon (2 liter) bottle. If you can't find hopped DME, you will need to add hops to your boil. Or get an EZ Caps beer kit which includes everthing you need.

The beer is now ready to drink. Remove the EZ cap and pour into a glass, being careful not to disturb the sediment on the bottom.

Note: Some may ask, if the can is supposed to make 5 gallons, why do we add 1/4 of the can for one gallon? Trust me, it works better using 1/4 a can as opposed to 1/5 a can.
I prefer a stronger tasting beer and sometimes double the amount of canned malt extract, using 1/2 a can per gallon. I usually taste the beer after two weeks and if it's too sweet, ferment longer. You can also try 1/3 a can. It all depends on what your preference is. Homebrewing is all about experimentation.

If you are going to drink the entire two liter bottle of beer in one sitting (like if you have friends over and they are impressed with your brew) pour the entire bottle of beer into a pitcher and stop before the sediment gets distrubed. If you try to pour several glasses separately at a time the sediment will get distrubed from all the sloshing around.
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#2
What about pour the beer through a cheesecloth or similar? that will stop any sediment.
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#3
dopplebock Wrote:What about pour the beer through a cheesecloth or similar? that will stop any sediment.

Has anybody tried this before?
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#4
i've used cheesecloth with a real beer, a belgian ale that has a bit much yeast for me. worked very well. even something like window screen material does a nice job with the gunky yeast, but not so much with fine particles.
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#5
dopplebock Wrote:i've used cheesecloth with a real beer, a belgian ale that has a bit much yeast for me. worked very well. even something like window screen material does a nice job with the gunky yeast, but not so much with fine particles.

I was trying to think of something that most people have "on hand"... has anyone ever tried a coffee filter?
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#6
i'm going to try the coffee filter with the wine.
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#7
Quick question...the procedure you outlined above does not include the addition of any sugar to the malt prior to fermentation. The instructions included with the canned malt (dark stout) I purchased calls for 2.2 lbs sugar to be mixed with the malt to make 23 litres of finished product. Do I need the sugar or not? And if "No", what would be the reason, since brewing of cider requires additional sugar to be added to an already sweet fruit juice.

Thanks...and great product!
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#8
bingalls Wrote:Quick question...the procedure you outlined above does not include the addition of any sugar to the malt prior to fermentation. The instructions included with the canned malt (dark stout) I purchased calls for 2.2 lbs sugar to be mixed with the malt to make 23 litres of finished product. Do I need the sugar or not? And if "No", what would be the reason, since brewing of cider requires additional sugar to be added to an already sweet fruit juice.

Thanks...and great product!

The "missing" sugar is actually in the malted syrup. For example, the EZ Caps recipe uses 5 gallons worth of the malted syrup but only makes 4 gallons. As the term syrup would suggest, the primary ingredient in the malted syrup is malted grain sugar, however using malted syrup instead of table sugar actually makes a better tasting beer than using table sugar.

Since the can you are using calls for adding 2.2 pounds of sugar per 5 gallons, which is on the high end of what these types of things call for, you may want to add 1/2 cup of sugar to each 2 liter bottle to boost the alcohol content. Personally, I would never add table sugar to beer (I would add dried malt extract (DME) instead) because it detracts from the flavor, but that is a personal opinion.
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#9
Everytime I brew a large batch of beer with my homebrew equipment, I have some extract left over and/or some leftover wort.

I always mix these up and do a small EZ-cap batch--sometimes as litle as 1 Liter.

I've had great results!

Only problem with the straining as described above is that it highly oxygenates the beer, which can produce off-flavors.

The sediment is good for you and your beer!
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#10
I tried a coffee filter one time on a 1 gallon batch of wine I made and it didn't work so well. It will quickly clog and after messing with it for 30 minutes, you will get sick of the idea. I haven't come up with a cheap way to filter wine that actually works. The best thing I know to do is to be careful not to disturb the sediment by siphoning the wine out of the bottle instead of pouring it out.
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