joined the bandwagon, some advice needed

blocparty

finally became one of the micro brew crew so im very excited and cant wait to taste the sweet nectar of my effort

anyway just been brain storming for the second batch which i will prob just do a straight forward wheat beer but i really want to experiment

anyway i was in India last year and brought back some vanilla pods, I'm guessing a stout would be the best to mix this with but I'm not a stout drinker so would a lager be OK to mix that with? or maybe an ale?

whats the general rule for experimenting with added flavourings? what time during the process do you add them? is there anything off the list that just doesnt work? how many kit brews should i do before going solo and deviating from the recipes?

are things like vanilla, lime, honey ok to mix with? what about herbs?

thanks in advance

BeerNut

There aren't any rules, your best bet is to experiment and find your own way.

Two pointers:
1. Get plenty of feedback. Find out what other people think of what you make (though you don't have to accept their opinions on what's good and what isn't). Other brewers are the best critics.

2. Brew small. 5L batches are a good size if you want to experiment with minimal risk. Extract brewing lends itself to it really well and is quick. If you keep good notes you should be able to scale up any experimental batch you want more of.

blocparty

BeerNut wrote: »

There aren't any rules, your best bet is to experiment and find your own way.

Two pointers:
1. Get plenty of feedback. Find out what other people think of what you make (though you don't have to accept their opinions on what's good and what isn't). Other brewers are the best critics.

2. Brew small. 5L batches are a good size if you want to experiment with minimal risk. Extract brewing lends itself to it really well and is quick. If you keep good notes you should be able to scale up any experimental batch you want more of.

That's great advice. There's a micro brew meetup in the Franciscan well in corkon the 25th of June but I'll be in Spain. Might get a friend to bring along a few bottles of mine to get some feedback

blocparty

Couple of questions

What kind of 5 or 10 litre fermented should I get?

What do you for the malt concentrate for the smaller quantity? Most here in the shops in cork have coopers, what sites are best to order from? Any makes of malt better than others? Or is coopers the standard for learning the ropes?

The manual says to keep the temp between 21 and 27 degrees, some on forums say keep it at 20. What's the best temp for brewing in Ireland?

Is there a need for a brew belt and if so does one come with a thermostat to set the temp you want?

BeerNut

blocparty wrote: »

What kind of 5 or 10 litre fermented should I get?

Doesn't really matter as long as it's food-safe. I have a couple of stainless steel stockpots I use for steeping grain and minimashes, but which also double-up as fermenters for small batches. But you can get smaller plastic fermenters from the homebrew suppliers.

blocparty wrote: »

What do you for the malt concentrate for the smaller quantity?

Use dry malt extract (aka spraymalt). You can weigh out as much as you like. It's also less likely to get oxidised as liquid malt extract can.

blocparty wrote: »

what sites are best to order from?

Mostly I order from TheHomebrewCompany.ie -- they have the best selection of speciality ingredients. There's aslo HomebrewWest.ie, Homebrew.ie, MyBeerAndWine.ie and more if you Google. They're closely competitive and have regular discounts and special offers, so it's always worth shopping around once you've decided what you need.

blocparty wrote: »

The manual says to keep the temp between 21 and 27 degrees, some on forums say keep it at 20. What's the best temp for brewing in Ireland?

Kit instructions are misleading. Beer ferments best around 18C. Above 22 and it could end up with off-flavours.

blocparty wrote: »

Is there a need for a brew belt

If you have a room that's within an ass's roar of 18C you're fine without it.

For the ins and outs of extract brewing, have a look at this, and for a bit about small batch brewing, see here.

blocparty

Finally got my brew on over the weekend. Very exciting process.

The temp is 18 degrees so that should be fine but as yet I haven't witnessed and bubbling through the airlock, is this ok?

There is plenty of condensation on the lid though which I think is a sign if fermentation

Is this normal? There anything I can do to increase the bubbling?

EDIT it's the coopers Australian larger that I'm brewing btw

oblivious

blocparty wrote: »

The temp is 18 degrees so that should be fine but as yet I haven't witnessed and bubbling through the airlock, is this ok?

There is plenty of condensation on the lid though which I think is a sign if fermentation

Is this normal? There anything I can do to increase the bubbling?

Yea it will be fine, just give it time to do its thing

blocparty

oblivious wrote: »

Yea it will be fine, just give it time to do its thing

Cheers, been a bit OCD with it checking it far too often! It's like a new born

When should I check the gravity of it again?

oblivious

blocparty wrote: »

Cheers, been a bit OCD with it checking it far too often! It's like a new born

When should I check the gravity of it again?

Give it a week, week and a half and check