Where do I start?

[DonnyBoy65]

HI. I've been a home brewer for a couple of years but only by using a brew kit and boxed ingredients from Brewers Best. I've been pretty happy with the process. Everything comes in 1 box and the step-by-step instructions are fool proof for a duffer like me. Its fun and my friends and I enjoy the results. Still, after 5 different 5 gallon batches I figured it might be fun to go off-road. Then I started reading some of the recipes … its like I never brewed before. Hell, I hardly know how to read some of the instructions. Clearly, I have the equipment but not the know-how. How do I get started on my off-road journey?

I thought I'd try a Sam Adams Rebel clone. This forum has a recipe. Lots of ingredients and no step-by-step instructions. Can anyone recommend process or reading for me to convert that recipe into a simpler process? I accept that I may be too ambitious so I'm willing to try something different. How about the easier question of where do I get the all of ingredients? I suppose I can go to a brew store 45mins away for LME but where do I get the grains, the hops, yeast, Irish moss? (WTF is this?) Do I purchase what I can through Amazon and home brewer websites? Not afraid to spend $ but struggling where to start.

How did you go from Brewers Best training wheels to your 10-speed?

Thanks. DB65

 

[Langerz]

You said you have the equipment but might help to say what you have. That would help steer you I think.

Getting ingredients isn’t a problem. You can go to a store like you mentioned or like you said there are lots of online places to order from and they deliver quickly.

I’m not familiar with the recipe you mentioned but send a link and people will help you through if needed. There are books out there like How to Brew and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing that will help explain a lot of the process. Also brewing apps help a lot. I use BrewFather myself but there are several options

 

[DonnyBoy65]

Thanks for the fast response and tips on how to make answering my question easier for the reader

I have a Brewers Best Home Brewing Equipment Kit: Amazon.com: Brewers Best Beer Home Brewing Equipment Kit : Home & Kitchen

1. Contains Everything a Beginning Brewer Needs (except pot, bottles and caps)
2. 6.5 Gallon Primary Fermenter, Bottling Bucket, Grommetted Lid and Airlock
3. Easy Clean Cleaner, Siphon and Bottling Set up
4. Hydrometer, Airlock, Bucket Clip, Bottle Brush, Twin Lever Capper

Sam Adams recipe:
Sam Adams Rebel Juiced Clone

 

[Zambezi Special]

I agree with @Langerz : getting the ingredients is easy
I would start with a faitly basic recipe. 1 or 2 malted grains (the brew shop can grind them for you) and 1 or 2 hops.
Tell us what sort of beer you like and we can help with a recipe.
I'm also thinking BIAB (brew in a bag) and a 1 step mash (only 1 temperature for the mash).

(I've never developed past biab and 1 step mash anyway)

 

[pvtpublic]

@Langerz got it right with the books. I'll have to add Brewing Classic Styles to that list, though. If you have the time for podcasts, try the Brewing Network. Browse the oldest episodes for more beginner info. Lots of off color humor though, but incredibly informative.

 

[frithy]

So, I looked at the recipe and this is what it looks like it is saying to me:

1. Prepare the strike water - Raise ~3.75 gallons of water to 152f (the strike or "infusion" temperature). (there are 11.93 lbs of grain total and it says to mash 1.25 quarts of water per lb. for the "mash thickness" so ~12x1.25 / 4 = 3.75)

2. Begin mash - After you get the water to 152f, throw in all of the grains (put them in a cloth filter sack to save yourself the trouble of filtering them out later "BIAB - Beer in a Bag")

3. It doesn't say whether the 152f infusion temp is also the target temp, so assume it is and keep the temperature around there. HOWEVER, don't ever let it go more than a degree or two over the target temperature when reheating it or you could break it - "denature the alpha amylase proteins" - and the beer won't ferment.

4. The boil - After mashing for sixty minutes, remove the grain bag, let it cool a bit, and strain out what liquid you can back into the pot with the rest (the wort). Then, raise the temp up to a boil. Make sure you are stirring a bit so you don't burn the sugar water or whatnot at the bottom of the pot.

5. The boil lasts for 60 minutes as you can see that is the longest time for any hop listed. Once the wort is boiling, add the .75oz of Zeus into a bag and put it in with the wort. After fifty minutes, take the bag out and add .5oz of mandarina and throw it all back in (the mandarina needs ten minutes of boiling from the end). Then, after five more minutes, add .5oz of mosaic and .25oz of Zeus and toss it all back in. Finally, after the last five minutes are up, turn off the fire and add .5oz of mosaic. Then, rapidly cool the wort somehow and remove the hop bag once cooled.

