Oh wow, I'm glad you are helping me, so he used like 10,20 and 80 crystal al, so he was just mixing up some colors?
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I mean for simplicity's sake, yes. In a pinch you could just use 10 or just use 20 (add the weights) for example. But I would not just use 40 or something like that because that could have a noticeable impact.
And no problem! Thats the point of forums.
So the 10,20,80 was because he had those left over more than likely? So u add those and it comes to 110?
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Or are the numbers different shades of colors and u mix them together am gives u a certain shade of color?
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It doesn't quite work that way. You can't mix 40L crystals and 120L crystal and expect to get 80L crystal. The different temperatures of kilning create different compounds providing different flavors. While they might create a similar SRM (color) in the final beer, they can create different color hues, too, so even the color might be off. There may not be a HUGE difference between, say, a 10L and 20L crystal, or a 40L and 60L crystal, but when you get further apart the differences get noticeable. It's not as much as just adding them up.
Basically you've got a few "categories" of specialty grains. You've got the "toasted" malts that provide enhanced "malty" flavors often described as bready, biscuity, or toasty (biscuit malt, victory malt, aromatic malt, etc, would be examples). Most of these should really be mashed (whether that's a small partial mash, or actual all-grain brewing), but you can get away with steeping them.
Then you've got your "crystal malts" aka "caramel malts" (as mentioned above) that provide anywhere from caramel to toffee to dark fruit depending on the malt (the number Crystal malts usually 10L up to 120L or 150L, to Special B to Carapils to Carared to Caramunich).
Then you've got the "roasted" malts. These include black patent, Carafa, chocolate malt, and roasted barley (which is technically unmalted, but that's not really relevant). These provide very dark color, and roasty flavors. The exact character and color depends on the malt . These are often used for porters, stouts, brown ales, and other darker beers, and in some lighter beers in very small amounts for color adjustment.
Then you've got your "adjunct" grains, where flaked oats, flaked rice, wheat malt, flaked wheat, flaked barley, unmalted barley, flaked rice, flaked corn, etc, come in. Most of these require mashing. Once again, you can get away with steeping them, but there's drawbacks to doing so.
Also, extract is notably more expensive than all-grain brewing when it comes to ingredients. However, all-grain is more time intensive, has MUCH more room for error, and requires more equipment. At minimum, you'll need a massive grain bag (a couple bucks) and a larger kettle for BIAB all-grain brewing. Traditional 3 vessel brewing will require substantially more equipment. However, that equipment is pretty much a one time investment, so all-grain works out cheaper in the long run.
With extract brewing, you have two basic ways you can go.
First (and honestly best) is to use only "pale", "light" or ideally "extra light" extract, and then steep the various specialty grains you want to get the flavors you want. The lighter extracts will not provide much character. This way you can tailor the exact flavors you want with specialty grains. Most extract batches will be like this.
The easier way is to use other extracts ("dark" and "amber", usually), which will already have the specialty malts in them. Steepings grains on top of darker extracts is sometimes not a good idea unless you know EXACTLY what went into making that extract. This way is VERY easy. However, you get much less control over the flavor of the beer.
What you're basically going to do is heat up water to about 150-160 degrees. Then you're going to steep any specialty grains (CRUSHED grains, very important, either buy em crushed or have them crush them for you. Most homebrew shops will gladly crush your grains for you. As you progress and start all-grain brewing you'll eventually want to get your own mill, but you don't need it yet) for about 30 minutes in that 150-160 range. You don't want to go any hotter or colder than that.
After steeping, the grains get removed (do NOT boil them), and start heating the resulting wort (the term for sugary pre-beer before you add yeast) until it's boiling (if you're not steeping grains, you can simply bring water straight to a boil). Once it's boiling, take it off the heat (again, very important), stir in half of the extract until it's 100% dissolved, and then bring back to a boil. You'll usually be boiling for either 60 or 90 minutes depending on the recipe, adding hops at whatever times the recipe tells you to, usually an addition at 60 or 90 minutes, and then often one or more additions within the last 20 minutes, and depending on the beer somtimes an addition after you cut the heat, and sometimes an addition later on after the beer has fermented (dry hopping).
Then when there's about 15-20 minutes in the boil left you stop the clock, once again cut the heat, add the rest of your extract, stir until 100% dissolved, bring back to a boil, and restart the clock.
After the boil, chill it down to below 70. Since you'll be topping off with water, getting that top-off water at near-freezing temperature and then adding it will speed that chilling process dramatically. The ice bath mentioned above is also very useful. You can also buy or build a wort chiller. Most brewers eventually start using a wort chiller.
