My Second Brew

[Lazzz]

Hey guys,

For my second brew (ever) I want to make a Pale Ale. I have the following ingredients that I bought or were supplied to me by the brew Shop.
1 Tin of Black Rock east india pale ale
1 tin of Coopers pale ale
1 Box of coopers brewing sugar
1kg of Brewcraft glucose
15g Pride of Ringwood seeds
500g Malted Grain - Carapils Malt.

Just wondering which of the tins would be ideal? I'm guessing the Black Rock? Also, I'm assuming i should use the brewcraft glucose as opposed to the coopers sugar?

Lastly, I was given the POW seeds and Carapils Malt, but dont know what to do with them, how much to use or what stage to use them at?

Cheers

Dan

 

[Pennywise]

The Black Rock IPA kit is quite nice made with a 1kg mix of dex/ldme, or even all ldme, not too sure about using POR seeds in it though. If you can get your hands on some Chinook then dry hop with that, say 20-30g.

 

[Lazzz]

I'm off to the brewshop again this weekend so I'm guessing I can get some chinook there. How do i "dry hop"?

 

[Pennywise]

You can either put the hops in after you've turned the flame out or wait a couple of days into the ferment and chuck them straight in the fermenter, the later is prefered by most I think as the vigorous fermentation at the beginning can drive off some of the aroma. Personally I do the flameout thing as I know I'll forget to do it once the fermenter is in it's hidey hole.

 

[Lazzz]

EPIC ignorance here, but what flame? I keep seeing things like xxxxx @15 mins and have no idea what is being referred to?


Fish Out Of Water.

 

[muckey]

EPIC ignorance here, but what flame? I keep seeing things like xxxxx @15 mins and have no idea what is being referred to?


Fish Out Of Water.

dont worry about it.

if you use unhopped extract or grains then you'll add heat (hence flame ) and you can boil your hops in it as well (eg 15 - 20 minutes for flavouring)

what you'll be looking to do here is get the yeast pitched and leave it for a few days until most of the active fermentation has finished. tThen carefully open the lid and add your hops directly into the fermenter = "dry hopping"

 

[ianh]

Hey guys,

For my second brew (ever) I want to make a Pale Ale. I have the following ingredients that I bought or were supplied to me by the brew Shop.
1 Tin of Black Rock east india pale ale
1 tin of Coopers pale ale
1 Box of coopers brewing sugar
1kg of Brewcraft glucose
15g Pride of Ringwood seeds
500g Malted Grain - Carapils Malt.

Just wondering which of the tins would be ideal? I'm guessing the Black Rock? Also, I'm assuming i should use the brewcraft glucose as opposed to the coopers sugar?

Lastly, I was given the POW seeds and Carapils Malt, but dont know what to do with them, how much to use or what stage to use them at?

Cheers

Dan

When you go to the brew shop this weekend I would get some light dry malt extract as well.

The Carapils malt can be steeped AHB article and is added for head retention and body feel.

Pride of Ringwood hops are usually pellets, plugs or flowers but not seeds.

 

[Pennywise]

What Muckey said, I'll just add that if you're using dry sugars like BE1 or 2, dextrose or dry malt then you should be boiling it to get rid of any nasties that may be there. For the stuff in the tins you don't need to worry because it's already been done for you, thats assuming you haven't stored half a tin to use at a later date, in which case you should boil it.

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome Dan. Looking at your post do you realise that with those ingredients and assuming you are going to do a 'standard' fermenters sized batch, you would end up with a 'headbanger' beer of about 9% Alcohol which is almost wine-strength, and about three tall bottles would get you well legless. Is that what you are after?

Personally for a 'normal' strength pale ale I would just go with one can of the Indian Pale ale and instead of using brewing sugar or glucose, get a kilo of light dried malt extract that will give you a fuller beer.

I take it that you are referring to 'pellets', not seeds. For a pale ale Pride of Ringwood is not a really good hop for adding late in the process. They really need a good long boil and will give the beer more of an Australian Sparkling Ale (like Coopers) twang rather than a UK flavour. However as you have got them for free what you need to do is:


Heat up a large saucepan with 3L water to about 75 degrees and pour in the Carapils, and leave it with a lid on if possible, for half an hour.
Then strain the 'runnings' off the Carapils into another saucepan, bring to boil, add the hop pellets, and simmer for an hour.

Strain this into the fermenter before adding the beer pack and the LDME.

Hops are used for three purposes: bittering, flavour and aroma. The longer you boil the hops the more bitterness they will impart but the flavour and aroma compounds get boiled off. If you add the hops late in the boil or even right at the end, they will contribute more flavour/aroma and little bitterness. Some hops such as POR are good bittering hops but a bit 'coarse' in flavour and aroma so are generally never used late in the boil. On the other hand some hops are better used at the end of the boil, an example being Chinook which is used in Little Creatures Pale Ale if you want to give that a taste. For a Pale Ale, any of the Goldings hops, say 15g would work well.

There are a couple of ways of doing 'late' hops. You can add them to the boiling stuff right at the end or at 'flameout' which simply means when you turn off the gas or electric (it's an old term from the days when real fires were always used in brewing). Or you can dry hop. That is as simple as throwing the hop pellets into the fermenter after about four days fermentation. The hop material will sink to the bottom no problems.

Hope this has cleared up some confusion.

Cheers
Michael

 

[Lazzz]

Thanks for the very informative post Michael. With regards to my original post and list of ingredients, I was unclear. I meant to ask which comibination of the ingredients I should use, and wasn't intending to use all of them. I don't really want 9% beer just yet.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Bribie G]

That's a relief :lol: . Either can should work well, but in both cases I would ditch the sugars and use malt extract instead, or if you are looking for something a bit lighter in flavour then even go for a kilo of the so called 'Brew Enhancer 2' which contains Light dried malt extract, dextrose and maltodextrins.

If you are getting it made up packs from a home brew shop they will probably describe the maltodextrin as 'corn syrup' or otherwise you can get Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 from bigger supermarkets. That way you are still getting a smooth drinkable beer that sits between heavier and malty on the one hand (LDME) or thin and lacking in body (sugars / dextrose) on the other. I know many more experienced brewers here will sneer at the Brew Enhancers but in my kits days one of the nicest kits I used to make was a can of Coopers (Real Ale) and a pack of BE2 with a few extra hops chucked in and it was way more drinkable than some of my 'home designed' concoctions at the time :icon_cheers:

 

[petesbrew]

Gday dan,
+1 for all that bribie said.

for a rough alcohol calculator, this does alright.

http://www.homebrew.com.au/wa.asp?idWebPag...p;idDetails=172

Using the Pale ale kit would make it a toucan brew. And using an IPA in a toucan kit would make it more bitter than a p1ssed off mother-in-law who hasn't been invited to christmas.

I'd save the pale ale for another batch myself. And it's a good kit too.

i haven't used the glucose myself, and only used the coopers sugar for my 1st beer.
I'd say save them for priming your bottles, and get 1kg dried malt extract, or a 1.5kg can of liquid extract (LME).