ReesBrew

Recipes 

Brewed my fist brew three months ago and have one on the rack and am starting another tomorrow. Couple of observations I have from my first brew I was wondering if anyone has thoughts or suggestions for me. The Kit I used is the this buds for you lager from Midwest.

- when I pour the beer it creates a HUGE head
- it doesn't seem like there is a lot of alcohol in the beer as I can drink a bunch of them without feeling how I typically do with commercial beers
- the beer smells and tastes pretty yeasty. I used the dry yeast and just sprinkled it into my wort.
- to cool my wart I poured it into ice before adding yeast. Is this ok to do and how does adding ice or water not water the beer down?

I appreciate any advice before I start my third batch. Thanks in advance.

obsoletist

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I don't think it's recommended to cool your wort by adding ice. You probably did water your beer down a bit by doing that, but more importantly it's a sanitation issue. Ice can carry lots of contaminants. If anything you should set the wort in an ice bath if possible, or just let it cool naturally. If you really want to use ice, make it with water that has been boiled first.

flabyboy

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The ice needs to be made from boiled or sterile water if you are going to do that

Skelator

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as for the foam... how much priming sugar did you use? how long have they been in bottles? how long in the fridge before opening?

hopheadtoo

Recipes 

Hey, I am a newbie at this as well. Adding the ice from what I have read is not the best way to do it. I place it in a sink of ice water, or if I make a bigger batch I place it in my pool. Hope that helps

comer88888

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This buds for you is a lager. Did you brew it lager style? What was your starting and final gravity? This bud for you really isn't suppose to have a lot of alcohol. It says on the website that the starting gravity will be 1.038-1.040 to 1.010-1.014. That will give you an alcohol by weight around 3.2%.

ReesBrew

Recipes 

Thanks for the replies. I didn't realize the gravity levels were as important back then so I don t have them but the 3 percent makes sense now. Do I have to use sterile or boiled water that I add to my wort? I usually just use filtered or filtered ice.
Thanks again for the replies.