Very Noob first post guy with ?...

[Ponduke]

Hello, been reading here for some time as I prepare to enter this awesome world of home brewing. Living in Evansville IN I thought I'd have to order everything online thinking I had no LHBS. Turns out there is indeed one, though they're not in the phone book and it's at a farm store of all places! Anyway, I go there Friday and pick up a few essentials to add to what I already had and also picked up a simple no boil extract to make my first batch. Figure I'll go super easy and ease into more involved recipes as my methods improve with practice.

So, I picked up A Muntons Pre-hopped Bock extract. 1.8 kg (3.9 lbs I think), can says it makes 6 US gallons. Like a true Noob, I took the owners word that the 2.2 lbs of corn sugar he sold me would be a perfect, and necessary, addition to the extract. Then after reading up here, that seems to be a bit of a stretch to say the least and that an addition of DME is really what I need and that's something I didn't buy. I want a good first batch, but then again I wanted to brew today (LHBS not open today) and am considering using the sugar. Then I wondered, could I make a partial batch 3 or 4 gallon or so instead of the full 6 and eliminate the sugar or at least cut way back? Would I get at least a decent beer like this?

Any opinions from you experts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Brian

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Kit+kilo beer isn't terrible, but there are plenty of ways to improve upon it. Give it a try, then see how you can improve it next time.

 

[BigKahuna]

+1 Brew it up...it's going to be beer no matter how you look at it. Then next batch (Next Weekend?) either try a better kit, have a recipe (LOTS HERE) or have some ideas to improve what you did today.

 

[Ponduke]

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll give it a shot, but do you think a reduction in the number of gallons I brew, and thus the percentage of sugar added would be an improvement? And if so any suggestions on this?

Thanks again!!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

If you brew only 4 gallons, you can cut the corn sugar to 1/2 lb and achieve the same original gravity (which, incidentally, is nowhere near the OG of a traditional bock...then again, a bock is a lager, and I'm sure you're using ale yeast).

 

[Ponduke]

Yep. Using ale yeast. I guess that's all right with a lager? That's something else the LHBS didn't mention! He's no expert I'm realizing. At least not like we have on this forum. Guess I'll do 4 gallons w/ 1/2 lb. sugar and see what happens. I'll let y'all know how it comes out.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I have a farm shop LHBS nearish to me too. He's not too much of an expert, and there is not really enough ingredients or equipment stock in the place.....But his prices ARE even better than online or at a proper store. Next time you go, just look at all his prices and see if you can at least get the equipment cheaper there, and suppliment with online buying. It does'nt look though, that your farm store can ever be a one-stop shop.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Using ale yeast is probably your only choice right now. The beer won't be exactly to style, but it'd be even worse if you fermented with lager yeast at temperatures above about 55°F.

 

[Ponduke]

UPDATE: Ok, I put the wort in the carboy around 4PM Sunday and direct pitched the dry yeast that came with the Muntons extract. I was going to rehydrate the yeast but after boiling the rehydrating water and letting it cool I stuck a thermometer in it to check temp and then realized I hadn't sterilized it first and contamination paranoia got the best of me and I tossed it out. I had read on Palmers web site that you can get good results without rehydrating the yeast (though he recommends rehydrating I know) and because I was also smoking some chicken that day and time was a factor I just said what the heck and pitched it dry in 80 degree wort. Now, I think its going all right but wonder what you all think. After about 6 hours I noticed the first signs of activity in the form of half a dozen or so quarter to dime sized pads of foam on top, and by the next morning I had about an 1 1/2" of foam (krausen you guys call it I think?) and the airlock was bubbling every 2 seconds or so. By the way, my OG, if I read it right and after compensating the temperature of the wort was 1.038)

I checked it this morning and the foam has died down quite a bit, just a thin layer on top and the airlock bubbles are down to about every 15 seconds or so. Things are slowing down quite a bit, is that to be expected after about 60 hours in the carboy? I don't have my temp controller for my fermentation chest freezer that I'll be using in the future so I'm fermenting it in the spare bathroom which is around a constant 74 to 75 degrees. I assume everything is going fine but I wanted to give y'all an update and see if anyone has an opinion on my yeast activity and if it is doing as one would want/expect it to. Thanks for reading.

 

[farmbrewernw]

Sounds like it's going well, just let it sit for a couple of weeks, let the yeast do it's job. Your yeast activity sounds normal, your fermentation temps are a little high but hey it's summer so unless you have some way of controlling temps there isn't anything you can do. I'd say get cracking on your next batch cause your first batch always goes quick.

 

[Ponduke]

UPDATE #2
OK. I need to ask yet another question if I may. My primary as mentioned earlier, is sitting in my bathtub at 75 degrees, (too high I know) it's been there for 6 days now. I am not going to use a secondary and am going to instead let it set in the primary for another couple weeks. What I'm wondering if if it would be beneficial at this point, or if it's too late to make much difference, to put my primary in my kegerator, at it's warmest setting, and use it like a fermentation chamber. I tested it and it holds 68 degrees at its highest setting, so that seems ideal, but I wonder if that'll make much difference at this poing since I'm already six days in and most fermentation is already done.

What do you all think?

Thanks!

 

[p4ck37p1mp]

Probably too late to change much, it should be ok regardless.

+1 on starting your next batch