- Back to Part I: Beer Making – The Learning-ing
Some (yes some) of the equipment and ingredients for making beer
I’ve started getting together everything I need to start brewing my first batch of beer! Here’s what we already have from meadmaking:
- StarSan sanitizing agent
- Bottle and carboy brushes
- A hydrometer for measuring specific gravity
- A siphon
- A pH meter
I was able to borrow a 6.5gal carboy from a friend as well.
A trip to Winning Wines Plus and $217 later, I also now have:
- A second 6.5gal carboy and stopper
- A bottle filler
- 24 16oz EZCap bottles
- Hop bags
- Floating thermometer
And for ingredients I now have:
- 1.5kg liquid pale malt extract
- 2kg extra light dry malt extract
- 1kg crystal malt
- 1kg roasted barley
- Wyeast 1084 yeast
- 60g each Fuggle and Nugget hop pellets
Because it’s difficult to find exactly the ingredients needed for any specific recipe, I have had to adapt a bit, which means I’ve basically had to build my own recipe! That’s a little scary for a first go, but I’m still confident because it’s based on a handful of other Irish Stout recipes I found, and because I feel I have a good handle on the process already after extensive reading.
So my specific recipe – which if it turns out well I will later give it a cool name – is:
- 3.3 lbs. (1.5kg) liquid pale malt extract
- 2.0 lbs. (1.0kg) extra light dry malt extract
- 0.5 lbs. (0.2kg) crystal malt
- 1.0 lbs. (0.5kg) roasted barley
- 1.0 lbs. (0.5kg) flaked barley
- 0.75 oz. (21g) Nugget hops
- 1 oz. (28g) Fuggle hops
- Wyeast 1084 yeast
If my math is correct (and I do actually love how much math is involved!), that should give me an Original Gravity (OG) of about 1.044 and about 45 IBUs, which is pretty close to numbers I’ve seen for other Irish Stout recipes.
One thing you may have noticed is a slight discrepancy in the ingredients purchased and those needed for the recipe. That’s because I somehow did not remember to add flaked barley to my shopping list, so I’ll be making another trip out to Winning Wines Plus to get some.
The next step is to plan each specific phase of brewing, which I will probably post here next. I’m aiming to brew next weekend, and will of course document it in photos and post about it again!
- Ahead to Part III: Beer Making – The Plan
- Ahead to Part IV: Beer Making – Making Beer
- Ahead to Part V: Beer Making – Racking
- Ahead to Part VI: Beer Making – Bottling