Amateur Needs Help ASAP!!!

THis is my first post and time on the site. I bought a kit a couple days ago and have been eager to get started. I activated my yeast and was gettign ready to start my first brew when i realized i didnt have my recipe. I have all the ingredients that i needed but dont know when yo put some of them. The directions i have called to add ingredients at the time on recipe but dont habve it. Im am trying to make an american amner ale and the ingredients i have are...

1 bag of grains....I know when to add that
1 can malt extract 3.3 lbs
1 lb light dried malt extract
Gypsum
1 lb corn sugar
Irish moss
2 seperate bags of hops.


Not sure when to add the other ingrediants after i start the wort. If someone can help i would be so thankful. Very new to this and the guy i bought the stuff from was no help and his website is offline. Need some assistance PLEASE. THank you

crheine said:

1 bag of grains....I know when to add that
1 can malt extract 3.3 lbs
1 lb light dried malt extract
Gypsum
1 lb corn sugar
Irish moss
2 seperate bags of hops.

Click to expand...

Grains: steep for 20-30 minutes at 150-170 F
Rinse grains, add LME, DME, and [11 oz corn sugar (?)]
Boil 60 minutes.

They Gypsum is to "burtonize" your water. Whether and how much you need depends on the chemistry of your water. Unless you know anything about that, I'd either omit it altogether or add 1 tsp to the water you steep the grains in.

Add 1 tsp Irish moss with about 15 minutes left in the boil.

Reserve 5 oz (about 3/4 cup) of the corn sugar for priming sugar at bottling time.

About the hops: One package is your bittering hops--they go in at the beginning of the boil and boil for 60 minutes.

The other could boil for 15-20 minutes (flavor hops) or for 5 or less minutes (aroma hops).

If you post exactly what the packages of hops say on them, we could probably figure it out.

The hops say something on the package but i cant read the guys handwriting so i am really lost here. If i knew what they were supposed to say i might have been able to figure it out. One bag is larger than the other and the smaller one may be labled 1 with TETT? Not sure. The other is either a 2 or a Z. Im guessing Z and looks like HALC or HACC? Maybe he abbreviated the proper names> Does that help at all?

Tettnang and Hallertau hops.

1oz Hallertau for bittering?
1oz Hallertau for flavor?
1oz Tettnang for aroma?


Assuming a 60min boil:
Split your Hallertau into two equal parts so you have 2 piles, 1oz each.

Add 1oz Hallertau at 50 (or 60) minutes remaining in your boil.
Add 1oz Hallertau at 15min remaining in your boil
Add 1oz Tettnang at flameout and steep them for 3-5min.

Could be that the flavor and aroma hops are actually reversed...either way should be fine?

That corn sugar...that's probably for priming at bottling time...3/4 cup of it.

I think your going to have a good beer!

i'm gonna guess that it's a 1 and a 2, not a Z...
the one labelled with a 1 is tettnang and it's your bittering hops. add them at the beginning of the boil.
the one with a 2 probably says HALL, not HALC or HACC....which makes is Hallertau... those are your flavoring hops. add them with 15 minutes left in the boil.
good luck.

EDIT: hmm...i guess 1 and 2 could be the amounts, in ozs, in each bag...

THanks that makes alot more sense now. Getting worried my first brew will be my worst> So i have filtered water and the gypsum is for the water. Is it really not necessary to use it ?

Depends on the filter. Is it store-bought drinking water? If so add the gypsum.

Its water i have a household filter. Filters the water to zero TDS(Total dissolved Solids" Have a meter and i check it. Still WOndering about the sugar as well. With one lb reseserve 3/4 cup and use the rest in the beginning?

I just don't know about adding corn sugar to your wort. The entire 1# will raise your final ABV by ehh...1% or so??

I don't think I've seen a recipe that called for corn sugar for anything other than priming...but I'm sure there are.

so could i have a lb for use for later possibly. Not sure , the guy at my local shop was not very friendly and website is down, and closed on sunday so i really dont know what else to do. If you think that just using it for the priming is ok than ill go ahead. Im assuming you guys have made plenty. Its an american amber ale. So if it makes sense to only use at end ill go for it.

My local guy doesn't sell priming sugar in 3/4-cup bags. He sells it by the pound. It's for priming just prior to bottling.

Go ahead, brew. Have some beers while you do so and enjoy the process!

What kind of yeast are you using?

crheine said:

so could i have a lb for use for later possibly. Not sure , the guy at my local shop was not very friendly and website is down, and closed on sunday so i really dont know what else to do. If you think that just using it for the priming is ok than ill go ahead. Im assuming you guys have made plenty. Its an american amber ale. So if it makes sense to only use at end ill go for it.

Click to expand...

Who's Your LHBS?

To clarify your question about the gypsum.. it's a brewing salt which is basically one of several minerals people use to 'harden' their water. This gets into water chemistry and even ph which is really not something you need to worry about at this point.

But.. if you're interested then read on:
Hardness refers to the mineral content of your water. Obviously different places have different types of water. For reasons I won't go into here, different types of water tend to work well with different types of beer (because of the grains invovled) so there are some historic places that are famous for a certain type of beer that turned out especially good when they brewed it because they had the perfect water for it. Pilsen has very soft water which works well for the lighter colored beers (i.e. a pilsner). Burton on Trent (Ireland) has hard water which works well for dark beers (think Guiness Stout).

Problem is, since you're just steeping the grains I don't think the water chemistry and ph is going to have much if any effect on the final product other than possibly making the hop flavor more 'crisp'. cweston is right.. add a tsp or omit it all together.. it won't really matter. I probably wouldn't add it if I had especially hard water (i.e. rust stains in the tub type water).


As for the corn sugar it is a sugar that totally ferments.. unfermented sugar gives the beer a bit of a residual sweetness (a 'malty' flavor) and body/mouthfeel. I really like this quality in my beers.. thick and malty. Of course certain beers just aren't supposed to be like that (i.e. an American style lager like budweiser). As an extract brewer one easy way you can affect the mouthfeel (thickness) of the beer is by adding corn sugar which will all ferment into alcohol which will in turn have a thinning effect on your beer (alcohol is thinner than water).

Typically though most craft brewers really frown on using corn sugar as a source of fermentables.. what you do with it is up to you. It will have an effect on the ABV as well... and since it's cheaper than extract it is a cheap and easy way to boost the ABV. Careful not to overdo it or you could end up with a watery alcoholic tasting brew. Also, stay away from table sugar as it can lend a cidery taste to your brew.

Lastly, if you haven't read Palmer's "How to Brew" yet I would strongly encourage you to do so.. it's a really great guide for beginner and expert alike:
www.howtobrew.com

I didnt realize that my post made it to 2 pages and thought everyone gave up on me. My local brew shop is Hearts Home brew in orlando. Heartshomebrew.com is the site. After reading a few website reviews about the shop it seems im not alone with the fact that he isnt too helpful to the beginner. But he was the only guy in the area. I went ahead and brewed as a blend of a few of the suggestions and am reading The complete joy of home brewing and havent got to far but the hobby is very interesting. The wait to see if this will turn out is going to take a bit of patience but i hope everything went well..Didnt use any sugar so i hope it wasnt required for the wort..