My father in law bought me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. I made the American light lager that came with the kit. After fermenting and bottling the kit I purchased and brewed their API IPA kit. Well this got me kick started into the hobby. I purchased all the equipment to brew five gallon batches. Yesterday was brew's number one and two. Tell me how I did and any recommendations for the next batches. First batch was a Brewer's Best Double IPA. I heated four gallons of filtered water from my faucet to 165*F. I added the specialty grains to a paint strainer and steeped the grains for thirty minutes. I then sparged the grains with a tea kettle with the water at 168*f. I brought the wort to a boil, turned off the heat and added the lme. I brought the wort back to a boil. Threw in the bittering hops. I added second bag of hops at 45 minutes, along with my chiller. I added the last batch of hops at the last 2 minutes of the. I turned on my chiller, and had the wort chilled to 80*F in about 15-20 minutes. Original gravity was 1.078 @ 80*F. I then drained the wort into a sanitized bucket lined with a paint strainer bag, then dumped the trub. I then used a oxygenating stone and added the oxygen for about 90 seconds. While all this was going on I rehydrated my yeast. I boiled some filted water for about ten minutes(the instructions indicated "sterile water". Let it cool to about 85*F and added a calculated (MrMalty.com} Addition of Us-05 (1.3 bags). As per instructions had it sit for about thirty minutes, then tried to stir for additional 30 minutes. I don't have a stir plate, so it was a challenge to stir and keep the wort inline. I added the yeast to the wort. Stirred the mix, added the air lock and put in a temperature controlled room at about 65*F.
Between family and work I don't have many days where I can dedicate the day to brewing, so....I decided to make a batch of barley wine from homebrewheavin.com My processes were the same, for grains and boiling. I did however have to drain some of my wort into a second pot due to the large amount of dme added. I also added 2lbs of brown sugar suggested by the instructions to add some extra abv, as I like a strong brew. All my other methods were the same except I used and rehydrated two bags of us-05. It's been about 12 hours since I bucketed the brew. Fermentation seems to have taken off like a rocket. The ipa im getting bubbles every 2 seconds, and the barley wine is about 1.5 seconds.
Thanks to every one for all the great posts and information. With out all the info I doubt brew day would have as it did.
Between family and work I don't have many days where I can dedicate the day to brewing, so....I decided to make a batch of barley wine from homebrewheavin.com My processes were the same, for grains and boiling. I did however have to drain some of my wort into a second pot due to the large amount of dme added. I also added 2lbs of brown sugar suggested by the instructions to add some extra abv, as I like a strong brew. All my other methods were the same except I used and rehydrated two bags of us-05. It's been about 12 hours since I bucketed the brew. Fermentation seems to have taken off like a rocket. The ipa im getting bubbles every 2 seconds, and the barley wine is about 1.5 seconds.
Thanks to every one for all the great posts and information. With out all the info I doubt brew day would have as it did.
