Mistakes I hope not.

[modo]

Wife went to Melbourne with her twin sister this long weekend.
- BIG MISTAKE NO. 1. Off to HBS I go to buy a secondary vessel to rack my Morgans Cortez in a weeks time and to only spend around $20.
- Mistake No. 2. Walked out of there $150 poorer.
- Mistake No. 3 ( I don`t think so but wife does). Running out of HB too quick. Go in and to buy racking vessel only .
- Mistake No. 4 tell HB owner of small problem and sells me second fermenter to up production. So now racking vessel for cortez and second fermenter.
- Mistake No5 what about racking vessel for second fermenter I hear you say. Well had to buy that too and the tube to rack with. Only bought 1 so we`ll take 1 mistake off for that. So mistake No. 5 had to fill second fermenter with some thing didn`t I.
So in summary it was her fault for going to Melbourne in the first place isn`t it .Well that`s my story and I`m sticking to it. She bought me the gear to start with. So it`s her mistake to start with.

But my main concern is that I used to HB about 4 year`s ago and have just started about 2 month`s ago and have been happy doing the K&K system with ok drinkable result`s. But today I tried the boil method and was wondering if I did it right. Bought dark crystal liquid malt 1kg . Royal oak amber ale. 250g dextrose. 12g cascade. 12g hallertau.

Boil 3lt water then add dextrose.
Bring back to boil and add malt then royal oak mixture came back to boil then reduced heat not to burn.(Don`t know if that was right but was worried.) After 20min`s added cascade. 20min`s later added hallertau then 20min`s chilled then added to fermenter at about 30deg added water now 22deg used kit yest. Now will hope for the best. Anything I`ve done wrong please let me know because this is my very 1st time.

[Kevnlis]

Two and a half slabs of stubs per fermentor, at an average of $35 a slab you are saving a fortune, so tell her to stuff it!

[gregb]

Modo, I added a few carriage returns to your post. My stout soaked brain was getting lost in there before.

Overall the recipe should produce a drinkable beer. Good luck convincing the wife that it's all her fault. Hope your couch is comfy.

Cheers,
Greg

[Clean Brewer]

I am only new also but have done a bit of research and have just done my first Full Extract Boil.

From what you mentioned its generally not the best idea to boil your kit in the boil as it is already pre-hopped and those hops will be lost in the boil, unless you use more hops in a proper schedule.

I would say after some calculations that your beer will be extremley low in bitterness due to boiling the kit and only adding 12gr@40min and 12gr@20min. You would've been better off probably doing a 20 min boil without the kit and adding the kit once the boil was finished.

Here is a link to a great program and it has a free 21day trial, but only costs $20 to purchase, and invaluable to brewing.

http://www.beersmith.com/

Also check out this topic as it explains the formula for a small boil and hop utilization

http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewto ... f=2&t=7834

Maybe some of the pro brewers on here can shed some better light...

[modo]

Thank`s for your replies. The HB guy told me to boil it all together

[KEG]

boiling will kill the hop aroma and some of the hop flavour, but it will leave the bitterness as it was. it's good when you've got a kit can with the right bitterness, but want to add your own flavour/aroma hops.

also, don't boil the grain... you need to steep the grain at around 65-70c for a while (say, 30 mins), then strain and rinse once, but don't exceed that 65-70c. if you go too hot, or over-rinse, you'll extract tannins from the grain, making your beer astringent, like sucking on a teabag. the bit that gets boiled is the rsulting liquid after the steep, strain and rinse.