First Brew - AHS American Amber Ale

I am getting ready to brew tonight and thought I would start a thread for my first time.


First of all, the instructions say to boil 2.5 gallons of water, can I do more if I want to? It also says after the wort is chilled top off to 5.25 gallons in the ferment bucket. Why not 5 gallons?

When I add the hops, do I just throw them in there or do I need to buy a bag to put them in?

That is all for now... I think.

You put more water in to account for water loss while boiling and trub in the fer mentor. Its so you can get as close as you can to 5 gal when it comes to bottling.

That was the same kit I did for my first brew. Careful not to make the mistake I did and ferment at too high of a temperature...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-temperature-77f-problem-80561/

I think you can do more than 2.5 gallons if you want (though you might want someone more knowledgeable to answer this one). I don't see why you would want to though - the more water you boil, the longer it will take to cool.

You top off to 5.25 to account for the amount you'll loose in the trub, so that way you should be bottling close to 5 gallons.

I just throw the hops in and get most of them out when I transfer to the secondary and then the bottling bucket.

Good luck!

First of all, that's an excellent choice of kit. That was my first brew as well, and a I also made it again a year or so later. It's a good beer.

As for the water, the concern with using more than 2.5 gallons is that you will increase your hops utilization, meaning you'll get more bitterness out of the same amount of hops.

In practice, however, I can tell you from experience with that kit that you will not have any problems with an over-bitter beer if you add another gallon or so the boil. It gives you more to cool down, though, so having a wort chiller is sort of clutch there.

With the hops, just put them in. You'll have sludge at the end of the boil. Some people worry about not getting that into their fermenter, many don't. It's not an issue either way.

Welcome to the obsession.

Anyone have any idea on boiling more than 2.5 gallons?

machinehead131 said:

Anyone have any idea on boiling more than 2.5 gallons?

Click to expand...

dogbar was right, it will increase the bitterness by decreasing the gravity of the boil. See Palmer's Hop Bittering Calculations. Diluting with more water decreases the gravity of the boil by which leads to increased the isomerization of the alpha acids, which increases bitterness.

You could either decrease the amount of bittering hops (just use the equations in the link), or just live with the added bitterness, which may not at all be a bad thing.

jgohean said:

dogbar was right, it will increase the bitterness by decreasing the gravity of the boil. See Palmer's Hop Bittering Calculations. Diluting with more water decreases the gravity of the boil by which leads to increased the isomerization of the alpha acids, which increases bitterness.

You could either decrease the amount of bittering hops (just use the equations in the link), or just live with the added bitterness, which may not at all be a bad thing.

Click to expand...

Did you use a liquid yeast or dry one?

jayaprathap_psg said:

Did you use a liquid yeast or dry one?

Click to expand...

you asking me?

I used the White Labs yeast (WLP051) that came with the AHS kit:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/my-first-brew-80524/

Boil as large as you can! one thing that may become an issue for you if you go too large is cooling. since this is your first brew, i doubt you have a wert chiller, so you will be doing an ice batch in the sink. if your sink is anything like mine, you probably cannot chill more than 2.5 galons in an ice bath.

I was going to cool in a rubbermaid garbage can with ice on the bottom and covering most of the sides.

AHS Amber is a great kit, was my 3rd (4th if you count cider). I did a 5 gallon boil, and it ended up great! At that point i was cooling in an ice bath in the sink (took a while with a 5 gal boil, but worked fine). Good luck!

I did this as one of my first brews, full boil with the standard hop additions, and it came out great.

There's about 10% more hop utilization going full boil, and since this kit was on the lower side, it didn't hurt it at all to keep the recipe the same, but go for a full 5 gallon boil.

I evaporated more than expected, so I topped it off with tap water.

It was a great brew that lots of people still ask about.

I'm sitting on an AHS gift certificate, and I'm thinking about buying it AG and extract, and trying them side by side. Everyone liked it enough that getting rid of 10 gallons shouldn't be a problem!

Best of luck with the recipe. Make soem tea out of the specialty grains (don't squeeze the bag), boil, add hops at the right intervals, add the DME near the end, cool, pitch.

Instructions can be a little confusing, but as long as you remember the generic brewing steps it'll all make sense.

Okay, I brewed successfully i think...

I racked to a secondary after 9 days so I could brew again.

How long should I be in the secondary? Is 2 weeks plenty of time.

I didn't take hydro readings and will probably do so but I am assuming 3 weeks is more than enough time for it to be ready to bottle.

The next brew I have is the AHS Cream Ale. I am going to go for 2 weeks in the primary, from there - how long should I let it sit before bottling, even if the hydro readings are the same after say 10 days?

I would like to rack to the secondary to brew again whenever I want.

The reason AHS says 2.5 gallons is that they are meant for stove stop brewing. You can boil larger and you will have better hops utilization. I have brewed 20+ AHS kits and in reality you will get more hops with a full boil I have not tasted the difference and MOST have been great.

Cooling - stir the wort every so often - it'll cool it faster. Also - make sure ice is on the bottom and the pot is not sitting directly on teh bottom (for better cooling).

Grinder12000 said:

The reason AHS says 2.5 gallons is that they are meant for stove stop brewing. You can boil larger and you will have better hops utilization. I have brewed 20+ AHS kits and in reality you will get more hops with a full boil I have not tasted the difference and MOST have been great.

Cooling - stir the wort every so often - it'll cool it faster. Also - make sure ice is on the bottom and the pot is not sitting directly on teh bottom (for better cooling).

Click to expand...

I may get a wort chiller, debating it.

How long should it condition even if the readings are the same?

condition????

Wort chillers rock!!

condition - I typically do a 213 technique. 1 weeks in the primary - 1 week secondary and 3 weeks carbonating. By that time your beer will be green but very drinkable. Another month and it will be in wonderful land as far as conditioning.

HOWEVER - I like my brews on the younger side. Hops diminish over time (not sure how commercial brewery's do it - they seem more stable).

BTW - if you like amber the AHS Fat Tire clone is very good - not exactly like Fat Tire but it's a big crowd pleaser and is a good base for making your own amber recipe.

How would 9 days in the primary/ 2 weeks secondary, ? weeks in bottle? 3 or more?

1 week in the bottle, threw one in the freezer for a bit. It is carbed up with some bubbles in the beer. Tastes great. I am so happy right now with only a week in the bottles its so good!!!!


Thanks for everyones help this place rocks

machinehead131 said:

How would 9 days in the primary/ 2 weeks secondary, ? weeks in bottle? 3 or more?

Click to expand...

you will find that a lot of guys dont even secondary on here. i leave my beer in the primary for 2-4 weeks before kegging (pending strength). the extra time in the primary lets the yeast clean up after themselves, less vessels to clean and less risk of contamination. i recommend just picking up a few extra buckets for primaries, they are cheap and easy to clean.

as for time in the bottles, you should really give it atleast 3 weeks. you're going to find that if you drink them early, the last 6 will always be better then when you started.

you should def. get a chiller, or at the very least make one. i put my 25 ft chiller together for <30 bucks and you will be at pitching temps in under 20 min usually.