Dedicated to making homemade beer using Wifey's pots and pans.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Home Brew Batch #1

India Pale Ale Extract Kit

This is the first recipe that I tried and it is a good starter if you enjoy hops. Of course the directions have you doing one thing and I did the other. I went straight for the 90 minute boil because, I wanted a 90 minute pale ale.

Equipment on brew day:

5 gallon boiling pot
5 gallon plastic carboy with stopper and vent


Lessons learned on day 2: Leave ample room in the carboy for the cap to rise. During a violent fermentation the stopper will get blown off and foamy hops will be everywhere.

Equipment on secondary ferment day:
2nd carboy
5 ft food grade rubber hose

Lessons learned on day 7: Two carboys are better than one. This way you can siphon from primary to secondary fermentor.


Equipment on bottling day:

Bottle capper and caps
48 12oz bottles
bottling wand and rubber hose

Lesson Learned on bottling day: Use 24 oz bottles


2 comments:

  1. What material is your boiling pot made of? Is aluminium okay?

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  2. From what I have read, aluminum is ok but you don't want to be scraping off the patina or oxide layer.

    Mine happens to be stainless. A 37 dollar value form Northern Brewers.

    ReplyDelete