More rookie questions!

Hey guys, how's it going? I ordered my kit today at work!! I'm so excited to begin my new hobby!

Well I have some more questions to ask.

1.) First question is cooling the wort. After spending $100 after tax on the kit, I want to buy the 7.5 gallon kettle. I will also need cleaning agents, and of course ingredients. I am aware that cooling the wort is very essential and an important aspect of brewing. The only problem is after spending all of that money on the equipment and such, I doubt I can afford a wort cooler for my first few batches. My fiancé can only handle so much, lol!!! So in your opinion, what is the best technique for cooling wort without a wort cooler?

2.) What would be an easy, yet very tasty beer to brew for a first timer? I would much prefer a lighter Ale, however I could drink an amber as well.

3.) During the first chapter of How to Brew, Palmer states to pour your beer in a glass slowly, to avoid drinking the bottom lair of yeast in the bottle. My question is, do all home brewed beers leave yeast at the bottom of the bottle? Are there certain beers that leave visible yeast and some that do not? I really wouldn't mind, but I bet my friends would be a little too frightened to drink it.

Well that's about it. Any tips would be helpful. Hopefully in 1-2 months I can enjoy me a good batch of home brew. Thanks for the help!!

1. Ice bath. If your sink is big enough to put the pot in, fill the sink around the pot with ice and cool it that way. If you're in a part of the country that has a bunch of snow, put the pot in a snow bank.

Also, if you are doing extract brews, you don't have to boil a full 5 gallons in the brew pot. Boil to end up with about 3 in the brew pot and add the other 2 gallons in the fermenter. Use bottled spring water, it's already sanitized. If you have that water chilled, you've saved yourself on ice.

You can build an immersion chiller for cheaper that you can buy it and it's not that difficult.

2. Blonde ales are easy. If you're doing extract, the trick to getting the light color is not adding all of the extract in the beginning of the boil. Save at least half of it to be added in the last 10 minutes of the boil. It will keep the amount of color added from carmelization down.

3. All bottled beer that is bottle conditioned will have a layer of yeast in it, homebrew or commercial. You don't necessarily want to drink the yeast. Pouring slowly keeps it in the bottle.

I'll just add that there's nothing wrong with drinking the yeast either. In fact, it replenishes the Vitamin B that the alcohol depletes in your body. I've found that if I drink the same amount of homebrew as I do commercial brew, I feel better the next morning after drinking the homebrew.

Thanks for all of that information! I guess I will just have to adapt to the yeast thing, which is not a problem! Is there any way to minimize the amount that is in the bottle?

Thanks again!

On one of the German Hefeweizen bottles over here in Europe there was instructions for pouring your beer in a glass (illustrated too). The steps were to leave a finger's width of beer in the bottom of the bottle, then swirl to mix up all the yeast, then pour it.... so that's what I did, and it was tasty.

I guess the yeast is part of the beer's body/flavor in certain types of beers?

The only way to avoid yeast in your bottles is to keg your beer first, then use a counterpressure filler to put some in bottles. The yeast is not an issue but just don't let friends and family take pouring into their own hands. You can warn them all you like, but someone will inevitably start sucking directly on the bottle.

i bought a kegging system the other day

whats a counterpressure filler?

It's a device that allows you to fill a bottle without letting the CO2 come out of solution. It pressurizes your bottle to near equillibrium to the keg. I believe they're about $50... just another gadget to spend on. If I need to transport a bit of brew, I might just fill a growler. I wonder how much carb would be lost if I drank it within the day.

I view yeast as a sign of a fine handcrafted, bottle-conditioned beer And it would be something I would proudly alert friends to who want to try some home brew.