(Hops that sit in the boil for longer are called bittering hops as they lose most of their smell and more bitterness gets extracted from them while hops added near the end of the boil retain their smell but don't contribute much bitterness and are called aroma hops.)

6. Now, after you cool your wort to about five or ten degrees cooler than the ferment temperature (here it's 68f so cool to about 60f or so) throw in the yeast, mix it up and dump it all into your fermentor (the place you'll be letting the beer sit and do its thing).

7. After pitching the yeast and wort into the fermentor, give it a day and then get it as close to the suggested temperature as reasonable and let the wort become beer.

8. Now, after the fermentation all dies down, wait a few days and remove the beer from the first fermentor (this is called the primary) and add it to a different fermentor (the secondary) to finish up. Also, this recipe wants you to add 98oz of mangoo puree into the secondary with the beer. The recipe suggests keeping it in secondary for 7 days.

9. Prime and bottle or do what you plan to do.

Anyway, that's my understanding of the recipe but I've only just transferred my first brew attempt from primary to secondary. However, I did read a lot up on it all so maybe I'm pointing you in the right direction.

 

[RM-MN]

Clearly, I have the equipment but not the know-how. How do I get started on my off-road journey?

How far off-road do you want to go on your first excursion? Do you take the first dirt road you see and follow that or do you prefer to grab a machete and head off into the jungle without even a compass?

How about a simple, graded gravel road to start with? Buy a bag of dry malt extract, the specialty grains that modify it to your specifications, hops to add the bittering, and a suitable yeast. You can even forego the specialty grains for some recipes.

Maybe you'd prefer a "two-track"? This road is a little rougher but has better scenery. Liquid malt extract, specialty grains (4 different types), bittering AND dry hops, and a liquid yeast.

Are you very adventurous? Perhaps just a narrow trail that winds through the trees, a little hard to follow and maybe you want a compass along in case you lose the trail? All grain can start this way. I'd suggest going BIAB as it doesn't require jungle boots and pith helmet. However, be aware that this can lead to poverty if you can't resist the shiny new pots, pumps, hoses, and the freezers for fermentation and serving from kegs.

Give us more of a hint on how far into the forest you are willing to go on the first trip.

 

[wallyLOZ]

I agree with the three books mentioned above and will add a fourth. Designing Great Beers, by Ray Daniels.

https://smile.amazon.com/Designing-...641093&sprefix=designing+great,aps,118&sr=8-1
As @RM-MN suggested, try BIAB first.
Since you're in Boston you should have several choices for a Home Brew shop. There's many online retailers as well. Or, join a Home Brew club. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

 

[pvtpublic]

@frithy has it mostly covered, however I'd like to make a correction, and some suggestions.

1. Prepare the strike water - Raise ~3.75 gallons of water to 152f (the strike or "infusion" temperature). (there are 11.93 lbs of grain total and it says to mash 1.25 quarts of water per lb. for the "mash thickness" so ~12x1.25 / 4 = 3.75)

2. Begin mash - After you get the water to 152f, throw in all of the grains (put them in a cloth filter sack to save yourself the trouble of filtering them out later "BIAB - Beer in a Bag")

3. It doesn't say whether the 152f infusion temp is also the target temp, so assume it is and keep the temperature around there. HOWEVER, don't ever let it go more than a degree or two over the target temperature when reheating it or you could break it - "denature the alpha amylase proteins" - and the beer won't ferment.
but don't contribute much bitterness and are called aroma hops.)

This the part I gotta correct. You'll need to raise your strike water higher than that, otherwise the grain will cool it down 10-15*F lower than your target mash temp. Try this calculator out:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/You may find that it's spot on, or you may have to add a degree or two, since it doesn't factor in how much your mash tun and mash paddle will cool it down.

5. The boil lasts for 60 minutes as you can see that is the longest time for any hop listed. Once the wort is boiling, add the .75oz of Zeus into a bag and put it in with the wort. After fifty minutes, take the bag out and add .5oz of mandarina and throw it all back in (the mandarina needs ten minutes of boiling from the end). Then, after five more minutes, add .5oz of mosaic and .25oz of Zeus and toss it all back in. Finally, after the last five minutes are up, turn off the fire and add .5oz of mosaic. Then, rapidly cool the wort somehow and remove the hop bag once cooled.

