My First Forum Post Ever (Amature)

Greetings Gents!

Here is the basics...

-First time brewer
-Wheat Beer with orange peel and corriander seed

-4 lbs. EDME extract (tin can with shark on the front)
-3 lbs. spraymalt extract 55% wheat 45% barley (bag of fine off-white powder)
-1 oz corriander
-1 oz orange zest (both added last 15 mins of boil in roslyn bag)
-Like a fool added about a cup of granulated pure grain suger with 25 mins left in the boil, for no other reason then my friend saing "it will be cool"...i have no idea what this will do
-has been in primary of about 2 days now

So a few questions....

-Will that cup of sugar do anything, good or bad?
-Directions say it will be aprox. 4.9%. Is there any way to increace/ decreace this percentage?
-Is there any difference if I secondary ferment in a carboy? What are the pros and cons to carboy fermentation?
-What are some other good extracts to try?

Thanks for your time,
Tom

Will that cup of sugar do anything, good or bad? You will get tons of opinions on this one in regards to what it will do taste wise, however it provides food for yeast which increases ABV, how much a cup of sugar will add to a 5 gallon batch, that someone else will have to help with.

Directions say it will be aprox 4.9%. Is there any way to increase/decrease this percentage? Yeah, add some sugar...J/K More DME, more specialty grains, less water. There are tons of ways to make beer bigger, but making it bigger AND better is where the the challenge comes in.

Is there any difference if I secondary ferment in a carboy? There are a lot of opinions, but with a wheat beer it isn't absolutely necessary. A secondary is going to help clear the beer, but since it's a wheat it isn't that important. Getting the beer off of the sediment in the bottom of the secondary will have an affect on flavor but for your first batch I wouldn't sweat it.

White sugar will up the alcohol content and could give you some cidery flavors.

I'm going to make a few recommendation to you that will help you out.

First either purchase or read the online version of How To Brew.

Next. Check out this thread and read at least the top two links.

Welcome to HBT!!

Don't worry about a cup of sugar. A lb. in a wit would be a problem.

I would worry more about yooper seeing this thread with the "gents" intro.

cuinrearview said:

I would worry more about yooper seeing this thread with the "gents" intro.

Click to expand...

Not just Yooper either!
I would say more but since it's just for gents.....

Sorry,
Greetings ladies and gents...and transexuals.

Well, I'm no lady. I'm not a transexual either, though! Hmmmm.

Welcome to the forum anyway!