Oh wow, responses came much faster than I had expected. I have basic equipment really. Couple car boys, bottling equipment, and a really nice brewpot. I'll do 5gal batches. My only real issue is usually controlling temp for fermentation. Room temp is about all I've got at the moment.
Man, I long for a car boy.
Make sure you stock up sanitizer and refresh yourself with some basic sanitizing practices. The recipes suggested above are great but bottle bombs are usually one of two things:
- Infection in the bottle (poor sanitation).
- Excessive priming sugar
And stopping fermentation early.
I used to drink any hefe / wheat beer but have fallen completely in love with all things hops. I think I found a recipe that I may be able to follow:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/chain-mail-pale-ale-474730/
Any thoughts or suggestions to make this work in the situation I'm in? It sounds to be my style. Although this is kind of what I was talking about earlier too. It states ingred's to be added before the boil.. then they go right into saying add during the boil. So they just mean the pre boil items are mashed? I can do that. Then boil and add everything else for the times stated? I've a feeling im making it harder than it needs to be.
All right, this is a good recipe. To dissect and give some additional direction...my comments are in red:
.5lb (7.4%) Vienna Malt; Weyermann - added before boil, steeped 60m
.5lb Maris Otter; Crisp - added before boil, steeped 60m
.25lb (3.7%) Caramel Malt 20L; Briess - added before boil, steeped 60m
If your kettle is large enough, add the total amount of water you will boil to the kettle. This is likely somewhere right around 6 to 6.5 gallons. Boil off will occur. I would start with 6 gallons and see where you end up. You may not get 5 gallons of beer into the carboy, but it will be close enough. Right now easy is key.
Heat the water to 160F. Once heated, take all of the above and put into a grain bag. Tie the bag and put it into the water. Think of a teabag, this is no different. Let sit in 160F water (covered is fine) without any heat (do not continue to heat the water) for 60 minutes. Now I'll be honest, I used to steep for 30 but I'd follow the directions here.
After 60 minutes, lift the bag (it will be hot) and drain it. Set aside. Turn your heat source back on. Do not cover the pot again after this point. Ever.
Let the wort (it is now wort) come to a boil.
Once the boil starts, set the timer for 40 minutes.
40 minutes has passed...
.5oz (10.0%) Zythos (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0m
.75oz (15.0%) Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0m
Add these hops. Use a hop sock or toss those bad boys in.
Set the timer for 5 minutes.
1tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15.0m
Add the above. Set timer for 5 minutes.
5.5lb (81.5%) Dry Extra Light; Muntons - added during boil, 10min
.25oz (5.0%) Zythos (10.9%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0m
.25oz (5.0%) Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0m
.75oz (15.0%) Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0m
1*tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 10.0m
Add the above. Set timer for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn your heat source off.
.25oz (5.0%) Zythos (10.9%) - after boil
.75oz (15.0%) Centennial (9.2%) - after boil
.5oz (10.0%) Ahtanum (6.0%) - after boil
Add the above.
Begin to chill your wort.
7 days later...add the below. You can add to the primary if you want or you can take your beer from the carboy and put it into another. Then add the hops. Up to you. I've done both. Not that it means much, but I have.
1oz (20.0%) Citra (12.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
7 days later (total of 14), you should have beer. I assume you recall taking gravity readings and all that jazz. Stable gravity over a few days and I would just leave your beer until after the 14th day of brewing.
Oh BTW, you are going to be just fine!
