First brew is in the primary and bubbling away and I have a question about brewing. The kit I used required me to steep the grains for 20 minutes, bring to a boil and an hour later chill the wort and it's done for the night. I keep hearing about mashing, sparging, all grains etc. Whatdo you recommend for the next step. I'm really interested in trying to make different beers like Cherry Wheat, New Castle style, La Maudite, and so fourth.
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Shambolic
Well-Known Member
I assume you took those grains out before you boiled?
Definitely stick with extract brewing (as opposed to all grain) for a while. I would recommend making your first few fairly straightforward styles, too, like pale ales etc. Experiment with different hops, different yeast and so forth, and soon you'll be a master brewer!
Definitely stick with extract brewing (as opposed to all grain) for a while. I would recommend making your first few fairly straightforward styles, too, like pale ales etc. Experiment with different hops, different yeast and so forth, and soon you'll be a master brewer!
Blender
Well-Known Member
I to would also do a few more extract kits and in the between time read up on the process of all grain brewing. Have you checked out http://www.howtobrew.com/? It's a good place to start.
Yeah the grains were out when I boiled the wort. The instructions were to put the bag in my 5 gallons of water, bring to 170 degrees and hold it there for 20 minutes. Then remove the bag and bring the wort up to a full boil and start adding the extract malts (I had to add a liquid and a powder) bring to a boil again then add some hops. Boil for 55 mins then add the finishing hops. Boil for 5 minutes then take it off the fire. It took me 40 mins to cool the wort down with a wort chiller, racked it into a primary 6.5 gallon carboy fermenter and now I'm bubbling. The only problem I'm dealing with now is that the fermentation started off with the temperature between 68-70 degrees. For some reason, last night the temperature of the mix jumped up to 78 and I can't seem to get it down. Hope I'm not doing damage but oh well. It's my first run, I'm bound to make some form of mistake.
So your advice is to continue to do the extract brewing and using the steeping grains and hops. I've been reading a book called Radical Brewing and it's been giving me alot of information. I keep getting confused when it talks about mashing, sparging, extracts, all grains and so fourth. It seems like they all run together for some reason.
So your advice is to continue to do the extract brewing and using the steeping grains and hops. I've been reading a book called Radical Brewing and it's been giving me alot of information. I keep getting confused when it talks about mashing, sparging, extracts, all grains and so fourth. It seems like they all run together for some reason.
gauthierk said:
The yeast will make it warmer in the primary. One of the ways I have heard done is to wrap a wet towel around it so that it cools it down. The only thing temp will do is give more estars to your beer.
sause said:
... and fusel alcohols
... and phenols
I'd try to get the temp lowered. I had a couple batches that fermented with ambient temp of about 75°F, which means the beer itself was a few degrees higher. One of those batches was an IPA that ended up tasting like a hefeweizen.
-walker
Stick with the extracts and steeping grains for a while. You can make any kind of beer with the extracts and can ever get into the funkier stuff like fruit beers without any jump to all grain.
I started out the same way you did back in about September of last year and just made the jump to all grains after about 10 batches and the only difference I have seen so far is a bigger time commitment on brew day and more toys ya need to make all grains. . . but then again I dont have any all grains ready to drink yet.
As for the temp thing I wouldnt worry about it too much. Your beer will still be drinkable and I'll bet suprisingly better then most anything else you drink. If you can put the fermenter in a tray or plastic bin of cool water that would help but IMHO if ya have to go out and buy the stuff I wouldnt worry about it too much, just keep it in mind for your next couple batches and the warmer weather comming up soon
I started out the same way you did back in about September of last year and just made the jump to all grains after about 10 batches and the only difference I have seen so far is a bigger time commitment on brew day and more toys ya need to make all grains. . . but then again I dont have any all grains ready to drink yet.
As for the temp thing I wouldnt worry about it too much. Your beer will still be drinkable and I'll bet suprisingly better then most anything else you drink. If you can put the fermenter in a tray or plastic bin of cool water that would help but IMHO if ya have to go out and buy the stuff I wouldnt worry about it too much, just keep it in mind for your next couple batches and the warmer weather comming up soon
Buying stuff isn't a problem at all right now. As a matter of fact, my local brew shop almost wanted to lay out the red carpet for me when I literally walked in and made the point that I didn't want it if it wasn't top of the line. I'm a big time quality person. My significant other checked the temp for me earlier and she said it was down to 76F. Fermentation took off on tuesday and was rolling wed and thursday. This morning, I noticed that my activity was down from one bubble per two seconds the night before to 1 bubble per ten seconds so I think my temp will stabilize soon...
