specialkaye

Recipes 

Well, I'm not Revvy but I'm always willing to give my opinions, for free even.
This is a beer I would NOT have even tried first off, especially after reading just about any page on this fine forum. (All that spice and odd ball stuff turned me off as soon as I read it) To me, changing recipes before you've even made one beer is very gutsy but it's also like trying to build a car when you don't know how to drive.

The All-Grain crowd, which I'm joining this next brew day, will probably flame me for this, but, you can make some decent beers pretty easy with a LME beer kit from a trusted outlet.

Biggest thing, read the reviews of the kits. They will tell you TONS about the flavors and how easy they really are to make. And, you'll get a decent beer for $20-$25 plus shipping. Put one of these next to your first attempt and let your SWMBO do a taste test....

Failing getting a kit, check the recipe threads for a decent, respected, easy to make beer. Just my opinion, but I can't see you grabbing a mug of this spiced beer, dropping into a chair after a long day, and quaffing it in one long adoring slurp. YMMV.

clayroc

Recipes 

You know thinking about it that does sound like something I would do, like adding a turbo for more power lol. To be honest, I had the tea, and when it came to brewing, I figured that with no hops or anything that it would be, well bland but if it tastes like it smells then I should be fine.

One question for anyone is now that its brewing, I gather from what I have read that I should test it's gravity periodically, how often, and when should I start?

Yes I am sure that this information is somewhere here, I just have not had a chance to read everything yet. I like to ask questions

andrew300

Recipes 

Yeah i think you would get better results even with a mr beer kit. If it doesn't come out well, I would recommend getting a basic 5 gallon kit online or on ebay. I am glad I switched to 5gal kits before I tasted the Mr beer I made because if I tried it before I would have given it all up because it tasted so bad.

Frodo

Recipes 

Once per week is probably fine, however, I'll often just wait 3 wks before checking to make sure the FG is where it's supposed to be.

specialkaye

Recipes 

[QUOTE=clayroc;2410678]
One question for anyone is now that its brewing, I gather from what I have read that I should test it's gravity periodically, how often, and when should I start?
/QUOTE]

I check mine as it's going into primary, after about 3 weeks, and at bottling. Use the first and last, and you can figure ABV%. And, I always "taste" the samples.

clayroc

Recipes 

So is there a thread with instuctions on the best method of testing then? like how should I get it out to test it etc.

Homercidal

Recipes 

Absolutely. I would go to www.howtobrew.com and read the whole site (or better yet, buy the newest edition of the book, it's GREAT resource!)

In a nutshell, you will want a hydrometer, and a tube to put it in. The hydrometer looks like a large thermometer, but it measure the buoyancy of the wort, telling you how much of it is sugar (thus fermentable). You can use a "thief", which looks like a long tube with a valve on the bottom, to pull a sample to measure. Or you can sanitize a turkey baster, or a measuring cup and pull some wort out to measure. (This is after you've started fermenting. Obviously you can just pour a bit of wort into the sample tube as you fill the fermenter during the actual brewing process).

The hydrometer is marked on the inside and you read the number like a thermometer. It will probably give a couple of different numbers. Most of them have Specific Gravity and Brix, potential alcohol. You'll want Specific Gravity. It will say something like 1.053.

When you measure before fermentation, this is called Starting Gravity. You can approximate the ending gravity and likely alcohol by volume if you know this.

Later you can check again to see if you have reached those numbers, or if the fermentation has completed. From the starting and ending gravity you can more precisely determine the Alcohol by Volume of that beer.

Not knowing if your fermentation has completed can lead to bottle bombs due to the fact that you have too much sugar left and eventually the yeast will convert some of that into CO2 and overpressurize the bottle.

I think www.howtobrew.com has pictures of using a hydrometer. It's pretty easy.

Oh, and don't put the sample back. Either drink it (so you can taste how the beer is coming along) or pour it out. Putting it back is asking for an infection.

clayroc

Recipes 

Great thank you very much Homercidal, I have been reading how to brew, and its very informative. I have a lot to read yet, but there is time, because although the recipe I was following suggests bottling in 6-10 days, I am going to wait at least 14. being my first brew I can't see myself waiting any longer then that, maybe a day or two but that's about it. I have another question but I think I will create a separate post for it.