Recipe Feedback IPA first brew

This was my first brew. i have a turkey fryer i used for the brew pot and i had 2 Mr Beer kegs that were gifts to my dad a few years ago, so i used them as the fermenter. i went to the local brew store and told him i wanted to brew an IPA. these were the ingredients he gave me:
- Dingemans Aromatic - 1lb $2.75
- Briess aramel 60L malt - 1lb $2.75
- Safale Dry Ale Yeast $4.25
- Centennial Hop Pellets - 3 OZ $9.00
- Columbus Hop Pellets - 1 OZ $2.75
- Muntons Plain Extra Light Malt Extract - 2 cans $29.00
- Briess CBW Golden Light Dry Malt Extract 2 LB$11.00
- Muslin Grain Bag $1
Grand total of $61.50 plus tax.
So I'm looking at where i could cut down some costs. I dont want to cheap out but that seems kind of expensive for what ive seen online for refill recipe kits. i had a decent amount left over wort b/c the Mr Beer container only says to fill it to the 8.5 liter mark. so what could i cut out next time I brew?
i put about 6 gallons of water in the Pot, next time ill probably do 4-5 gallons.

also, ive read recipes where they fill the pot with maybe half the amount of water then just add in water to the fermenter before adding the cooled wort. does that matter? i could probably do it indoors on my burner if i just do 2-2.5 gallons. i dont want to compromise flavor. doing outdoors is fun anyway, but on the rainy days i guess i could do it indoors.

and last - filtering. since im only doing a primary with the MR beer kegs. is it worth doing a little bit of filtering before i put it in my primary? like a colander or one of those paint filters from lowes.
i thought of cold crashing before i bottle, but its been 5 days since i put it in the primary and i can already see the trub is almost up to the spigot in the mr beer container. so cold crashing may make it even higher and itll just come out of the spigot anyway.

thanks for the input!

Holy ****!!!
I just did my first all grain BIAB TODAY
12lbs Canadian 2 row
1lb caramel 40l
1 oz centennial 69mins
2oz whole cone cascades 20 mins
1oz centennial 10 mins
1 oz cascade 5 mins

Total $11.91

I'm reusing yeast that I made into a starter. Us-05

And I used a hop spider to keep that gunk out of my wort

My advice. Buy your malt in bulk or get it from a big shop like northern brewer. That muntons is way expensive.

i just checked nothernbrewers website and the muntons was close to the same price, theirs is 13.99 per can i paid 14.50. was i only suppose to use 1 can of the 3.3 lbs? if so, whats gonna happen to my beer?

The big question is; How long do you think you are going to brew for?

Your beers will undoubtedly get better with time, and if you stick with it, you will probably toss out the Mr.Beer barrels and move on to 5 gallon equipment.

Be prepared to buy some things for the next 5 or even 10 batches (or more).

I partial mash, so I use both grains and extract.

I buy Briess light LME in bulk for $60 for 33 lbs from my LHBS. If I use 6 lbs a batch (I make 7 gallon batches), one container will last about 5 batches.

You might find a similar price on-line. You can buy 55 lbs of DME from Grape & Grannery for less than $3 a pound.

Those grain prices are extortionate. Go check out Rebel Brewer (and other sites). I find for some grains my LHBS is cheaper, so I buy that from them.

Figure on some hops you will probably use a lot of. Columbus for Bittering (or magnum maybe), something for flavor (Cascade, Centennial, Goldings, etc) and order them by the pound from somewhere like Hops Direct. Over all hops cost me about $0.65 an ounce. They store well in the freezer.

Re-use yeast.

Get paint straining bags from the hardware store. You can rinse them out and re-use them.

Yeah at least in bulk LME is 11 bucks per 6lbs.

I forgot to mention. All my hops were in bulk from here or given to me by a fellow homebrewer. The leaf hops were ones he grew himself. Very nice.

thanks for the info and websites, i plan on using the Mr Beer containers for now since it was free and buy equipment as i go along but im sure ill upgrade at some point on that. the only other piece i bought was this hand siphon from lowes http://www.lowes.com/pd_34415-1699-...+hand+pump&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151&rpp=24
it seemed to do the trick for now.
my next purchase is the paint strainer bags

how do you reuse yeast? i just got the packet and dumped it in the fermenter.

my beer has been in the fermenter for 2 weeks now, i am using 2 mr beer kegs from a 5 gallon recipe that i posted above. it tastes...well like an IPA. I am suprised how good it turned out since it was my first time and I saw alot of burnt malt at the bottom of the turkey fryer, i dont really taste any off flavors, maybe a little soapy aftertaste but i figure that will go away with time and carbonation.
i am not sure if it is done fermenting i dont have the tool to tell that but i dont see anymore bubbles and all the crap on the top is pretty much gone and sank to the bottom. i am going to transfer 1 of the mr beer kegs to bottles at some point this weekend and then let the other keg sit for another week or 2 to see what turns out better.
The color is the only thing that seems a little off. it is very orange. attached is a pic.

Since you are doing small batches look into all grain BIAB.

Looks like beer. Actually a rather pretty color, but a little cloudy. Secondary fermenter helps with that. Bottle it up and give it a couple of weeks and you will be a happy brewer.

C-Rider said:

Since you are doing small batches look into all grain BIAB.

Click to expand...

+1

My first recipe was a stout that cost me well over $50 because I did pretty much the same thing you did. For my second batch I went BIAB for around $25 and haven't looked back. BIAB worked out great for me.
I am all grain now buying hops and grain in bulk and reusing yeast. I make 5 gallon batches for around $12 a batch.

Agreed... Typically I spend less than $25 a batch and that's not buying anything in bulk. To the OP: Nice colour on that actually. Most IPAs are fairly orange at that stage of fermentation.

Not to hijack, but I'm making my second batch this weekend (first was an extract kit that's fermenting nicely), and I'm wondering for the folks that buy in bulk, do you make the same beer every time? I'd love to get to $20 or less per 5 gal. The kits get expensive, and I don't need the priming sugar and bottle caps they give you since I'm kegging. On the other hand, the kits allow me to experiment with different styles.

Is it typically cheaper to piece together ingredients for a 5gal batch at my LHBS than buy a kit? Could I copy a recipe from a kit exactly and save $$?

thanks i was just reading into all grain. ill probably stick to the extract for the next few brews then start switching over as i learn more and get new equipment. here is a pic after 2.5 weeks in the bottle. it was derishious. im going to start a spring or summer ale this upcoming weekend. any suggestions would be appreciated.