AMERICUS

Recipes 

Okay, well I am starting my first brew tonight of Honey Nut Brown Ale (yummy)! I have been reading and reading on different topics and THINK I have most of it figured out. I'm a little concerned with the temperature of my fermenting area, but worst case is I'll leave it upstairs until I get some heating bands and move it downstairs for the second stage. On to a few questions...

Blow-off tubes, should these be installed for the first few days of all fermenting or is it specific to the yeast / style of beer? I have the 5 gallon buckets and 5 gallon carboys.

Also, I have read a lot on Irish Moss and there was some included in my recipe kit. I took the advice of the guy at my LHBS and bought the Super Irish Moss Extract and I didn't realize some came in my recipe kit. Should I substitute my extract (powder form) for the actual Irish Moss or does the Irish Moss should I use both (I'm leaning towards substituting since the directions call to add at the same time)?


Hopefully everything is a success and i will start my winemaking kit tomorrow (California Trinity White). I will post results, and unplanned disasters, later. Happy brewing!

humann_brewing

Recipes 

What yeast are you using and are/have you made a starter?

As far as the irish moss, I would definitely only use 1 of the 2, but wondering if you really need it at all on a brown ale as it is a fairly darker (brown) beer and not sure how much clarification you need.

AMERICUS

Recipes 

Munton's dry yeast. After reading the directions it didn't sound like I needed a starter, but this could be my definite lack of knowledge...

humann_brewing

Recipes 

what is the gram weight of the yeast package, just make sure you have enough cell count for get your full attenuations.

Check out mr maltys pitch calculator:

Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

bdaddy

Recipes 

I'm no expert, but for 5 gallon fermenter, I would think you definitely need a blowoff tube. If you have a 6.5 gallon bucket then it might depend on the yeast/style of beer, but I would think that brewing 5 gallons in only a 5 gallon fermenter would surely overflow regardless of yeast?

AMERICUS

Recipes 

I imagine it is a larger bucket than 5 gallon (looks like it), it is just a 5 gallon kit I bought. So over lunch I bought tubing for the blowoff, a digital thermometer for the room which records mins/maxs too for $7 (SCORE!), my 4.5 gallon kettle, sponges and spring water for my wine. Think I should be good to go now, just need to make sure my room is alright of else I will have to go with my alternative location until the second stage.

As for yeast count, I am at work so I haven't looked at it, but it came as a recipe and I asked the guy if I needed yeast or if he recommended liquid yeast for my first attempt, but he said to just use the dry packet thats included.

Mingus

Recipes 

I have done an Irish red in a five gal secondary and had no problems with overflow... I recently did a 5gal batch of Belgian and had to add a blowoff after the fermentation took off like a bat outta hell.

Maybe start with a blowoff tube and see how it goes from there (you can take it off and put airlock on after krausen goes down and bubblin decreases) or start without a blowoff and add one if needed - but keep your eyes on it.

From my understanding it has alot to do with the yeast, recipe and temp. - so there are variables.

Cheers
N8

AMERICUS

Recipes 

That's good information to know. I figure I will hook up the blowoff tube since it really isn't any more work, especially when compared to mopping my ceilings--although as a third party it does some kind of funny.

One quick question, if the recipe calls for X gallons of water in the boil, do I have to add anymore to this if I am going to boil / sanitize the water or will the lid prevent any from boiling off?

AMERICUS

Recipes 

Okay so the recipe calls to grind the grains and we are using a beer bottle to grind them up. How fine do you have to get the grains or is it mainly just splitting them?

Shooter

Recipes 

Are these steeping grains?