While the wort is chilling, if you're using dry yeast yeast, rehydrate it following manufacturers instructions (basically you'll be boiling a small amount of water, letting it cool to 90-105F - the exact temperature depends on the yeast - adding the dry yeast, and letting it sit for approximately 20-30 minutes to go from a dry power to a creamy slurry). With dry yeast, 1 pack is plenty only if it's rehydrated. Dry yeast that hasn't been rehydrated straight into wort is a bad thing. If you're using liquid yeast, you'll almost always need two packs unless you're making a starter (starters are easy, but until you've done a few batches its safer and easier to just use two packs). Any instructions telling you just to sprinkle dry yeast as is or telling you one pack of liquid yeast is good for a full 5 gallon batch are WRONG and need to be ignored.
Once your wort is at the right temperature, and yeast rehydrated, you'll transfer to the fermenter, top off to the right volume with water (usually 5 gallons, although there are plenty of smaller kits out there to), and either shake the ever loving crap out of it for a few minutes, or buy an aeration system. This will add the necessary oxygen for the yeast. Then pitch your yeast, and stick it somewhere cool. The more you can control the temperature, the better, 75f is too hot, and for an ale below 60F will probably be too cold, the ideal temperature depends on the beer. What matters is the temperature of the beer, not the room, so if you can't control the fermentation temperature directly (if you have an extra fridge and can outfit an aftermarket controller, that will work perfectly, or there's cheaper, just as effective methods you can use as well, although usually higher maintenance. Sear for "swamp cooler" on here), you need to keep the beer somewhere slightly cooler than the fermentation temperature (since fermentation produces heat). A basement will get the job done for most ales, but will probably be too warm for a lager, and too cool for some ales.
Once it's fermenting, let it go for 3-5 weeks before bottling (the timeframe depends on the beer, but usually anything less than 3 weeks is too soon, regardless of what your kit instructions say).
Then you bottle (as indicated above). Heat up your priming sugar in water (boil the solution for 10-15 minutes to sanitize and drive off oxygen), let it cool, add to bottling bucket, and then rack the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket on top of the priming sugar. Then I stir gently (NO SPLASHING) to make sure it all gets mixed in evenly. Then from bottling bucket into bottles via spigot, tubing, and bottling wand. You can basically fill the bottle to the top, and when you pull the wand out there'll be a perfect amount of head space left.
When it comes to priming sugar I think that 1 oz per gallon is too much for almost any style, and the 5 oz packet that comes with many kits is definitely too much since you'll lose volume to the yeast cake and usually end up actually bottling 4.5 gallons or so for a 5 gallon batch. Ultimately it's the bottled volume that matters, not the original batch size. I think a priming sugar amount of about 4 oz is pretty good for the average 5 gallon batch of an American styled beer (and many German styles as well). Will net you the general neighborhood of 2.5 volumes of CO2. Some beers will need more (Belgians, Hefeweizens, etc), where others will need less. I brew a lot of English beers, and I usually use a very low 1.6 ounces of priming sugar in a full batch (again, bottling roughly 4.5 gallons) to net me approximately 1.5 volumes of CO2, a nice low carbonation level found in English cask beers. You can tailor carbonation to style, but 2.5 volumes is a pretty good middle ground that can work for almost any style. If you look online, there's plenty of priming sugar calculators out there.
To bring it all full circle, there's a couple main differences between brewing and winemaking:
-Brewing takes substantially longer on brew day. However, beer usually matures faster and the turnaround is usually faster.
-Beer kits are usually cheaper than wine kits.
-Sanitation and cleaning are more important in brewing than they are in winemaking. There's a bunch of reasons behind this. But if you weren't paying much attention to it in your winemaking, you'll need to start.
-Brewing requires a boil. Most wine/mead/cider making does not (with some exceptions).
-Oxidation is not as hazardous in brewing as it is in winemaking. It's still something to be avoided whenever and wherever possible, but beer is slightly more tolerant to oxidation.
-Beer is much more sensitive to light damage. While wine/mead/cider can get some light damage, there's no mistaking the "skunk" character of light damaged beer. Beer needs to be kept out of sunlight whenever and wherever possible.
-Temperature control is much more important with beer than it is with wine. With most styles, better temperature control means better beer. In some cases (definitely with lagers, but with ales too), poor or no temperature control can mean terrible beer. The temperature you need will depend on the beer. Point being, start with ales, as they're easier, and search the forum for "swamp coolers". Those will get your temperature in range right from the start.
-Yeast becomes much more important in brewing. There's differences in wine strains, but in my experience they're nowhere near as important or pronounced as the differences in brewing strains. You'll also need to pay more attention to pitching rate, and to fermentation temperature (as noted above).
-There's a few equipment differences, but not much. They're primarily related to the boiling process, and the bottling process, as beer requires carbonation.
-Packaging beer is different. First, it needs to be carbonated, whether that's bottle or keg. Additionally, you'll need bottles that will hold pressure. Regular wine bottles will not be suitable as they may explode under pressure. Champagne bottles will be fine if you have the ability to cork them. However, they need to be corked like champagne- cork not all the way in the bottle, with enough exposed to allow a cage. Otherwise carbonation will likely blow the cork. But pry-off beer bottles, bottle caps, plus capper will serve you well.
I hope that's helpful.
