I've slowly been making my way through John Palmer's How to Brew and received Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing for Christmas, which I also have not yet finished. But I've been itching to giving brewing a shot, so I went to my local brewing supply shop the other day and set myself up with a True Brew kit and a sackful of ingredients. Here is how I spent my afternoon.
First, my ingredients.
4 lbs Coopers pale malt extract
2 lbs Muntons Amber dry malt extract
1 oz Chinook hop pellets (11.5% alpha)
0.7 oz Cascade hop pellets (7% alpha)
2 packets Coopers yeast
I sanitized everything for 20 mins with C-Brite, which came in the kit. After a little reading on these forums, I decided that rinsing wasn't necessary. I boiled 3.5 gal of tap water to sterilize and put that in my 6 gal glass carboy. Then, I boiled 1.5 gal of tap water and added both malt extracts and the chinook hops. After 50 mins of boiling, I added the cascade hops and boiled for 10 more minutes. The hops were pellets, so I made my own steeping bags out of cheesecloth to make removal easier.
While all this boiling was going on, I rehydrated both packets of yeast in about a cup of water which had been boiled and then cooled. That rested for 15 minutes, then I added a teaspoon of the malt extract syrup to kickstart the yeast. After another 30 mins, the yeast was just barely starting to bubble.
Back to the wort. After an hour of boiling, I moved the pot to an ice bath in the kitchen sink to cool. The wort cooled to 85 degrees in just a few minutes. The water in the carboy, however, had not cooled as fast as i had hoped, and so I let everything just rest for a little bit. I was worried about killing the yeast. So when the water had cooled a bit, I added the wort, and let it cool a little longer, then pitched the yeast. After swishing the carboy around to mix, I poured out a little to test the specific gravity. At room temp, around 65 degrees in my house, it tested at 1.046. Right now, my beer-to-be is fermenting in the spare bedroom with an airlock on it and wrapped in an old sheet to block any light.
My process is a little bit of Papazian and a little bit of Palmer. The recipe is based on Palmer's Cincinatti Pale Ale, but the only brewing shop around here has a pretty limited selection and I fudged the particulars of malts and hops, but tried to stay close.
So what do you think? How does my first time sounds so far? Any suggestions for next time? Thanks!
First, my ingredients.
4 lbs Coopers pale malt extract
2 lbs Muntons Amber dry malt extract
1 oz Chinook hop pellets (11.5% alpha)
0.7 oz Cascade hop pellets (7% alpha)
2 packets Coopers yeast
I sanitized everything for 20 mins with C-Brite, which came in the kit. After a little reading on these forums, I decided that rinsing wasn't necessary. I boiled 3.5 gal of tap water to sterilize and put that in my 6 gal glass carboy. Then, I boiled 1.5 gal of tap water and added both malt extracts and the chinook hops. After 50 mins of boiling, I added the cascade hops and boiled for 10 more minutes. The hops were pellets, so I made my own steeping bags out of cheesecloth to make removal easier.
While all this boiling was going on, I rehydrated both packets of yeast in about a cup of water which had been boiled and then cooled. That rested for 15 minutes, then I added a teaspoon of the malt extract syrup to kickstart the yeast. After another 30 mins, the yeast was just barely starting to bubble.
Back to the wort. After an hour of boiling, I moved the pot to an ice bath in the kitchen sink to cool. The wort cooled to 85 degrees in just a few minutes. The water in the carboy, however, had not cooled as fast as i had hoped, and so I let everything just rest for a little bit. I was worried about killing the yeast. So when the water had cooled a bit, I added the wort, and let it cool a little longer, then pitched the yeast. After swishing the carboy around to mix, I poured out a little to test the specific gravity. At room temp, around 65 degrees in my house, it tested at 1.046. Right now, my beer-to-be is fermenting in the spare bedroom with an airlock on it and wrapped in an old sheet to block any light.
My process is a little bit of Papazian and a little bit of Palmer. The recipe is based on Palmer's Cincinatti Pale Ale, but the only brewing shop around here has a pretty limited selection and I fudged the particulars of malts and hops, but tried to stay close.
So what do you think? How does my first time sounds so far? Any suggestions for next time? Thanks!
