My first brew is this weekend - anyone have suggestions for me?

Bierliebhaber said:

It may be a little late coming and someone may have already covered this, but DON'T use your pee as a sanitizer.

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Are you quoting a personal experience? Lol

Late as well but my advice would be to have a bowl of sanitized water for you hands and odds and ends and a spray bottle with sanitized water all set up for the end of the boil.

My batch is bottled! I tasted it during bottling and the flavor profile is more like an IPA than an APA, so we'll see what it's like after 2 weeks of carbing. Everything went very well! I was afraid the kraeusen would stay on the top of the beer, but when I went to rack into my bottling bucket all was well. I'll hopefully be posting with a picture of the finished goods in a couple weeks!

I may have missed it but you DID dissolve priming sugar into boiling water, cool, then rack the beer onto that prior to bottling, right? Otherwise I assume maybe you used carb drops?

ianhoopes said:

@JohnnyO

So you mean, boil the .5oz Centennial for 60 and do the other .5oz of Simcoe for 15 instead? May I ask why?

@Margos

My reasoning for steeping the Crystal 40L is to give a bit of freshness to the beer - from what I understand pure extract beers are never really great, just good. I thought it would be nice to have some actual grain used in the mix to make the beer fuller, although I understand it should be adding little to no gravity to the wort. Also I love the smell of fresh cracked malt.

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Sorry for the extremely late response to this as you've already brewed, fermented and bottled your batch. Congrats on what sounds like a great first brew!

The reason why I suggested switching the Simcoe from bittering to flavor/aroma addition is because you would have a more complex beer then. The Centennial and Cascade flavors are quite similar IMO. Simcoe would add a different, more complex note as a flavor/aroma addition.

ianhoopes said:

My batch is bottled! I tasted it during bottling and the flavor profile is more like an IPA than an APA, so we'll see what it's like after 2 weeks of carbing. Everything went very well! I was afraid the kraeusen would stay on the top of the beer, but when I went to rack into my bottling bucket all was well. I'll hopefully be posting with a picture of the finished goods in a couple weeks!

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Dont judge the flavor based on what you tasted on bottling day. The hop profile will mellow and decrease with time, cold temps, and carbonation. Congrats!

Good to hear. And I totally did dissolve 3/4 cup of corn sugar in 1 cup of water. It was a 5 gallon batch. One other thing if anyone has any input - the beer tasted somewhat...watery than what I'm used to when I tried it. Will this change with time? I assume carbonation is going to perk up the flavor of the beer somewhat. Still tasted great, just a bit thinner than what I'm used to from commercially brewed stuff.

I already have my second batch fermenting, it's a cream ale made with raw honey (I put it in the boil of course), and I'm planning to bottle prime with pasteurized honey as well. Will be ready to bottle in 1.5 weeks time. Of course I will keep everyone updated with pictures of the finished brew!

Well, it's 1.5 weeks after bottling and I cannot believe I've made something this delicious. Can't wait for it to get even better! Here's to brewing!

Best feeling in the world. And it gets better as you perfect your technique!

Great looking brew!

Question about your second batch, though. When did you add your honey in to the boil?

Congrats on a great looking beer!

@getzinator: I put the homey in during the last 15 minutes. It's raw honey, so long enough to sterilize without ruining flavor.

ianhoopes said:

@getzinator: I put the homey in during the last 15 minutes. It's raw honey, so long enough to sterilize without ruining flavor.

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Good deal. Did you have any issues with burning sugars or anything like that?

Nope. Turned out just fine.