New brewer looking for first kit

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Do you have a LHBS (LocalHomeBrewStore) or will you purchase brewing ingredients online all the time?

If you will go to a LHBS you could possibly buy small quantities of extracts and kinda doctor up a simple extract recipe by adding something like amber extract to get a bit of crystal into your beer. But if you are up to it I'd just go with steeping.
 
The amount of work for a 1 gal batch is about the same as for a 5 gal, and the beer won't last long (only ~10 bottles that took nearly 2 months to make). What I do is make 1.8-2.5 gal test batches, but they often get worked into a 4-5 gal batch before I'm ready to brew. It's how my jalapeño cream ale morphed.

Maybe make 2 of them for 2 gals so it's a little more worth the effort.
 
I don't have a LHBS :/ I guess I could get the 5 gallon batch. I will have to read up on steeping.
 
I just looked it up. It's not difficult at all. I don't need any extra equipment or materials, it's just an extra optional step to improve the taste of your beer. Right?
 
By the way, is it possible to buy a 5 gallon ingredient kit but only use, let's say a third of it? I would like to experiment and at least get one decent batch out of this ingredient purchase
 
Yes. Very simple. Like making tea.

Pot of water that begins around 165*. Drop a grain bag with grains in it, which will cool it down to about 150-155*. Swirl the bag or dunk it a bit, which will help drop the temp if it's getting a bit high, and in 20-30 mins you are done. It's mostly about temp control as you want to stay between 150-165* for best results.

Then what I do is have 2 pint glasses with filtered tap water waiting in the microwave that I warm up for 5 mins and place the grain bag in a metal colander and press with my spoon. Then pour one glass and smash with the base of the cup followed by the other cup.

Set the timer and watch the temp, and stir/dunk/swirl it every once in a while.
 
All of the kits I'm aware of use LME (liquid extract) which is very messy and hard to work with if you aren't wanting to use it all at once. DME (dry extract) is simple to work with (a little powdery mess though). So I doubt it can be done without making a big mess.

Do you have a scale that'll weigh out as low as 0.1 oz and as high as 7-10 lbs?
 
My LHBS has an online source and they will package up small volumes of LME and grains. Maybe that's an option for you at the moment. I can help you work on a recipe or we could look at a recipe sheet for a known commercial brew kit and break it into portions.
 
Ok I'm adding the final things to the shopping cart. But it's asking me what kind of yeast I want.

Muton and fison ale yeast for a $1.40 or the name brand of the ingredient is American ale yeast activator for 6.30$. I would probably just pick one unless someone has a suggestion

Or
Headwaters ale yeast
White labs California ale yeast
 
That sounds interesting. I thought the liberty cream ale would be a good idea, but if you have a suggestion let me know. :)
 
For simplicity I'd get a dry yeast. The others ought to have a yeast starter made for them.

Do they have SafAle US-05?
 
Oh, yes they do. I forgot to mention that one. Its 11.5 grams, for $3.29
 
What I often do if I'm wanting to do something I'm not familiar with is to look at the kits MoreBeer offers and check out their recipe sheet. The I also browse through the recipes here and consider my options and get an idea of what it takes. I then create a recipe on Brewtoad and post it here asking for opinions.

If you are wanting to make small batches you'd either have to buy 1 or 2 of the 1 gal batches as you mentioned earlier or create your own and order it from Home Brew Party (I'm not sure of any other place that'll sell small volumes of stuff).

What styles of beer do you prefer? And what kind of alcohol content?
 
US-05 is the only dry yeast I've used so far. It's a good strain that's the same thing as WLP-001 and I think another.
 
The type of cream ale Im going for has 4.8% ABV

This is what the cream ale pack comes with.

6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract
8 oz. Carapils® specialty grains
2 oz. of Cascade pellet hops
Yeast
Priming sugar
Grain bag
 
That kit doesn't have pilsen extract??? I'm not positive, but I think a portion is supposed to be pilsner based.
 
Can you give me a link?

Do you know if only a portion of grains can be bought or does it come by the pound as most do?

Make sure you mention you want the grains crushed!!!
 
Well here is my current list.

Brew kit: 90$
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-brewing-starter-kit.html

The Brewing Starter Kit includes:
5 Gallon Plastic Carboy
Universal Carboy Bung
6.5 Gallon Fermentor with Grommeted Lid
Liquid Crystal Thermometer x2
Airlock x2
Hydrometer and Test Jar
2 oz Midwest Oxygen Wash
Instructional Step-By-Step DVD
5/16” Auto-Siphon
5/16” ID Siphon Tubing (5 Feet)
Small Tubing Clamp
Bottling Bucket with Spigot
Bottle Filler
Bottle Capper
60 Gold Bottle Caps
Bottle Brush


32 oz Star San: 16$
http://morebeer.com/products/star-san-32-oz.html

Floating Thermometer: 6.49$
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/floating-thermometer.html

Current ingredient kit:
www.midwestsupplies.com/liberty-cream-ale.html

This is my current cart list. That should be everything I need, but you had suggestions for the ingredient kit?
 
