Brewing my first batch!!

Hey everyone! I'm a total noob to beer brewing, so take it easy one me

I just have a few questions before I start brewing.

1. Is a 16qt stainless-steel pot big enough for brewing?
2. Every recipe I read calls for 60 minutes of boiling. The local brewstore guy gave me a recipe for a "Newcastle Brown Ale" type of beer, but he said to boil it for 45 mins. Here is the recipe...I may edit this later on because I'm at work right now and don't have the recipe in front of me.


He said he made it kinda easy since it is my first time. He said at 45minsor after hot-break, put in 1oz of hops. Then at 20 mins, .5oz hops, and I believe at 3 mins another .5oz hops. Also he said to put the irish moss in around 15 mins I think.

Anyone got any tips or think this should be alterd for a 60 minute boil?

Thanks in advance.

1. Your pot is large enouogh for a partial boil of about 3 gallons. Add water in the fermenter to 5.5 gallons.
2. Browns have low bittering levels, so 45 minutes is fine.
3. 15 minutes is correct for the Irish moss.

Boil with the lid off and watch it closely.

I'm new too, my first batch is in the primary as we speak.

I also used a 16qt (3.7 gallon) SS pot for my boil, and it worked just fine.

Don't know about the 45min vs 60min boil, but there are lots of guys here that know their stuff, I'm sure they'll chime in.

Good luck!

Awesome! Thanks for the quick responses.

I should be brewing my first batch tomorrow night.

Looks OK to me, I could be wrong on this but I believe that the irish moss goes in with 15 minutes left to boil.

Does that sound like not much extract to anyone? Seems like a typical extract batch should have around 6lbs of extract

Yeah that did seem kinda weird to me too. What will happen if it's not enough malt extract, will it taste like a budweiser? EEWWWWWW

bigben said:

Yeah that did seem kinda weird to me too. What will happen if it's not enough malt extract, will it taste like a budweiser? EEWWWWWW

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I doubt it would taste like Bud. But, it does sound kind of light on malt, which means light on fermentables, which means low alcohol. Might be kind of weak in flavor too. But, I guess its not off of 6 lbs by much it comes in around 5 lbs. I'm not trying to worry you at all, that will definitely make beer and a good beer too, I'd bet.

bigben said:

Yeah that did seem kinda weird to me too. What will happen if it's not enough malt extract, will it taste like a budweiser? EEWWWWWW

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It's not THAT bad. Rule of thumb is 1 lb of LME for every gallon of beer if you want a light-bodied brew. 1.5 lbs/gallon for heavier body.

Is your extract liquid or dry, ben? I'm assuming liquid, so.... It won't knock your socks off, but it'll be better than 3.3 lbs of liquid extract and 3 lbs of corn sugar!

-walker

Imperial Walker said:

It's not THAT bad. Rule of thumb is 1 lb of LME for every gallon of beer if you want a light-bodied brew. 1.5 lbs/gallon for heavier body.

Is your extract liquid or dry, ben? I'm assuming liquid, so.... It won't knock your socks off, but it'll be better than 3.3 lbs of liquid extract and 3 lbs of corn sugar!

-walker

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Good question. I'm not sure. I will check when I'm home and repost. I may be off on the weight also, but I'm pretty sure those were the numbers. Can anyone suggest another malt extract to throw in there to bring it up a little? Maybe a chocolate malt?

Thanks again!!

Don't forget that that's a kit and they can't be taken as standard extract amounts. It's designed to be enough malt for a full batch with only the need for extra fermentables in the form of dextrose usually. I would either add 1.3 lbs of dextrose or more DME to that recipe for more gravity. That looks like a great recipe, throw a half-pound or so of light honey in there about half-way through the boil and it will REALLY blow your socks off.

I made a Mild Ale when i made my first batch. If I remember correctly, it called for approx. 3lbs of amber malt and 1 pound DME. The name definitely fit the beer....quite mild

Bopper359 said:

I made a Mild Ale when i made my first batch. If I remember correctly, it called for approx. 3lbs of amber malt and 1 pound DME. The name definitely fit the beer....quite mild

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Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. I don't want to make 50 beers that I don't really like. I will check the numbers tonight!

OK, sorry guys...i was off on the numbers.

I have:

I guess that sounds a little better right?

The timings were correct with the East Kent Goldings and I have Dry Windsor Yeast.

The amount of extract is perfectly fine for the style. Not every beer is designed to burn your brain and taste buds out after two pints. Browns and Milds are intended to allow you to drink all evening without a problem.

A Mild or a Brown will capture the taste buds of craft beer "haters". An Imperial IPA won't.

david_42 said:

The amount of extract is perfectly fine for the style. Not every beer is designed to burn your brain and taste buds out after two pints. Browns and Milds are intended to allow you to drink all evening without a problem.

A Mild or a Brown will capture the taste buds of craft beer "haters". An Imperial IPA won't.

