Welcome Beginning Brewers!

[renstyle]

For Malt, I'm guessing this honestly but going by what is in local stores I'm thinking between these:
#1 Golden Ale Malt (Polish craft beers were out of this world when I tried it a few years ago. hoping their malt is good too )
http://ugmb.site/tproduct/228543720-693847926361-golden-ale-malt-500-gr
#2 Pale Ale
http://ugmb.site/tproduct/228543720-381726521798-pale-ale-1-kg
#3 CaraMunich Type 3 Malt Caramel malt (Weyermann®)
http://ugmb.site/tproduct/228543720-512604093553-carabelge-malt-500-gr
Or change for stout-ish beer instead of light beer. They have a bunch of roasted and caramel flavors.

Definitely get #2 Pale Ale malt if you choose to go all grain. In the USA, we call this "2-row" and use it as a base malt for pretty much every recipe that doesn't use Pilsner malt instead... and can even be used in place of Pilsner malt in a pinch.

Darker recipes? Consider Roasted Barley (unmalted), Roasted Barley Malt, Chocolate malt, and some flaked oats. Add some wheat malt for those Wheat beers. Unlike the base malt, a little goes a long way with these darker grains, so you don't need alot on hand.

With the eight malts mentioned on this post, you can make dozens of recipes. Then you can dial-in what you like, and will have a better idea of what you need to keep on hand.

 

[garlicbread]

When sharing with a few friends, you need at least 3-5 gallon-sized batches. To get started you can make smaller ones to get the hang of it, and prevent having to drink gallons of swill.

Those jars are really too small for beer. What size are those, 1 liter? That's 2 glasses of beer, max!

They make larger canning jars, probably 5 liter being the max. Or use wine jugs.
But beware when handling glass, especially larger glass vessels such as multi-gallon carboys. They can cause serious injuries when they break (unexpected and unintentionally); the shards are big and crazy sharp.
I'd stick with plastic (fairly cheap) or stainless (very pricey!).

Thanks! I'll try the Brew in a Bag method, ordered the brewing bag from amazon.
About fermentation vessel.
I have some wine carboy/jug glass thingie at home with a kind of wicker weave-like basket around it. It should prevent shards from flying around, but I'm by no measure a careful person so breaking glass is possible.
I'd have to look up what plastic is safe for fermentation, what I found sold online is either simple plastic "water bottles" like:

Or really heavy duty/more expensive wine storage like:

I have not really found Carboys or beer buckets locally yet. There could be a lot of stuff in wine stores, I'll need to check. (We have a ton of those, Georgia is considered the "cradle of wine", and some of the oldest wine-making-related ruins have been found here.)

Definitely get #2 Pale Ale malt if you choose to go all grain. In the USA, we call this "2-row" and use it as a base malt for pretty much every recipe that doesn't use Pilsner malt instead... and can even be used in place of Pilsner malt in a pinch.

Darker recipes? Consider Roasted Barley (unmalted), Roasted Barley Malt, Chocolate malt, and some flaked oats. Add some wheat malt for those Wheat beers. Unlike the base malt, a little goes a long way with these darker grains, so you don't need alot on hand.

With the eight malts mentioned on this post, you can make dozens of recipes. Then you can dial-in what you like, and will have a better idea of what you need to keep on hand.

Thanks!

I want to purchase this Yeast from Amazon, (Shipped and sold by Amazon, North Mountain Supply brand?):

I think as it is dry yeast, it should be safe for international transportation? It will be maximum 10 days in storage/plane before I get it. Could changes in temperature spoil it somehow?

 

[RM-MN]

White buckets that are made from HDPE plastics are ideal for fermentation. Make sure to get a matching lid. They are mostly 5 gallon capacity which would be suitable for 2 1/2 to 4 gallon batches but not 5 gallons as you will need to leave space for the krausen during fermentation. You may be able to find a 6 1/2 gallon bucket and those work well for 5 gallon batches.

