homebrewer_99 said:
Yes, I only boil 1.5 gals of water. I also only boil 1 lb of malt. At 45 mins I add the remining malt and boil for 15 mins. I have a nylon net that fits over my plastic primary buckets. I pour 1 gal of water into the bucket. Then I put a net on the bucket (re-inforce it with clip-on clothes pins or the weight of the water and hops will push the net into the primary). This seperates the hops form the wort. Then add more water over the hops (sparge) to get the malt off of the hops and let drain. Sometimes I'll squeeze the water from the net.
Yes, use the plastic bucket as your primary. Hot wort is not going to ruin it. Do not pour hot wort into a glass carboy or it will surely break.
Boiling 3 gals and cooling it with 2 gals will not cool it down enough. You'll have to set the primary into a sink of cold water. Afterwards you can add some ice to the tub to help cool the wort.
No I wasn't counting on 2.5 gallons of cold water to cool 3 gallons of 210 degree water down to 70 degrees, but it's the best start that I can give it. I am getting 2-3 bags of ice tomorrow morning and piling them around it in my bathtub and using cold water.
I've never heard of the nylon net deal. I have a large fine mesh strainer that would easily fit over the plastic bucket. Here are my ingredients, should I be concerned with straining anything? The directions don't mention anything about it, other than to pour the wort into the fermenter leaving the trub behind, should I go an extra step and strain stuff out?
3.3 lbs. Plain Light Malt Extract
2 lbs. Plain Light Dry Malt Extract
12 oz. Crushed Crystal Malt
1 oz. Crushed Black Patent
1 each Grain Steeping Bag Siphon Package
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Finishing)
5 oz. Priming Sugar
60 each Crown Caps No-Rinse Cleanser
Beer Yeast
This is the Red Ale kit from Brewer's Best/LD carlson. Thanks for the help so far.
Oh and the last thing I'm concerned about is blowoff. The directions say to put the wort into the fermenter bucket with lid and airlock. I've read about blowoff...will the airlock let enough out, or will the lid blow off? I can't imagine a recipe and directions that would be off like that, so I think I'm ok. Just worried about blowoff that I've read about.