Tried my first homebrew last night! Awesome!

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fg12351

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It was a Brewer's Best Red Ale extract that I had in the primary for 4.5 weeks and it's been in the bottles for 2 weeks. My patience ran out yesterday and I threw one in the freezer for an hour and then in the fridge for another hour before I cracked it open last night. It was great! The color was a deep red hue. I thought it was very clear and it had a nice taste to it. I think it was still "green" so another week or two I'm sure it will be even better! I'm definitely hooked on this hobby!

One question I had when reading about priming sugar:

Al ot of people state they use 4 oz. of priming sugar per 5 gallon batch. This was an extract kit that game with 5 oz. of priming sugar and that's what I used. This beer was carbed well but did I use too much? The recipe instructions never stated what amount to use. I used 22 oz. bottles but will be using 12 oz. as well in the future.

Anyways, thanks for everyone's help on this and now I'm researching an IPA brew!

FG12351
 
fg12351 said:
It was a Brewer's Best Red Ale extract that I had in the primary for 4.5 weeks and it's been in the bottles for 2 weeks. My patience ran out yesterday and I threw one in the freezer for an hour and then in the fridge for another hour before I cracked it open last night. It was great! The color was a deep red hue. I thought it was very clear and it had a nice taste to it. I think it was still "green" so another week or two I'm sure it will be even better! I'm definitely hooked on this hobby!

One question I had when reading about priming sugar:

Al ot of people state they use 4 oz. of priming sugar per 5 gallon batch. This was an extract kit that game with 5 oz. of priming sugar and that's what I used. This beer was carbed well but did I use too much? The recipe instructions never stated what amount to use. I used 22 oz. bottles but will be using 12 oz. as well in the future.

Anyways, thanks for everyone's help on this and now I'm researching an IPA brew!

FG12351
Click to expand...


Awesome! I wish my first was as enjoyable for me as yours was for you!

My second, however, was bliss...:D

Brew ON!
 
My first homebrew was from a kit as well, I used the supplied priming sugar which I believe was 5oz as well and it turned out just fine. I'm sure some of the more seasoned home brewers will chime in but the average amount is 3/4 cup to 5 gal. So you could add up to 6 oz and still be fine.
 
Congrats on your first brew. It is definitely an exciting day when you drink that first one.
For the priming sugar, it will only affect carb level. It's likely not fully carbed yet after only 2 weeks. If after another week or you, you're happy with the carb level, continue using that amount. If it seems too fizzy for your tastes use less. Don't judge it off it's current level though, as it will likely carb more still after only 2 weeks in bottle.
 
Brewer's Best Red was my first kit too! That batch turned out great. 5oz is just enough priming sugar. So I wouldn't worry at all. They put that much in a kit for a reason. If you start to order kits without priming sugar just substitute a little less then 2/3 a cup of table sugar.
 
fg12351 said:
It was a Brewer's Best Red Ale extract that I had in the primary for 4.5 weeks and it's been in the bottles for 2 weeks. My patience ran out yesterday and I threw one in the freezer for an hour and then in the fridge for another hour before I cracked it open last night. It was great! The color was a deep red hue. I thought it was very clear and it had a nice taste to it. I think it was still "green" so another week or two I'm sure it will be even better! I'm definitely hooked on this hobby!
Click to expand...

Way cool man! I've got the same kit sitting in a secondary right now and it's my first home brew as well. Hope it turns out as good as yours, it's looking good so far. :mug:
 
Don't take the 5oz of sugar for granted - every style has a different carb level go here for the correct carbing

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?10090022#tag

Congrats on your brew - BUT here is the great thing. You think it;s good now? Just wait until you get more and more batches under your belt (literally LOL) You will come back in 10 batches and say - now THIS is good beer . . . and then in 10 more batches you will say THIS IS the best beer.

I made great tasting beer first and now after 50 batches I'm still getting better and better. You will keep learning tiny little things that will improve, better techniques, temp control and just experience.

Congrats and welcome to obsession.
 
You should be fine using the full amount. Here are a few sites that can be useful for future priming calculations (if you want to be accurate to the style of beer your brewing, etc.):


TastyBrew's Bottle Priming Calculator


John Palmer's "How To Brew" Calculation Chart

Frankly, I'm lazy, and TastyBrew is easy to use. *grins*

There has been heated debate over what constitutes the correct "bottling temperature" to be used for the calculations -- temperature of the beer at the actual time of bottling (as some lager/crash cool right before bottling), or the highest temperature reached during/after fermentation regardless of what the temperature is actually at for bottling, as that will dictate the amount of residual CO2 still in the beer, and that will affect how much priming sugar you use when you bottle. I'll let you make up your mind about what side of the fence you're on (and some interesting reading on it can be found HERE).

Cheers, and welcome to the obsession!
 
I remember that first taste of the first batch and thinking the same thing. Awesome. I couldn't wait the full amount of time either. They guys down at my LBHS actually suggest 6-8 oz. of corn sugar depending on how much carbonation you want.
 
FYI- 6 to 8 oz of priming sugar per 5 gal batch will certainly give you bottle bombs! Thats like carbing to 3.5 or 4.0 vol. 5oz is the most you should use on a 5 gal batch. Check the guides posted above, they will help you decide.
 
BADCL0WN said:
FYI- 6 to 8 oz of priming sugar per 5 gal batch will certainly give you bottle bombs! Thats like carbing to 3.5 or 4.0 vol. 5oz is the most you should use on a 5 gal batch. Check the guides posted above, they will help you decide.
Click to expand...

You're right. The information was actually 3/4 - 1 cup priming sugar which is right around 5 oz. For some reason I was equating 3/4 - 1 cup with 6 - 8 oz. My bad.
 
Something about using a volume measurement for priming sugar freaks me out. You wouldn't use 3 cups of DME would you?

On the other hand, I use metric measurements for priming sugar, and thus have nothing of use to contribute to this conversations :D

Seriosuly though, I generally try to go for the middle to high end of carbing to style. I don't thin kid like an undercarbed hefe or an over carbed bitter or whatever. The differences are roughly within 50g but it does make a difference.
 
OK, it's not all roses.

Some of the bottled beer is alot darker after pouring and has more of a bite to it that I am contributing to burned extract on our crappy electric range. The flavor is tolerable. We had to boil the wort in 2 separate smaller containers because of the above aforementioned range. When it came time to pour the two into the fermenter, they appeared to have difference consistencies. If I have variation bottle to bottles should I have done more mixing at some point?

Thanks,

FG12351
 

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