6. Now, after you cool your wort to about five or ten degrees cooler than the ferment temperature (here it's 68f so cool to about 60f or so) throw in the yeast, mix it up and dump it all into your fermentor (the place you'll be letting the beer sit and do its thing).

8. Now, after the fermentation all dies down, wait a few days and remove the beer from the first fermentor (this is called the primary) and add it to a different fermentor (the secondary) to finish up. Also, this recipe wants you to add 98oz of mangoo puree into the secondary with the beer. The recipe suggests keeping it in secondary for 7 days.

Ok, so nothing wrong with any of this, but I'd like to throw some info out there.

#5 If you are going to use a bag for your hops, add a little extra since you will lose utilization due to the lack of circulation of wort directly on the hops. The alternative is to throw them directly into the kettle.

#6 It's not necessary to cool it down that far below ferment temp just to pitch. It may slow down your lag phase, but it's not going to hurt anything to do so. You may also get a cleaner ferment, meaning less ester production. Esters will provide fruity flavors, something that may add a nice character to this beer.

#8 Transferring it to secondary could pose some issues, but not everyone experiences them. The biggest issues being the increased risk of oxidation and worse - contamination. The other problems are off-flavors, particularly diacetyl (buttery) and acetaldehyde (green apple). These two are part of the fermentation process, diacetyl being a by-product, and acetaldehyde being an intermediate compound. Allowing the beer to sit in primary for the full duration instead of secondary will allow the yeast more time to clean up these off-flavors.

 

[Brushwood Brewing]

Lots of helpful information already given above. I second the book recommendations.

Also try watching a couple YouTube videos of brew days with similar equipment to yours. Even if the equipment is a little different. It'll still help you understand the process.

As far as getting the ingredients, I'd say go your LHBS. You can show them the recipe and they'll help you pick out what you need. Ordering from a large online retailer can be overwhelming if you don't understand all the options.

 

[NSMikeD]

I found brewing software (like the one on this site and a number of others) helpful in moving along the learning curve.

By plugging in the recipes, making your equipment profile and selecting your process it really helps to see how the different variables interact. I even plug in the brew kit recipes.

You can play around with different recipes which helps understand the styles and why brewers use certain ingredients and techniques.

 

[DonnyBoy65]

Wow! Thanks all for your quick responses. I wasn't ready for so much help so quickly. It is very welcome indeed. Here are some answers to posed questions:

"Tell us what sort of beer you like and we can help with a recipe."
>> I generally order IPAs when in a brew pub, but I really liked the British Bitter and Octoberfest lager I made from the Brewers Best ingredients kit. I'm open to suggestion if you think the recipe I posted too advanced for my skill.

"How far off-road do you want to go on your first excursion?"
>> I'm going off road from an ingredients kit, not into the jungle of Discovery Channel Brew Master "lets see if we can make beer from cucumbers".

"Give us more of a hint on how far into the forest you are willing to go on the first trip … do you prefer to grab a machete and head off into the jungle without even a compass?"
>> Unprepared adventurers often ended up with their face in the dirt and an arrow in their back. I'm a planner before executing so no worries about machetes or going native with my own ideas. Not yet anyway. I'd consider my brew kit history and many YouTube videos equivalent to a freshman year of brewing so lets start at a sophomore level.

Other:

• Brew In a Bag is a new concept to me. I'll get one of the books recommended for reference and do some research.
• Advice on Brewers software was also welcome. I'll look into BrewFathers. Thanks for the tip.
• Ditto regarding the local brew store. They are an untapped keg of knowledge and would probably appreciate the business. Shop small.

Finally, thanks Frithy and pvtpublic for advice on Sam Adams Rebel content. Your instructions were just what I was looking for. I'll ask LHBS their thoughts on whether I could pull this off.

DB65

 

[RM-MN]

Brew In a Bag is a new concept to me.

Brew in a Bag is simply a variation of a filter medium. The traditional mash tun used the grain husks to form the filter which required nearly whole husks. BIAB replaces the grain husks with a bag with a fairly fine mesh to do the filtering. With that the husks can be totally demolished and the grain milled to near flour which leads to faster, more complete conversion of starch to sugar without causing the filter to clog up. Being a bag, it has a very large filter area so if one part clogs the wort can still escape.

 

[pvtpublic]

There's nothing wrong with brew in a bag, and its definitely something that can be quite rewarding for years to come. But if you can see yourself getting into this hobby to the point of expanding, then go for a mash tun and skip the bag.

 

[Jag75]

How far off-road do you want to go on your first excursion? Do you take the first dirt road you see and follow that or do you prefer to grab a machete and head off into the jungle without even a compass?

