a little (Lot) confused (kit instructions)

So I have a Brewers Best equipment kit and the ingredients to make a lighter beer (budweiser type) (brew store guys recipe and directions). Where I find myself right now is simply lost. I read the instructions that came with my kit (dont seem to apply to me) and the instructions he printed out and gave me. But I'm so new that I dont know where my bottle opener is. I'm confused about the two extracts on my list (seem the same to me) one is in a plastic bag and the other in a plastic container. I think I'm looking for some simple directions and some hand holding. Any help would be great as I would like to start my first batch asap.

Thanks

Recipe Ingredients:
1oz Spalt Pellet Hops – Alpha Acid 2.6%
7g Brewing Yeast
1 lb Briess Dried Malt Extract – Golden Light
3.3 lb Pure Malt Extract non-diastatic unhopped Pilsen Light
5 oz Priming Sugar

Directions:
Add to cold water to fill pot 1/2 full. Bring wort to a boil and add DME & 1st spalt hops (1/2 oz 60 min) Boil 30 min and add 2nd spalt hops (1/4 oz 30 min). Boil 25 min and add remaining spalt hops (1/4 oz 5min) Total boil is 60 min. Chill & place in fermenter and add cool water to make 5-1/2 gallons. Pitch yeast. Take hydrometer reading. Aerate very well. Ferment at room temp 1 week then rack to a secondary. Bottle after 1 more week or when specific gravity falls below 1.010.

Equipment List:
6.5 Gallon Bucket w/ lid & grommet
6.5 Gallon Bucket w/ spigot
(1) Airlock
Hydrometer
Liquid Crystal Thermometer
Bottle Brush
Racking tube w/ tip
Bucket clip
Bottle filler
no rinsing cleanser
bottle capper

If you feel you want to dive into this and do it today, read this first. Detailed crash course:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Brew Day

I would recommend you wait until next weekend to brew your first batch without a veteran present to help. I brewed my first batch by myself and it went very well because I spent about 20 hours reading the first section of John Palmers book:

How to Brew - By John Palmer

As well as reading numerous posts on this website.

You chose a tough beer to brew for your first batch!

Do yourself a favor and buy the book "How to Brew" by John Palmer, or review sections 1 and 2 of the old online version at How to Brew - By John Palmer - Introduction . That should clear things up. Good luck, and happy brewing!

I'll second reading how to brew 100 times, that really helped me make pull the trigger with no problems. You call also search youtube, there are all kinds of videos on how to brew.

When you get a nice rolling boil set a timer @60mins. Throw in 1/2 oz of your hops
Then add your Liquid extract(Take off burner before adding to avoid burning on the bottom of pot then return to hot burner) then add dried extract while stirring a lil at a time. At 30 mins add 1/4 oz of hops, the same @ 25 mins. At the end of 60mins take off the stove. Then cover kettle and give an ice bath til temp drops. down to about 80 F
then dump your wort into your bucket and top off with reg water, stir very well to aerate(a good 5mins or so) then pitch yeast

or read how to brew.......LOL

Nickeldeposit said:

Directions:
Add to cold water to fill pot 1/2 full. Bring wort to a boil and add DME & 1st spalt hops (1/2 oz 60 min) Boil 30 min and add 2nd spalt hops (1/4 oz 30 min). Boil 25 min and add remaining spalt hops (1/4 oz 5min) Total boil is 60 min. Chill & place in fermenter and add cool water to make 5-1/2 gallons. Pitch yeast. Take hydrometer reading. Aerate very well. Ferment at room temp 1 week then rack to a secondary. Bottle after 1 more week or when specific gravity falls below 1.010.

Click to expand...

Divide your hops into 1/2's. Put them in two small bowls. Take one of those bowls, and divide the hops again. Put them into a third bowl. So, one bowl has 1/2 ounce, and two bowls each have 1/4 ounce. (If you have a scale, measure them- I'm assuming you don't have a scale).

Well, it says to add cold water to fill your pot 1/2 full. Hopefully you have a big pot, so you can use at least 2 gallons of water. Then, bring that up to a boil and add the extract. (Take it off the heat when you add the extract, otherwise it clumps and sinks to the bottom). After it's dissolved, put it back on the heat and bring it to a boil. Add 1/2 of the hops (bowl #1), and set a timer for 60 minutes. When the timer gets to 30 minutes, add 1/4 of the hops (bowl #2). When the timer gets to 5 minutes left, add the last bowl of hops. When the timer hits 0, turn off the heat. Put the pot in a cold water bath in the sink. Gently stir the water bath, so that it effectively cools the wort. You can also gently stir the wort with a sanitized spoon, so that it cools evenly.
When the wort is cool, pour into sanitized fermenter. Add cool water to make a total of 5 gallons. Stir well with the sanitized spoon, or put the sanitized lid on and shake it up. Check the temperature with a sanitized thermometer (or a stick-on thermometer on the outside of the fermenter). Check the SG by using a sanitized turkey baster or wine thief to take out a sample. If the temperature is between 60-72 degrees, open the yeast and sprinkle it on the wort. Cover, add airlock (and place some water in the airlock up to the line) and leave in a room that is about 65-68 degrees for a week.

I think I got it all- let me know if you have any questions!

Edit- wow! Way too slow!

Nickeldeposit said:

So I have a Brewers Best equipment kit and the ingredients to make a lighter beer (budweiser type) (brew store guys recipe and directions). Where I find myself right now is simply lost. I read the instructions that came with my kit (dont seem to apply to me) and the instructions he printed out and gave me. But I'm so new that I dont know where my bottle opener is. I'm confused about the two extracts on my list (seem the same to me) one is in a plastic bag and the other in a plastic container. I think I'm looking for some simple directions and some hand holding. Any help would be great as I would like to start my first batch asap.

