Time to do it properly

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onelegout

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Hi people,
Some of you might know me from such escapades as 'I just 1lb of hops in a 1 gallon batch' and 'I used 1lb of wheatbarley!'... or even 'I just bottled my batch as soon as it started primary fermentation will it explode?'

Well now I'm here to do it properly.
No more gimmicks, no more stupidity; I'm buying the correct equipment and ingredients and starting off with an extract brew. So I need your help to make this work! I've read all the right literature and understand now how the process works and know what to do, I just need a little guidance along the way.

Firstly, I need help with selecting my equipment.

On thursday I have a cornelius keg, co2 bottle, regulator, beer line, and two chrome through-door beer taps arriving for my kegerator build (I already got a fridge on ebay for 5$ which is about 10 US Dollars).

So, I plan to keg my first batch and have it on tap.

At the moment I have no brewing equipment whatsoever.
Here's my shopping list so far:
* 1x 5 gallon cooking pot for boiling wort
* 1x fermentation bucket with airlock
* steriliser
* paddle or other stirring utensil
* syphon
* hop bag
* thermometers
* ingredients for first brew

Is there anything I've missed?

Can anyone recommend a extract based sweet pale ale recipe for my first brew? Actually I'm happy to go all-grain if it's going to mean a better finished product.

H

EDIT: ARGH clicked new thread in the wrong window! Can a mod please move this to the beginner's forum! Thanks!
 
Hydrometer
Another Bucket (for secondary)
Beer Thief

I personally found that doing some extract batches was a good way to learn about the process. Once I felt comfortable with that, I made the switch to all grain. Also, if you wanted to go all grain you would have to invest in more equipment. As far as recipes go, try this one. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/dead-guy-clone-extract-ag-see-note-25902/
 
A kegerator on it's way already? Wow!

The pot, if your stove can boil it go for a bigger one if possible. It's best if you can boil the whole lot in one go. If you have the space outside, you might want to plan ahead for a propane burner when you buy your pot, if you think you are likely to expand. I'm thinking that if you already have the kegging gear, you can probably afford to think bigger. ;)
 
The pot, if your stove can boil it go for a bigger one if possible. It's best if you can boil the whole lot in one go. If you have the space outside, you might want to plan ahead for a propane burner when you buy your pot, if you think you are likely to expand. I'm thinking that if you already have the kegging gear, you can probably afford to think bigger. ;)

+1 to this. If you want to do full boils (you want to do full boils, trust me) you're going to need something bigger than 5 gallons. Another fermentation container for a secondary isn't really needed... many of us don't secondary at all.

You certainly do want a thief and a hydrometer though. Otherwise you'll be back in two days posting about how your airlock isn't bubbling and you're worried your fermentation is stalled.

If you're getting a pot that's 5+ gallons, I'd say toss in a wort chiller too.
 
I'm gonna head to a local wholesale catering place and see how much the big pots are in my lunch hour! Kegerator stuff is arriving tomorrow!!
 
Unfortunately the boil pots were way out of my budget - I'm gonna have to do partial boils until next month at least!
I've been looking for extract recipes to start from but none of them seem simple enough for me; Would it make sense for me to just make my own recipe for my first proper brew?
H
 
Extract recipes are the same as you will get in a kit, it's just not all packaged together without a nice set of instructions. My first extract was based on a recipe in a book. I had to make all kinds of substitutions because the store had limited supplies. It was still a good beer in the end. Look at some of those recipes again as if they were just the contents of a kit you might buy. Someone here will give you instructions if you ask nicely. :)

Are there any home brew stores near you?
 
Unfortunately there aren't any homebrew stores near me (the nearest is an hours drive away :( ) so I'd have to order online.

I saw an all-grain recipe earlier that REALLY caught my eye; a clone of Hopback brewery's 'Summer Lightning' which is a fantastic light summery ale - The recipe uses Maris Otter barley malt; could I replace this with a maris otter malt extract and acheive similar results? If so, is there a way to work out how much extract you would need to replace the grain?
Here's the recipe:

'SUMMER LIGHTENING Hop Back brewery Salisbury.

25 litre batch OG 1049 ABV 5% 14 units of colour 38 EBU

MARIS OTTER PALE MALT 5204 gms

HOPS boil time 90 minutes

CHALLENGER 58 gms

edit

10 gms GOLDINGS LAST 15 MINUTES

Your choice of yeast.'
 
Beersmith has a function that converts AG recipes to extract and vice-versa. I've never actually used it, so I can't speak to it's accuracy. You get a fully functional 2 week trial. You might wanna download it and tinker with it. You can learn some stuff that way . :)
 
Ok cool just put it all in beersmith and it says I should use 3.9Kg (3903grams) of pale malt extract - that sounds like a hell of a lot of extract considering that they come in 1.5kg tins! Is that right?
 
8.8 pounds in 6.6 us gallons....

That sounds a somewhat heavy for a summer brew, but good for a stronger one.

Of course, i probably screwed up the conversions ;)
 
lol! I think it's 8.5 pounds of extract in 5.4 gallons...
I'm starting to think I should just make my own version of the recipe up :D
 

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