First brew, Brooklyn Brew Kit

[vandoogie]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here, and to home brewing in general. I've done plenty of reading and research before I decided to go ahead with my first batch, so I am somewhat familiar with the process, etc...

I don't know how many people are familiar with the Brooklyn Brewshop Brew Kits, but for my first attempt at brewing I picked up one of their 1 gallon Everyday IPA kits, which is a small all-grain kit. I wanted to start small as I'm not quite ready to purchase a starter kit of equipment for a 5 gallon batch just yet ($100), or a large, heavy duty brewing kettle ($160 at the closest brew store to me), though I have been bitten by the homebrew bug and just really wanted to start.

Anyways, in the instructions for this kit it recommends using a 6 quart stock pot. This is because after the mash is done, and you do the sparge, the instructions say that you should have 5 quarts of wort in your pot at the beginning of the boil. The problem is that I only have a 5 quart stock pot, and I'm not about to go out and buy a 6+ quart stock pot now, just to have to go out a buy an even larger one when I inevitably move on to do a 5 gallon batch.

So my question is: do you think it is absolutely necessary to have 5 quarts of wort at the beginning of the boil? Or would it be acceptable to only add enough water during the sparge step to produce 4 - 4.5 quarts of wort so that I can do the boil in my 5 quart stock pot, and then when the boil is done and I've poured what is left of the now finished wort into my 1 gallon fermenter, just add water to the fermenter to bring it up to the 1 gallon mark? Would this affect the final results of the beer?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me out with this!!!

 

[vandoogie]

I really should have expressed in the subject that I needed help =P my mistake...

 

[JeffoC6]

Chances are, you're going to boil off anywhere between approx .5 and .75 gallons of wort during your 60 minute boil. If you start with 4-4.5 quarts of wort in your pot, that would bring you down to roughly 2-2.5 quarts (half gallon) upon completion. If you bring it back up to 1 gallon with water, I'm pretty sure you're going to thin out your beer and bring down your starting gravity. It'll be a light drinker for sure, but hey, spring's on the horizon, right?

I wouldn't recommend this as a common practice moving forward, but if you're just itching to brew, in the interim, I don't see it being a big deal.

What kind of kit is it? If an IPA kit, your hop flavor/aroma may be pretty diluted due to how much water you're adding on the back end.

 

[MrBrown]

Short answer to your question IMO no it isn't necessary to have 5 quarts prior to boil. There are others on here who i'm sure will chime in with the specifics of why. So long as the OG after adding the extra water matches what it hsould be for the recipe you should be fine. Do you have testing equipment? Hydrometer or Refractometer?
I did a brew of the BBS smoked wheat kit and messed up on measuring the amount of sparge water. Ended up with 1/2 gallon of wort. It'll be 3 weeks bottle conditioned on Wednesday so i'll know after that how it turned out.
All in all you will still make beer. How far off from the original taste you've strayed :shrug:
Welcome to the hobby (addiction)

P.S.
Go buy a bigger pot

 

[vandoogie]

Yes the kit is an IPA. The instructions say that approximately 20% will be boiled off by the 60 minute boil, so starting at 5 quarts you should have somewhere around 4 quarts (1 gallon) by the time you're done, and then it says if you boiled off more than that that it doesn't matter, it just means you've reduced it slightly, and adding water into the fermenter to bring it up to 1 gallon is not an issue. This is why I got the idea that maybe it wouldn't be a huge issue to just start my boil with slightly less than 5 quarts in the pot... but I don't know, I don't want it to be watery... My other idea was that maybe I could start at say 4.5 quarts, and then once some has boiled off, add another 0.5 quart during the boil, just so that that water would atleast get some of the hops flavour / aroma in it instead of just adding flavourless water and diluting it in the fermenter. Would this be a better alternative?

Like I said, i probably wouldn't be doing this again, as I fully intend to move onto a 5 gallon (probably a partial-grain partial-extract) batch next time, in which case I will be investing in a much larger pot anyways.

Thanks for your response!

