New brewer looking for first kit

[rodwha]

It doesn't appear as though it has pilsen extract, but I'm not certain it has to to be a cream ale.

I looked in their ingredients section and they only sell by the pound. Grains, once crushed have a shelf life and if I were to help make you smaller portioned recipes it'd take a while to use it all up, which might mean the last batch or two will be getting a little stale.

I'd just go ahead and order the kit. Make sure the grains come crushed.

 

[rodwha]

You'll want an additional hydrometer on hand as they break easy.

You'll also want more bottle caps if you are buying more than 1 kit.

You need a long spoon or two. Plastic spoon for a plastic bucket. I use a metal spoon in my pot.

A timer, scale(s), colander, and I use a whisk to aerate the wort.

 

[roesn]

If you wanted to suggest on ingredients I guess I dont have to use smaller portioned recipes. I was just hoping to make 2 batches so I could improve without making another ingredient purchase.

Im going to order the kit, but probably skip on the thermometer seeing it comes with 2 already.

 

[rodwha]

Buying a pound of grains gets to be a bit much with just one batch. I usually buy my grains locally so that I don't have to work hard at matching things up.

I did buy some stuff by the pound as I made a brown ale and a stout so it was fairly easy with some of the grains.

 

[rodwha]

I checked out their site some more and they only offer 3.3 lb jugs of extract. That makes it a little more difficult to tailor recipes without needing DME to make up portions of it, which is more costly. But they do sell Briess extract which some have been made with carapils, which means you wouldn't need to buy that. So you could tailor some recipes, but you might need to keep them similar (light/dark) so you can share the crystal malts.

Having to buy dme brings up the price, and it may end up being more costly than a kit.

MoreBeer sells their LME by the pound starting at 4 lbs bags up to 9 or 10 lbs. That's much easier to work with, and some of theirs is Briess also.

 

[roesn]

So are you saying I should get the all grain kit? Because that has an option to get crushed grains.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/liberty-cream-ale-all-grain-kit.html

 

[rodwha]

No. All grain is a whole nuther ball game.

The other kit comes with carapils which needs to be crushed. I'm guessing they come that way. If not you'll need to try to crush them good with a rolling pin.

 

[rodwha]

Cream Ale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_ale

According to this you may want to add a little sugar (1/4 lb) to help thin it out a bit. It also says it ought to "lagered" (left in the fridge for an extended period of time).

 

[roesn]

Alright. This is what I got in my cart.

Midwest supplies:
144 bottle caps http://www.midwestsupplies.com/gold-caps.html
The start kit for 90$ http://www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-brewing-starter-kit.html

an extra hydrometer http://www.midwestsupplies.com/hydrometer-triplescale.html

A 11 lb capacity scale http://www.midwestsupplies.com/economy-digital-scale-15-lb-capacity.html

I think what is posted above is done and I can order it.


Morebeer:
21" stainless steel spoon - 7$
And I will buy all of my ingredients here like you suggested. Once I figure out what I need.

 

[rodwha]

It's getting late for me. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or want some help with something. And read HowToBrew.

I'll give you a few more minutes as I don't know if you've finished your order and might have last minute questions.

 

[rodwha]

So you won't be buying the kit from MidWest?

All of the other stuff looks good. Don't forget you need a plastic spoon for the buckets. If you scratch a bucket it could ruin it.

Let me know what you have in mind as far as brews go if you are wanting to create some recipes.

 

[rodwha]

If you'll be buying from MoreBeer also, and it's not too late, you may want to buy the add ons there to help bring your cost up high enough for free shipping

 

[roesn]

Yea Im getting the 7$ spoon and all of the ingredients from MoreBeer, I saw that its only 59$ for free shipping. Do you suggest I look at the cream ale recipe and buy the ingredients individually in bulk? It would be cool to mix and match a few so I would be able to change up flavors... but never having a beer ingredient kit to begin with, I wouldn't know where to start... So maybe I should just go with a couple kits.

 

[rodwha]

The kits would simplify it. And what's nice about kits is that they come with exactly what's needed (say 1/4 or 1/2 lb of certain grains and precise amount of hops).

To buy in bulk per se (by the pound) is only good if you have a grain mill and can save the excess or have enough recipes that it can be split up between them all and used quickly enough.

