New, looking for recommendations

[Druman07]

I just got a starter kit from northern brewer and I'm completely new to home brewing, although I've been wanting to try it for several years. But with my work schedule I'm typically home for a month, and gone for a month. Any suggestions on brews that could be done by a beginner with that kind of schedule?

Anything you want. Your schedule is definitely homebrew friendly. Have fun! Lots of opinions here, Keep it simple to start, and you'll make some good beer. Buy a homebrew book to take with you when you are away, so you can plan what you will be trying when you are home.

 

[BarleyStanding]

Thanks for the advice, my brother got me the northern brewer kit for my birthday so inbev already got their money, what suppliers do people here tend to use?

Welcome to the hobby. I would suggest checking out your local homebrew store (LHBS) if you have one within a reasonable distance to your location. They are a great place to bounce ideas and questions off other homebrewers, and you can get plugged into any local clubs and/or events you have in your area if you wish. I'll order online now and then with the big suppliers in a pinch, but I like hitting the LHBS to get the majority of my supplies (I have 2 within 45 minute round trip). If your fist brew comes out funky, don't give, up. Post your results here, there are a lot of very experienced brewers who are more than happy to help your next brew better. Cheers!

 

[Morri896]

Just bottled today. Got a hydrometer, read 1.014. Guessing 1.048 for og bases on calculator. Kit says og 1.043. I wound up leaving a good bitbehind because I was nervous about getting sediment. Wound up with 42 bottles worth. I tried what was in the tube and it seems better than I thought it was going to be, although pretty light tasting.

 

[IslandLizard]

Congrats with your first completed brew!

1.043/1.048 is a fairly 'small' beer. Carbonation adds a lot of mouthfeel, it takes about 3 weeks.

If you want stronger beer, you need to get into the high 1.050s to mid/high 1.060s range. There are many good kits out thereand stock up when they go on a good sale. As low as $20-25 per 5 gallon (extract) kit, often with free shipping above $60 order. You'd get at least 3 kits. Toss the hops in the freezer and the dry yeast in the fridge or freezer.

If you want to deviate from ready to go kits, you can use loose ingredients to brew extract recipes found in our recipe database (or elsewhere). Many of our recipes have brew suggestions and feedback. Typically you need light DME (or fresh LME), 1-2 pounds of a variety of steeping grains for flavor, hops, and yeast. Using water from the faucet may be fine, just treat for Chlorine/Chloramines if it's municipal water.

 

[Morri896]

Congrats with your first completed brew!

1.043/1.048 is a fairly 'small' beer. Carbonation adds a lot of mouthfeel, it takes about 3 weeks.

If you want stronger beer, you need to get into the high 1.050s to mid/high 1.060s range. There are many good kits out thereand stock up when they go on a good sale. As low as $20-25 per 5 gallon (extract) kit, often with free shipping above $60 order. You'd get at least 3 kits. Toss the hops in the freezer and the dry yeast in the fridge or freezer.

If you want to deviate from ready to go kits, you can use loose ingredients to brew extract recipes found in our recipe database (or elsewhere). Many of our recipes have brew suggestions and feedback. Typically you need light DME (or fresh LME), 1-2 pounds of a variety of steeping grains for flavor, hops, and yeast. Using water from the faucet may be fine, just treat for Chlorine/Chloramines if it's municipal water.

I have a water softener and a filtration system (second faucet that is extra fultered for drinking), it's just a pain to get several gallons into a pot. That's what I did for this batch though. I bought some ingredients to do a stout, how different is it without the nitro?

 

[IslandLizard]

I have a water softener and a filtration system (second faucet that is extra fultered for drinking), it's just a pain to get several gallons into a pot. That's what I did for this batch though. I bought some ingredients to do a stout, how different is it without the nitro?

What kind of filtration?
With water softeners, you need to watch for the amount of Sodium or Potassium Chloride ('salt') they add to the water in exchange for removing the calcium. A subsequent RO filter can then remove 90-95% of those, but a carbon filter, such as a Pur, can't.

Stouts can be very good using regular carbonation either from bottles or tap. 95% is still the quality of the brewed beer, 5% is the added nitro. IOW, learn to brew good beer first, a nitro tap won't make a bad or mediocre Stout good.

Nitro is mostly about mouthfeel and the thick creamy foam. But a nitro system (or beer gas) is a big step up cost wise. You also need kegs and a kegerator/keezer with a special stout faucet, which contains a restrictor plate that gives you the cascading pour and thick foam. AFAIK, only one member in our brew club, with over 60 (very) active members, has a nitro system.

