CLEANLINESS AND TEMPERATURE are brewing's most important elements.

Cleanliness: Bacteria and wild yeast are everywhere. They seek to infect your beer and destroy its flavour. Adhere to cleaning and sterilisation procedures and your reward will be wholesome, great-tasting beer.

Temperature: Brewing yeast is temperature-sensitive, so aim for 19-26°C before pitching (adding) the yeast and hold this range over the entire fermentation.

Temperature control: You require 2 litres of boiling water and 20 litres of cool water to achieve 19-26°C. Adjust these proportions according to your room temperature. In extreme temperatures external cooling or heating may be required.

Reduced alcohol *: To lower the alcohol content, reduce the amount of sugar added. For example, modify from about 5% to about 4% by adding 500 grams of sugar instead of 1 kg.

Flavour adjustment *: For extra flavour, replace some of the sugar with unhopped malt extract or use some Cascade Premium Home Brew Extract from another can (use 1.2 times the weight of sugar replaced) and/or reduce the amount of water added (but watch the temperature). Alternatively, replace the table sugar with glucose or a maltodextrin mixture from a home brew shop.

Maturation: For a smoother, matured flavour store the bottled beer in a cool room for several weeks. Experiment with the time to suit your palate. Taste test after 2 weeks. If there are (not uncommon) sulphury odours leave the batch for 1 or 2 weeks longer.

* These changes may effect the final gravity at which bottling should commence (see Step 4 in The Brewer's Guide).