Hello

Hi from the opposite coast of the gulf wink

I haven`t been able to find any good shops or forums in finnish here from Finland, but fortunately I found my way here.

I`m still just a wanna-be brewer, as I`m still to make my first brew. I would like to start making beer from the "intermediate"- level, from extracts,specialty malts and hops. So my questions are: what do I need (equipment), a good simple recipe (maybe some standard british ale?) and what do I need for ingredients?

Thanks everyone in advance!

Sv: Hello

You will need
A pot to boil in. (10 liters is enough for 20-25 liter but being able to boil all of the wort does make the beer taste better)

something to ferment in. A 25 liter bucket with a lid and a bubbler(waterlock) is what I use.

A siphon to transfer the beer.

Bottles and bottlecaps and a bottle capper. That is a machine to put the caps on the bottles.


A simple recipe is:
(kottar = whole hops)

3,0 kg mellanmörkt torkat maltextrakt/medium dark dried extract.
bitterhumle (60 min boil) /bitter hops
20 g Northern Brewer kottar 10,2% alfasyra
(or any other hop with the same alpha acid/alfasyra)
Smakhumle / taste hops (20 min boil)
20 g Kent Goldings kottar
aromhumle /aroma hops (5 min boil)
40 g Kent Goldings kottar
jäst /yeast
1028 London Ale or 1098 British Ale

Sv: Hello

OK, thanks a lot! smile

Are these all available through the webshop here?

4 Senast ändrad av jan_johansen (2006-10-07 00:31:37)

Sv: Hello

Greeting from a dane Nike:-)

It should be avalible in the shop. Brew Hard Hallelujah smile Sorry - couldn't help it smile It's diffently not a joke, that I'm known here as "The Mad Dane"!!!! smile

Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, that fought and died for, your wee bit hill and glen, and stood against him (England), Proud Edwards army, and sent him homewards tae think again.

ALBA GU BRATH

Sv: Hello

Hi to you too,Jan wink

Glad to see you dig LORDI; it only took us something like 50+ years to win the Eurovision! smile  I think the people who choose the contenders for the competition were so frustrated that they didn`t care anymore as we always came in last or something, so they thought :"It doesn`t matter anymore, let those guys in the funny masks give it a try,it can`t go any worse..."

6 Senast ändrad av jan_johansen (2006-10-07 12:33:36)

Sv: Hello

Yeah and it was totally awesome smile I knew them before the competition, and liked them a lot so I voted for them of course:-) I think they're both great but also very entertainng with those masks. I went to Russia this summer in June since my wife is Russian, and I thought that since I normally spend a lot of money on brewing, I could buy The Arockalypse cheap. The city my wife comes from is Called Ryazan, which is about 300 km south east from Moscow, and even though things are heading in the right direction, the city is absoloutely not so westeren and fashionable as Moscow or Petersburg. I visited like every cd-store I possible could, and asked for the CD. And when I asked then "Do you have anything with Lordi, they asked "who"????? Then I had to say, those finnish guys who beated Dima Billan in the eurovision, and according to their face they didn't like that reminder :-) My wife also said that he sings like a chicken, just to put some more salt in the wound (in other words she don't like Billan) smile

Anyway - back to on-topic. I can, if you'd like, wright some more recepies. All you have to do, is to way what styles you're interested in brewing, apart from a standard Bitter. Strange there are no good shops in Finland. Even though I mash allgain (I have never breed any extract based beer) I can help you anyway.  I can also give you some theory if you'd like. Today I don't have much time though, since I'm gonna brew myself. I'm gonna brew an ale, that is very special. It is brewed totally like a typical märzen/oktoberfest, but it is top fermented with northwest ale yeast smile In other words it is like a fusion between german märzen/oktoberfest beer, and american ale smile Märzen-ale or what am I going to call it??? smile smile smile I like experimenting smile

And welcome to humle.se smile

Regards
-Jan

Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, that fought and died for, your wee bit hill and glen, and stood against him (England), Proud Edwards army, and sent him homewards tae think again.

ALBA GU BRATH

Sv: Hello

So after boiling the ingredients should I remove them before adding the yeast? And are those last 40g of hops meant be left to the beer along for the fermentation?