 

[vandoogie]

Short answer to your question IMO no it isn't necessary to have 5 quarts prior to boil. There are others on here who i'm sure will chime in with the specifics of why. So long as the OG after adding the extra water matches what it hsould be for the recipe you should be fine. Do you have testing equipment? Hydrometer or Refractometer?
I did a brew of the BBS smoked wheat kit and messed up on measuring the amount of sparge water. Ended up with 1/2 gallon of wort. It'll be 3 weeks bottle conditioned on Wednesday so i'll know after that how it turned out.
All in all you will still make beer. How far off from the original taste you've strayed :shrug:
Welcome to the hobby (addiction)

P.S.
Go buy a bigger pot

I don't have a hydrometer yet, as I thought this kit came with one but it didn't end up comming with one... and as it's my first brew I'm not TOO concerned with doing that just yet, but I will be picking one up for the next batch that I do for sure (along with a bigger pot *wink*). If i'm planning on moving on to a 5 gallon kit (probably partial-extract partial-grain) after this, what size / type of pot do you recommend? Also, I found when I opened my kit that my thermometer was broken (apparently pretty common with these Brooklyn brew kits), what kind of thermometer would you recommend as a replacement?

Thanks!

 

[MrBrown]

what size / type of pot do you recommend? Also, I found when I opened my kit that my thermometer was broken (apparently pretty common with these Brooklyn brew kits), what kind of thermometer would you recommend as a replacement?

I haven't ventured to the 5 gallon side of brewing yet. I imagine a 32 quart pot would be ideal for 5 gallon batches.
You should email Brooklyn Brew Shop and tell them about your thermometer. Their customer service is really good. i'm sure they ship one right out to you.
I use two thermmometers. The one that came with the kit and a digital one. Neither of them ever agree so i use it as a guidline. If you wanna get really fancy you can add a thermometer to your brew kettle with some modifications or buy one that has it already installed

When you make the switch to 5 gallon are you plannign on doing all grain or extract?

 

[Jints07]

I did my first brew yesterday with this kit and I was shocked at how much I boiled off. I started with 2.5 quarts in the mash and then did 4 more quarts of sparge water. After the boil I had 3/4 of a gallon of wort at best. I think the issue was I used a pretty big pot meaning much more surface area. If you are using a smaller pot I believe you will actually lose much much less. But like I said this was my first rodeo so I am no expert!

 

[vandoogie]

I haven't ventured to the 5 gallon side of brewing yet. I imagine a 32 quart pot would be ideal for 5 gallon batches.
You should email Brooklyn Brew Shop and tell them about your thermometer. Their customer service is really good. i'm sure they ship one right out to you.
I use two thermmometers. The one that came with the kit and a digital one. Neither of them ever agree so i use it as a guidline. If you wanna get really fancy you can add a thermometer to your brew kettle with some modifications or buy one that has it already installed

When you make the switch to 5 gallon are you plannign on doing all grain or extract?

I emailed Brooklyn brew shop last night after I picked up the kit to ask them the question about the 5 quart pot, and also mentioned the fact that my thermometer was broken, but wasn't really expecting them to ship me another as I live in Canada, and to get stuff shipped from them apparently would cost me $35 in shipping alone (unfortunate as I would love to try some of their other kits).

As for when I move onto 5 gallon, I will probably use a partial kit that uses both extract and then some specialty grains that you just steep in one of those grain bags for flavour / colour, etc... I don't think I would do a full grain 5 gallon batch for a while.

 

[vandoogie]

"My other idea was that maybe I could start at say 4.5 quarts, and then once some has boiled off, add another 0.5 quart during the boil, just so that that water would atleast get some of the hops flavour / aroma in it instead of just adding flavourless water and diluting it in the fermenter. Would this be a better alternative?"

Anyone have any thoughts on that as an alternative?

 

[MrBrown]

The beauty of 1 gallon brewing is that it's inexpensive to experiment. I've tried brewing both ways myself however its unfortunate my batches still have a few more weeks of bottle conditioning before I can comment on how the taste would be affected.

 

[hehawbrew]

I just drank the last of my first beers which I made with BBS IPA kit. I had to add a lot more water than I thought I would have,but, the beer tasted great.

I then made their chocolate maple porter....same issue, too much boil..... By my third round, the blackberry red ale, I got it down!

