Pics of the first brew day
 

The first brew day for the both of us...We ordered our kit from midwest supplies and freeballed the rest of the equipment needed.

We got the intermediate kit from midwest w/ 2 5gal better bottles 1 primary ale pail and one bottling ale pail. We also bought a wort chiller which I totally would have made if we were anywhere near a home depot (were in Germany both stationed at Spangdahlem AB) The day went off with close to zero issues the things we encountered were a small boilover and stirring our yeast in our rehydration cup before letting it sit for 10 min (no big deal as it is now sitting in the primary bubbling away)

The recipe kit that we used was his and is as follows

Midwest supplies India Brown Ale

6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract,
2 lb. Light dry malt extract,
1 lb. Brown Sugar,
8 oz. Caramel 60°L,
4 oz. Coffee malt,
2 oz. Roasted Barley,
1/2 oz. Summit,
2 oz. Glacier,
1 oz. Palisade pellet hops
dry yeast.

This beer was super brown after the boil and looks delicious ;) We tasted the wort through all the process just to get an idea to what were working with. Water steeped with the barley is not delicious however :P

Once we get the primary racked to the secondary were going to start my recipe which is as follows

Hop head DOUBLE IPA
9.3 lbs. Gold Malt extract,
4 oz. Aromatic,
12 oz. Caramel 60°L,
8 oz. Victory specialty grains,
1 oz. Chinook,
1 oz. Cascade,
1 oz. Centennial,
1 oz. Crystal,
2 oz. Leaf (dry hop),
dry yeast

what I was looking for was something similar to Troeggs(sp?) Nugget Nectar its one of my favorites and I wanted my first brew to be close but easy..

Anyways we took some pics hope you guys enjoy

cleaning up before we start
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676440_.jpg

Me adding the water (the German water doesnt taste too great)
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676442_.jpg

Craig adding some water to the turkey fryer turned wort boiler
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676447_.jpg

We took our water temps very seriously :)
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676451_.jpg

Very cool! Just got the first one done, and already planning the second. I like the way you roll. Congrats on your first brew. :mug:

well apparently because im a noob and havent paid my due yet I cant post direct images but if you care to click the links I'll post the rest....

We cant really get homebrews around here but we can get some pretty abstract beers from a lot of different places.
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676452_.jpg

adding the barley
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676457_.jpg

and the malt extract (All grain one day)
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676462_.jpg

http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676464_.jpg

bottoms up!
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676466_.jpg

boiling away!
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676468_.jpg

and one fancy one
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676469_.jpg

after 60 min's its time for the wort chiller
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676471_.jpg

We even let the ladies hold the hose ;)
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676472_.jpg

And finally sitting happily in the primary fermenter (need a 6gal better bottle next so we can watch the process!)
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...3_1676475_.jpg

Some more info since we had such a big pot we started with 6gallons of water and ended up boiling down to 5 1/2gallons...the extra 1/2gallon ended up getting tossed do you think we should have just kept it in there or should we just boil 5gallons next time? We wanted maximum hops utilization but perhaps we went overboard?

Great pics. Love to see the whole process. Nice work!

Welcome to HBT.

Keep the extra .5 gallon. I target my brews to hit 11 gallon in ferment buckets and end up with 10 gallon of beer.

either way, sounds like a good time. Now the hardest part...waiting.....

enjoy:mug:

I see a bag in the boil... hope that's a hop sock and not your steeping grains!

Yeah keep that extra half gallon. You're throwing out beer.:mad:

I always shoot for an extra 10% or so in my boil kettle. That way, when it comes to bottling time, my final volume produced will be closer to my planned volume. That 10% is close to what you'll lose in trub, yeast cake, and dry hopping.

damnit! It was our first time so we will keep the extra on the 2nd batch...

and to eljefe yes that is just our nylon bag w/the hops...we did not boil our barley!


How do those recipes look to you guys?