Today was the big day. Of course, I still have no idea if this beer will come out okay or be drinkable or if the yeast will activate and start chomping through all of the delicious sugars BUT I did it. I boiled water, mixed in some stuff and made my first homebrew. I have a lot of questions for people that I’ll ask separately but I wanted to let pictures tell the story.
That was a LOT of fun! I got to spend my Saturday outside drinking beers and brewing some beer. Tons of fun. I’m going to brew the Double IPA tomorrow! So stoked. Thanks everyone online for the help and feedback.
Nice pics, looks like you’re starting your new obsession with a “full wort” boil, is that right? Meaning you didn’t have to add in more water once the 60 minute boil was done.
For this one, I did a partial boil. 2.5 gallons on the first batch and on the second, I did yesterday (a Double IPA) it was a 1.5 gallon boil. A bit small considering how big of a kettle I got. Brewing was hard work and lots of fun!
Any particular reason why you did such a small boil? It seems like you’ve got the set up to do a full (or at least very close to full) boil.
Hi Fid. You’re right. My first two home brews were from kits who both specified different methods.
The first (via Brewer’s Best) said to do a 2.5 gallon boil – PDF Instructions http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1030_Weizenbier.pdf
The second ( via True Brew) said to do a 1.5 gallon boil – HTML Instructions http://www.brewhorizons.net/true_brew_double_ipa.htm.
Not sure why each specified that but I figured it would be best to follow instructions and see how they came out. I’d much prefer to do a full boil.
Ignore those instructions, those are for stovetop. With such a small volume you’re really carmaelizing the sugars again (already done once to extract the wort and consentrate it down to the LME form). It’s VERY VERY difficult to make a good IPA (forget a DIPA) from an extract kit.
Purchase No Foam to control boil overs and cram as much water into your pot as possible, leaving a 1 gallon headspace for boil overs ( you will still want Foam Control, see morebeer.com).
Also, add a touch of LME to the wort and bring to a boil, add hops. Follow hopping schedule. At 15m left, pull the pot from flame, add all your LME/DME, stir to dissolve, return to burner, bring back to a boil and finish your 15m. This is called late extract additions and will reduce the time for the extract to caramelize more. You need a 60m boil to isomerize the hops, it has nothing to do with extract. In All Grain brewing, you need to boil the sugar for 60m to blow off DMS.
To lighten the body of your IPA/DIPA, also add 1/2lbs (IPA) 1lbs(DIPA) to the boil as this will thin the body.
And finally: fermentation temp. This is as big an issue as anything else, hot yeast = hot beer. Put the carboy ina bucket, fill with water to roughly 1/2 up the wort and put a thin t-shirt over the carboy so it’ll wick and evaporate water, keeping the yeast cool.
Hi. Wow.Thanks for the tips! Crap, so I feel like I did everything wrong. I have a lot to learn. I do have a very big kettle so I guess doing a bigger boil won’t be any harder other than boil over. I’ll invest in some no foam…I kind of want to do the kit again (or at least buy all of those ingredients separately) and re-do so I can follow your tips. Thanks!
You can make good extract beer BUT it depends on the style. Any beer require a low malt profile (sasions/APA/gose etc…) you’ll have an incredible tough time, which is why extract is a stepping stone to all grain.
I make 6 gallon batches and have a mega pot 15 gal kettle. Sounds overkill, but until you do a hard roiling boil w/ no boil over…it just makes sense. Slowly build your equipment, reuse your existing equipment. When you go AG you’ll need 2 pots and your exisiting one will work great as a HLT.
Brewing is as much art as science. Art for the recpie, science for the technique/fermentation. If you want to be an excellent brewer you will need 2 stage fermentation controll. You won’t need a $2k sculpture, but you will need some other basics.
@91b16c4c8e4f5446f3b9a6da5e949683:disqus
Brewing is also learning. You haven’t screwed anything up (but you will have to drink your beer), you’ve just learned what not to do.
Read a ton (of respected books) and brew a ton. nothing beats practice. FYI, my IPA’s (5gal) use about 18oz of hops…if you like the west coast style.
DME is also better than LME, still use late extract method. And sub out 1lb DME of 1lb dextrose to dry th ebeer out. Plus, boil as much ‘water/wort’ as you can, larger volume is always key, which is why certain styles always seem to be better commercially made, unless you have an expert homebrewer.
It’s a skill and a path. You’ll make a lot of average beer, focus on 3 to 4 styles and just rebrew them constantly.
PS: never trust a homebrew’s advice until you’ve had their beer. Lots of idiots out there, form your own brewing circle, bring beers to the pro’s, ask for advice but make sure you bring along recpie and fermentation technique/stats.
Great tips. Of courseI wanna take your advice but gotta try your beer first! :)
Those are all great things though. Gonna read this a few times as there’s a ton of info in your reply.
Let me interupt here for a sec. You CAN make good beers from extract. Extracts have come a LONG way from what they were years ago. I have made a few DIPA’s from extract with steeping grains that have been compared to some high quality beers such as Green Flash West Coast IPA. I have had people with some expensive palates say HOLY CRAP .. great body, aroma, mouthfeel and taste from this beer.
There are many good points that Random has mentioned but do not for one second believe you can not make a good beer from extract. The main thing to remember in homebrewing is to have fun and if YOU enjoy the beer you made then it all worked out. I have made beers,* from extract*, that I loved and others thought it was too much hops. Others I have made were not my taste but my friends drank it like it was the only liquid around and they were in the desert. Then I have made some that everyone went nuts over.
As stated full boils are the way to go but most kits are set up to do half boils aka 2.5 gals. Also with the beer you have pictured if I remember it said to add the first 3.3lbs of LME at the beginning and then the other 3.3lbs in the last 10-15 minutes of the boil. With most extract brews if you want a lighter color beer add the LME towards the end. You will need some at the beginning of the boil to aid in hop utilization so make sure you add some before adding any hops.
Most of these instructions are pretty basic so feel free to mix them up a little. I have changed the hop schedules some. Whether it be boiling longer, throwing in more hops inbetween the instructions scheduled hops, or just changing the times of the additions.
In the beginning follow the instructions to get an idea of what is going on. It is best to follow it to a T the first time and then the next time you get the same kit try something different. Maybe add some fruit to the wheat beer in the secondary, or of course dryhopping.
Here is what I would recommend for you.
FIRST and foremost … HAVE FUN
Second and probably equally as important as the first… make sure you sanitize EVERYTHING that will be touching the wort/beer after the boil. The last thing you want is to realize you have infected beer after you have spent all this time waiting for it to ferment just because you did not sanitize your bottles, buckets or any other piece of equipment.
And remember this saying … Relax, Dont Worry, Have a Homebrew ;-) … Patience will help you make good beer.
Don’t forget to cover that carboy! I usually use a t-shirt over it if I use a clear carboy (I use better bottles sometimes). I often do plastic buckets too which don’t need it…
I’m using an old towel but it is in a closet that’s pitch black all hours of the day except for when I go in to take a peek on how things are going!
Looks good, Im on my first brew with that same kit.Question, mine in a carboy looks very clean but it has a reddish color, did you get a yellow wheat as a final product?
Hi. It was sort of a dark brown at the finish. Extract beers tend to be a little darker than all grain because the extracts are already boiled once so they tend to leave darker results. Still looked like a wheat beer though at the finish.