The yeast you show is a very good yeast for ales. It can be frozen without damage and acceptable in any temperature that humans can tolerate. Try to keep the fermentation temperature in the 60 - 70 degree F. as warmer will create off flavors and colder will make it really slow if it ferments at all.

 

[renstyle]

View attachment 768557

If you can source those water bottles, and they provide a good enuf seal they will work as fermenters with the addition of a rubber grommet+airlock or some other blow-off hose into a bottle of sanitizer. I use vodka to minimize bubbles.

I would not use them for bulk aging (i.e. letting the beer condition in the vessel for an extended period), 2-3 weeks tho should be OK. Be prepared to swap them every few batches for good measure.

Definitely check the wine stores locally, any fermentation vessel they sell for wine will work great for beer! Fairly sure you can pick a racking cane and/or auto-siphon there too, but you may already have one of those.

View attachment 768564
I think as it is dry yeast, it should be safe for international transportation? It will be maximum 10 days in storage/plane before I get it. Could changes in temperature spoil it somehow?

Safale US-05 works in endless styles of beer, and travels very well. 10-days in transit would not be long enough to spoil. It should be OK.

Honestly, it's about the best "first" yeast you can get.

 

[renstyle]

White buckets that are made from HDPE plastics are ideal for fermentation. Make sure to get a matching lid. They are mostly 5 gallon capacity which would be suitable for 2 1/2 to 4 gallon batches but not 5 gallons as you will need to leave space for the krausen during fermentation. You may be able to find a 6 1/2 gallon bucket and those work well for 5 gallon batches.

+1

The 6.5gal/24.6L brewing buckets are your best bang for the buck (aside from free) if you can find them. They are at every beer/wine store on this side of the pond, hopefully you have access to some.

A fairly entertaining howto on bucket fermenters starts at 4:19 on this video.

 

[IslandLizard]

Definitely check the wine stores locally, any fermentation vessel they sell for wine will work great for beer!

Potential danger! My emphasis. ^
Yes, wine stores can be great resources for equipment, sundries, supplies, etc.

I have some wine carboy/jug glass thingie at home with a kind of wicker weave-like basket around it. It should prevent shards from flying around, but I'm by no measure a careful person so breaking glass is possible.

Just stay away from using large glass vessels ("carboys") over say, 5-10 liter, "wicker weave" jacketed ones (they're called Demijohns) included. If you need to know why, I'll send you to some gorey pictures, for needed motivation.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I think as it is dry yeast, it should be safe for international transportation?

10-days in transit would not be long enough to spoil. It should be OK.

Also, be sure to check those 'best by' dates when the yeast arrives. Otherwise, in 2022 (link) you may end up with this.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Georgia is considered the "cradle of wine", and some of the oldest wine-making-related ruins have been found here.)

Sounds like a wonderful place! With all that winemaking going on you should be able to find lots of equipment to repurpose for beer making or maybe just stick with wine making.

All the info you're getting here is spot on. When I first started brewing (cans of extract with the unlabeled yeast packets under the lid) I could only find a plastic trash can to use as my fermenter. It wasn't ideal but it worked until the home brewing industry got better and offered proper equipment. I did eventually find food grade buckets and later in life graduated to a stainless steel conical. Starting out is a journey. learning as we go, you'll learn the basics first that will guide you for the future.

 

[garlicbread]

Trying to come up with a recipe now while awaiting the items to arrive. (Brew in a bag method with malt grains)
For going with the less bitter but more aromatic hops taste route and let's say 60-minute boil.
1) Is it better to add small amount of hops from the start, and some in the middle, and most in the end (15~10 minutes left)
2) Skip adding hops from the start, add in the middle and the end (15~10 minutes left)
3) Add all the hops at the end (20~15 minutes left)

And would it be a good idea to mix Pilsen base malt with Pale ale malt for an American Wheat Beer style thing?
I kind of want to try if I can get a slightly spiced up and higher alcohol(5%~6% instead of 4% local one had) American Wheat Beer-ish brew.

