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FSR402

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Hey all. First time poster and short time reader here.

I'm about to really get into this beer making thing. I bought a kits from Brewer's Best and it has most of all that I really need. I think. lol
I have primary fermenting bucket with lid, a bottling bucket, a glass carboy, airlock, auto siphon, floating thermometer, two handle capper, hydrometer, a "thief", siphon hose, and a bottling wand.
Will be heading out in the next week or so to get a 7 gallon stainless pot and propane burner. Then I will get started.
I have been reading for the last few days here, and on the "How to Brew" site. Man there is way more to this then I ever thought. Kind of freaking out a little. I'm not sure if I have or will have all I need to do this or if I'm doing this right.

Is there any thing I need that I don't have listed? Anything that I "should have" to make things easier or better?
Can I cool the wort with my bath tub full of water and ice? Or should I get something like one of those cool chiller thingys right now?
Don't want to spend to much right off the bat but then again I sure do love new toys..

Any help would be great...

Oh and my first will be an Irish Stout. I will be using the Brewers Best Kit for this and it uses a LME along with some steeped grains and two different hops in a pellet form if that helps.

beer.gif
 
Sounds like you're good to go - the ice bath is a fine option until you're ready to start doing full boils. The reading can seem overwhelming at first, but just remember - Sit Back, Relax and Have a Homebrew (or something good until yours is done)

Just concentrate on the first chapter of how to brew for your first attempt; that covers the basics
 
Yeah man, you're all set. Having just started myself, I know what I had was more than enough, and all I had was the following:
Plastic Primary Fermenter
5 Gal Glass Carboy
Bottle Wand
Bottling Bucket

You've got a lot more, so you're all set. Relax, it's a lot easier than you're making it out to be. Just follow everything it says to do and you'll be fine.
 
rdwj said:
Sounds like you're good to go - the ice bath is a fine option until you're ready to start doing full boils. The reading can seem overwhelming at first, but just remember - Sit Back, Relax and Have a Homebrew (or something good until yours is done)

Just concentrate on the first chapter of how to brew for your first attempt; that covers the basics

I was planing to boil all 5 gallons at one time. I did not really think about how hard that would be to carry into the house and into the tub without burning myself or one of the pets. Hmmm... Maybe I should look into the cooler things before I get going.

Has anyone used one of these "kits" form Brewer's Best (Ld Carlson)? I was told by my dog breader (she makes beer and wine from these people all the time) and by the LHB shop that they were good kits and makes good beer. I'm only planing to make 4 or 5 of these kits then I want to get into half grain and all grain brewing.
 
I have no experience with Brewer's Best, but there are plenty of great places to get kits out there including Midwest, Northern Brewer and Austin Home Brew. As far as cooling goes, you WILL need a wort chiller of some sort if you plan on doing a full boil. An immersion chiller is probably the cheapest and easiest option.
 
Does the recipe specify that you need to do a full boil?
You can make perfectly good beer doing a partial boil, which you could cool using an ice water bath.

If you keep brewing you're going to want a chiller soon so no harm in getting it now, but it isn't a necessity.

Don't let all the available info freak you out, just think it through and do it.
 
if you're using an extra kit, i would do a partial boil and cool it in the bath, or even better if you have a large sink. that's what i usually use, just change out the water when it gets a little warm and add ice about the third time and you can cool 3 gallons in about a half hour. then top off with clean water of the same temp (70-80F)

if you run into any problems, just jump on the forums and ask...you'd be surprised how fast you'll get a response. in fact, i don't think i've left this place since i joined last month :D
 
My first brew was with a brewers best kit and so far I've been happy with the results.

If you are concerned with spending money on the chiller, (also known as a wort chiller), I'd wait until you get further along in this hobby.

I'll share a method that I used to help cool my wort down quickly. The few kits that I have used only required 2- 2.5gallons of water to be boiled to create the wort. Then you would cool the wort down and pour it into your fermentation (primary) bucket and add more water to get to the 5gallon mark.

I would put my 2-3 gallons of spring water into the freezer a couple of hours before I would start.

Then as everyone else said cool your wort (in the pot you boiled it in and covered to prevent infection) in the kitchen sink with ice water.

Once my wort got down to about 100deg I would start with 2gallons of the ice cold spring water from the freezer and dump it into the fermentation bucket. Then pour your cooled wort into the fermentation bucket and add more ice cold spring water to get to the 5gallon mark.

That should get you down to pitching temps, (normally around 70-75deg).
 
Thanks for all the info. I may or may not do a full boil. I guess that it will depend on if I want to buy a chiller right now. So I guess we will see.

Is there any advantages to doing or not doing a full boil?
 
FSR402 said:
Thanks for all the info. I may or may not do a full boil. I guess that it will depend on if I want to buy a chiller right now. So I guess we will see.

Is there any advantages to doing or not doing a full boil?

I honestly believe that moving from partial to full boil made THE biggest improvement in the taste of my beer. If you can do a full boil, I'd suggest that you do.
 
