I just bought a "Brewers Best" kit

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did you buy a beer brewing kit or a recipe kit? they make both. I own the brewers best brewing kit that came with everything needed but the s/s brewpot. Its worked great for me through 10 brews so far. the recipe kits are also just as great, they make very good beer and help you start off learning the process of brewing really well
 
brewers best kits are decent. what kit did you get? and also im not sure but i think the kits come with some pretty low quality yeast that you'd probably want to sub out for a premium dry or liquid yeast.
 
I bought the whole kit that has everything except the brew pot. What kind of yeast do u think I should buy to sub out with what they gave me?
 
So you got the equipment kit and an ingredient kit? What recipe kit. Only BB kit i did was their IPA. My first brew. Turned oout good. What yeast came with the kit?
 
wafflesbr0wn said:
It's an "American Amber" kit. Made by "Brewers Best". Kit and recipe kit
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Oooooooh........I've made 3 Brewers best kits and the amber was by far my least favorite of the three. Hope it works well for you though. Post how it turns out if you do decide to brew it.
 
LoL!! Well I'm gonna go ahead and brew it and hope it turn out all right. Next brew on the list is the "American Light.". I hear that one is really great
 
If you're set on subbing out yeast, dry is much easier to use for new brewers. Don't need to make a starter. You can just pitch it in. I've used Danstar Windsor Ale yeast and Danstar Nottingham, as I can get them cheap.
The Windsor would attenuate a little less and give you a slightly sweeter beer. The Nottigham would be less sweet but may give you a tad higher alcohol content.

Or take a chance and use what you have, and see what happens. Either way you'll end up with beer, and you'll love it cause you made it yourself!!
 
LoL!!! Excuse the language but, hell yes! Ur probably right. Gonna love every horrible taste of my first brew. And, u said it best.. Cause I brewed it LoL
 
wafflesbr0wn said:
LoL!! Well I'm gonna go ahead and brew it and hope it turn out all right. Next brew on the list is the "American Light.". I hear that one is really great
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I'm not sure about that one. That sounds like a lager anyway, and lagers are supposed to ferment cold (50 degrees or so) Its really hard for someone who is new to find a place to ferment something at that temperature. Extract tends to have a certain off flavor to it. While brewing extract I would tend to either make stouts or hoppy beers (Pale Ales ipas) I find that the heavy specialty malts of the stouts and the hops in the Pale ales tend to mast the slight off flavor of the extract.

One piece of advice that I will give you for this and any other extract batch that you do is do not add the extract until the end of the boil. I know it will say to do it early on the sheet, but don't do it.
 
LoL!!! Excuse the language but, hell yes! Ur probably right. Gonna love every horrible taste of my first brew. And, u said it best.. Cause I brewed it LoL
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That's the spirit man! Jump in and have fun. Read on your other post about subbing yeast that your kit came with Nottingham. That's a good all around dry yeast, so you'll be fine with that. You may be suprised how well your first batch turns out. I was. If you can be patient try to leave your ber in the fermentor 3 weeks before bottting and another 2-3 weeks in the bottle before drinking. Tough to resist, but it'll be better if you don't rush it.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out
 
cincydave said:
That's the spirit man! Jump in and have fun. Read on your other post about subbing yeast that your kit came with Nottingham. That's a good all around dry yeast, so you'll be fine with that. You may be suprised how well your first batch turns out. I was. If you can be patient try to leave your ber in the fermentor 3 weeks before bottting and another 2-3 weeks in the bottle before drinking. Tough to resist, but it'll be better if you don't rush it.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out
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Ill second this! Usually on your first batch you will be anal about everything. You might not know what is going on, but you will make sure you follow the directions to the T. On the 2nd or 3rd batch you will get complacent and have a bad batch.
 
I did the Amber as my first batch. It came out really good. My wife loved it and she doesn't really drink beer. She raved so much that I bought another one. It is fermenting right now.

I would suggest adding the LME at the end of your boil.

Before you add the yeast make sure you read the directions on the back. It just tells you how to properly rehydrate the yeast.

Enjoy!
 
On the back of the yeast packet is only shows the number 15... Is that 15min? Or 15sec. And when exactly or close to the end of the brew? The ten min? Or half hour?
 
And can I use "distilled water" from the store to make my beer? Not to sure what the hardness levels are here.. Not to worried about chlorine
 
Do you have city or well water?


I can't believe the yeast doesn't have directions. From what I remember, it is one cup of water heated to about 86-95* F. Pour the yeast in and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Then cool to whatever temp your wort is (which should be 70-ish).Then pitch it.
 
whooo boy!

