Beer Kit....Check!

hello Brewers,

Quick question:

So I finally bought a brewing kit, and was going to start brewing. The kit I had purchased was a 5 gallon American Wheat. I wanted to start very simple.

This is what I had planned on doing. I was going to split the 5 gallons into 2x 2.5 gallon brews. Brew A was going to go directly by the recipe with of course decreasing every thing by half.

And Brew B I was planning on getting just a little creative. I was hopping to add some Honey and some Orange peels.

My hopes are that Brew A was straight by the recipe. And Brew B would be very similar with a little bit higher Alcohol content, with a little bit sweater (but not too much) taste with a bit of an orange citrus taste. This way I will be able to taste the two, and compare the two to determine how I will make my 3rd batch.

Soo my question:
1) For Brew B, How much Honey should i add for 2.5 gallons?
2) will any Honey do? How many Oranges should I use?
3) How do i prepare the orange peels?
4) When do I place the peels into the fermenter?
5) Any other ingredients I might add to Brew B in order to achieve a higher alcohol content with a sweater orange citric taste?
6) This is the kit I purchased. http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_MaestroHomebrewKitwithAmericanWheatkit.cfm I have seen people hadding in like sugar, and other products to the similar beer im trying to make....Do i need to purchase any other ingredients? or will this kit do just fine for my first brews?

3) How do i prepare the orange peels? Just use the zest (outer skin) of the oranges. Try to not use the white pith under the skin. You can also buy dried orange peel (sweet or bitter) at your local HBS. I use 0.5-1.0 oz per 5 gallons so for 2.5 gallons I recommend around 1/4-1/2 an once max.


4) When do I place the peels into the fermenter? They are usually added the last 5 minutes of the boil.


Is your kit an extract recipe or all grain?

Thanks msa,
I updated the question...
the kit was a extract recipe,
http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_MaestroHomebrewKitwithAmericanWheatkit.cfm

could you also answer # 6 for me please.

That is a good equipment kit. I have the same one. For question #6 You don't need to add any additional sugar to it unless you want to boost the Alcohol %. I never add sugar (except the priming sugar at bottling time) because I am afraid of changing the flavor profile but that is just me.

For question # 1, Check out http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter20-3.html. It talks about using Honey in your brewing. This is a great resource as it is the entire How to Brew book online. I highly suggest buying a copy to reference while brewing if you stick with the hobby as it is worth it to not always be poking around on a PC.





Enjoy! Be sure to call you LHBS if you have any problems on brewday.

I would not try to raise the abv for your first brew. If you raise the SG then the SG/IBU ratio will be off and for a low IBU wheat beer you don't have much room to adjust this ratio for a first time kit.

I quickly found that by brewing my own beer I started to make some with more body and flavor and thus lower ABV than some commercial beers. Wheats should come in the 4-5% ABV range and i would look to adjusting the flavor/spices of batch B instead of trying to mess with the ABV. If you make things too different between the two beers it will be hard to tell what effects on version B you may really like.

Just my 20 pesos worth.

To msa,

Yea im not purposly trying to increase the ABV, but by adding honey (more sugar), it will be adding more alcohol.

Honestly, it's your first batch..... Do it straight off the instructions. Brew a batch or two before dabbling.

+1, stick to the recipe. Honey will raise your ABV, but won't leave much of a sweet taste, and will make your beer very dry. Honey malt does a better job of imparting honey flavor to the final brew.

Get the basic brew process down to where it is robotic. Should take you 4-5 brews. THEN start to experiment.

ok. taking this fourms advice, and many other fellow brewers advice that i have talked to....every one is telling me to get a few brews under my belt first.

However, 5 gallons of beer is just too much for me. I think i am still going to split it in half and brew 2 1/2 gallons for my first brew. Now the question is.... for my second brew, should I try and brew the same beer with the remaining ingredients...which is kinda boraing.... or is any one able to suggest another beer i could brew for my second that will use the remaining ingredients, and also I would buy the other ingredients. I just would hate to waste materials.

Any suggestions? my kit is listed above.

I would add orange peel like you wanted in batch B. Just don't add additional sugars. I use a regular vegetable peeler and peel 1 navel orange add it when there is 5 min left before you stop boiling. I dump them With the wort into my fermenter and get a little more flavor. I have also added the orange peel directly to the fermentor after fermentation is complete and leave for a week or 2 if the original orange did not give you enough flavor. But soak the peels in vodka for a few minutes to sanitize if you add to the fermentor

bretrichter said:

ok. taking this fourms advice, and many other fellow brewers advice that i have talked to....every one is telling me to get a few brews under my belt first.

However, 5 gallons of beer is just too much for me. I think i am still going to split it in half and brew 2 1/2 gallons for my first brew. Now the question is.... for my second brew, should I try and brew the same beer with the remaining ingredients...which is kinda boraing.... or is any one able to suggest another beer i could brew for my second that will use the remaining ingredients, and also I would buy the other ingredients. I just would hate to waste materials.

Any suggestions? my kit is listed above.

Click to expand...

Do you have someone who you can give some beer to or help you drink it? The reason most people do 5 gallons is you loose some in the boil kettle because you want to leave behind the trub, then you loose some transfering to the bottling bucket again because of the trub and the lastly you loose some when bottling from the bucket. I use to get around 4.25 gallons from a true 5 gallon recipe. If you only do have a recipe you could be looking at under two gallons of actual beer (about 20 bottles). It can be alot of work for under 4 6 packs.

5-gallons goes much quicker than you think. You will soon get a beer that you really like and wonder where the hell it went. There are recipies that I brew in only 10-gallon batches because I can not keep them on tap.