Expert: Keith Patton - 10/15/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello Keith:

I have been recently interested in home brewing, and will start my very first batch soon.  I got a kit (buckets, etc) and this kit came with a can of 'Connoisseurs Range Muntons Nut Brown Ale Kit', pre-hopped.  The recipe only calls for the contents of this can, a small packet of dry yeast and 1kg of corn sugar.  I would hate to be disappointed with my first batch, so I want to make everything possible to make a good first brew, and continue brewing.  Should I follow the instructions of the can as is?
Can I do anything to make this first batch better?  I suspected of this can-recipe because the original recipe I had calls for 1/2 lb of grain, liquid malt extract, 1 vial of yeast and hops (this recipe will be my second batch).  Also suspected because I read somewhere to 'not' use the 1kg of sugar for a kit, but I don't know what exactly was this referred to... and also reading about horror stories and how 'not' to buy these kits.

What would you recommend?  In order to use this can I already have?  

Thanks in advance,

ANSWER: Gabriela:

You might as well make the kit since you have it.  When I started brewing I followed the traditional route, that is I started with a kit, then graduated to extract brewing with specialty grains, the on to all grain.  

The difference in the beers after making the leap to all grain was dramatic.  BUT it requires a bit more brewing time and more equipment.

The kits are made so that you basically can just add hot water.  Extract does not require the long boil (some advocate that it does not require any boil at all if it is pre-hopped) but just a hot water steep in order to melt the extract and incorporate the specailty grains if required.

If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, the extract is the liquid syrup similar to can you have.  It can be purchased in bulk or dry extract powder in bags.

Extract brewing is just that, use of malt extract in bulk or from cans as your main source of fermentables.  Color and flavor are added by addition of small portions of specialty grains.  Take for example a stout.  We start with say 10 lbs of dark or light extract as our base.  The we add 10 oz of chocolate malt and maybe 4 oz of roasted malt and half a cup of molasses. (this is just a theoretical recipe for an example).  The specialty grains are crushed at the store and placed in a mesh bag forming a large tea bag.  You will use it the same way.

At home you heat 3 gallons of water to boiling, remove from the heat, the boiling helps remove chlorine from the tap water.  Now add the extract syrup and stir to dissolve thoroughly.  This is to prevent the syrup which is heavy and sinks from scorching on the bottom of the pot when you start to heat it up again.

Stir in the molasses and add your "tea bag" of specialty grains.  You will immediately see it start to impart a dark color to your infant stout.  After about 20 minutes or so drain and remove the bag.

Return the pot of wort to the heat and bring to a boil.  Now if you were using pre-hopped extract like the can you have, you would skip this step.

Bring the wort to a boil and add whatever hops are required by your recipe.  You will add a a tablespoon of kettle coagulant to help facilitate the hot break of protein from the beer at this stage.  Depending on the beer you are making, you might add two or three different hop additions at different times to impart bitterness, flavor and lastly aroma.  A stout has a very low hop profile so we would only add maybe 1/2 oz of hops for a 60 minute boil. Stouts rely more on a roasty bitterness from the specialty hops to offset any sweetness rather than a large dose of hop bitterness.

After we finish with the boil we chill the beer.  If you do not have a chilling coil, you can set the beer in a sink and fill the sink with a bath of water and ice.  You will see a cold break form.  

You then siphon the wort off of the precipitate or trub, shake your wort to aerate it and pitch your yeast.

Then sit back and wait for the yeast to do its thing.

The beer you have made or will be making won't be bad, but the jump to all grain and the increase in quality will amaze you.

All grain requires a mash and a bit more equipment to do it.

A good source of used equipment is www.craigslist on the web.  There is probably one for your city and guys are constantly selling off their whole brewing setup due to marriage, kids whatever and you can get a whole setup for a fraction of the cost of buying it all new, bottles too.  I added substantially to my brewing equipment by making a few acquisitions like this.

Anyway, your mash can last as long as 90 minutes and the boil about the same so you invest more time but the beer is better.

One thing to stress, sanitation, sanitation sanitation.  More beer is ruined by bad sanitation than anything else.  Don't cover a pot while it boils either, since undesirable sulfur compounds boil off and you do not what to trap them in you wort.  There are a lot of other tips and info that you will eventually learn as you go.

For recipes, I highly recommend Clone Brews or Beer Captured as a good source of recipes for beer available commercially.  This allows you to taste what you brew before you make it.

Keith

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again Keith:

So, just to clarify and follow up, this is what I will do (with a few questions):

Go back to the store and get the crushed or milled specialty grains (20 oz).  Wash and sanitize everything that will come in contact with beer (I will even use sanitized latex gloves to prevent cross contamination of my hands).  Boil 3gal of water, add the can syrup and dissolve.  Add in the 'tea bag' for 20 min.  
Add molasses: A) you mean to add the 1kg of corn sugar?  B) Or how many oz. of molasses?  Found a 12 oz bottle of unsulphured molasses at Wal-Mart  =)  
Skip the other 'boiling' since my syrup has been pre-hopped, but when making second batch, this boil is to be 'uncovered'
Chill the beer at the sink until 70-80F, then drop in to fermenting bucket vigorously to aerate it.
Add cold water:  A) two store bought gallons of water or B) 3 gallons of water  (recipe of can calls to use 6 gal of water total)  I will probably open, boil, cool, put back in to gallon container and refrigerate this water as well.
Add in the: A) shacked vial of yeast or B) the small yeast packet that came with the kit after 'hydrating' it and feeding it some water/sugar to make sure it's alive.
Cover with lid and let rest in a 65-75F dark room, until the 'bubbling' on the airlock is more than a minute apart, (6-7 days or so).
Transfer beer from fermenting bucket to bucket with spigot, which already contains 3/4 cup of prime sugar dissolved with water (boiled and cooled).  Doing the transfer as gently as possible to prevent aerating.  If I don't feel as confident with the transfer, and I only have one bucket with spigot (I need to practice) I will add the priming mix to the same fermenting bucket and gently mix, letting all sediment go back down for about 30 min. Attach filling bottle tube to spigot and fill and cap clean and sanitized beer bottles (and some screw in plastic coke bottles, since I only have I case of easy-cap beer bottles).  Rest those bottles up to 14 days in cool and dark place.

