Simple Amber Ale

I decided to finally brew my first beer tonight! I did a lot of reading and a lot of searching off of this site and just figured I can document my experience. I put my recipe together from several I had seen. A friend of mine who has brewed a few time talked me into keeping it "stupid simple" for the first few rounds. I got my list of "needed" items and put my order in.
Midwest beginner buckets kit
6 - 3.3lbs amber lme
6 - 3.3lbs Pilsen lme
6lbs amber dme
5 - Muntons Gold dry yeast
5 - saflager-s23 dry yeast
16oz Willamette pellet hops - I repackaged in 2oz bags
16oz Whole Saaz hops - i need to repackage in 1oz bags
16oz Whole Hallertau hops - I need to repackage in 1oz bags

When I decided I was going to do this I decided to buy bulk and save, while also having the goods to mix it up a bit. I also decided to go all extract for simple time restraints I have at this point in my life. I borrowed a propane turkey fryer burner from my dad and made a 30qt pot investment. Here is the ingredients I decided to use on my first batch
6.6lbs amber lme
2oz Willamette hops.
I decided to only boil for a total of 45 minutes and do a partial boil. I started with 3 gallons of good water and brought that to a boil. While the water was working itself to a boil I had placed my "cooling" water, which was 2.5 gallons in the freezer to chill. I also sanitized all of my utensils while the water was getting to a boil. Once my water got to a boil I took the pot off of the flame and slowly poured in my first 3.3lbs amber lme while stirring. After that had all been added I dumped in 1oz Willamette hops. I replaced the pot on to the flame and cranked her up. I set my timer to 45 minutes as it started to reboil.
I went ahead and added 1/2oz Willamette hops once my timer reached 15 minutes left. I added the last 1/2oz when the timer said 5 minutes left. After adding the last batch of hops I got my chilled water and added it to my fermenter. when the timer went off as I shut down the propane. I poured the now wort into my chilled fermenter. The wort had not chilled quiet enough so I stuck the fermenter in the tub and filled with cold tap water. Stirring occasionally it cooled to 80 after about 20 minutes. I sealed up the lid, filled and placed the airlock, then stuck in a 70-75 degree dark spot.
On my next batch I will place the pot into the cool tub water first before I add to fermenter to try and speed that process up a little. Other than that I am happy with the way everything played out today. The only other thing is I did not take an og reading but plan to around day 10 and every 2-3 days after that.
I do have one question as I have considered using amber dme as my priming sugar verses dextrose. Anybody with a few pros and cons to this I would like a little input. I am very excited to get my first batch in the fermenter and ready to keep on learning!! I will try to stay up with updates as I progress through this first brew.

Congrats on your first beer and welcome to the obsession.

Using DME to prime is totally fine. However, your amber DME likely isn't completely fermentable, so you'll have trouble being quite as precise in your priming calculations as you would with sugar. But you can get close enough.

Good luck with the first batch.

Thank u! I did forget that I added the second jug 3.3lbs amber lme at flameout.

If those are the small packs of Munton's yeast (5g, I think) I'd use two packages for good measure.

Also, while clean is never a bad thing, during setup and boil stuff doesn't really need to be sanitized because the hot wort takes care of that. Of course, anything after flameout and the wort cooling/cooled needs to be sanitized.

Woke up this morning to a bubbling airlock. Now I'm just playing the waiting game!

Just an update for anyone interested. I ended up bottling on day 17 which was nov 21st. I set the full bottles in there fermentation spot at 70-75 degrees. I did end up adding a second pack of yeast. I decided to try a taste. So on December 1st 10 days after bottling I popped a top, and much to my surprise we have carbonation! Poured into a glass and took a big ol swallow! Not to shabby if I do say so myself. It has a bit of a bitter lingering aftertaste but that will mellow over time. Much to my surprise my wife tried it (who drinks strictly bud light) and says "Wow if it wasn't for the "funky" aftertaste it would be a really good beer!" Lol
So my plan is to place in a cool spot between days 14-18. I plan on taste testing again this weekend and get a picture of color and clarity. To be honest I drank a few last weekend considering I liked the taste better than both roscoes hop house and the fat tire sitting in my fridge!