New to Brew

Hello from Lake Tahoe, Nevada:

I just completed my first home brew and it pretty much tastes like beer. go figure.  haha.
I'm not a big drinker, in fact the first brew I've had in 37 years was the one I brewed myself.  I do like the idea of brewing the right beer for my tastes and to compliment my favorite dish, barbecued ribs.

My first brew was a kit from Midwest Supplies, Liberty Cream Ale, where I also bought the brew equipment.  It's just a basic, easy, brew to go with my basic equipment.  I do think it's pretty good brew except that it doesn't seem to be carbonated as well as I expected.

My son sampled a Xingu and thinks it's the best brew he's ever had.  I'd really like to try that one next but don't think I'm up to it yet.  I've seen two recipes, one using all grain and the other using extract.

Does anyone have a comment on splitting an extract kit into, say, two 2.5 gal batches?  I'd hate to brew 5 gallons of a beer that I'd just pour down the drain. 

Welcome Chas - the fact that you've already brewed a batch and got beer is a good sign. BeerSmith can help you scale recipes up or down in size. But the goal is to brew beers to your taste as you said. Once I got a few batches under my belt I started tweaking them to more balanced and malty which is what I like. And my beer enjoyment and consumption has really increased.

Your next step is to start working towards a recipe that matches the beer you like. With some practice - tips - tricks you can brew some great beer with extract and grains. Good Luck.

And I really enjoy riding the hawg around Lake Tahoe on a warm sunny day -- hopefully next Summer.

We enjoy hearing you too.  )

Thanks for the reply.  My wife doesn't even like the smell of beer so it's nice to have someone to talk to.  I hope to get her into the equasion too.  Maybe that Xingu...

Chas

I'm brewing beers that hover around balanced to malty -- basically very smooth. Both the neighbors have tasted several of my brews and neither of the wives are beer drinkers. But both have commented if they could buy beer like I'm brewing they would drink it.

Here is a chart on beer balance

I've seen that chart but didn't know how to read it.
So, am I looking at the chart correctly now?  Here's a Xingu recipe I have in Beersmith( attached ):

Do I use the column ( 1 ) that says,
OG Estimate          1.048
FG Estimate          1.012
Estimated Color    35.8
Bitterness ( IBUs ) 17.8
If that's the case then I have a very malty recipe.

Or should I use the Style column ( 2 )?
Where I have an evenly balanced, sort of, to hoppy off the chart recipe. 

You're reading it correctly you just look at the Original Gravity versus the IBU of the recipe. In this case it puts you between malty and extra-malty. And keep in mind this chart is just a general guide. I was not able to open you file --- but the key here is once you learn the basics of brewing and the basics of BeerSmith ... then you can take control of the beer you brew. Malty - balanced - hoppy.

I tend to run my brews from balanced to malty. Find a recipe that matches or is a clone of a favorite beer and tweak it

Good Luck

Can you see this one?  The first was a bmp so I converted to jpg.  Not that it makes any difference except that I'll know what format to use next time.

Have to admit I am not familiar with Xingu - but I'll have to find some
http://97bottles.com/breweries/br/rio-de-janeiro/rio-de-janeiro/xingu/xingu-black-beer/

So here's my 2cents - unless you are brewing to compete or are wanting your beer to be style specific ... the style guide is just that - a guide. Like the malt - hop graph. For example I don't even see a "Black Beer" in the BeerSmith style guides. And I do look at and use the style guides and stay close or within them when tweaking or creating a new recipe ... unless I'm brewing something really different.

Brew On