First extract brew - Martin's Special Bitter!

[cheredenine]

I've been lurking on this site for a while, and have been wanting to try home brewing again for as long - last experience of it was one odd tasting kit from Boots while i was at Uni.

So i got prepared - Charles Papazian's book for Xmas, a 15 litre stock pot from eBay and a load of supplies from Hop & Grape (fermenter, utensils, ingredients). I decided to start simply with a Special Bitter receipe from a table in the homebreing book - 3kg of Amber malt extract and 100g of Roasted Barley for a bit of colour. I also decided to use Worcester Goldings hops - i've not been exposed to hops in person before, so don't really have a handle on how they differ. As our water round here is amazingly hard, i decided to use mineral water as brewing liquor (Tesco Ashbeck) with a spoonful of gypsum.

Brew day was last sunday. Put two 2 litre bottles of mineral water in the freezer for later and started my water boiling. I put the roasted barley in a grain bag and left it in the water from room temp up until boiling. I then took it out and added the extract - forgot to stir as I put it in so it burnt a little on the bottom. Doesn't seem to have affected it too much. Once boiling again added the first batch of hops, then second batch with 15 minutes left and so Irish Moss at 10 minutes left.

I didn't get a visible hot-break, however! The stock pot was rather full, so i was hesitant at having it boil too vigorously; the hob couldn't get it much hotter, anyway. I could see some sediment in the boiling liquid, so i assume the hot-break happened, but not so quick that it foamed over. It also seemed like there was jelly-like stuff stuck on the nylon bags the hops were in - not sure if this was coagulated protein or irish moss....

Next step - put the two 2 litre bottles of chilled water in the fermenter and slowly seived the boiled wort in too. Then topped up with room temp mineral water. This brought the wort temp down to about 40 degrees C. Took ages to cool down to below 30 degrees for yeast pitching, so had to do it just before bed. Also measured the gravity to 1.042. Tasted the sample - very sweet as you'd expect and very hoppy.

Fermentation had started by morning, and was going very well by evening. Beersmith suggests it'll be ready for bottling today so i took another sample; gravity is now 1.023, so some time to go yet. Our kitchen is quite cool (14 to 16 degree), so i assume this is the reason. Tried another sample - still sweet, with the hoppiness mellowed somewhat to a nice bitterness. Beer sample was cloudy, which was my first clue that it hadn't finished yet.

When it comes to bottling though i have a question. I'll have to bottle straight from the fermenter (handy tap on the bottom), so not sure what to do about priming sugars? I have some spray malt to use for this, but haven't got an accurate way of dosing each bottle. I was thinking of boiling up a solution and introducing that to the wort, giving it a while to mix in before bottling as normal. Any thoughts?

I'll add more as it happens. If this goes well i'm tempted to brew a stout next - i'm partial to Guinness but have had some other, even nicer, stouts from smaller breweries recently...

[Whorst]

When it comes to bottling though i have a question. I'll have to bottle straight from the fermenter (handy tap on the bottom), so not sure what to do about priming sugars? I have some spray malt to use for this, but haven't got an accurate way of dosing each bottle. I was thinking of boiling up a solution and introducing that to the wort, giving it a while to mix in before bottling as normal. Any thoughts?

Sterilize all your bottles, line 'em up and drop 1/4 teaspon of sugar in each bottle.

[jason123]

I'd hot foot it to your local HBS and get another FV with a tap and a little bottler or similar piece of kit.
Put your priming sugar in the new sterilised bin, drain into this and give it a quick stir to ensure even distribution throuout the whole brew. It's easier and cleaner than trying to scrape sugar off the spoon into the bottles imo.
Bottling is a right pain in the harris so a little bottler or brupak bottle filler etc is far easier and better than syphoning.

Happy drinking

[cheredenine]

Thanks for the reply guys! A second FV is out of the question, unfortunately - space is at a premium at the moment, especially as we've a baby on the way, so i think i've got all the equipment i've room for. If mixing the priming sugar in the fermenter i've got is a no-no (why is this, by the way?) then it looks like i'm adding sugar to the bottles individually. Probably not as bad as it could be, as i picked up some little funnels recently. Local homebrew shop has already been checked out and no bottling aids of the type mentioned were spotted...

A 1/4 teaspoon of sugar per bottle was mentioned. I'm assuming this was 500ml bottles; i'm using 2 litre bottles (recycling coke bottles to keep costs down), so can i assume a full teaspoon? Also, do these amounts refer specifically to suger, or can i use the same amounts in spray malt? I'd prefer not to use refined sugar if i can...

Cheers!

[cheredenine]

Anyone got any answers for my last post? Don't want to put too much or too little spray malt in my bottles...

We've had boiler troubles this week - no central heating from saturday til today was not fun - so i'm thinking fermentation was slowed somewhat. Adjusted hydrometer reading now down to 1.015 from original of 1.044. Am i likely to see much more or a drop?

Had a taste of the test sample and its lovely - i'd have been happy with it if i'd bought it in a shop! Not a huge amount of body, but tasty if swirled over the tongue and a nice bitter finish. Even my fiance, who isn't a beer-drinker, liked the taste...

[Horatio]

Thanks for the reply guys! A second FV is out of the question, unfortunately - space is at a premium at the moment, especially as we've a baby on the way, so i think i've got all the equipment i've room for. If mixing the priming sugar in the fermenter i've got is a no-no (why is this, by the way?) then it looks like i'm adding sugar to the bottles individually. Probably not as bad as it could be, as i picked up some little funnels recently. Local homebrew shop has already been checked out and no bottling aids of the type mentioned were spotted...

A 1/4 teaspoon of sugar per bottle was mentioned. I'm assuming this was 500ml bottles; i'm using 2 litre bottles (recycling coke bottles to keep costs down), so can i assume a full teaspoon? Also, do these amounts refer specifically to suger, or can i use the same amounts in spray malt? I'd prefer not to use refined sugar if i can...

Cheers!

I'm no expert but...
I wouldn't mix the priming sugar in the original FV as you are likely to stir up all the gunk that has settled on the bottom of it; yeast, trub etc. You don't really want that going into your bottles. Adding sugar directly to the bottles is not such a chore really; use your funnel and it's not too messy and doesn't take that long.

With regards to using spray malt, I personally wouldn't add it directly to the bottles. I have never done this, so I am only guessing, but I think it would clump and not mix in very well. If you really want to use spray malt as your priming sugar then I would mix the correct amount (sorry don't know this for spray malt) with some of you wort and boil and then cool it, then add it to each bottle with a syringe. Quite a bit of work though. Which is why I use normal white sugar at between 1/4 and 1/2 a teaspoon per bottle. It is only really to produce some condition and the alcohol it will produce is soo small that it will not change the quality of your beer.