1) Brewers best kit is what i started with and still use for my basic equipment. Of course i've added some things- and if you fall in love with the hobby you will too- but the starter kit is a fine way to introduce yourself to the hobby.

2) the 15 on the yeast... hard to tell what it is since you cant tell us what name is on the packet but it's likely just a strain number. Safale (a super common dry yeast) is like 5, 10, 15 and it just designates the different types - ale, lager, belgian, etc. Whitelabs (super common liquid yeast provider) does the same thing with WLP###.

Your ingredients kit came with a 'brew day' instructions sheet- follow it. Read it about 10 times before you ever start brew day. And pick up a book that will help expand on that basic instruction sheet- i reccomend John Palmer's "How to brew"

Edit: I would NOT use "distilled" use "Spring" or "Drinking" if you're going with bottled water. Yeast need nutrients and the distilled water will have much of those nutrients removed.

2: For your yeast, you *CAN* simply sprinkle the dry packet of your wort AFTER it has cooled to the appropriate pitching temp (63-70 degrees F) OR a better way with only an extra step-- edit 2: see bullinachinashops rehydration instructions; they're better than mine!



Welcome!
 
Oh yeah, leave that puppy in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks and then in bottles for the same. It gets much better as it conditions.

If you drink it a 1 week it will give you the pucker face.
 
Talk about a step by step guide LoL. I really do appreciate all the help guys.. These have been tips and ideas that I'm going to apply to my first brew.. The suspense is killing me to get started. The fermentation and bottling them, the wait it gonna kill me.. But, my patience will be rewarded. (crosses fingers). LoL!!
 
Couple of things....
First of all, if you're going to re-hydrate the yeast, you should do so in an sanitary enviroment with sanitized water. The yeast should only re-hydrate in water and for about 30 minutes. If it will be longer than that then you should give the yeast a small amout of wort, not sugar. You also only need about 2 ounces of water.

You can do this by starting with a sanitized coffee cup filled about 1/3 of the way with tap water. Then put it into a microwave and bring it to a boil. pull it out and cover it with some saran wrap or foil and let it rest untill it comes down in temp to about 100 degrees. then it's ready to sprikle in the dry yeast. This should happen about 30 minutes before you're ready to pitch into your wort. If you rehydrate and it takes longer getting ready to pitch, simply take a teaspoon of the wort and add it to the offee cup. It's really that simple.

All the Brewers Best kits I've see come with either Danstar or Fermentis yeast which are both high quality dry yeasts.

If you're using bottled or store bought water, use spring water if you can. As stated earlier, it will contain the minerals that the yeast need for healthy reproduction and fermentation.

That's all for now, good luck.

Bull
 
Follow this guys instructions to rehydrate, they're better than mine. though i take issue with the 100* pitch temp. I've always felt much safer having closer to 70 i dont know if 100 will kill the dried out yeast, but i dont want to risk it.
bullinachinashop said:
First of all, if you're going to re-hydrate the yeast, you should do so in an sanitary enviroment with sanitized water. The yeast should only re-hydrate in water and for about 30 minutes. If it will be longer than that then you should give the yeast a small amout of wort, not sugar. You also only need about 2 ounces of water.

You can do this by starting with a sanitized coffee cup filled about 1/3 of the way with tap water. Then put it into a microwave and bring it to a boil. pull it out and cover it with some saran wrap or foil and let it rest untill it comes down in temp to about 100 degrees. then it's ready to sprikle in the dry yeast. This should happen about 30 minutes before you're ready to pitch into your wort. If you rehydrate and it takes longer getting ready to pitch, simply take a teaspoon of the wort and add it to the offee cup. It's really that simple.
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edit: quote didnt go.
 
paparker21

The manufacturer says the optimal temp is 104 degrees. I always say 100 because if your thermometer is off a bit, it's better to error on the side of caution.

Lower is OK

Bull
 
hmm, interesting. I never noticed that - i also don't use dry yeast anymore though. I found i was having EXTREMELY long lag times- like 3 days or more sometimes. It's so cheap and easy to make the jump to liquid yeast + wash and harvest that it didn't make sense not to!

Good info for the OP though!
 
BB's American Amber was my first non Mr beer brew. I haven't tried it yet so I can't say how it came out. It won't be 3 weeks in the bottle until Wed.

Just for you I'll throw one in the frig today and test it tomorrow.
 
Remember, your beer doesn't operate on a timeline of days and hours but instead on a timeline of specific gravity. Make sure you take those readings -- calendars are for holidays and work weeks, a hydrometer is for beer!
 

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