Thanks

Recipe Ingredients:
1oz Spalt Pellet Hops – Alpha Acid 2.6%
7g Brewing Yeast
1 lb Briess Dried Malt Extract – Golden Light
3.3 lb Pure Malt Extract non-diastatic unhopped Pilsen Light
5 oz Priming Sugar

Directions:
Add to cold water to fill pot 1/2 full. Bring wort to a boil and add DME & 1st spalt hops (1/2 oz 60 min) Boil 30 min and add 2nd spalt hops (1/4 oz 30 min). Boil 25 min and add remaining spalt hops (1/4 oz 5min) Total boil is 60 min. Chill & place in fermenter and add cool water to make 5-1/2 gallons. Pitch yeast. Take hydrometer reading. Aerate very well. Ferment at room temp 1 week then rack to a secondary. Bottle after 1 more week or when specific gravity falls below 1.010.

Equipment List:
6.5 Gallon Bucket w/ lid & grommet
6.5 Gallon Bucket w/ spigot
(1) Airlock
Hydrometer
Liquid Crystal Thermometer
Bottle Brush
Racking tube w/ tip
Bucket clip
Bottle filler
no rinsing cleanser
bottle capper

Click to expand...

He does not mention the 3.3 LB Pilson malt in the instructions. It should be stirred in (flame off) after the water is almost boiling until it is well disolved before resuming the boil. I would put the DME (dried malt extract) in at the last 15 minutes of the boil. He does not have enough hops for the last addition at 5 minutes left in the boil. The rest of the directions seem OK.

Spalt hops: 1/2 oz - 60 minutes
Spalt Hops: 1/2 oz - 30 minutes
Spalt Hops: 1/4 oz - 5 minutes

Ask him WTF in kind words?

EDIT: I'm way too slooooooooooow.

Well honestly they don't get much simpler than that...

You have 3.3 pounds liquid extract (in the container) and a pound of dry.

How big is your Pot?

I'm gonna alter your recipe a bit to give you the best beer possible.

If it's 5 gallons or so fill it with approximately 2.5 gallons of water. Bring to boil...

When it's boiling ..add the dried malt extract (the powder) it will clump up in the steam so take the pot of the flame when you do it and stir it til smooth(ish) It may not seem like it but it will smooth out eventully...put it back on the stove

When it hits boil again start a timer countown from 1 hour and add the 1/2 ounce of hops.

after 30 minutes add the 1/4 ounce of hops

Wit 15 minutes add the liquid extract (in the plastic container) actually sitting it in a pot of warm water will help loosen it up a bit. Pour it in and stir.

At 5 minutes remaining add the last amount of hops.

WHen the buzzer goes off cool the pot in an ice bath til it gets down to between 60 and 70 degrees (the lower the better)

When you hit that you can add it to your SANITIZED fermenter (the bucket with the lid and no spigot), then you top it off to 5 1/2 gallons of cold water (your taps fine for now). Stir it vigorously, (5 or more minutes)

Then draw off a sample into your testube if you have one and stick the hydrometer in it, and set it aside for a bit.

Sanitize the bucket lid and close up the fermenter and shake shake shake for a but...then open it up and add your yeast. Re seal it put some water in the airlock and stick it in the hole in the lid and put your bucket in a closet....

Ignore the part about 1 week and secondary....leave it alone for at least 2-3 weeks (I leave my beers alone for a month then bottle)

Stick you thermometer in the sample and note the temp...

Look at your hydrometer and look for the number on the scale, look for where the line is...



If your temp is greater than 60 degrees add 1 point for every 10 degrees...that number is your ORIGINAL GRAVITY..Write it down somewhere on your sheat...it should say what your OG should be...

While you are waiting read How to Brew - By John Palmer


That's pretty much it.. until bottling...

M@! said:

You call also search youtube

Click to expand...

Watch out for craigtube, remember you are trying to make good beer!

Sanitation is probably the thing that is most likely to screw up your first batch of beer. If you can make a box of Uncle Ben's, you can make beer. Add x amount of hops at x time, etc. - easy. Sanitizing every stitch of material that touchs your beer is not as easy.

Again, I suggest you wait to make your beer until next weekend. Your first batch will take 4-5 hours, unless your city water is poor. Then you need to boil the water itself first, let it cool, and put it back into sanitized containers until it is time to rock.

Read first, then brew...

Thanks everyone, I'll admit that I'm brewing stupid right now. The guy I bought everything from failed to tell me that I had luiqed extraxt and how to use it. Guess thats why I'm here. If and when I make my first (good) beer I wish I could give you all one as thanks.

Nickeldeposit said:

Thanks everyone, I'll admit that I'm brewing stupid right now. The guy I bought everything from failed to tell me that I had luiqed extraxt and how to use it. Guess thats why I'm here. If and when I make my first (good) beer I wish I could give you all one as thanks.

Click to expand...

Read the online book we link for you, how to brew, especially the section on extract brewing and on "your first brew day"...that will help.

It seems so foreign now...it did to me when I started...but it will start to make sense once you read that book and the instruction we wrote out..and if you have more questions ask..but use the search first, becasue more than likely if you got stuck on it, so did a million other people before you, and it was already answered...

You'll do fine.

don't worry, you'll make good beer, just don't rush it

my brewing knowledge has increased 10x in the past two weeks since I began. Everyone here has been helpful and that link they gave you on the first page helped me a ton too. You'll get the hang of it soon enough! Good luck!

-b