Since I have never heard of molasses until now, should I do the 3/4 cup of priming sugar, or the molasses on the first fermenting batch will do?  I do not want the bottles to explode in the middle of the night, but I do want bubbles in my finished product.

I have looked up the 'craiglist' (thanks for the tip) but at the moment, no one has beer bottles and equipment for sale in my area.  I will continue to look frequently.

Thank you again for being so patient and helpful to inexperienced first time brewers.


Answer
Gabriella: love that neme :-)


Stop.  I think you were getting my example confused with directions for your canned kit.  I was not suggesting you alter the recipe for the kit. The molasses was only for my Stout beer example.  Do not use it for you kit.

You should not need anything for the kit you have unless it is called for in the directions.  I was just giving you an example of a do it yourself extract recipe.  The canned ready hopped extract should have everything you need to make the beer that is listed on the label of the can.  You don't need anything else.

However, on you next batch you can try your hand at making a beer from an EXTRACT recipe that you can download from here:

http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/dl/

Make sure the recipe is for an Extract based brew.  You can substitute extract for the base barley called for by using 0.75 lbs of extract for each pound of grain.  For example, if a recipe calls for 10lbs of english 2 row pale malt, you will use 7.5 lbs of pale malt extract. If you use dry malt extract you would use only 6lbs.  The conversion factors are 0.75 for liquid extract, and 0.6 for dry. Just multiply the called for number in lbs by this number.

Getting back to your question.  If the canned extract calls for specialty grains, then yes, get them from the store, have them crush them and put them in a grain steeping bag.  Some are cotton others are a fine nylon mesh.  I reuse both to save money.  The cotton mesh is more difficult to clean the grain from, but it can be done.  Don't worry about sanitizing this because it will go into very hot water.

No need to use latex gloves.  You can get some no rince sanitizer, or clorox, but you really really have to rince the clorox, chlorine and beer do not mix.

Follow the directions given to you by the kit maker.

Then on your next batch you can use my advice and directions.
If you use a lot of grain for a extract specialty grain brew using your tea bag, you will need to boil it for a time, whatever the recipe calls for in order to extract the hop oils from the hops.

This has already been done in your hopped canned extract.

You should still chill you kit wort after heating it and once it is cooled down in the high 70's range, pour gently into your fermentor.  It is not good to aerate hot wort.  Once it is in the fermentor add enough water, here you can use jugged spring water that has been chilled in the refrigerator, to make 6 gallons according to your kit directions.  If you use store bought water you need not boil it, if you use tap water, then yes boil and chill it.  Shake it in the container to aerate it before adding it to the wort.  Boiling is what runs the oxygen off.

Yeast

With your yeast starter do hydrate it and feed it.  The larger volume of starter you use the better so a day or so before you do your brew hydrate the yeast in about 12-16 oz of sterile water and feed it.  An old cleaned beer bottle works well for this.  Get a perforated rubber stopper that will fit the bottle neck and use your air lock for your beer bottle mini-fermentor.  Once you see the yeast bubbling a bit it should be ready to pitch so you can do your brew.

It is a good idea to get a packet of yeast nutrient.  You can add it to your beer AND your starter yeast.  It helps to kick off a stronger ferment.

Okay.  Lets talk about the ferment.  Once the wort is fermented out depending on your room temperature it could be only three days or so, if you are doing a lager and you have room in your refrigerator you can let it ferment there it will be slower, but a cleaner tasting beer.  After you cease to see bubbling in the airlock let it settle for a few days.  You do not want to transfer the yeast sediment or trub to your priming bucket. There will be enough yeast still in suspension to do the priming in the bottles.

If you can afford it get an auto siphon and tubing from the supply store, you can then siphon mouth free and leave the trub behind. After transferring the beer to the bucket with the priming sugar mix it well, try not to aerate it, jus stir it, here a big long spoon comes in handy.  The priming sugar should be boiled in a like amount of water just for a moment and cooled before using.  We don't want to kill the yeasties.

If you know of some restaurants in you area check the back of the buildings or go in and ask if they have any food buckets or pickle buckets they are throwing out.  They go through a lot of them as saur kraut pickles and other stuff come in them.  A Subway or german restaurant should be able to supply you with a few used buckets for free, a $6-7 value.  See if they have the lids too.  Drill a hole in the middle to fit your airlock and you have another fermentor.

I keep a few on hand for priming and transfer, water cooiing etc.

If you get the auto siphon, probably $15 and tubing you won't need the spigot bucket for priming.  Ferment the beer in your new used pickle bucket, siphon it to your spigot bucket then you can use that one to transfer to your bottles as the kit suggests.  The siphon wand will do that too.  I would suggest against using the plastic coke bottles.  If plastic is absolutely necessary use green sprite or other color.  Sunlight and beer do not mix.  So always store your bottles in a box in a dark cool place, under the sink or closet is good, until you are ready to chill and drink it.

On craigslist try beer as your key word.

Keith