I think we could design 2 lighter recipes and use up all of the grains. Maybe a cream ale and a blonde or pale.

What beer styles do you prefer?

 

[roesn]

Ok, maybe something like this? http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/55081

or
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/104

Maybe you have a better suggestion. As long as there is a cream ale in there

 

[roesn]

And here is another pale ale
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/276

Hopefully some of these beers are close enough to make fixes/changes to the recipe after my first batch

 

[rodwha]

Lagers require a colder fermentation, which means you'd need a fridge with a temp controller added (~50-55* or so).

I like Ranger. I'm not sure if I could duplicate it well enough, but I think I understand how they've designed the hop schedule so that it's not like a West coast style, which I also like.

But this wouldn't be hard to work up recipes for.

I checked out MoreBeer's cream ale kit and it comes with pilsen extract also, as well as some adjuncts to thin it a little. I couldn't do that on that scale (maybe an 8 gal batch or so), but I could tweak it enough that it'd have a bit more stuff that MidWest's, though I could make their's also.

 

[rodwha]

You might prefer their cream ale kit, though it's something like $30 I think. I checked the percentage of crystal in a 5 gal IPA and 1 lb would work. I prefer to split my crystal malts (20/40) for a deeper taste than to use all one type. But it would still be good.

What style of hops do you enjoy in an IPA?

 

[roesn]

For the Sierra Nevada pale ale it says

"Generous quantities of premium Cascade hops give the Pale Ale its fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor. "

 

[rodwha]

Would you want a pale or an IPA? And if it's a pale would you want a more typical or a light IPA version (very hoppy)?

 

[roesn]

Is this the one you're talking about? http://morebeer.com/products/erik-beers-cream-ale-extract-beer-kit.html

So I could make a 2 batches of that and use the remainder for something else?

 

[roesn]

Less hoppy if possible

 

[rodwha]

This is homebrew, anything is possible!

What type of alcohol content?

 

[roesn]

Ill go off the numbers of the Spotted Cow and Sierra Nevada to get a good range. So somewhere around 4.8%-5.6%

 

[rodwha]

You might be more pleased with their cream ale kit than if I try to make one since I can't get small quantities of LME. I think using pilsen makes a difference. I was it does when designing my cream ale recipe.

The only problem with the designing recipes is not knowing how many AA's the hops will have as there's a range. The calculator use a specific number, and on this one it's registering 7%, which is high for Cascade. If I use just 2 oz of hops it'll be on the low end of the spectrum of IBU's. But 3 oz would put it on the high end. Let me change the number to 6% and see how that works in.

 

[rodwha]

For a 5 gal batch with 7 lbs of pale LME (Briess golden light), 1 lb of crystal 20 (crushed), and 3 oz of Cascade hops (~6%) it would produce about 5.6 or 5.7% alcohol, 7 SRM, and 38 IBU's using US-05 yeast.

You'd need 3 muslin hop bags, US-05 yeast, and a grain bag if the kit didn't come with one.

You could buy 1) 2 oz hop pack, and 2) 1 oz hop packs in case the AA's are lower than 6% and save the extra if they are 6% or more.

 

[roesn]

Maybe Im just making this more confusing than it needs to be, but Im still 20$ away from free shipping. Is your plan for this to get the cream ale kit (https://morebeer.com/view_product/28634) with a couple oz's of hops and malt to use up the remainder of the kit?

 

[rodwha]

You could even dry hop with the excess hops.

 

[rodwha]

No. Make the cream ale kit as is. And then I can create a pale ale recipe that you can buy the ingredients for.

What I generally do if I'm short on the free shipping is buy some dry yeast, hops, muslin bags, DME, bottle caps, whatever lasts that may come in handy. Get a big reusable BIAB type grain bag too. And the spoon. I have a freezer full of hops! And I had a bunch of DME, but used most of it. I might have 3 packs of yeast.

Also, you might want whirlfloc tablets if you really care about clear beer. I don't mind if it's slightly cloudy, but I did finally use some in my cream ale since it's supposed to be clear.

 

[roesn]

Great! Looking forward to seeing the recipe. Do you recommend I buy a nylon boiling bag for steeping? My kit doesn't come with one.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/nylon-boiling-bag-8-x-9-in.html