First brew

[Thisfool]

hi

i joined bout a month ago with talks of wanting to brew well i finally pulled the trigger and got my kit from Williams brewing

here is some pic of brew day

Williams brewing siphonless basic brewing kit,
decided to go with a honey wheat


wheat malt extract


starting the boil


added hops and honey


water bath to cool it down


in the fermenter


although i got a couple questions about what might already be to late to do anything about

1) the instructions where kinda confusing but what i thought it wanted me to do was boil the extract for 60min then add hops honey and aromatic hops and boil for another 60min. does that sound right?

2) the instructions that came in the ingredient kit said to activate liquid yeast 2-3 day prior to using it in order to let the package swell, how ever the instructions on the back of the yeast package said to only allow it to swell for 3 hours. so i only gave it three hours did i mess up?

[spiderwrangler]

1) Once you bring it to a boil, you would add your 60 minute (bittering hops), then your aromatic hops would get added right before you turn off the heat. IF you continue to boil your aroma hops, you will end up not getting any aroma from them.

2) You're probably fine.

[skibikejunkie]

Since you're fermenting in buckets, your best indicator of whether things worked or not is going to be bubbling in the airlock. If you have that, you have beer*.

*yeah, yeah, caveats about airlock bubbling not being a perfect indicator aside, it's probably the best indicator in this instance.

[spiderwrangler]

Make sure your lid is secure, or the CO2 will escape there rather than through the airlock.

[TheDarkSide]

Good luck with your first brew. I will guarantee you it is the best beer you've ever made

Feel free to ask tons of questions for before doing your next beer. The Army will provide!!

[Thisfool]

1) Once you bring it to a boil, you would add your 60 minute (bittering hops), then your aromatic hops would get added right before you turn off the heat. IF you continue to boil your aroma hops, you will end up not getting any aroma from them.

2) You're probably fine.

yea here what it says exactly

2) prepare the wort boil 3 or 4 gallons of water and cut open the malt pouch. squeeze the malt syrup into the water and stir until all the malt traces are dissolved from your spoon. turn off the heat when the malt is stirred in, to prevent the malt syrup from scorching on the pot bottom

3) boil for 1 hour. watch for boil overs which are very likely when the pot first comes to a boil after adding the malt. boil overs can be stopped by turning off the heat and stirring. Add the KCS175 (flavoring hops) after 5 minutes of boiling and both the honey pouch and CKH075 (aromatic hops) after 58 minutes, 2 minutes before the end of the boil stir to dissolve all honey traces before turning off heat

4) after the 1 hour boil let the hot wort cool in the covered pot until it drops below 85 F. cooling generally takes 5 to 12 hours, and can be reduced to one hour or less (recommended) by placing the covered boiling pot in a water bath.

that make about the 100000000 time i read that and im still not sure what it wants me to do exactly am i just a tard or is that worded very confusing.

[Thisfool]

Good luck with your first brew. I will guarantee you it is the best beer you've ever made

Feel free to ask tons of questions for before doing your next beer. The Army will provide!!

thanks i will defiantly do that. im actually shopping around to find the next beer i want to make as soon as my beer goes into the bottles

[spiderwrangler]

prepare the wort boil 3 or 4 gallons of water and cut open the malt pouch. squeeze the malt syrup into the water and stir until all the malt traces are dissolved from your spoon. turn off the heat when the malt is stirred in, to prevent the malt syrup from scorching on the pot bottom

They are basically saying to get your water up to a boil, turn of the heat to prevent scorching and stir in your malt until it is fully dissolved.

3) boil for 1 hour. watch for boil overs which are very likely when the pot first comes to a boil after adding the malt. boil overs can be stopped by turning off the heat and stirring.

This should be fairly understandable so far.

Add the KCS175 (flavoring hops) after 5 minutes of boiling

I hate when brewing recipes time things like this, even if it is more understandable to 'new' brewers... Essentially this is a 55 min hop addition that they are calling a flavoring addition. My guess would be that they are telling you to wait 5 min from the start of the boil to allow for hot break to occur. Personally, I wait for that, then start timing my 60 min boil from when I add my bittering hops.

and both the honey pouch and CKH075 (aromatic hops) after 58 minutes, 2 minutes before the end of the boil stir to dissolve all honey traces before turning off heat

Your aroma hops are a 2 min addition, right before you turn off the heat, and you're adding your honey then too to preserve the honey aromatics as much as possible, making sure it's fully dissolved.