First brew

[samadhi]

I've finally gotten round to getting the gear organised and started with my first bew (and a big thanks to the guy in the Westbrew Joondalup store on saturday).

I started with the generic can+dex+water kit that came with the starter kit, and so far it seems to be ok (no funky smells or green floaties). I was probably a little lax with the sanitary requirements from everything i've read since starting, but the fermentation looks and smells pretty clean, so that seems ok. My OG was about 1030 (again, being a newb I didnt pay all that much attention to the specifics) and currently its at 1008 so i'll see how much more it drops in the next couple of days, but the bubbling has pretty much stopped since yesterday so i don't know how much lower it's going to go. I had a little taste when I checked the SG today and it seemed very watery, not just flat (which I expect will be solved by the priming) but kinda bland. The smell is still pretty good, and the head was pretty decent when taking the measurement, but as I said, kinda bland.

Am I expecting too much, or is the improvement from the priming and aging going to make a big difference. I don't mind so much since it is my first try at this, and I have a Killkenny and Becks style kit waiting for my next go (can't decide which to go for yet), but i don't want to advertise my new passion to my friends and have it turn out like drinking water. Although very few of my friends are real beer drinkers, so watery beer might be just the thing to impress them, not exactly what I was hoping for myself though

[Dogger Dan]

samadhi

What sort of kit was it?

I would suggest you will get a bit of bite from the carbonic acid that forms when you carbonate but thats about it.

We have ways of making a better beer

Go with what you have, don't be disappointed and the next one will be better.

Dogger

[morgs]

Beer tastes a lot better cold and carbonated as opposed to flat and warm in my opinion. I think you'll find it tastes better after time in the bottle. The waiting game is never fun

[samadhi]

It was a brewcraft Munich Lager, though I assume from the recommended temperature it came with an ale yeast.

I'll see how it ends up, but as you say Dogger, i've learnt a lot from this site and forums so far, so I have no doubt my next one will be better.

One question regarding boiling, is the boiling process only for when you are using your own malt/hops, or should I be doing it with my "beer converters" as well? Is there any point to boiling when just using dextrose (ie there's no malt in the recipe)?

[Dogger Dan]

I always believed in boiling my kits in about 10 litres of water along with the dex or malt extract.

I can't say if it made a difference or not, I believed it did

Dogger

[blandy]

samadhi,

Brewcraft Munich Lager was my first homebrew too. About a month ago I finished off the last longneck (about a year old) of it with my girlfriend as we were making our quince cider.

If you wanted a full-bodied ale that blows your eyeballs out with bitterness, then unfortunatley you have the wrong beer for you.

Despite the fact that I would call this beer "innofensive," I absolutley loved it! in fact I made another batch of it about six months later. It's just very simple.

When I bottled it, it didn't taste much like beer. So have no worries, it sounds like all your homebrew needs is a few weeks to a month in the bottles.

[melbourne man]

is it alright to add everything to a pot of boiling water that has just been taken off the heat. this is to dissolve it all before putting into the fermenter. i read on a can somewhere (maybe ginger beer) not to add to boiling water but is it alright or will it scorch the malt.

i do the hops in a smaller saucepan and strain them straight into the fermenter.

[rwh]

That should be fine.

[Aussie Claret]

Samadhi
Just a comment, your OG was 1.030, thats pretty low, you will be making a low alcohol beer.

I'm guessing, but I think you may have made a slight mistake at the begining, did you make a 23litre batch?

If so, did you add the can of goo, sugars and top up to 23litres (which would have been correct), or did you add 23 litres of water (or even more, perhaps weren't being accurate close enough good enough, approach?) then added the can and sugar, which would have given you more than 23litres; hence watering the beer down, (I'll bet you have about 30 litres sitting in your fermenter). I have a friend who did exactly this on his first attempt, topped the fermenter as close to the top as he could.

Anyway not to worry on your first attempt, I'm sure you have a beery tasting liquid Light beer, I wouldn't expect the gravity to drop much more, may be one or two points max. Currently your yeast attenuation is 73%, which would be pretty good for a kit yeast.

AC

[scblack]

is it alright to add everything to a pot of boiling water that has just been taken off the heat. this is to dissolve it all before putting into the fermenter. i read on a can somewhere (maybe ginger beer) not to add to boiling water but is it alright or will it scorch the malt.
.

I always boil the sugars and stuff in 2-3litres water, then add the wort(kit), and bring it to the boil.

I do it to make sure everything is fully dissolved before I brew.

Hops are slightly different, they can go dry, steeped or boiled.

[samadhi]

Claret
I put the can and dex into the fermenter and filled it up to the 23L mark, so it's not that. I did think the 1030 was too low at the time since I had read 1040 is about average, in hindsight i'll definately add malt to get that up a bit next time I make that brew.

The way it has slowed down (no noted activity since I got in yesterday, nor this morning) I can't see it getting below .06, so I think it makes about 3.7% alcohol.

Good news about the yeast though, especially since i just stirred the dry pack straight in having no idea about rehydrating, let alone starters, at the time.

[drtom]

It is possible that when you measured the OG, not all the dex had dissolved.

I usually wait an hour or two before taking the OG because it's not uncommon for me to be able to see that the colour of the wort is not uniform to start with - that it's darker at the bottom, untill the sugars become uniformly distributed.

T.

[rwh]

Ah, I still chuck in the yeast dry when I'm being lazy. On the other hand I was making a starter the other day, and got no activity at all, so it was good to know that that yeast was dead before I used it!

Agree with drtom, it might not have all been dissolved. Try using the brewcraft calculator to see what your approx. alc % will be.