My first two brews were Brewers Best kits, the Red Ale and the Irish Stout. The kits were easy to use and follow the directions and produced good beer. I also used the chapters from HowToBrew.com on extract brewing as a reference.
It sounds like you have every thing you need except the brew kettle which you plan on getting. I used a 20qt pot on my stove for my first two batches. My wife hated the smell so I have since moved outside with a turkey fryer setup.
A full boil will get better extraction from the hops and result in slightly less carmelization of the wort (lighter colored beer if doing a pale beer). However it is difficult to cool a full boil without a chiller. Also the Brewers Best kits expect a partial boil so if you follow the recipe you will have more hops bittering with a full boil than the kit expected.
Good luck and have fun.
Craig
 
CBBaron said:
My first two brews were Brewers Best kits, the Red Ale and the Irish Stout. The kits were easy to use and follow the directions and produced good beer. I also used the chapters from HowToBrew.com on extract brewing as a reference.
It sounds like you have every thing you need except the brew kettle which you plan on getting. I used a 20qt pot on my stove for my first two batches. My wife hated the smell so I have since moved outside with a turkey fryer setup.
A full boil will get better extraction from the hops and result in slightly less carmelization of the wort (lighter colored beer if doing a pale beer). However it is difficult to cool a full boil without a chiller. Also the Brewers Best kits expect a partial boil so if you follow the recipe you will have more hops bittering with a full boil than the kit expected.
Good luck and have fun.
Craig

Well then maybe if I do a full boil I'll cut the bittering hops boil time down by like 5 minutes. Thanks all you have been a huge help. :mug:
 
FSR402 said:
Well then maybe if I do a full boil I'll cut the bittering hops boil time down by like 5 minutes. Thanks all you have been a huge help. :mug:

Rather than cutting the time down, just decrease the amount of hops you use.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/recipe.html

I'd plug everything into there, and then just adjust the boil volume just so you can visualize the difference in hops utilization for partial or full boil. Then you can adjust the hops accordingly until you reach the same IBU levels.
 
I would recommend spending a little more if you have to and get at least an 8 gal. pot for full boils. Thats what I recently bought and sometimes wish i would have gotten a 10. Full boils usually start with 6.5 gals or so. With a 7 gal pot, that leaves .5 gal space for hops, and room for expansion.

Wort chillers are awesome too for full boils. Nothing wrong with starting off with a partial boil either. Just remember to sanitize well and youre beer will be good.
 
HarvInSTL said:
My first brew was with a brewers best kit and so far I've been happy with the results.

If you are concerned with spending money on the chiller, (also known as a wort chiller), I'd wait until you get further along in this hobby.

I'll share a method that I used to help cool my wort down quickly. The few kits that I have used only required 2- 2.5gallons of water to be boiled to create the wort. Then you would cool the wort down and pour it into your fermentation (primary) bucket and add more water to get to the 5gallon mark.

I would put my 2-3 gallons of spring water into the freezer a couple of hours before I would start.

Then as everyone else said cool your wort (in the pot you boiled it in and covered to prevent infection) in the kitchen sink with ice water.

Once my wort got down to about 100deg I would start with 2gallons of the ice cold spring water from the freezer and dump it into the fermentation bucket. Then pour your cooled wort into the fermentation bucket and add more ice cold spring water to get to the 5gallon mark.

That should get you down to pitching temps, (normally around 70-75deg).

Great method.
 
I have made three Brewer's Best kits so far, and I would reccomend following the included directions since this is your first brew. They usually have you start with two gallons of water to steep the grains, and then you remove them, bring to a boil and add the extract. I use my stove top and a 20 quart pot and have plenty of space left over. I don't think that you need to worry about doing a full boil with an extract kit.
 
My LHBS had a wort chiller the 20 foot coil kind for $55 so I picked it up. I'm still leanning to the full boil but at the same time some of you are talking me out of it. :D
 
I got a great idea! Go back to your LHBS and pick up another kit and try both a partial and a full boil =) Can't have to much homebrew sitting around the house and you will start early in nailing down what tastes great for you and what methods are easier for you to do equipment wise and space wise.
 
I did 5-6 batches with full boil and a wort chiller, that never came out as good as my very first batch where I did partial boil and cooled the brewpot in a tub full of cold water. It turns out I was using liquid yeast with the full boils, thinking I was getting an upgrade, and yet I was depriving the yeast of the oxygenation it needed to reproduce properly. Nobody told me.

If you're going to do full boils, you have to consider the amount of dissolved oxygen (oxygenation) of the wort/beer. Boiling water depletes it of oxygenation. So when you do a partial boil, you're adding unboiled water at the end so the yeast has plenty of oxygen to consume in the first stage of fermentation. Go ahead and use the liquid yeast upgrades the LHBS will try and sell you. But if you boil the whole 5 gallons, you have to add oxygen back into the wort. Search the forums here for "aerate" or "diffusion stone" to find threads that will give you some idea of the different methods.

The other thing you can do is use dried yeast when doing full boils. The manufacturers usually dry the yeast at its peak between aerobic and anaerobic fermentation, so it doesn't really need any more oxygen dissolved in the wort. Just make sure you rehydrate it properly.
 
i have the brewers best also..
you need a second lid for the second bucket, really helps out when your cleaning the bucket with the spigot...its hard to share lids, espically one the fermenting lid gets so dirty.
 
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