 

[Morri896]

What kind of filtration?
With water softeners, you need to watch for the amount of Sodium or Potassium Chloride ('salt') they add to the water in exchange for removing the calcium. A subsequent RO filter can then remove 90-95% of those, but a carbon filter, such as a Pur, can't.

Stouts can be very good using regular carbonation either from bottles or tap. 95% is still the quality of the brewed beer, 5% is the added nitro. IOW, learn to brew good beer first, a nitro tap won't make a bad or mediocre Stout good.

Nitro is mostly about mouthfeel and the thick creamy foam. But a nitro system (or beer gas) is a big step up cost wise. You also need kegs and a kegerator/keezer with a special stout faucet, which contains a restrictor plate that gives you the cascading pour and thick foam. AFAIK, only one member in our brew club, with over 60 (very) active members, has a nitro system.

I'm not sure exactly what type. It's not a pur though. It was installed by the same people that did our water softener. It's a big thing under our sink.

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm not sure exactly what type. It's not a pur though. It was installed by the same people that did our water softener. It's a big thing under our sink.

If it's really large, it could be an RO reservoir. You would have the RO system itself in the basement or so.
If it consists of one large canister ~12-14" x 6" it's likely a carbon block filter.
If there are 4 or 5 skinnier 12-14" long canisters connected by short tubes, it's likely RO.

RO would be swell!

 

[Morri896]

If it's really large, it could be an RO reservoir. You would have the RO system itself in the basement or so.
If it consists of one large canister ~12-14" x 6" it's likely a carbon block filter.
If there are 4 or 5 skinnier 12-14" long canisters connected by short tubes, it's likely RO.

RO would be swell!

These 3 things here?

 

[Morri896]

These 3 things here?

Here.

 

[IslandLizard]

The big one in the front looks like a holding tank/reservoir. The 3 filters on the right may well contain an RO element, can't tell what they are from here.
Do you have to backflush that system every 100 gallons or so? If so, that could indicate there's an RO membrane in use.

 

[Morri896]

The big one in the front looks like a holding tank/reservoir. The 3 filters on the right may well contain an RO element, can't tell what they are from here.
Do you have to backflush that system every 100 gallons or so? If so, that could indicate there's an RO membrane in use.

So i took these of the three cylinders.

 

[IslandLizard]

There you go. Congrats, you've got an RO system!
You're probably miles ahead on your water now.

Buy a (cheap) TDS meter to keep an eye on the RO quality. When the TDS readings become too high, it's time to backflush the system.

Depending on the set rejection rate, 90-95% is typical, only 10-5% of minerals will pass through. Any TDS reading under 40 is very acceptable for brewing, but lower is better. Under 20 is almost as good as distilled. You'd be pushed to tell the difference.

You can collect your RO water over several days. Now that big reservoir can probably hold several gallons, so once you tap that empty, let it fill up again (which is slow), then add to your brewing water stash until you have enough for a batch.

 

[Morri896]

So I brewed my stout last night. Was shooting for an og of about 1.040. When I checked it I was at 1.1xx. Plugged that into my calculator to fix it. It came out to about 56 cups. I stopped when I got to 5 gal to check it, and wound up at 1.034. Definately gonna take it with a grain of salt next time.

 

[IslandLizard]

So I brewed my stout last night. Was shooting for an og of about 1.040. When I checked it I was at 1.1xx. Plugged that into my calculator to fix it. It came out to about 56 cups. I stopped when I got to 5 gal to check it, and wound up at 1.034. Definately gonna take it with a grain of salt next time.

I trust you do, but I doubt there's anyone else here who has a clue of what you did and are talking about.

 

[Morri896]

I trust you do, but I doubt there's anyone else here who has a clue of what you did and are talking about.

I tried using a calculator to figure out how much water to add to the wort to get my desired gravity. It gave me too high a number and I didn't catch it until I had already added too much.

 

[IslandLizard]

I tried using a calculator to figure out how much water to add to the wort to get my desired gravity.

You're brewing extract, right?
Can you point us to the kit you're brewing?
Are you following their directions?

I can't see how you would get to 1.1xx gravity unless you only boil a gallon or so.

FWIW, most brewers don't use cups as a measure, it's mostly gallons (and sometimes quarts) when brewing. Or liters if you're in metric.

 

[Morri896]

You're brewing extract, right?
Can you point us to the kit you're brewing?
Are you following their directions?

I can't see how you would get to 1.1xx gravity unless you only boil a gallon or so.

FWIW, most brewers don't use cups as a measure, it's mostly gallons (and sometimes quarts) when brewing. Or liters if you're in metric.