How about a simple, graded gravel road to start with? Buy a bag of dry malt extract, the specialty grains that modify it to your specifications, hops to add the bittering, and a suitable yeast. You can even forego the specialty grains for some recipes.

Maybe you'd prefer a "two-track"? This road is a little rougher but has better scenery. Liquid malt extract, specialty grains (4 different types), bittering AND dry hops, and a liquid yeast.

Are you very adventurous? Perhaps just a narrow trail that winds through the trees, a little hard to follow and maybe you want a compass along in case you lose the trail? All grain can start this way. I'd suggest going BIAB as it doesn't require jungle boots and pith helmet. However, be aware that this can lead to poverty if you can't resist the shiny new pots, pumps, hoses, and the freezers for fermentation and serving from kegs.

Give us more of a hint on how far into the forest you are willing to go on the first trip.

 

[NSMikeD]

• Brew In a Bag is a new concept to me. I'll get one of the books recommended for reference and do some research.

in a nutshell, BIAB simplifies the way you can make all grain beer by using a single vessel and a bag with all the water at once. There are many variations and complexities of this method, but the basics are very similar to extract brewing and you can usually use your extract gear with the exception of adding a bag (like how you make tea).

It's how a lot of all extract brewers got into all grain mashing. Nothing against mash tuns and lautering , but the BIAB (also brew in a basket and e-BIAB etc ) community has proven you can make great (even award winning) beer this way.

There is an entire forum dedicated to these method (2 if you include the e-brewing forum users who have single vessel equipment).

this is a quick video from northern brewer that sums up the process. It's not the end all or be all as there is a ton of information on the subject, I just find their old how to videos pretty good at explaining things, Sometimes video is better at teaching than books at least to get an idea of the basics quickly.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Remove the wort from the grain or the grain from the wort. Simple as that.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

How did you go from Brewers Best training wheels to your 10-speed?

Lots of good info so far. I might suggest the next step up from a Brewer's Best kit are the quality kits from places like Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, and others. You can move into all-grain if you want, but you likely still have plenty of room to advance with extract and partial mash brewing. The book "Brewing Classic Styles" is an excellent source of recipes for extract brewing (there are also all-grain versions).

As far as BIAB, I highly recommend it for brewing 5-gallon or less all-grain. The electric all-in-one system that are brew in a basket are also nice. I brew 3-vessel with fly sparging for many years before I "upgraded" to BIAB. There is no way I would go back to a 3-vessel system. Heck, I was even recently able to make 10.5 gals of wort with my BIAB setup recently.

 

[IslandLizard]

What the others said, above.^

I'll get one of the books recommended for reference and do some research.

My emphasis, above.^ Not just any one of the books, each has very different purposes.

John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed. is the book you definitely need or with which you want to start to learn about homebrewing, processes, terminology, the main 4 ingredients in every beer (malt and/or extract, hops, water, and yeast).

IMO, that book^ is indispensable, and was updated with modern day homebrewing techniques (such as BIAB), ingredients, recipes, etc. There is an (old) 1st Ed. web version, covering the basics at howtobrew.com. You can get a sense of what the 4th Ed. would be like, except the 4th Ed. is much modernized.

We have many threads on brewing techniques here, but you'd need to know which topics to search for to get the details.

 

[lumbergh]

+1 for How To Brew.
If there's a homebrew club around that might be a good resource as well

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

+1 to all the tips above, I guess "The complete joy of homebrewing" is your best bet to read up a little on the topic before trying yourself.
Once you you gain a basic understanding of the science of brewing, and have a done it a few times to get a little "feel" for it, you realise it actually is a rather simple process and it is the small details you can examine further to improve the results.

 

[BeerHolic]

When I started I followed John Palmer's free book "How to brew"

First version available free on below link.
http://howtobrew.com/book/introduction

 

[DonnyBoy65]

Hi folks,

I'm following up on this thread with an update. The beer was fantastic. Great taste and > 10% alcohol. I was a little disappointed that I only got 46 or so bottles after the 2nd fermentation . Could I have added more water to the bucket at bottling time?

I from this looking for some suggestions on what I can do with leftover hops from this brew.

Recap: I made a Sam Adams clone that left me with 5 half ounce badgs of hops (see link below). I could make another batch of this same recipe but wondered if anyone had a suggestion for a different brew. I have the following hops bags all in half ounce qty. Any suggestions?

Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo, Chinkko, Cascade.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/print/1059880