I was thinking for 1 gallon of water 2.5 pounds Pilsen malt and 2 pounds of Pale Ale, and maybe 25 grams of hops? Maybe add just a tad of specialty malt?

 

[RM-MN]

For going with the less bitter but more aromatic hops taste route and let's say 60-minute boil.

You start with a neutral flavor hop to bitter the beer. You choose the hop and note its alpha acid percentage. The amount you add at 60 minutes will determine the base amount of bittering. Then you choose a flavor hop and add that at 10 minutes or less to boil. That hop also adds to the bittering. Make sure to account for this added bitterness. Chill your wort quickly for as long as it stays above about 170F the hops you added at 10 minutes will continue to add bitterness.

Now you ferment the beer for several days, probably at least 10 days. Check that the beer has reached its projected final gravity using a hydrometer. If it has reached the final gravity or nearly so, add hops for aroma. Taste and aroma are quite closely linked so the dry hop give you flavor too. Leave the beer alone with those hops for at least 3 days, maybe as long as a week, then bottle or keg the beer. Once bottled or kegged, let the beer have another 2 - 3 weeks to carbonate and create the heading compounds and to let suspended yeast and other particles settle.

 

[RM-MN]

And would it be a good idea to mix Pilsen base malt with Pale ale malt for an American Wheat Beer style thing?

If you were to look at a chart of malts you would find that Pilsen is the lightest in color, followed by brewers, pale, pale ale, etc. If you want the lightest color beer you use only Pilsen. If you don't mind a little darker beer, pale malt will get you that and a slightly different flavor.

 

[ncbrewer]

There are whole books on the subject with lots of techniques, but going with RM-MN's suggestions should be good. Make a special effort to avoid mixing air into the beer and letting air into the fermenter when adding the dry hops. Air at this point is not your friend.

 

[garlicbread]

Thank you!
Is this recipe a good idea for a slightly spiced-up wheat beer?
Is IBU calculator in beersmith accurate?
Is 100 grams of Rye malt good idea?
(First pic imperial, second in liters/kg)

 

[RM-MN]

Thank you!
Is this recipe a good idea for a slightly spiced-up wheat beer?
Is IBU calculator in beersmith accurate?
Is 100 grams of Rye malt good idea?
(First pic imperial, second in liters/kg)
View attachment 769397View attachment 769396

I don't think this will make a good wheat beer. There doesn't seem to be any wheat in it. Change the pale malt to white wheat malt and you will get a wheat beer. The addition of the rye malt will change the flavor from a standard wheat beer. Some call that flavor spicy.

 

[garlicbread]

Ah I thought Pilsen was wheat. Thanks!

Edit: changed the recipe:
Downside I won't get the make world's first Wheat beer that does not have wheat in it.

 

[RM-MN]

Now that you have changed the recipe that much, here's another problem to think about. What method are you planning to use, a conventional mash tun or BIAB? Conventional mash tuns utilize the grain husk to help form a filter bed. Wheat and rye do not have husks. Second thing to consider, wheat and especially rye tend to be really sticky in the mash. Having that amount of the two will give you lots of problems with a conventional mash tun (won't drain) and even BIAB will require squeezing the bag of hot, wet grains to get the wort out. Stories are that the office staff take vacation time when Briess makes wheat malt extract because even a big company with lots of experience will have trouble with the mash tun plugging and their wheat malt extract only has about 30% wheat.

 

[garlicbread]

BIAB, honestly I have no idea what I'm doing, first time brewing but the excitement of trying some minor alchemy magic with the custom recipe is overpowering rational approach of sticking to basics.

I've visited the microbrewery that sells ingredients I'll be buying (Limited options here) and tried their craft beers. Two I liked were very strong 9%abv and very flavorful barleywine and the second one was very light American Wheat Beer. I thought WB would be easier to get started with, but it felt too light and one-note so I wanted a stronger alcohol version of that with some additional flavors added through specialty malts, some pale ale malt, and by adding some hops towards the end of the boil.