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What the heck does that mean? I know what different beers taste like. I just don't know how to brew them yet.

What he means is that will be a beer most people will be able to enjoy, even if they "Don't like dark beers." While and Imperial India Pale Ale is usually something that relatively few people enjoy (me being one of them )
That will be an awesome first beer, and it will be gone before you know it.

ok cool....I wasn't sure.

I should be brewing tonight...hopefully everything goes smoothly. Washing/Sanitizing/Rinsing everything is gonna be a biotch because I only have my kitchen sink...no utility sink.....oh well

bigben said:

ok cool....I wasn't sure.

I should be brewing tonight...hopefully everything goes smoothly. Washing/Sanitizing/Rinsing everything is gonna be a biotch because I only have my kitchen sink...no utility sink.....oh well

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That being the case, you may eventually want to purchase a little adapter that you put on your kitchen faucet in place of the faucet aerator. This allows you to hook a small length of garden hose onto your kitchen faucet, which is very useful for filling buckets, rinsing things, etc. These tasks can be pretty difficult in a standard kitchen sink (becuase the stuff is too big to fit in the sink and under the faucet.)

cweston said:

That being the case, you may eventually want to purchase a little adapter that you put on your kitchen faucet in place of the faucet aerator. This allows you to hook a small length of garden hose onto your kitchen faucet, which is very useful for filling buckets, rinsing things, etc. These tasks can be pretty difficult in a standard kitchen sink (becuase the stuff is too big to fit in the sink and under the faucet.)

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Actually I do have the adapter. It came with a bottle rinser attachment. Is it ok to use a garden hose though? I get conflicting reports about rinsing with tap water. Some tell me after you sanitize with bleach, just rinse with hot tap water...other's tell me this negates the sanitation, and I'd assume a garden hose would add more bacteria....I don't know.

bigben said:

Actually I do have the adapter. It came with a bottle rinser attachment. Is it ok to use a garden hose though? I get conflicting reports about rinsing with tap water. Some tell me after you sanitize with bleach, just rinse with hot tap water...other's tell me this negates the sanitation, and I'd assume a garden hose would add more bacteria....I don't know.

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Well, this is kindof a landmine--the rinsing and sanitation thing. A few thoughts (which some will disagree with, I'm sure)...

1. If you're sanitizing with bleach, then you have to rinse. (Yeah, I know, it is claimed that bleach at a low enough concentration can be used as a no-rinse sanitizer, but I don't think anyone here actually does that.)

2. If you're using your tapwater (for brewing, for top-off water, for rinsing bleach residue) anyway, than a couple feet of CLEAN hose is not going to make any difference, IMHO. The water's either clean enough (which it almost surely is) or it's not. I think it's very common for outdoor brewers to get their water exclusively from a hose, for example. I sanitize with Iodophor, but I have a friend who brews outdoors, sanitizes with bleach, and rinses with the output water from his immersion chiller, which is hooked up to the garden hose. He has been brewing longer than I have and hasn't had any problems.

bigben said:

Actually I do have the adapter. It came with a bottle rinser attachment. Is it ok to use a garden hose though? I get conflicting reports about rinsing with tap water. Some tell me after you sanitize with bleach, just rinse with hot tap water...other's tell me this negates the sanitation, and I'd assume a garden hose would add more bacteria....I don't know.

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the garden hose itself wouldn't "add more bacteria" -- unless you're talking about grabbing your garden hose from outside under a pile of dirt and leaves and using that.... that would definitely not be advised. get a new length of hose if you're going to use it to rinse equipment after sanitizing.

Lou said:

the garden hose itself wouldn't "add more bacteria" -- unless you're talking about grabbing your garden hose from outside under a pile of dirt and leaves and using that.... that would definitely not be advised. get a new length of hose if you're going to use it to rinse equipment after sanitizing.

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I have one of those thingamabobs on the sink where you can spray water through. I can just use that right? It's not as long as a hose, but with the bucket sitting in the sink I'm pretty sure I can get over the top of it.

bigben said:

I have one of those thingamabobs on the sink where you can spray water through. I can just use that right? It's not as long as a hose, but with the bucket sitting in the sink I'm pretty sure I can get over the top of it.

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Yeah--depending on how anal you are, you might want to soak the sprayer unit in some strong bleach solution just to make sure the sprayer itself is not harboring nasties.

Also, keep in mind that it's fairly easy to make a colossal mess (possibly resulting in sleeping on the couch) with those things, especially after enjoying a few homebrews during your brewing session.

cweston said:

Yeah--depending on how anal you are, you might want to soak the sprayer unit in some strong bleach solution just to make sure the sprayer itself is not harboring nasties.

Also, keep in mind that it's fairly easy to make a colossal mess (possibly resulting in sleeping on the couch) with those things, especially after enjoying as few homebrews during your brewing session.

