What did I make?

hey guys I just made a 5 gallon batch with one can of Cooper's Real Ale LME, 2lbs of LDME, 2lbs of brown sugar, 8oz of honey, and 1oz of summit hops boiled for 45mins. I used Nottingham yeast and have it fermenting at around 65 degrees. I was going to leave in primary for 3 weeks, bottle then prime for 2.

Beer!!!! Welcome to the obsession.

Not sure how that will turn out, but it will be beer. It may need a bit of aging time with all that brown sugar. Let us know how it turns out.

If you want to give it a name - it would be a honey brown (not an official category that I'm aware of). Cross your fingers and hope it's better than JW Dundee's honey brown.

Welcome to HBT and the hobby!

thanks! Any recomendations on the primary, secondary or bottle conditioning times?
(I think I will skip secondary)

Hang Glider said:

If you want to give it a name - it would be a honey brown

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Not sure how brown it will actually end up. The brown sugar lends some color (depending on the type of brown sugar) but not much more than the extract to be honest. With light extract and the absence of specialty grains most of the color will come from caramelization during the boil. If you added all the extract at the beginning of a partial boil it will probably end up a nice copper color.

Summit hops are very high alpha and the Coopers extract is hopped so your IBU's, if my calculations are correct, should be in the high 70's. Also, your ABV should be around 6.5%. This is sounding more and more like some sort of IPA to me.

As far as primary and whatnot, I like to primary a beer this size around 2 weeks then secondary for a few more to clear and bulk age. High gravity beers can really benefit from a secondary aging period. Just my opinion. Don't bother cracking one open till a few weeks in the bottle.

The fermentation went crazy for the first day and then stopped after that. It has been in the primary fermenter for two weeks now, I am wondering if i needed to pitch more yeast for all the sugar that was in the brew. Also, I used 5 gallons of water, but the extract kit called for 6. Can I add more water and repitch the yeast? I only added one packet, I guess this much sugar calls for two?

Did you take a gravity reading at all? That's the only way you'll really know if fermentation is done. You can also pull out a sample and taste it if you have a thief you can sanitize (or your racking cane with a thumb over the top end).

I'm not usually a fan of adding water, esp. after fermentation.

poley said:

Did you take a gravity reading at all? That's the only way you'll really know if fermentation is done. You can also pull out a sample and taste it if you have a thief you can sanitize (or your racking cane with a thumb over the top end).

I'm not usually a fan of adding water, esp. after fermentation.

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no i didnt take a reading because my hydro broke and i had one ordered. I have one now.

take a gravity reading. unless your gravity is in the high 1.020's or more, I wouldn't even think about adding more yeast. Even then, I would consider it hard, and then just add the yeast, and not more water (significantly).

You should get decent attenuation with Notty. Only the hydrometer can say for sure. If you had "crazy" fermentation for a day there's a good chance the majority of the the fermentation occurred very quickly. Again, only a hydrometer can give you the info you need.

so ive decided to bottle this sunday when its been three weeks in primary. Wait another three and drink!

Did you take a gravity reading with your shiny new hydrometer?