Drank my first homebrew tonight

[AStow]

Today is my 24th birthday and I opened my first homebrew lager that has been conditioning in the bottle for the last 3 weeks @ room temperature and 1 week @ cold temp. What do you think?

It's a young's lager kit that my fiance got me as a starter kit with all the heat.

Have you guys got any recommendations for my next brew I'd rather go for an ale as I'm quite fond of pale ales or IPA's View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1423173966.446400.jpg

 

[Ski12568]

Happy Birthday! Get another kit and keep going. They still have a sale over at labelpeelers for 35% off kits that ends today.

 

[thekraken]

Congrats, looks tasty! Your first home brew was a lager?! How did you ferment it?

As far as recommendations for the next one, just shop around on northernbrewer.com or somewhere and order up a recipe kit that sounds good to you. They are generally well reviewed, and you can look those kits up here to see what people think about them on HBT.

 

[mfgann]

Northern Brewing's Dead Ringer is supposed to be a good clone of Two Hearted Ale (IPA). It may be the next one I try.

 

[unionrdr]

Morebeer's ESB kit is one of my favorites. Good balance with rehydrated S-04. It's an E/SG kit btw.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Congrats! I bet it tastes like victory

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Congrats! I bet it tastes like victory

... or maybe Vienna with a little C20 ...

 

[heckler73]

Congratulations on step 1! It's a steep, slippery slope from here.



I'm curious - why does this type of kit not require you to boil the extract for an hour?

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brew Buddy Lager.pdf

 

[heckler73]

psssst AStow...

http://howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

[Qhrumphf]

Congrats on the beer!

Congratulations on step 1! It's a steep, slippery slope from here.



I'm curious - why does this type of kit not require you to boil the extract for an hour?

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brew Buddy Lager.pdf

It's hopped extract, already has all the bitterness and hop character in there. Boiling it would just further isomerize the hop alphas and overbitter the beer. It's basically just condensed wort that needs to be diluted. Same thing as the wort poured in the fermenter after the boil before topping off in regular extract brewing. Same deal as Mr. Beer kits, Coopers kits, and others. Outside of the fact that the ingredients are rarely fresh and the end product is never as good as it could be as a result, those kits are great for beginners since they learn cleaning and sanitizing, fermentation, and bottling first.

Of course, I'd also agree with reading How To Brew and learning that way, since it'll be better than kit instructions ever are.

 

[Mexibilly]

Congrats on the beer!



It's hopped extract, already has all the bitterness and hop character in there. Boiling it would just further isomerize the hop alphas and overbitter the beer. It's basically just condensed wort that needs to be diluted. Same thing as the wort poured in the fermenter after the boil before topping off in regular extract brewing. Same deal as Mr. Beer kits, Coopers kits, and others. Outside of the fact that the ingredients are rarely fresh and the end product is never as good as it could be as a result, those kits are great for beginners since they learn cleaning and sanitizing, fermentation, and bottling first.

Of course, I'd also agree with reading How To Brew and learning that way, since it'll be better than kit instructions ever are.

I'm brewing a blackberry wheat for my wife tomorrow. I mistakenly ordered hopped malt extract. Given your quote, would you recommend I brew as I'd planned (no hop additions) except to wait til the last 10 minutes to add the extract?

 

[Qhrumphf]

That would depend on the extract. Some are designed to be boiled with no additional hops. Some are designed not to be boiled. I'd check for your specific extract.

 

[unionrdr]

Since you said you mistakenly got hopped malt extract, it should never be boiled. But, if you want some hop flavor, you could make a tea with a couple gallons of boiling water & add an ounce of hops for 15 minutes to get some flavor. then take it off the heat, stir the extract in till completely dissolved. Then chill & strain into fermenter to get the hop gunk out.

 

[Cyclman]

Congrats, brew on