Beer Kit....no instructions!

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TJhands

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Hi again, fellas!

My first batch has been in the secondary for a week and will be bottled this coming weekend. Thanks for all the help on that one. :)

I ordered my next kit - a porter - and just received it today. The thing is, it didn't come with directions! I think I have the main gist of brewing, but I'm not sure when to add a couple of the ingredients:

a) It came with two packets of hop pellets; one packet is about 3X as big as the smaller one. If I had to guess, I would add the big packet at the beginning of the boil and the little one with 5-10 minutes remaining in the boil.....but I'm not sure.

b) It came with 2 packets of white powder; one is labelled "malto-dextrin," and the other in unlabelled. I'm assuming the unlabelled one is the priming sugar for bottling. Am I to add the malto-dextrin powder when I add the rest of the fermentable sugars?

Thanks in advance for the help. :rolleyes:
 
You add the maltodextrin with your malt extract... apparently it changes the mouthfeel of your beer...

As for the hops, you may want to spread them out a bit, maybe divide it in 3, add a third for bittering for the first 45 minutes, then a third for flavoring for 10 minutes, then the final third for aroma for five minutes. Really I guess it's up to you though, I don't think you can screw it up... might just taste a little different, but who knows, you might like it!

edit: I changed my mind, maybe you should put about half in for bittering, then a quarter of the remaining for flavoring and a quarter for aroma... ;)
 
Thanks, ryser!

Yeah, I figured I could just play around with when to add the hops and in what quantities, but was really unsure about the malto-dextrin.....had never heard of that being used in homebrewing. Thanks a lot. :p
 
TJhands said:
Thanks, ryser!

Yeah, I figured I could just play around with when to add the hops and in what quantities, but was really unsure about the malto-dextrin.....had never heard of that being used in homebrewing. Thanks a lot. :p

Adds a little bit of creaminess to the beer. I decided against using it in my brown ale, but I'm interested in how yours' turns out.....
 
I used some of that malto-dextrin in a sweet stout that I made before christmas. it turned out great. It was nice a nice and creamy mouth feel. Give it a shot!

Where did you order your kit from? Maybe you can go back to the site and see what ingrediants are packaged in the kit? I had to do that from Midwest a year ago.
 
lalenny said:
I used some of that malto-dextrin in a sweet stout that I made before christmas. it turned out great. It was nice a nice and creamy mouth feel. Give it a shot!


How much of that did you use for your stout to get a good creamy mouth feel?
 
think that maltodextrin would be good in a strong, heavily spiced holiday ale?
 
NUCC98 said:
How much of that did you use for your stout to get a good creamy mouth feel?

Dexetrin will add body and leave a bit of residual sweetness. Also try some flaked barley if you want a full, creamy, malt addition. I love that stuff.

The BEST way to get a creamy stout thing is to get set up with a nitrogen tap setup and pour it like Guiness. I'm thinking about getting another one because everyone likes the nitro poured beers so much. Cheers! :D
 
TJhands said:
Hi again, fellas!

My first batch has been in the secondary for a week and will be bottled this coming weekend. Thanks for all the help on that one. :)

I ordered my next kit - a porter - and just received it today. The thing is, it didn't come with directions! I think I have the main gist of brewing, but I'm not sure when to add a couple of the ingredients:

a) It came with two packets of hop pellets; one packet is about 3X as big as the smaller one. If I had to guess, I would add the big packet at the beginning of the boil and the little one with 5-10 minutes remaining in the boil.....but I'm not sure.


b) It came with 2 packets of white powder; one is labelled "malto-dextrin," and the other in unlabelled. I'm assuming the unlabelled one is the priming sugar for bottling. Am I to add the malto-dextrin powder when I add the rest of the fermentable sugars?

Thanks in advance for the help. :rolleyes:

malto dextrin is for adding body, you add it to the boil. Your evaluation of the hops is correct. The other packet is probably prime sugar, tast to see.
 
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