Hi Everyone,
I'm a very new convert to the home brewing world - decided it would be my post-lockdown present to myself! I've been a short time reader but now that I have 2 brews under my belt felt it was time to post!
For a little background - while I live in the UK now, I spent a long time living in Dusseldorf and my primary motivation for getting into home brewing is to make some authentic, just-like-home style Altbier since it cannot be found in the UK. I've picked up Palmer's 'How to Brew' and read cover-to-cover, and I estimate I've taken in a good 3% of the wisdom he has to offer. My plan is to stick to extract brewing until I've had all the fun there is to have there and then probably move to all grain once I have the basics down. I'm also planning to make the odd IPA which will hopefully bribe my fiancee to allow her kitchen to become a brew hub from time to time.
I picked up a Peco boiler, buckets and basics, and started with the obligatory IPA kit brew which has taught me that I do not like working with DME and will hopefully stick to grains and LME from now on!
I was hoping I could post my first recipe and brew here for any helpful critiques as well as ask for a bit of help with a technical issue.
So I've had my first go at making the Altbier - brewed up today. I've gone for a 5 gallon batch size and used 1.5kg each of Briess Munich and Pilsen LME with a 60 minute boil time as well as steeping 1kg of Caramunich II grains at 67C for 30 minutes in the full boil volume inside my boiler. With 30 minutes to go I added 100g of 3.2AA Saaz hops, chilled down to 20C with an immersion wort chiller (took about 45 mins?) and pitched one packet of White Labs Dusseldorf Alt Ale Yeast. My planned OG was 1.052 on Brewer's Friend, hygrometer reading ended up at 1.050 so not too far off. Estimated FG should be 1.016.
We'll see if it turns out anything at all like the Altbier I remember - I was wondering if any of the wise voices on the forum had experience brewing extract Altbier and had any tips to share with me?
Finally - a more technical question - I am having some issues hooking up my wort chiller (which came in my kit albeit without piping or any adapter) to my kitchen tap. I know some brewers use their hose attachment however as my outside hose is down a flight of stairs and way out in the garden I am not thinking that carrying 20-25L of boiling wort down those outdoor steps is a particularly wise move, so am hoping to make my kitchen setup. Currently as my tap does not allow any sort of mating attachment I am using a highly technical arrangement of jankily strapping my silicone piping to my tap using cable ties, waterproof tape and a kitchen piping bag. While it gets the job done...it's not how I would like to make my permanent setup work! Any thoughts on how I might improve on this? Picture enclosed.
Thanks a bunch in advance, I'll be keen to take on any advice that the more experienced brewers here might have for me!
BW
Andy
I'm a very new convert to the home brewing world - decided it would be my post-lockdown present to myself! I've been a short time reader but now that I have 2 brews under my belt felt it was time to post!
For a little background - while I live in the UK now, I spent a long time living in Dusseldorf and my primary motivation for getting into home brewing is to make some authentic, just-like-home style Altbier since it cannot be found in the UK. I've picked up Palmer's 'How to Brew' and read cover-to-cover, and I estimate I've taken in a good 3% of the wisdom he has to offer. My plan is to stick to extract brewing until I've had all the fun there is to have there and then probably move to all grain once I have the basics down. I'm also planning to make the odd IPA which will hopefully bribe my fiancee to allow her kitchen to become a brew hub from time to time.
I picked up a Peco boiler, buckets and basics, and started with the obligatory IPA kit brew which has taught me that I do not like working with DME and will hopefully stick to grains and LME from now on!
I was hoping I could post my first recipe and brew here for any helpful critiques as well as ask for a bit of help with a technical issue.
So I've had my first go at making the Altbier - brewed up today. I've gone for a 5 gallon batch size and used 1.5kg each of Briess Munich and Pilsen LME with a 60 minute boil time as well as steeping 1kg of Caramunich II grains at 67C for 30 minutes in the full boil volume inside my boiler. With 30 minutes to go I added 100g of 3.2AA Saaz hops, chilled down to 20C with an immersion wort chiller (took about 45 mins?) and pitched one packet of White Labs Dusseldorf Alt Ale Yeast. My planned OG was 1.052 on Brewer's Friend, hygrometer reading ended up at 1.050 so not too far off. Estimated FG should be 1.016.
We'll see if it turns out anything at all like the Altbier I remember - I was wondering if any of the wise voices on the forum had experience brewing extract Altbier and had any tips to share with me?
Finally - a more technical question - I am having some issues hooking up my wort chiller (which came in my kit albeit without piping or any adapter) to my kitchen tap. I know some brewers use their hose attachment however as my outside hose is down a flight of stairs and way out in the garden I am not thinking that carrying 20-25L of boiling wort down those outdoor steps is a particularly wise move, so am hoping to make my kitchen setup. Currently as my tap does not allow any sort of mating attachment I am using a highly technical arrangement of jankily strapping my silicone piping to my tap using cable ties, waterproof tape and a kitchen piping bag. While it gets the job done...it's not how I would like to make my permanent setup work! Any thoughts on how I might improve on this? Picture enclosed.
Thanks a bunch in advance, I'll be keen to take on any advice that the more experienced brewers here might have for me!
BW
Andy
