My First Brew

[beerdrinker]

ok... the largest pot I have right now can hold only 4-5 liters of water... so this might be a problem...

[boise_brewer]

You are definitely going to need a bigger pot. Due to the cost I would go ahead and purchase one that is at least 7 gallons. If you buy a smaller one you will regret it later when you want to do full wort boils ie. boiling the entire volume of beer and not adding any water. Of course if you do this you will also need a wort chiller of some sort, without which it will take you forever to get the wort down to pitching temps.

If this seems like too much to buy all at once you can buy a 4 gallon or so pot and do partial wort boils. I did this for more than a year, and just cooled it by setting it in a ice water bath. This will save you some money now, but like I said, in a year or so you will be wishing for that bigger kettle.

I would like to thank you though for bringing back memories of my early brewing days when every source of info was telling me 10 different ways to do everything. Even the "experts" disagree on a lot of the different aspects of beer making. I think that is why a lot of us love this hobby. You go out and find what seems to make sense, try it, and if you like it you keep doing it. If not, you try someone else's method. The best part is most of your "mistakes," as long as you don't have an infection problem, are going to taste pretty damn good.

[beerdrinker]

ok... now the time to pick between suppliers...

http://www.canadianhomebrewing.ca/shop/ ... cts_id=392

or

http://www.paddockwood.com/product_info ... cts_id=557

They're both 1 kg... but the first one s cheaper.

Any suggestion on which to go for? Also ideas on possible hop's to add to the mixture?

Thanks again.

[macgruffus]

ok... now the time to pick between suppliers...

The second is "name brand" (Munton's) while you can't be sure of the source for the first. Might be worth a phone call. I've used generic and never had a problem. Once you get to a point in your brewing when you want to be very specific about the flavors you can worry more about the source's country of origin (and therefore specific flavor profiles).

Also ideas on possible hop's to add to the mixture?

So many hops...so little time. This really depends on what kind of flavors you'd like and whether we're talking bittering, flavor or aroma hops.

Here's a nice chart showing flavor profiles for most of the common hops. http://www.byo.com/referenceguide/hops/

What style of beer are you trying to brew? Is there a commercial brew that you'd like to try and approximate?

I'm helping someone brew form a kit today as a matter of fact. It's his second kit and we sat down with the kits and "adjusted" some of the ingredients. It's an American Pale Ale kit but I bumped up the extact with an additional pound of dry malt extract I had around, I pushed the late hop addition from the kit back to more of a flavor hop (from 5 minute boil to 20) and then added a couple extra ounces of Willamette hops at 5 minutes for aroma.

If you are planning on staying with kits for a while you might consider getting them from a place like B3 ( http://morebeer.com/browse.html?category_id=1035 ). You know the ingredients will be fresh and they can work with you to tweak them to your taste.

David

[beerdrinker]

ok, I'll be making a light beer, using the hopped malt extract, with light DME.

I wont be boiling the wort this time, cause I haven't gotten a pot big enough to boil wort in yet...

so the hop will be for aroma only, but I'm still interested in adding it for the experience.

Any suggestions for an aromatic hop for a light beer?

Thanks.

[macgruffus]

ok, I'll be making a light beer, using the hopped malt extract, with light DME.

Let me see if I understand the ingredients you are using ...

At least one can of hopped liquid malt extract (LME) and then some additional dry malt extract (DME)? Why the DME? Just bumping up the gravity?

I wont be boiling the wort this time, cause I haven't gotten a pot big enough to boil wort in yet...

There has been lots of discussion about "no boil" recipes but I'm in the camp that you should do at least a "partial wort boil" but with late addition of extract. Since you are using all extract you don't have to do a full hour boil but you'll make better beer if you do. If you are using some DME then I would make a concentrated wort with that. Bring as much water to a boil as you can, take it off the heat, stir in the DME making sure it all dissolved, put it back on the heat, bring back to a boil, watch for boilovers (have a bowl of ice neaby and throw in a couple cubes if it starts to look like it'll boil over) and boil this for at least 15 minutes. Now take the pot off the heat and throw in your aroma hops (using a fine mesh bag to hold the hops will keep the amount of stuff you'll need to filter out later to a minimum). Lastly, stir in the LME. This will keep the LME from carmelizing. When I'm using LME, I still boil it for at least ten minutes just to be safe but then I also do close to a full wort boil.

While you let the hops steep and the wort chill slightly, put the rest of your water in your fermenter (since you aren't boiling all the water, I'd strongly suggest using water you've already pre-boiled and cooled or sealed jugs of spring water) and pour your wort through a funnel with a sceen to catch any hop parts and trub (coagulated proteins from the extracts). Now you should be at your right concentration of extract to water. Once the whole thing has cooled, pitch your yeast and seal.

so the hop will be for aroma only, but I'm still interested in adding it for the experience.

Any suggestions for an aromatic hop for a light beer?

This all depends on what aromas you like ... personally, I am very fond of Amarilla right now for aroma but Cascade or Centennial will give you those citrusy aromas found in the hoppier West Coast beers or you could go with Saaz or Hallertauer for a more German pilsner nose. Read through this article ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops ... and find a hop that sounds interesting. Get an ounce of it and use it to dry hop.

Above all ... read through Jim Palmer's excellent reference on doing an extract beer ( http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/index.html ). He says it all much better than can I.

David

[beerdrinker]

ok... my specific gravity seems stuck at 1.012-1.014 the directions say that this should have been 1.008. Is something wrong?

[Push Eject]

1.012 is still very drinkable.

Your yeast pooped out for one reason or another. Don't sweat it. If you were over 1.016 I'd say wait another week and warm it up to 72+ to make sure you don't have bottle bombs.

In fact, why don't you do that anyway and check the gravity in 3 or 4 days.

If it hasn't moved, bottle.

Push Eject