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LOL. Yeah, my wife likes things very clean. The first thing she said when I told her I wanted to homebrew was "It's gonna be all messy" HAHA

I don't have any homebrews to drink tonight, but I do have Sam Adams on tap, so I may be in some trouble.

One more question(for now)...I have a 16QT pot. How much wort is safe to boil in there? I know the more you can boil the better, but is 3 gallons pushing it? Should I stick with 2-2.5?

Thanks again!

bigben said:

One more question(for now)...I have a 16QT pot. How much wort is safe to boil in there? I know the more you can boil the better, but is 3 gallons pushing it? Should I stick with 2-2.5?

Thanks again!

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You can do 3 gallons, but you'll have to watch it pretty carefully when it comes to a rolling boil and you get that hot break. 2.5 would be safer, especially considering what you said about your wife. (Wort boilovers are a burnt, sticky mess on the stove.)

Keep in mind that's 2.5 or 3 gallons total liquid: if you're using liquid extract, there's a fair amount of liquid in that already. Most people mark a few different fluid levels on the outside of their brewpot. Or if you don't want to do that, you can use a ruler and just make note of what depth corresponds to what fluid levels.

cweston said:

You can do 3 gallons, but you'll have to watch it pretty carefully when it comes to a rolling boil and you get that hot break. 2.5 would be safer, especially considering what you said about your wife. (Wort boilovers are a burnt, sticky mess on the stove.)

Keep in mind that's 2.5 or 3 gallons total liquid: if you're using liquid extract, there's a fair amount of liquid in that already. Most people mark a few different fluid levels on the outside of their brewpot. Or if you don't want to do that, you can use a ruler and just make note of what depth corresponds to what fluid levels.

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Ah, thanks for that note. 2.5 TOTAL LIQUID. I didn't even think of that.

Ok, I'm gonna start with 2 gallons of water and put the malt extract in that. I will then put that in the fermenting bucket and top it off with cold water.

Thanks a lot!

Well, I brewed the first batch!!!

Everything went great except one thing...I never reached the hot break. Or I never reached a noticeable hotbreak. After putting in the malt extracts, I brought it back to a boil...watching it the whole time and stirring occasionally. I let it boil for 20 minutes and never experienced any foaming or anything. I mean there was a little foam but nothing near what I expected.

It was boiling really fast for a full 20 minutes when I decided that the "hot break" must've already happened and I threw in the hops. Any ideas what I experienced?

Thanks.

Hot-break is actually the stuff that forms in the boiling wort, it's not a boil-over or anything like that. You may have noticed that after about ten minutes of boiling, chunks and floaties (more than just the hops) start to run rampant through the wort. These are coagulating protiens commonly refered to as hot-break. In a darker beer they are sometimes hard to see.

bigben said:

Well, I brewed the first batch!!!

Everything went great except one thing...I never reached the hot break. Or I never reached a noticeable hotbreak. After putting in the malt extracts, I brought it back to a boil...watching it the whole time and stirring occasionally. I let it boil for 20 minutes and never experienced any foaming or anything. I mean there was a little foam but nothing near what I expected.

It was boiling really fast for a full 20 minutes when I decided that the "hot break" must've already happened and I threw in the hops. Any ideas what I experienced?

Thanks.

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heh heh heh... what did I tell you?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=74890&postcount=74

how much stirring does "occasionally" mean? I once added too much water to the pot, and after adding the extract, I was in the danger zone for easy boilovers, so out of hope and desparation I just stirred the wort constantly for the first 25 minutes of the rolling boil.

I never saw anything that resembled a hot break during that boil, and it was fine. In fact, I think it might have been one of the clearest beers I ever made. (I don't think the two are related, though.) The stirring keeps the foaming down and younever really notice anything. Also, I've noticed that the less specialty grains I use, the less of a hot break I get.

Let's consider The Worst Case; you did not get a hot break. What will this do to your beer? It will be cloudy. It will still taste fine.

Relax, and have a beer.

-walker

Imperial Walker said:

heh heh heh... what did I tell you?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=74890&postcount=74

how much stirring does "occasionally" mean? I once added too much water to the pot, and after adding the extract, I was in the danger zone for easy boilovers, so out of hope and desparation I just stirred the wort constantly for the first 25 minutes of the rolling boil.

I never saw anything that resembled a hot break during that boil, and it was fine. In fact, I think it might have been one of the clearest beers I ever made. (I don't think the two are related, though.) The stirring keeps the foaming down and younever really notice anything. Also, I've noticed that the less specialty grains I use, the less of a hot break I get.

Let's consider The Worst Case; you did not get a hot break. What will this do to your beer? It will be cloudy. It will still taste fine.

Relax, and have a beer.

-walker

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Haha, I know I know...but I couldn't resist posting. :cross: Thanks for the info.

Now about fermentation, I don't notice any activity after about 8 hours......JUST KIDDING!!!