Going To Brew First Batch

[Viperboy]

I have been wanting to dive into this hobby for awhile after tasting a buddy of mine's brews. So I have finally gotten a kit and I am going to brew my first batch this weekend, a Saison. I have a veteran neighbor who is going to come supervise and make sure I don't screw anything up. I just wanted to hop on here and see if anyone has any advice for a first time extract brewer? I am going to be using the Deluxe Kit from NB as well as one of their extract kits for Saison with a French Saison Yeast. Wanted to thank everyone for the knowledge they post on this forum, I have spent many hours reading over threads.

 

[jfk69]

Take your time, and have fun. I'd only put about 1/3 to 1/2 of the extract in at the start of the boil, and then add the rest with about 15 minutes left in the boil. Pay attention to your water, if you're on city water with chlorine or chloramines in it, you'll want to use camden tablets to remove that. If you have well water with a softener, if the softener uses salts DON'T USE IT! I used my water softened well water on my first few batches and there was always a bite to it (not the extract twang you hear about), it was "sharper". Needless to say I switched to spring water from the store and the bite went bye bye.

 

[Viperboy]

I actually bought 6 one gallon jugs of Spring Water to use from the store the other day. What is reason behind using only 1/2 the LME at the start of the boil and the rest later?

 

[Double_D]

Boiling, exposure to light, and exposure to O2 all dissipate chlorine. Campden is only necessary if you are on chloramine.

Regardless, it's good advice. And the spring water is a good choice too.

You'd get better hop utilization with less sugar in the boil, but I've never heard of a specific advantage to splitting up your LME into different additions.

 

[KepowOb]

I actually bought 6 one gallon jugs of Spring Water to use from the store the other day. What is reason behind using only 1/2 the LME at the start of the boil and the rest later?

If you put all your LME in at the start, your beer will likely end up being a lot darker than you'd planned thanks to maillard reactions (which are what make toast darken, for example. Also related to caramelization).

If you do a search for late extract additions, you'll find a whole ton of stuff on these forums about it.

Boiling, exposure to light, and exposure to O2 all dissipate chlorine. Campden is only necessary if you are on chloramine.

Regardless, it's good advice. And the spring water is a good choice too.

You'd get better hop utilization with less sugar in the boil, but I've never heard of a specific advantage to splitting up your LME into different additions.

Campden tablets work instantly though, whereas all those other options take time (some of them a lot of time... and boiling 6 gallons of water for an extra 20 minutes just to boil off the chorine... is well, an extra 20 minutes of boiling for nothing IMO). And it's not like the tablets are expensive, you can get 100 of them for $3.50.

 

[Viperboy]

I am proud to say I believe my first day brewing was so far a success. I added some of the LME with about 15 mins left with some of my other additions that were in the recipe like you guys said. The carboy is sitting down in my basement at about 68-70 and has been bubbling in the airlock since.