It doesn't appear as though it has pilsen extract, but I'm not certain it has to to be a cream ale.

I looked in their ingredients section and they only sell by the pound. Grains, once crushed have a shelf life and if I were to help make you smaller portioned recipes it'd take a while to use it all up, which might mean the last batch or two will be getting a little stale.

I'd just go ahead and order the kit. Make sure the grains come crushed.
 
You'll want an additional hydrometer on hand as they break easy.

You'll also want more bottle caps if you are buying more than 1 kit.

You need a long spoon or two. Plastic spoon for a plastic bucket. I use a metal spoon in my pot.

A timer, scale(s), colander, and I use a whisk to aerate the wort.
 
If you wanted to suggest on ingredients I guess I dont have to use smaller portioned recipes. I was just hoping to make 2 batches so I could improve without making another ingredient purchase.

Im going to order the kit, but probably skip on the thermometer seeing it comes with 2 already.
 
Buying a pound of grains gets to be a bit much with just one batch. I usually buy my grains locally so that I don't have to work hard at matching things up.

I did buy some stuff by the pound as I made a brown ale and a stout so it was fairly easy with some of the grains.
 
I checked out their site some more and they only offer 3.3 lb jugs of extract. That makes it a little more difficult to tailor recipes without needing DME to make up portions of it, which is more costly. But they do sell Briess extract which some have been made with carapils, which means you wouldn't need to buy that. So you could tailor some recipes, but you might need to keep them similar (light/dark) so you can share the crystal malts.

Having to buy dme brings up the price, and it may end up being more costly than a kit.

MoreBeer sells their LME by the pound starting at 4 lbs bags up to 9 or 10 lbs. That's much easier to work with, and some of theirs is Briess also.
 
No. All grain is a whole nuther ball game.

The other kit comes with carapils which needs to be crushed. I'm guessing they come that way. If not you'll need to try to crush them good with a rolling pin.
 
Alright. This is what I got in my cart.

Midwest supplies:
144 bottle caps http://www.midwestsupplies.com/gold-caps.html
The start kit for 90$ http://www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-brewing-starter-kit.html

an extra hydrometer http://www.midwestsupplies.com/hydrometer-triplescale.html

A 11 lb capacity scale http://www.midwestsupplies.com/economy-digital-scale-15-lb-capacity.html

I think what is posted above is done and I can order it.


Morebeer:
21" stainless steel spoon - 7$
And I will buy all of my ingredients here like you suggested. Once I figure out what I need. :)
 
It's getting late for me. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or want some help with something. And read HowToBrew.

I'll give you a few more minutes as I don't know if you've finished your order and might have last minute questions.
 
So you won't be buying the kit from MidWest?

All of the other stuff looks good. Don't forget you need a plastic spoon for the buckets. If you scratch a bucket it could ruin it.

Let me know what you have in mind as far as brews go if you are wanting to create some recipes.
 
If you'll be buying from MoreBeer also, and it's not too late, you may want to buy the add ons there to help bring your cost up high enough for free shipping
 
Yea Im getting the 7$ spoon and all of the ingredients from MoreBeer, I saw that its only 59$ for free shipping. Do you suggest I look at the cream ale recipe and buy the ingredients individually in bulk? It would be cool to mix and match a few so I would be able to change up flavors... but never having a beer ingredient kit to begin with, I wouldn't know where to start... So maybe I should just go with a couple kits.
 
The kits would simplify it. And what's nice about kits is that they come with exactly what's needed (say 1/4 or 1/2 lb of certain grains and precise amount of hops).

To buy in bulk per se (by the pound) is only good if you have a grain mill and can save the excess or have enough recipes that it can be split up between them all and used quickly enough.

I think we could design 2 lighter recipes and use up all of the grains. Maybe a cream ale and a blonde or pale.

What beer styles do you prefer?
 
Lagers require a colder fermentation, which means you'd need a fridge with a temp controller added (~50-55* or so).

I like Ranger. I'm not sure if I could duplicate it well enough, but I think I understand how they've designed the hop schedule so that it's not like a West coast style, which I also like.

But this wouldn't be hard to work up recipes for.

I checked out MoreBeer's cream ale kit and it comes with pilsen extract also, as well as some adjuncts to thin it a little. I couldn't do that on that scale (maybe an 8 gal batch or so), but I could tweak it enough that it'd have a bit more stuff that MidWest's, though I could make their's also.
 
You might prefer their cream ale kit, though it's something like $30 I think. I checked the percentage of crystal in a 5 gal IPA and 1 lb would work. I prefer to split my crystal malts (20/40) for a deeper taste than to use all one type. But it would still be good.

What style of hops do you enjoy in an IPA?
 
For the Sierra Nevada pale ale it says

"Generous quantities of premium Cascade hops give the Pale Ale its fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor. "
 
Would you want a pale or an IPA? And if it's a pale would you want a more typical or a light IPA version (very hoppy)?
 

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