first brew

[Jim Gamble]

Hi everyone, I'm new to brewing, got a mr. beer kit for Christmas. So last night I made my first batch of beer. I saw on youtube that some have gotten some grains and added them to the extract from the kit to make a better tasting beer. So I did that and while cooking my wort, I had a boil over. You don't think this will hurt the beer, do you? Hope not. Guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that my first batch will become beer and not skunk water.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[PADave]

You'll be fine, use it as a learning experience. Get ready to brew again.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

It is the rare brewer that has never had a boilover. The only harm is that you lose that half a cup of wort you can make into beer.

 

[Braufessor]

When you say you added grain to your beer while cooking your wort...... what exactly to you mean? How, exactly, did you add the grain to your wort?

 

[WBB]

Isn’t is mostly the foam that boils over during a boil over? I don’t think you lose much, if anything, it’s just really messy and sticky.

That’s the first I’ve heard of adding grains to the wort during the boil. But it’s all about experimenting, soooo why not? Just filter them out when you transfer the cooled wort to the fermenter.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Welcome to the hobby. The worst part of a boil over is cleaning up the mess.

 

[ReaperOnefour]

Your beer will be fine. I know boil overs suck because you have to clean up all that sticky mess. Next time try adding some fermcap-s to the boil. It will help keep the froth to a minimum. You can get the fermcap-s online from any home brew shop.

 

[BrewInspector]

I was hoping to hear how the grains were added too.

Possibly in the normal steeping fashion or perhaps the more experimental boiled grain fashion.

Either way beer will be the result but it would be interesting to know how they were used and the results.

 

[bovine_OB]

First off, welcome to HBT and the hobby. My wife got me a starter kit 4 years ago and I can't count the hours I've spent wasted on researching brewing equipment or techniques. Second, by adding grains to the wort are you adding them as steeped grains or straight into the boiling wort? Steeped grains definitely do add complexity and depth to certain flavor profiles, but they must be added at certain temperatures, in order to extract sugars from the malts that match the profile you are looking for. My first kit was a partial mash kit - I had to steep a certain amount of grains at a certain temp for so long, then added the liquid malt extract (LME). Most Mr. Beer Kits (my roommate in college had a few of these) are extract only, so be leary if you obtained grains from an outside source. If you did indeed obtain grains from outside the packaged kit, they must be steeped at anywhere from 145-160 in order to convert the long chain starches into fermentable sugars. This forum is a great wealth on knowledge, just snoop around a bit and you'll find more info than you want to know Good luck on the first batch, certainly let us know how it turned out for you!

 

[Jim Gamble]

Welcome to the hobby. The worst part of a boil over is cleaning up the mess.

Ain't that the truth. What a mess..... lol

 

[stieg000]

The mess... and the burned sugar smell. I swear I boil over my 2L eyrlynmyer 2/3 the time making a starter. At least it's a glass stove.