My first Beer

OK I never intended to make any beer, but here I am all cranked up and
ready to go!! 7 cases of empty bottles, 2 new cappers, and a kit. I
actually have some beer in the primary but it is goofed cause the brew
guy sold me a kit Iron master American light and a can of unhopped
light malt extract and then said to put in 2 lbs of sugar, it started
with a SG of 1.062 and now after 10 days os still 1.020 SG I'm going to
let it sit a few more days and be sure the SG is done moving before
bottling.

Anyway on to my new kit (I'll just follow the kit directions this time).











Why do I have 2 cappers, (besides the fact that I'm nuts?) well I
bought the small one yesterday and had more time to look around today
(I bought 3 cases of bottles yesterday for 8.99 a case for 12oz
and went back today for 4 more before they run out) beside you always
need a spare.

OK I made the beer kit last night, boiled it for 20 minutes, very easy,
the house smelled like beer big time, but when I got up today I don't
smell anything (unless I'm aclimated to it?) boiled it at 10:30 and
pitched the yeast at 6am this morning at 84 degrees, I'll put it on the
floor now to cool off. I think I'm going back to the "Health food
store" today and get a cream ale kit as recomended by some folks on
another board. Maybe I should get more bottles too? I didn't know beer
has to age also.

First, I should change this name to my 3rd beer...lol Just got back
from the "HEALTH FOOD STORE" with another health food kit..lol This one
is to easy!! 15ltr kit add 8ltr water and pitch yeast!!







Spagnol's kit 23ltr with 15ltr bag of wort, yeast, PH adjuster, and
priming sugar, I think this might be the perfect beginners kit, I only
wound up with it cause it was the only cream ale they had. I had to buy
a new 7.5 gal primary to dedicate to beer (9.99) now masta says a wort
chiller, it really doesn't end.


Edited by: AAASTINKIE

You might not need a wort chiller if you are boiling 2-3 gallons of wort with the other kits as putting the brewpot into a sink full of ice water and topping off with very cold water will work.

I bottled beer today, it took 3 hours start to finish, 63 bottles out of the 1st batch, I used priming caps, I didn't feel like messing with the corn sugar. The other kits have the suger pre-measured. I can see you need to rack to a secondary cause some of the crud on the bottom of the primary went into the bottling bucket, if this beer is drinkable it will be a miracle!! It was very cloudy. I also started the 3rd kit, it was really easy, just add water, mix in the PH adjustment powder (pre measured) and add the wort and mix, pitch yeast and close up. Then I rinsed off the bottles, put them back in the cases, and put the boxes in a trash bag so if I blow them up they will be contained. I can't imagine working with all these bottles without a bottle tree, [url]http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?GC_Category=Equipm ent&SubCategory=Cleaning&PartNumber=4810 [/url],it's really not much money (13.99), with beer bottles you could do without the vinator (fill an empty primary or sink)if money was tight, but a bottle tree is a must have, mine only holds 45 bottles and I started with 60 so I washed some and put them in a sanitized plastic milk crate and they fell over, so after when I had room I put them back on the tree to drain better. Edited by: AAASTINKIE

Using Irish Moss or Whirlfloc tablets in the last 20 mins of the boil and getting a good cold break will help greatly with the clarity of the beer. Also doing a two stage fermentation will also improve the quality of your beer by racking off the main trub to prevent off flavors and allowing more of the fines to settle before bottling

First beer batch newbie here too... (new batch of wine too!)



I started my first batch of Oktoberfest that I got from George about a
week ago. I happen to be local enough to be able to swing by his
store.



I just moved my beer to a 6 gallon carboy for 2nd stage last night.
It looks pretty good already but we'll see in two weeks.



I see that George carries a deluxe wort chiller but does anyone have a
link to instructions on how to make your own. I boiled 2
gallons in a 3 qt pot and it took way too long to chill. I
need a chiller before I attempt that again. btw, I did the ice
water in the sink trick plus added gallons of cold water.



