First brew and I'm excited

[thebigtwist]

Bought a copper tun starter kit and fermented the classic blonde it came with tasted bit watery when bottling just waiting 2 weeks to try now . For my second one I have bought the ingredients and am following the authentic IPA recipe on the coopers site, scored myself 90 longnecks off gumtree so I have some cleaning to do before I get it down. Havnt even cracked my first bottle yet bit worried it'll still taste watery but I am still excited about this home brewing capper

 

[HBHB]

Welcome to brewing. The Classic Dry Blonde is very popular though when made up with the straight dextrose it can end a little thin. It will be a LOT better at 6-8 weeks in the bottle though.

You'll find that IPA recipe has reasonable body in it - again, it will be much better at about 6-8 weeks in the bottle.

Wander around the forums and check out the topics on Temperature controlled fermentation and sanitising. Your brewing will go ahead in leaps and bounds once you've got your temperatures sorted for the fermentation stage and come away from high doses of dextrose in the mix.

Brewing isn't rocket science, but there's a few areas that will take your brew's from ordinary to exceptional and none of them need cost a fortune.

Martin

 

[Asha05]

Welcome to your new addiction...

 

[menoetes]

Welcome to brewing Twist, glad to hear you're excited about brewing. It's an exciting past-time, I personally find it almost all-consuming. Your first few brews might not be top-notch but as HBHB said; as you keep brewing and reading up, you'll find different ways to make them better and better.

I'm no veteran having only just bottled my first extract brew (the next small step up from kit brewing) but with a little reading up on steeping specialty grains, using malt instead of just plain brewing sugar and adding your own hops, you'll see a big difference in your results. All of this can all be done using a can of brew as the base for your beer and will make a world of difference to the taste. Best of all, it only takes a little extra effort and/or time.

I hope you keep on brewing and most of all enjoy the process as much as the result

 

[Elderfi]

Welcome to your new addiction...

Absolutly... welcome to the rabit hole. Best hobby i have taken up by far. I found my first brew a little watery, it was made to 23 litres and used BE2 ( a mix of dextrose and malt and maltodextrin?) I improved on that with the same recipie (although altered the hop schedule) but made it to 21 ltres, Im getting to the end off that batch now, it bottled it in 330ml bottles and it is a real winner and easy easy easy. My latest brew has the best body/ mouth feel/ head retention to date.

What i did was use malt extract and some grains. I would recommend this, steeping the grains and doing a boil is really easy and the end result is so far from my watery first batch. The only issue I have got with this one is it is a little too malty for my ulitmate preference. Im trying to pin point what has caused this ( the kit can, the grain used ect...) and this is why brewing is so much fun!

every mistake ive made has been a resulted in an improvement next time around.

 

[yum beer]

Best advice for someone just starting....don't add suagrs to your kit, use only malt, dry or liquid does not matter.
1 x 1.5kg tin per brew
or
2 x 500gm Light Dry Malt per brew.
No more watery beer.

 

[Josh SA]

IMO all malt extract is too sweet/cloying.

Ive been putting a few kits down recently & I rekon 6-10% dex is good plus an extra 15-20 IBUs (usually do 20 or 30 minute boil).

these are all APA style beers with steeped crystal/cara so the dex & extra IBUs would be more necessary to balance.