First Time Brewer: Need advice (Malt Extract)

Do you have airlocks on your 1 gallon fermenters?

“ …let them sit for 10 hours and they haven't burped yet...Is this normal? Or is this something I should worry about?” Not seeing the first signs of fermentation (the “burb” you mention) at the 10 hour marks is not something to be too concerned about. Give it some more time. I will be willing to bet that you will observe the first signs of fermentation in less than 24 hours from yeast pitch.

“By the way I read on a couple different sites that I could just use the malt extract instead of steeping the grains and grains may or may not be used in this case just for color and body. Any thoughts on that as well?” Whether you want to add steeping grains (e.g., crystal malt) to your beers is your choice. As you mentioned, crystal grains will add color and some body (mouthfeel) to the resulting beer.

As a heads up, you used 1 ounce of Magnum (15.2% AA) for your bittering addition to your 2 gallon batch. Your beer will have a lot of bitterness.

Cheers!

 

You should have decided how bitter (how many IBUs) you wanted the beer to be and then calculated the amount of hops to use to achieve that. There are several programs, web based calculators, and spreadsheets that can help with that.

 

Ten hours is too early to begin to have any concern. Most often you'll see activity in 1-2 days, but sometimes it can take up to 3-4 days depending on the freshness of your yeast, the ambient temp where your fermentors are sitting, etc. I suggest that you wait 4 days before looking into taking any steps to fix the situation if fermentation has not started by then. If you see any small collection of foam starting to float on top of the wort, then you're on your way to making beer

The steeping process of grains is typically referred to as a mini-mash, but not much sugar is created in the steeping process. The grains do give some color and flavor to your wort and can make a significant difference in how well you like your finished beer.

 

I'll say. Here's one option for a spreadsheet/calculator/program... BrewCipher V3.2

There's also Beersmith, Promash, Brewtoad and others.

 

Did your recipe include steeping grains but you decided to skip them? If so, those grains would have given your beer more malt flavor to help balance the bitterness overkill from the hops. But your beer will be drinkable if you like a hoppy bitter flavor. After you bottle or keg it, if it's too bitter then let it mellow about a month while you brew another beer, and the hops will fade a bit and allow the malt flavor to show up.

If you're seeing the initial formation of some foam now, in 8-10 hours you'll be seeing the foam become larger bubbles for a day and then begin to recede. But a word of caution -- if your fermentation jugs don't allow you to see the beer without opening it then put your curiosity on hold and stop opening the container for peeks. If your fermentors are clear glass/plastic, then you can enjoy the show.

 

“ ..our recipe didn’t call for steeping the grains, I just thought that was necessary step to the process? Guess not?” It is not a requirement to steep grains (e.g., crystal malt). The addition of a steeped grain like a crystal malt will add some color and some body to your beer. If you want some color and some body you could steep some crystal malt.

If you do not want some color and some body, leave it out.

The beauty of homebrewing is that you can make the beer the way you like.

It would appear that you like bitter beer!?!

Cheers!

 

Next time...add ~25% of the malt extract at the beginning of the boil and the remaining 75% with ~15" left in the boil. This will reduce darkening of the wort.

 

Holy pucker-up, Batman! Brewer's Friend recipe calculator shows an IBU of around 150 units just for the Magnum bittering charge. This ought to be an experience to remember! LOL... it's all part of the learning curve. It'll be beer in the end, and you will learn from each batch. Don't be afraid to try! Hang in there! Who knows? It might be another Alimony Ale, "the bitterest brew"...

 

While it's not universal, many (most?) first batches, while less than what was hoped for, turn out better than was (realistically?) expected. Barring any other major flaws (remarkably rare on a first batch), you'll drink it anyway, and you'll enjoy the hell out of it, despite what appears likely to be a bitter brew.

Welcome to the obsession.

 

You're on your way to making good beer because you're thinking about details and asking questions, so good for you.

The fact you came up with a procedure is good. However, more detail is better. Here's a procedure from when I was a noob:

Al's Red-Eye Ale

Vamp up your procedures and add more detail.

Then work on the fundamentals, which, in my opinion are:

• fermentation temperature control (below 70F)
• pitching temperature for yeast (below 70F)
• sanitation
• KISS methodology and recipe formulation
• playing guitar and hanging out with hott chicks