Simple Malt Extract recipe

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Robsbrew

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I am about as new as they come to brewing. I am looking for the easiest and simplest brew recipe just using the bare ingrediants as possible. any suggestions? Im talking an extract, sugar, maybe adjunct and brew. Throw it in the fermentor and there you go. Any suggestions?
 
I think that coopers sells some extract that require just adding some sugar and putting in in the fermenter. I made one a few years ago. It wasn't very good, to be honest. But it was very easy to do.

I'd suggest buying something a little better, like a Brewer's Best kit. They have all of the ingredients, and great instructions. They do require a boil of about 2 gallons, though. I've been happy with those kits, if they are fresh.
 
:off: (sorry) You could also try making a cider or apfelwein. Apple juice + Sugar + Yeast + Time = sweet sweet nectar. Well... ya know, unless you make the apfelwein... then I guess you could call it dry delicious nectar!

EDIT: If you wanted to throw some 3-4 pounds dry malt extract and 0.5oz of hops you could make some of Brandon O's Graff.
 
Simple extract beer:
6 lbs LME (light or amber)
2oz Cascade Hops (45mins)
1oz Williamettes (15mins)
White Labs Yeast WLP002
 
Don't be intimidated . . . It's no harder than making a good pot of chili or anything else. Do you want it out of a can or tweak it a little to your taste. Practices makes perfect or better as the case may be. In less than 10 batches you'll be digging up an old cooler and making better BEER. :mug:

A good piece of advise I read on here was to make your first 5 batches following the directions. Perfect other peoples receipes and your "technique" before getting ahead of yourself . . . Look at the people of YouTube . . .
"Its Not Rocket Science Its Making Beer":mug:
 
As already mentioned, pick up a prehopped beer kit. The cheaper ones will instruct you to also add a kilo/2.2# of sugar, I'd substitute half of that with liquid or dry malt extract.

From there throw it in your bucket with a couple quarts of boiling water, top off with cold water and add the yeast.
 
Now who makes the best LME? What is a good brand to go with? Im seeing Coopers all over the place. Is that like the McDonalds of Extract? I now have everything I need to get started minus the ingrediants so now thats the mode of my research Im in now. Thanks man!
 
If you're not buying a kit, I'd recommend getting bulk liquid extract if your LHBS has it. It's generally fresher than canned and you can get exactly how much you want. Or use DME.
 
Does that come in a big jug? What brands sell it and which ones are better than others? Or are there any differences in each style of LME?
 
Yes it comes in a big jug, or whatever else the shop wants to offer it in. My shop has Munton's light LME on tap for lack of a better term. They receive it in a steel drum and then pour it into white tubs. The sell their 3 Kilo/6.6# tubs for $16.95 which is the best price I've found.
 
A friend of mine recently made one of those prehopped canned kits from the grocery store. It tasted like band aids.... highly unrecommended :)
 
If you want easy to start. I picked up 2 cans of muntons prehopped LME. It was nut brown ale. Just boil up some water, add the extract, top it off, add yeast and your done. I kinda just used that beer as a 5gallon starter for a stuck porter, but I plan on drinking it. It's still young but pretty tasty.
That's the mr beer approach to brewing. A great place to start.
 
Wow I appreciate it fellahs! I kinda put the first batch on hold for 2 more weeks. I did however build up my equipment a little more. I am a deputy sheriff and needless to say I dont make squat. So needless to say Im peicing this stuff together slowly but surely! I really do appreciate your help and Ill keep everyone updated on the status of how everything is going!
 
Wow I appreciate it fellahs!

I assume you meant "fellahs" in the "people" sense, right? ;)

Take your time- just let us know how we can help.

In the meantime, your homework is to do some reading until you can get to brewing! We have lots of beginner threads, and your questions are always welcome.
 
A friend of mine recently made one of those prehopped canned kits from the grocery store. It tasted like band aids.... highly unrecommended :)

If it tasted like band aids, you friend had an infection.
 
what kind of beer do you like?

Darker brews (ales) are easiest...but just about anything other than the super light stuff (light lagers, pilsners) will be no problem.

Pre-hopped works well. I did a Coopers Stout plus 3lbs of Munton & Fison and the yeast that came with the can. Boiled up 2gal of water, dumped all ingredients in fermenter, added 3gal water, popped in yeast, bottled in 1 week, drank 3 weeks later, and it is absolutely incredible. Doesn't get much easier/idiot proof than that.
 
As far as what I buy at the store, Abita turbo dog, Sam Adams boston lager, and now my new favorite (even though it has twist off tops!) Killians Irish red. I was planning on doing a darker beer. but not guiness dark.

What Muntons & Fison did you use?
 
