Using Brewers Best IPA kit

[bushman101]

Howdy

I've been brewing mead and cider for a few years and going to try my 1st beer soon.

I'm looking for advice and answers to a few questions.

What controls ABV/sugar content of the final product? Steep/boil time? Amount of grain? Both? (Boil time is a new concept for me).
The Brews Best kit uses malted extract. What are the alternatives to this? (For future reference)
I'm not super keen on IPAs. Would using less hops make for a more 'even' flavor?
What's a good aging time for this kit? How well does beer age?

I'm using bottle and corks to store since I already have them.

More questions to come. Thanks for any help.

 

[RM-MN]

Read through this online book that John Palmer has graciously provided for free as it will answer most of your questions. Once you have read it, consider buying the latest edition as it has some updated information. The original version will cover the basics pretty well.

www.howtobrew.com

Do not use the bottles you would have for mead. Beer is carbonated and the pressure will likely cause the bottles to burst. Also, because beer is sensitive to UV light, you would want to use brown bottles. New bottles are an incredibly good investment because they can be used over and over indefinitly, making their final cost near to nothing.

 

[Jag75]

I started on Brewersbest kits . You can brew pretty good beer with them. Ive never tried the IPA one though. I Agree with RMs post . Read the free book , it will give you a good idea .

I'd definitely get different bottles , I'm not even sure if the corks would even hold. Look at the instructions sheet and it will tell you the hops list and IBUs. If its more bitter then you prefer you could cut back on the bittering addition or boil for less time .

A little tip to make it easier on you . Start off with 3 gallons . Keep 2 gallon jugs in the fridge . Add your chilled water to the wort so the temp will drop faster . I'm assuming its a 5 gallon kit. Use RO or distilled water with extract kits.

Another thing extract brewers do is only boil half of the LME at first then save the rest of LME /DME at the end of the boil . It helps keeping the wort to get dark.

This being your first beer you might want to go step by step not averting too much. Don't do the secondary the instructions call for though. Beer is nothing like mead. No need to open , degas and add nutrients ect....

Reading that book , it won't take long will definitely point you in the right direction.