It's not a kit, I used 6lbs of lme. The 1.1xx was after a 2.5gal boil. It had boiled down to about 2gal. The calculator gave me qts and I converted to cups because that was the only size measuring cup I had lol, really made it a pain to measure out several gallons.

 

[Morri896]

It's not a kit, I used 6lbs of lme. The 1.1xx was after a 2.5gal boil. It had boiled down to about 2gal. The calculator gave me qts and I converted to cups because that was the only size measuring cup I had lol, really made it a pain to measure out several gallons.

Process wise I copied the block party amber kit instructions, just changed the ingredients. I also used 1lb of roasted barley steeped for 20 minutes.

 

[IslandLizard]

It's not a kit, I used 6lbs of lme. The 1.1xx was after a 2.5gal boil. It had boiled down to about 2gal. The calculator gave me qts and I converted to cups because that was the only size measuring cup I had lol, really made it a pain to measure out several gallons.

I bet measuring 3 gallons cups-wise was a chore and a half!

FWIW, milk and water jugs are a gallon (or half gallon). There are many containers that are around a gallon, half gallon, or quart you already have, look around. Cooking pots are handy for measuring larger volumes. Measure once, use often. I use a gallon plastic mayonnaise jar to measure brewing water. Close enough.

You really should read around a bit more on extract brewing. There is tons of wisdom, here and elsewhere, eagerly awaiting to be picked up. John Palmer's How to Brew (free online 1st edition) or his 4th edition in book form are a wonderful resource for homebrewing.

When you do partial boils, say boiling only half the volume, 2.5 gallon instead of the batches size of 5 gallon, the best is to boil only half the extract for the hour (or half hour), depending on the recipe and hops use. Then at flameout dissolve the other half of extract. Make sure all the wort been at least above 170F for 5-10 minutes so it's pasteurized. Then chill and pour into your fermenter filled with cold top up water. Add more water to the 5 or 5.5 gallon line. Done!

 

[Morri896]

I bet measuring 3 gallons cups-wise was a chore and a half!

FWIW, milk and water jugs are a gallon (or half gallon). There are many containers that are around a gallon, half gallon, or quart you already have, look around. Cooking pots are handy for measuring larger volumes. Measure once, use often. I use a gallon plastic mayonnaise jar to measure brewing water. Close enough.

You really should read around a bit more on extract brewing. There is tons of wisdom, here and elsewhere, eagerly awaiting to be picked up. John Palmer's How to Brew (free online 1st edition) or his 4th edition in book form are a wonderful resource for homebrewing.

When you do partial boils, say boiling only half the volume, 2.5 gallon instead of the batches size of 5 gallon, the best is to boil only half the extract for the hour (or half hour), depending on the recipe and hops use. Then at flameout dissolve the other half of extract. Make sure all the wort been at least above 170F for 5-10 minutes so it's pasteurized. Then chill and pour into your fermenter filled with cold top up water. Add more water to the 5 or 5.5 gallon line. Done!

I can't believe I didn't think to use old containers lol. I actually have the 4th edition of how to brew. I went back through the extract section and some forums online. Now I think it was just not mixed well when I took the final reading. Based on what I've read it should actually have an og of 1.043 with the amount of extract that I used plus whatever comes from the specialty grains. Which palmer said he got about 27 ppg from a 30 minute boil from roasted barley. Whuch would come out to 5.4 gravity points for a 5gallon batch. Since I did a 20 minute boil probably more like 3ish? So I should have an actual og of probably about 1.046?

 

[ncbrewer]

So I brewed my stout last night. Was shooting for an og of about 1.040. When I checked it I was at 1.1xx. Plugged that into my calculator to fix it. It came out to about 56 cups. I stopped when I got to 5 gal to check it, and wound up at 1.034. Definately gonna take it with a grain of salt next time.

After adding top-up water, it takes a lot of stirring to get it mixed thoroughly - more than most people would guess. You probably had about 1.040 for the whole batch but got a sample from near the top with more water. I stopped taking OG samples of partial boil extract batches many years ago to minimize handling of the wort, with possible contamination. I use the published ppg and calculate OG.

 

[ncbrewer]

I also used 1lb of roasted barley steeped for 20 minutes.

Since I did a 20 minute boil probably more like 3ish?

Boiled or steeped? It should be steeped.

(BTW, I see you found a reference for mixing in the top-up water.)

 

[Morri896]

Boiled or steeped? It should be steeped.

(BTW, I see you found a reference for mixing in the top-up water.)

I meant steeped. And what do you mean?

 

[Morri896]

I meant steeped. And what do you mean?

Lol, i totally missed your first reply.