I bought the ingredients today and was hoping someone could give me a step by step on how to brew. I'm pretty sure I got it under control, but wouldn't mind someone spelling it out for me to be sure
How about you spell out simply the jist of how you plan to skin the cat and then others see where we can help? There are so many variables, all extract, partial mash, boil amounts, ect. What you are asking is unidentifiable. What is/are your question(s)?
Partial mash, as the thread says. Mash the grain for how long, at what temp and in how much water? Sparge grain after this, then add malt? Boil for how long and in how much water (total at this point)?
For a hefe, say 152-ish, for as long as it takes. An hour would be plenty. Depends on the weight of your grains. Anything between about 1 and 2 quarts of water per pound of grain should work well. Sparge, then add the rest of the water to your runnings, then add your malt extract. Unless you are doing a late extract addition instead, in which case you would add the extract toward the end of the boil. What's the base malt in your mash? If it's pilsner, you ought to boil for 90 minutes. If it's not pilsner, 60 minutes will do. Enough total water that whatever boils away will leave you with 5 gallons (or whatever your batch size is) of wort going into the fermenter after boil off. There are many factors affecting boiloff, but chances are you'll boil away at least 1 gallon per hour, and possibly much more. I'm guessing at a lot above. In the future, it would be much better if you posted your recipe and what you know about your process. That's what scurvy311 was telling you.
30-90 minutes depends on how dry or how much residual sugar you want (146ish to 156ish, dry to sweet respectively) 1.2ish - 2.3ish qts/pound grains Yes It seems like someone who "has it under control" would have an idea of the most basic aspects of brewing such as the above. Read: How to Brew, by John Palmer http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html If you are still interested, then buy the book. Usually it is the other way around, but the book is more up to date than the site. Also check out The Joy of Homebrewing. If you would like more info, go to http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/what-would-be-in-your-essential-homebrewers-library.55709/ There is lots of good texts, links, and information.
Thanks for the feedback. I just brewed my first batch in 7 years when I used to brew more often, 3 weeks ago, I was just looking for some tips to make sure I'm on the right track. For some reason the recipe confuses me. It is from the clone brew book, mini mash method. Next time I'll bring more info to the post so you guys can give me better feedback. I appreciate what you did offer.
You need to develop your own procedures and follow them. Base them on the instructions if you've got a kit beer. You can use my blog for examples on procedures if you like. Here's one that is partial mash. I suggest you make a checklist before you start and follow it.
