First Batch!!

[cutarecord]

Hey guys,

New to the forum and new to brewing...

Have a copy of Joy of Home Brewing on hand for reference. Getting setup to brew my first extract (dry) batch this weekend. It is a wheat beer and i have a few questions about the process and the recipe.

Here is the Recipe I'm following for a 5 gal batch:

5lbs Wheat Malt Extract (dry)
1oz Hallertauer Hops (boiling) @ 60 min. remaining
1oz Hallertauer Hops (finishing) @ 10 min. remaining
1 pkg Munich Yeast

My questions are as follows:

1a) I have a 6 gal carboy or primary. Should I look at getting a 5 gal to blow off the krausen?

1b) How much does the krausen affects the final flavor of the beer?

2) If i wanted to add a lemon and honey flavor, when would be the best time to add each ingredient to get actual flavor not just increase the carbonation? Also, will adding honey, and in turn more sugar, increase the % ABV?

2b) Can I use honey and lemon zest/peels or do I need to get liquid extract of each?

3) I have 2 oz of hops on hand for my batch. If I adjust the amounts from the recipe (i.e. 1.5 oz of boiling and 0.5 oz of finishing or something like this) how will this effect the flavor of the beer? I am looking to add just a bit more "hoppy" flavor but not overpowering...

 

[dezman]

1a 6 gal is perfect for a 5 gal batch, with a 5 gal you'll be blowing off some good stuff too

1b. With a blow off tube you will be blowing off most of the harsh hop resins and nasy tasting stuff, so it wont affect flavor much if any at all.

2.you can use honey but you wont get a honey flavor from it. Honey is almost fully fermentable so it'll just increase ABV and have a dry flavor. You would add honey to the boil. As for lemon zests you could also add to boil, like last 15min or so.

2b. You can use regular honey and lemon.

3. The longer you boil hops the more bitterness you'll get from them, so hops boiled for say 60min would contribute more bitterness then hops biled for only 30 min.

As you recipe sit right now it going to be fairly weak (OG will be 1.036) so honey or more malt extract might be ggod unless your going for a weak beer. As for the hops if you want a more hoppy beer I would add 1.5 oz at 60min or mabe just all 2oz. Hallertauer are not very high in Alpha Acids so thier bittering quailtys are not as good as something with high AA's.
Any other ?'s feel free to ask GL!

 

[kh54s10]

1a and 1b. Use a 6 gallon carboy for a 5 gallon beer. You do not really want any blow off at all.

The krausen is just foaming from the fermentation. It might make a small difference in the taste of the beer if it was removed. I don't really know for sure though. In 14 batches I have only had 2 with any blow off.

 

[cutarecord]

Thanks for the responses. This recipe was given to me by a local homebrew shoppe owner. he was super cool and wanted me to have a good first experience. I think for this batch its more about learning the process than having 100% control of the flavor.

If i add honey to up the ABV, whats a good rule-of-thumb for how much to add? How much should i think about adding to a 3 gal pot? How much will it increase my ABV?

I think i will be adding some lemon peels to the last 10 min of boil. How much will i have to add to give a subtle lemon flavor? I dont want fruit flavored beer, just a lemon note added to the overall pallet...

 

[hexXedBrewing]

I haven't used honey before, but from what I read, it takes a long time to fully ferment (3-5 weeks?). In other words if you only ferment your primary for a week or two, you'll only get a partial fermentation of the honey, allowing it to be used to flavor as well as slightly increasing abv. From hopville's beer calculus it says your OG should be around 1.044 without the honey - making a 4.5% ABV beer.

For the honey use about 2%-8% of the grain bill by weight, in your case you have 5lb of dry wheat malt, so 1.6oz -6.4oz.

I don't have any advice for the lemon, but I'm guessing you won't want to use very much.