Simple, but perfectly drinkable beer:

6 lbs light dry malt extract. dissolve in 2-3 gallons of water and bring to a boil.
1 oz hops (pick one) - boil for an hour.
1oz hops (pick one) - add to the last 15 minutes of the boil.
cool to room temperature, pour into your fermentor and add water to make a total of 5 gallons.
pitch in a packet of dry yeast (nottingham, safale so-5)

wait.
 
yes and no. You said you wanted something really simple to brew, right? In that case, why not try a basic mid-range AAU hop (5-8%).
Make sure to keep detailed notes of what you're using. Once you've got your first basic batch completed and you've tasted it you should be able to begin tweaking it for future batches.
Too bitter? lower the AAUs by selecting a milder hop or using less for the 60 minute boil.
Too sweet? Use more bittering hops or less malt extract.
Too light (color, flavor) use a darker DME or try adding some steeping grains.
 
Robsbrew, I love DrDirts advice so I would try that first, but another suggestion is to buy a good quality kit. I drink a lot of porters (especially this time of year) so I bought a Brewers Brest Robust Porter kit. It had all the ingredients ready to go and the beer came out Great. The timeline was a little rushed (one week before bottling) but after 3 weeks in the bottle it was good and only got better until I finished it off 5 weeks later.

My LHBS puts their own kits together and I plan on trying one of them soon.
 
can I use half od this recipe and make 2.5 gallons for my first batch? I will probably be the only one drinking my beer untill I can make it tasty.
 
Now what about yeast? I am doing a half batch tomorow and really am not sure of what yeast to use? I am doing a very simple recipe:

3#'s Bries Amber DME
1oz. cascade 60 min
1/2oz. saaz 15 min.
Thats it. Thats my batch for tomorow? Now what yeast should I use in my batch?
 
WLP001 California Ale Yeast is a good all-around yeast and with the smaller sized batch you are making I would just pitch the tube "by instructions on vial" without any starter and roll with it. just me opinion.
 
I like whiskey_pickle's advice, but there are 2 different directions you could go with yeast. Pick a clean, good clean yeast like california ale or another simple ale yeast (English WPL002 and British WPL005 are nice) and learn about the flavor profile of the DME and hops OR pick a more exotic yeast like a Trappist (WPL500) or Belgian (WPL550) and see how much the yeast impacts profile. Honestly, I would brew the same ingredients but 2 different yeasts and you could find out a lot!
 
IMO your best bet is to start with a kit. however I finally got around to my first boil last week and it is ridiculously simple. like the recipe above says:

boil water
add malt extact
add 2oz Cascade Hops
half an hour after that add 1oz Williamettes
wait 15 mins then cool in a tub with cold water
throw it in the fermenter
add the White Labs Yeast WLP002
seal up and wait for a while

If your keeping it simple its as hard as making toast, that's if your toaster takes half an hour to allow you time to get the butter ready :D
 
you dont have to worry so much mate, people on here are very skilled but have a tendency to make things seem overly difficult. Your LHBS will be able to answer all your queries.
 
Thanks guys! Ive just started cleaning and sanitizing all my equipment for the third time and boiling my pot again. Im going to sanitize that before I actually boil my wart. My bucket is braqnd new and Im sanitizing that one last time before I was going to wash it and sanitize it again. I know it may be a little bit over board but SANITIZE SANITIZE SANITIZE!!!!!! I will let everybody know how it goes and post pics of the progress. And no I will not post pics of my ridiculously hot wife!!!!!!
 
just started cleaning and sanitizing all my equipment for the third time and boiling my pot again. Im going to sanitize that before I actually boil my wart.

I'll save you some time, you don't have to sanitize your pot (you can clean it), because it will have boiling wort in it.

Cheers, let us know how it turns out.
 
Okay Im in the process now of making my first batch and have already made a major mistake!!!!!! I boiled water in a pot way too small! I put my first 2 1/2 gallons of water in brought to a boil and though ALRIGHT!!!! BEER!!!! put when I went to put my extract in I quickly realized too small! So I quickly washed out my bigger pot and transfered over. Well see how it turns out!
 
Oh and it is very flat. There is no foam on top. and it has a wretched smell!!!!!!!! But I have about 5 more minutes to put my saaz in.
 
I'm sure it will be fine as long as the new pot is big enough. The wort will be boiled and take care of any contamination issues from transferring. Just to be safe, you should post some pics of your wife for good luck!:tank:
 
Okay so heres the deal, I boiled for an hour and put in my sink with ice water for about 20 min. I do not have a thermometer yet but what I did was feel the bucket and see if it felt like it was cool enough. I did put my hand inside the bucket and did not feel any warm air or stem come out so I think Im okay. I did pitch my yeast and hopefully it will all be fine. It did however smell so freaking bad its rediculous. I hope thats how its supposed to be. Ill have pics in about an hour.
 
Oh and here is my wife. ISNT SHE HOT!!!!
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