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Gildog

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hi again all. well about 10 days ago i brewed my first beer, an american wheat, and i cant say i didnt rush everything, i bottled it after 6 days, and i just opened my first bottle 2 days after bottling, and yknow what?

ITS AWSOME!! even being as green as it is I have to say its better than most of the swill ive been buying for far far too long. nice citrus note, reminds me of hoegarden without the coriander, great even with the little fiz its got from 2 days in the bottle.

tommarow i start my first partial mash and im now totally psyched.

fyi heres my recipe i made for tomarrows brew

Amber cream ale

1.5 lbs homminy grits
3.25 lbs amber LME
3 lbs pilsner malt
1 oz palisade hops (7.4% alpha 8.4% beta)

hopefully ill be using the washed yeast from my first beer, if i did it right, im an ambitious sonuvagun aint i?

any comments on the recipe greatly appreciated
 
hey it stopped most of the bubling after 2 and the next 4 days the sg didnt dropped less than 1, i may get bottle bombs, but hey that makes for a funny story, plus ive got my 2 cases stored in garbage bags just in case.

hate to say it but this may be gone before it even gets a full 2 weeks in the bottle :) sept for the 6pack im putting in long term storage.
 
So long as your bottles from your first batch don't start assploding, you'll at least have those to drink while you give your next batch the time it deserves. heheh
 
yeah i figured the first was a kit extract, its not gonna be the best thing ever no matter how you look at it, but now i really can RDWAHAB. the next batch will probly get at least 2 weeks in the fermenter
 
You picked the right style. Wheats can be consumed early and the 'green' just blends in.
 
+1 on the wheats.I wouldnt bottle your amber after six days.You probably will and then realize why you shouldn't have:)Thats what makes a good brewer,trial and error.I have a friend like that.I was at his house the other day and tried his belgian tripel.Almost threw up.He said it had been bottled 2 days ago.It was carbed!!Most likely still fermenting.
 
And to think i wasted three and a half weeks waiting on my first batch in the fermenter and another 3.5 after bottling before i tried te first one.
 
And to think i wasted three and a half weeks waiting on my first batch in the fermenter and another 3.5 after bottling before i tried te first one.

i feel sorry for you, i would have died waiting upwards of 2 months
 
Yeah, you just can't stop that enthusiasm for your first 'real' beer:) ... it was several batches before I started drinking 'yeast-free' beer!;)

Now, I tend to brew in series: stops the temptation to try too early ... just.
 
ok fuggit..., if were going out like that ,im just gonna primary in my bottling bucket so i can have a pint the day after i pitch LOL!!..ill call it "stormy brew"
 
Tell me why you're using homminy grits in a beer? :confused:

Grits in a beer sounded like a good idea for me. You would be increasing the mineral weight of your water (calcium, iron, copper, zinc) and adding quite a bit of partially caramelized corn sugar from the hominy. It seems like it would make good feed for the yeast and import an interesting corny flavor.

Then again, it does sound strange!
 
Grits in a beer sounded like a good idea for me. You would be increasing the mineral weight of your water (calcium, iron, copper, zinc) and adding quite a bit of partially caramelized corn sugar from the hominy. It seems like it would make good feed for the yeast and import an interesting corny flavor.

Then again, it does sound strange!

Is this the same as 'cornflakes' that my local brew shop used to sell? i.e. an adjunct.

If so, it's quite acceptable according to your taste preferences. (Sounds like a good 'breakfast brew'?:) - morning drinking, that gets me thinking.:rockin:)
 
Is this the same as 'cornflakes' that my local brew shop used to sell? i.e. an adjunct.

If so, it's quite acceptable according to your taste preferences. (Sounds like a good 'breakfast brew'?:) - morning drinking, that gets me thinking.:rockin:)

I'm a new brewer, so am not sure, but I would suspect that it probably is. Albeit, cornflakes might not have been nixtamalized ... I'm not sure on that aspect.
 
i ended up using rice instead of grits, but a quick question, my sg on the final mash is right, but the mash isnt very sweet, could i have not gotten conversion of the grain? till i added the extract it was not sweet at all, will amylase fix this if that is the problem?
 
i ended up using rice instead of grits, but a quick question, my sg on the final mash is right, but the mash isnt very sweet, could i have not gotten conversion of the grain? till i added the extract it was not sweet at all, will amylase fix this if that is the problem?

At what temperature did you mash?
 
155 degrees for 1 hour

Hmm. Sounds OK (although I always give at least 90mins mashing, more normally 2-3hrs, but that is probably OTT). Also, check your sparging, did you 'over-water'?

My wort usually tastes 'sweetish' because I like IPAs with little or no adjunct; but with your recipe you'll need to get to know the 'flavour' expected - sweetness could be masked by other things.

In any case, ferment it, take an SG and find out!

YeastGardener.
 
sg is 1.035, supposed to be 1.050 but it has started fermenting.... some. guess ill have to rack it to secondary and maybe add some corn sugar to get my abv where i want it, man this beer is gonna have protein haze like no ones buisiness
 
oh well, it'll be a light beer ... :eek: but that's O.K. isn't it?

Personally, I don't recommend adding even more sugar - it'll dry it, and 'thin' it even more.

If it were mine, I'd accept it as it is, or mix it with a stronger (2nd) brew. Sugar as a main ingredient is to alter taste rather than to recover alcohol levels (or to cheapen the grain bill).

Hope it helps, and enjoy your brew anyway!:mug:

YeastGardener.

BTW. Since you came in at 35 instead of 50, it does indeed indicate an inefficiency somewhere. Something to discover!
 
Just had a thought, what's the maximum ratio for pale malt to adjunct for enzymic purposes? (Is LME diastatic?)

Sorry, but I hardly use adjuncts or extract, so cannot comment on your recipe. Other experienced forum-ers will, undoubtedly.

Just had the thought, that's all.

YeastGardener.
 
didnt use grits, used rice instead, i boiled it till it was porridge.

to increase gravity, i have 1 lb of pilsner malt left, can i mash that seperately (and if so how? really dumb it down for me, i feel kinda stupid about mashing now with this fiasco) then add it to the bucket?

im getting some good action now so i think its gonna be something drinkable
 
I would say the rice didn't lend as much sugar as the grits would have. However, I have no actual idea what the difference in natural sugars are between the two... Except the side-handed thought that well, we make corn syrup, but I've never seen rice syrup ...
 
I would say the rice didn't lend as much sugar as the grits would have. However, I have no actual idea what the difference in natural sugars are between the two... Except the side-handed thought that well, we make corn syrup, but I've never seen rice syrup ...

rice syrup is a main ingredient in many japanese beers, hard to find in the US.

MAJOR UPDATE!!!!

thick krausen around top with ACTIVE fermentaion, i think the grain i left in did do some conversion.

But because of the fact i left the grain with its hulls in there, im looking at some major tannin:drunk: so im gonna have to age this a while

looks like i just made my first barleywine, now what to do with it in the secondary? any tips? This thing is entirely not what I set out to do so im open to just about anything

my short list includes:
chipotle pepper
hickory/beechwood chips
strawberries
cilantro
applesauce
Garam Masala(indian spice mix. yummy:))
black pepper
what do you guys think?
 
rice syrup is a main ingredient in many japanese beers, hard to find in the US.

Oooh, good point! Actually, that reminds me, Budweiser is made with rice, isn't it. Hmm.

And, you asked for it, you brought it up, so I am going to vote - Garam Masala! Oh goodness, what will that do to it?
 
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