I ended up buying their brew book. Lots of tasty beers and buying grains from lhbs costs 75% less than their kits.

 

[vandoogie]

I wish i could buy more of their kits, but i live in Canada, and it would cost like $40 in shipping just to get one from them. The only reason i was able to get the IPA is because apparently Chapters / Indigo has started trying to sell just that kit in their "gifts" section, but i havn't found any brew stores here (what few there are) that sell them, and most only like to deal in 5 gallon kits. Luckily it seems a brew store in toronto has caught on to the fact that a bunch of people have gotten into brewing with these brooklyn kits and then have nothing to do with them after, and have started offering their own "1 gallon refill kits" of a few different styles... I also have a book with recipes, so i could just go that route too.

Anyways back to my topic, i think i'm just going to purchase a second, larger stock pot, probably a couple more 1 gallon growlers, and stick to doing three or so 1 gallon batches at a time for a little while (or as long as i can restrain myself from doing a 5 gallon anyways ), should give me lots of good practice and allow me some experimentation and variety.... As well as somewhat keeping my wife from killing me for "taking up too much space with my beer factory" *rolls eyes* I suppose i could also foray into attempting a cider for her to keep her happy as well

 

[vandoogie]

I just drank the last of my first beers which I made with BBS IPA kit. I had to add a lot more water than I thought I would have,but, the beer tasted great.

I then made their chocolate maple porter....same issue, too much boil..... By my third round, the blackberry red ale, I got it down!

I ended up buying their brew book. Lots of tasty beers and buying grains from lhbs costs 75% less than their kits.

Is their book worth it? Does it just have a bunch of 1 gallon recipes? Because if so i think that would probably be ideal for me for the next little while if i'm going to stick to 1 gallons for a little while.

 

[jdopchibrew]

I started off with that kit about 8 months ago, and it ended up being my single "not very good" batch that I've made... and I'm about to brew #20 in a few days. but I can tell you that regardless of if you nail the gravity, ibu etc. or not, it is an incredibly helpful learning experience that will make you want to buy a larger pot and the necessary equipment, almost guaranteed. 1 gallon batches are good for testing the water so to speak, but imo, there isn't much of a difference between 1 and 5 gallons once you make the cost jump in terms of equipment, and plus, you end up with more beer! look into 'how to brew' by john palmer, it'll explain everything you need to know, regardless of how large of a batch you're making. also, check craigslist for pots. I got a 7.5 gal for $50 and now I'm about to start using a 2 15.5 gal keg setup... sooo yeah, it catches on quick. good hunting

 

[hehawbrew]

Is their book worth it? Does it just have a bunch of 1 gallon recipes? Because if so i think that would probably be ideal for me for the next little while if i'm going to stick to 1 gallons for a little while.

I was given an iTunes card for Xmas and used it to buy the book for my iPad. Knowing what I know now,I think it's worth 13$. It has at least two dozen recipes and gives hints and encourages you to try different ways to make the recipe your own. It also has recipes for food that pair well with the beer along with a very helpful explanation and descriptions of all the different hops, malts, and grains.

 

[vandoogie]

I was given an iTunes card for Xmas and used it to buy the book for my iPad. Knowing what I know now,I think it's worth 13$. It has at least two dozen recipes and gives hints and encourages you to try different ways to make the recipe your own. It also has recipes for food that pair well with the beer along with a very helpful explanation and descriptions of all the different hops, malts, and grains.

I ended up ordering both that book and "Extreme Brewing" by Sam Calagione on Amazon only moments after my last post looking forward to reading through both!

 

[Jints07]

Is their book worth it? Does it just have a bunch of 1 gallon recipes? Because if so i think that would probably be ideal for me for the next little while if i'm going to stick to 1 gallons for a little while.

I have the book and it is literally 80% recipes. All the recipes are given as instructions for 1 gallon and then also how to modify for 5.

 

[Jints07]

I ended up ordering both that book and "Extreme Brewing" by Sam Calagione on Amazon only moments after my last post looking forward to reading through both!

Haha, sweet!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Sooooo..... did you ever make the beer?