Few questions from a first time home brewer.

[keo]

Hello everybody, got a few questions I'd like to ask, hope you can help me out.

I'm about the brew my first batch of beer. I've bought all the equipment and ingredients I need, keeping it small for the first batch with a 1 gallon brew.

I'm using the Brooklyn Brew Shop's Beer Making Book as my guide, and have selected the Eggnog Milk Stout recipe. The book is very straightforward and concise, however the whole US/UK gallon thing has me confused! A US gallon is 3.8 litres, while a UK gallon is 4.5 litres. Their 1 gallon and 5 gallon recipes are surely for US gallons. If I want to brew a 1 gallon (UK) batch, will I need to alter the amount of grains/hops accordingly?

The 1 gallon recipe is as follows (measurements converted from lbs to grams)...

MASH
635g English Pale malt
90g Caramel 60 malt
45g Chocolate malt
90g roasted barley

BOIL
5.67g Northern Brewer hops
1/2 nutmeg grated
2.83g Fuggle hops
90g lactose sugar

FERMENT
1/2 pack Belgian ale yeast
1/2 vanilla bean
3 tbsp maple syrup


What do you think?


My other question is regarding yeast. I have a Wyeast Propagator pack. For a 1 gallon brew, do I need to make a starter, or can I pitch it directly?

Thanks in advance,
keo

 

[RobWalker]

Best way to do this is to plonk it in a calculator mate. It'll give you plenty of readings that will highlight any issues.

Make sure you have some headroom - stouts are mega violent fermenters!