Mount Mellick?

[chenal311]

Hello, I'm pretty new to brewing although it's quickly turning into an obsession! My first batch was G&G Irish Ale which is bottled, I have 4 days left till my 2 weeks is up and I can finally open a bottle. My second batch is G&G Oktoberfest. Which I will be transferring over to my carboy tonight.
To my question...
I just hopped on the site and checked out the G&G "Specials" and saw a Mount Mellick Stout extract on sale. I would really like to make a stout but on these kinds of kits, what is needed in addition? Do I need any grains, do I need additional malt syrup or dry malt? Hops and irish moss?
From just the 2 (5 gallon) batches I've done so far, it's averaging about $35 a batch. So $13.39 sounds like it doesn't come with everything I need...
Any info or help from any of you veterans would be greatly appreciated!
Also, I don't have a book. I've been getting all my info online. Does anyone have a good book recommendation for a newbie such as myself?

[grapeadmin]

I have made that kit before and it does make a decent stout. You are correct though. You need to either add two additional pounds of dry malt (I would recommend muntons dark dme) or you could use two cans. If you go with the two lbs of dry malt, boil it together for 20-30 minutes and add about a half an ounce of fuggles or hallertau hops to give the dry malt some balance.

Two really good books for the beginner brewer (imho) are:

http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,11745.html

and

http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,11741.html

thanks!
john

[chenal311]

Great. Thank you very much! I might just have to give that stout a try.
And thanks for the book recommendation!
Your help is much appreciated!

-Bryan

[grapeadmin]

Anytime. Thank you.

john

[chenal311]

So I brewed the Mount Mellick Stout on Friday afternoon. Once I got the temp down to 75 I pitched my yeast into my fermentation bucket put in it the back corner of my basement (which stays at a pretty steady 65-68 degrees). 12 hours later I checked on it (first thing in the morning) and the beer was foaming out of my airlock. I immediately replaced my airlock with some sanitized tubing and put the tube into a bucket of water as one of my friends suggested. It seemed to work great. Later that night it finally stopped foaming out of the bucket and was producing about 2-3 bubbles per minute (which I thought was slow for being less than 48 hours after pitching the yeast). The next day it was a bubble maybe every 2-3 minutes. This morning I checked it and say there for a good 5-10 minutes and didn't see a single bubble. Is there something wrong? Should I worry or is this normal because the fermentation came on so heavy so fast?
This is only my third brew so I'm not 100% sure what to think about it at this point. The thermometer on my bucket reads 67 degrees (as of this morning). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Bryan

[grapeadmin]

Sounds to me like it is finished with the primary fermentation. This is normal for a beer that starts fermenting so hard. Nothing to worry about here. Just rack it in a few days the secondary.

thanks
john
g and g

[chenal311]

That's great news. That's what I hoped for, I'm just used to taking a few days (5-7) for it to finish. I figure I will rack it over to my carboy this Friday (exactly a week). Thank you again for your help!

[grapeadmin]

Anytime.

thanks!
john

[MikeJansen]

John -- Do you sell the Muntons Dark DME by pound or just the 55# ?

Thanks,
Mike

[grapeadmin]

We have one, two, three and 55 lb. Here is the link:

http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,8406.html

thanks!
john