Then another thing: I`m also a keen freetime farmer,and I was thinking is it possible to get rootings or seeds of some hops species that would do fine in Scandinavian climates?

Sv: Hello

I always took the hops out when I was brewing extract. It isn't needed but it gets less messy. If you find it easier to leave them in, just let them. No need to make things more difficult than needed.


I think the brittish varities could work well in a scandinavian climate. I'm not very good with plats though.

9 Senast ändrad av jan_johansen (2006-10-08 14:59:47)

Sv: Hello

Yes you have to remove all the ingridienst before fermenting and cool down the wort. That also invcludes the last 40 gram. I wouldn't recomend 5 minutes - a bit shorter time gives, in my oppinion a more clean, fresh arom. Something 1-2 minutes would be fine I think.

Yeah of course you can get hopplant suited for the scandinavian climate. Where in Finland do you come from by the way? I live in Umeå (Close to Vaasa) and here many people grow their own hops. I am not sure where to buy them, and espacially not in Finland;-) But unless you live far north in Laponia, where it is freezing like 100 degrees cencius through out the year, then it shouldn't be a problem for you to grow your own hops smile

If you intent to use them for brewing, you should be aware of technical details, like how much alpha acid in case you'll use them as bitterhops. If there is like 15-16% alpha acid in your hops it is easy to use too much if you are not aware of it. Anyway tasting jops and arom hops is not a problem though.

Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, that fought and died for, your wee bit hill and glen, and stood against him (England), Proud Edwards army, and sent him homewards tae think again.

ALBA GU BRATH

Sv: Hello

Uh oh... I`ve been making some calculations on what it would cost to get all the equipment together,and it gets up to somewhere around 300€,at least. That`s quite a lot in my current situation. But I don`t wanna buy crappy equipment that needs to be changed in a few months or a year. A poor person can`t afford to buy cheap stuff,as they say.

Sv: Hello

You shouldn't need to spend that kind of money to get at starter kit.
A couple of plastic brewing buckets for 10 euro each.
A siphon costs ~ 6 euro
One big kettle (20-25L) or two kettels (10-15L) you should be able to get for ~60 euro if you buy them new.
A bottle capper 12-15 euro.
20-6-60-15 = 100 euro.

A decent scale around 10 euro.
Some addition stuff, lets say in total 30-40 euro.

That ends up somewhere around 150 euro which is what I normally tells people when they ask.

If you use that stuff for 10 years it will cost you 15 euro/year.

That's not a lot of money. I bet you spend more on one night on the town smile

Sv: Hello

Kenneth skrev:

That's not a lot of money. I bet you spend more on one night on the town smile

That`s true;)

The kettles are just hard to find. I just remember that I paid 60€ for the 7.5L one I have. What about a mill? Won`t I need one to crush the barley?

Sv: Hello

You can start with with already crushed malt for the basemalts.
Specialmalts you can grind by hand.

If you go for an aluminum kettle it will be cheaper.
I have used it for 12 years and I do not have Alzheimer (yet smile )
Seriously,  the rumors about aluminium and Alzheimer are just not true!

14 Senast ändrad av jan_johansen (2006-10-16 01:15:28)

Sv: Hello

Yeah I bet they are total fake those romours. Besides I think it is recommendable to get an alliminium kettle, because it's easier to get a good caramelisation of the vort than with steel and lead the heat better.

Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, that fought and died for, your wee bit hill and glen, and stood against him (England), Proud Edwards army, and sent him homewards tae think again.

ALBA GU BRATH

15 Senast ändrad av Nike (2006-10-16 15:21:20)

Sv: Hello

I found a company that sells stuff for restaurants,and they have a 36- liter aluminum kettle for 78€. That`s about 720kr. That`s big enough so that I don`t have worry about spilling. The guy from the company that I talked with in the telephone said that there`s no risk involved with using them,and that in fact he would choose this one for the use I want it,as well. And that wasn`t just sales talk because otherwise he could have sold me the more expensive steel kettle.

Some more questions: Will I need a thermostat for boiling the wort? Or is such a large quantity of water and barley easier to keep at steady temperatures? And are there differences in thermometers and the other meters in quality? And what about ready-milled barley, do you know if the ones sold here are milled only when ordered,or are they ready-milled and kept like that for weeks,months,etc.? And does it matter whether it`s freshly milled or not?