BrothersTrout
Active Member
Let me preface this by saying I'm very new at this, so I appreciate all the help you folks provide I seem to have two conflicting sources of information regarding technique, and I'm wondering if there's a consensus on these issues. My local brew shop provides some basic brewing instructions that are quite in contrast with what I'm reading in Wheeler & Protz's Brew Your Own British Real Ale.
For example, the brew shop says to mix the malt extract (with our without partial mash, all that) into 2.5 gallons of boiling water, and boil it for an hour, then top it off in the primary fermenter with cool water to bring the temp down. The book says that you really should use as close as you can to the same quantity you're brewing, so you should have 5 gallons of wort, then use a chiller or such to cool the wort. The book also notes that the boil time should be 1.5 - 2 hours, not the one recommended by the shop.
In addition, the home brew shop's instructions say to ferment for (usually) 7-10 days, then add wort to a priming sugar solution in a bottling bucket and bottle. I think Graham Wheeler would have a heart-attack on reading that! He is quite adamant that a good beer should never need priming, and states specifically that going from fermentation straight to bottling is "bad practice." The instructions in the book are to bottle after fermenting, a second fermentation (which they refer to as 'dropping'), and then a maturation period in a barrel.
It would seem the brew shop suggestions are for total novices, and the book's suggestions for people who are more "hard-core" about their home brewing. What do you guys do?
For example, the brew shop says to mix the malt extract (with our without partial mash, all that) into 2.5 gallons of boiling water, and boil it for an hour, then top it off in the primary fermenter with cool water to bring the temp down. The book says that you really should use as close as you can to the same quantity you're brewing, so you should have 5 gallons of wort, then use a chiller or such to cool the wort. The book also notes that the boil time should be 1.5 - 2 hours, not the one recommended by the shop.
In addition, the home brew shop's instructions say to ferment for (usually) 7-10 days, then add wort to a priming sugar solution in a bottling bucket and bottle. I think Graham Wheeler would have a heart-attack on reading that! He is quite adamant that a good beer should never need priming, and states specifically that going from fermentation straight to bottling is "bad practice." The instructions in the book are to bottle after fermenting, a second fermentation (which they refer to as 'dropping'), and then a maturation period in a barrel.
It would seem the brew shop suggestions are for total novices, and the book's suggestions for people who are more "hard-core" about their home brewing. What do you guys do?