Anyhow, thanks for all the good info here. I'll list the few things I've learned in the last 3 weeks the hard way!



1. Make sure you don't overtighten the spigot on the fermentor
and test with water. Water is just not noticeable enough...



2. Don't push down on the bung that comes with the co2 whip.



3. When you remove the bung from the c02 whip cuz you are
shredding the dickens out of it and fashion your hand as a bung, make
sure you don't loosen the keyless chuck and drop the whip into the 6
gal carboy (luckily I was done)



4. Make good wine, and drink the beer while you wait!



Regards,



Doug

Hi Clifton. Welcome to the forum! I enjoyed the above post very much. It is fun to hear newbie experiences. I sill make alot of mistakes and fumbles.

This bag de-capper is a must have it worked like a million bucks!!


[url]http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?GC_Category=Equipm ent&SubCategory=Other&PartNumber=9989 [/url]

AAASTINKIE said:

I bottled beer today, it took 3 hours start to finish, 63 bottles out of the 1st batch, I used priming caps, I didn't feel like messing with the corn sugar. The other kits have the suger pre-measured.

Click to expand...

Dose this mean you didn't use the corn sugar or it took so long cause you really didn't feel like messing with it? You defiantly need it.

When I said priming caps I meant those little sugar pills you drop one in each bottle and they are pre measured for one 12oz bottle, kinda expensive $4. a bag about 75 in a bag.

That don't sound expensive if it will do over 6 gallons of beer. I will probably drink more than 6 gallons of beer this weekend. I just don't see the feasibility in me making beer. Hot weather = 1 case of beer per day per grown male adult per household per day off.

Well, 3 cans of beer for me and it bed time...lol..I just thought I would make some beer to go with barbeque!! and if I make it myself it's "health food" ..it's like my wine and maple syrupI'll give most of it away and hopefully people will like it. I don't eat many pancakes but I like syrup on my cherrios!! and it's aufull good in a cup of coffee.

Don't think I would like that I think it would be easier to add priming sugar to the whole batch then bottle.

AAASTINKIE said:

Well, 3 cans of beer for me and it bed time...lol..I just thought I would make some beer to go with barbeque!! and if I make it myself it's "health food" ..it's like my wine and maple syrupI'll give most of it away and hopefully people will like it. I don't eat many pancakes but I like syrup on my cherrios!! and it's aufull good in a cup of coffee.

Click to expand...

Maple syrup in coffee. Oh dear. Now I'm going to have to try THAT! Stinkie, I think you're a bad influence on me.

Maple syrup in coffee.....yuk!


Maple syrup in beer...now we are talkin!

Country Wine said:

That don't sound expensive if it will do over 6 gallons of beer. I will probably drink more than 6 gallons of beer this weekend. I just don't see the feasibility in me making beer. Hot weather = 1 case of beer per day per grown male adult per household per day off.

Click to expand...

A case a beer a day...you must be drinking that flavored water that they try to pass off as beer....


If you drank a case of my beer in one day you would be out cold!


Don't eat yellow snow and don't drink yellow beer!

masta said:

Don't eat yellow snow and don't drink yellow beer!

Click to expand...

Ah someone after my own heart! The only light colored beers I've found that I actually liked were the hefeweizens I enjoyed in Germany last year.

My second beer went into the secondary glass carboy today, I forgot to
take a SG reading. Hopefully it will be clearer than my 1st batch.
Masta was correct in that the beer stink will trash your plastic pails
for wine use...

I normally only drink Heineken or St. Pauli Girl. You would have to be quite a snob to turn your nose up at either of them. I don't get drunk on beer unless I am inside and idle. Beer drinking is for when I am outside, sweaty, and doing stuff. Yesterday was different. I mixed in a bottle of some very good Riesling Ice Wine, made from a kit. It must be way high powered and the luciousness of it masked the alcohol. I kinda got a little drunk sitting in the shade running my mouth. I will be doing at least one of those kits. SOLD!