I'll try lowering the wheat to barley ratio. Would 20% wheat be enough to give its character?
Ideally, I want to get a wheaty taste, some richness like unfiltered beers have and some additional flavors to make it interesting.

 

[ncbrewer]

An OG of 1.085 seems high for a first batch. Something 1.060 or under might be less problematic. Oxygenation and fermentation are more demanding with a high OG. You could think about getting it down into the suggested range for the style.

 

[garlicbread]

Thanks for all the advice! I appreciate it.
I tried to get in the recommended range and got the recipe below. This seems reasonable. But then again unreasonable route leads to 10% ABV murder wheat beer! I'll have to see how I feel on brewday.

 

[garlicbread]

It has begun Thanks again to everyone for your advice.

 

[garlicbread]

Happy to report the fermentation seems to be going well. But I have found out late about the importance of temperature control during fermentation.
I've used US-Safale 05 Yeast which has 18-26°C (64.4-78.8°F). range.

I don't have cooler or any other setup yet, I just put the beer in cooler place in the house.
The ambient temperature in that place was likely:
Day 1: 65f
Day 2: 70F - really active fermentation with visible activity and thick foam on top
Day 3: 75F
Day 4: 80F - Beer was already slowing down fermenting, the foam layer on top reduced a lot
Day 5: 80F - Foam layer was nearly gone with islands of foam floating on top

So actual wort was probably a bit hotter.

At the end of Day 5, I've found out that even a few degrees above recommended high range can give off-flavors, even though my yeast type is more forgiving.
I've put the ice bottles/arranged some cooling for day 6, But it will be some hassle to keep this up each day. The weather will be hot for a week and probably get cooler later.

So my question would be if there is damage is it already done or does it make sense to keep the beer cool for the following weeks?
And the second question would be I've found Kveik is a good option for hot weather? Is it something I should switch to before I find some sort of temperature control solution?

 

[RM-MN]

The off flavors probably happened on day 2 or 3 and its too late to fix it now.

Kveik is a temperature tolerant yeast and is the one to use for hotter weather if you don't have good cooling.

Here's an article that can give you better understanding on how yeast works: The Life Cycle of Yeast

 

[ncbrewer]

The Yeast book by White and Zainashef advises to raise the temperature once there is 1/4 - 1/3 of the fermentation remaining. Most of the flavor compounds have already been produced by that time. You should be well past that stage. They recommend raising the temperature by 4 - 10 degrees F at that time, over a period of 1 - 2 days.

 

[garlicbread]

Happy to report the first brew came out delicious! Now onto my second one.
Even made epic trailer to celebrate:


The ***** mug I got on a trip in Estonia, not sure if it's sold online.

Thank you all once again for putting me on the right track.

 

[cmac62]

Happy to report the first brew came out delicious! Now onto my second one.
Even made epic trailer to celebrate:


The ***** mug I got on a trip in Estonia, not sure if it's sold online.

Thank you all once again for putting me on the right track.

Good trailer, and I like the mug, but should really be in a clear glass.

 

[chazam]

Should a cornykeg be able to hold 4,8 bars without leaking?

 

[doug293cz]

Should a cornykeg be able to hold 4,8 bars without leaking?

That might be high enough pressure to cause the PRV (pressure relief valve) to leak or vent, depending on the strength of the spring.

Brew on

 

[chazam]

That might be high enough pressure to cause the PRV (pressure relief valve) to leak or vent, depending on the strength of the spring.

Brew on

That was exactly what happened.

 

[garlicbread]

A friend was brewing for the first time and made a mistake with hops. He got around 10 IBU by only adding most of the hops at flame off.
Is there a way to fix it with dry hopping? Or will that just give an overpowering hop taste?

 

[lumpher]

A friend was brewing for the first time and made a mistake with hops. He got around 10 IBU by only adding most of the hops at flame off.
Is there a way to fix it with dry hopping? Or will that just give an overpowering hop taste?

Can't fix strong flameout hop taste by adding more hops. Either brew another 1 and mix it, or he should just go with what he has, drink it, and learn from it.