My plan is to brew my next batch of beer this Sunday morning. I wanted to do it Saturday but it is going to be hot, humid, and probably rainy. I have all of the ingredients I will need. Here is the list:

1 pound Gambrinus honey malt – crushed

3.3 pounds Northwestern Amber Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
3.3 pounds Briess Sparkling Amber LME

1 ounce Centennial hops (9.6% alpha acid)
2 ounce Kent Goldings hops (5.0% alpha acid)

Muntons' yeast

I also have a few pounds of Briess Pilsen light dried malt extract (DME). I am going to add some to the batch to see if it will give me extra body, but I am not sure how much I will add yet. Probably between 8 and 16 ounces, but I have to do some research. I will also use DME rather than priming sugar when it is time to bottle.

I will use all of the Centennial hops and half an ounce of the Kent Goldings hops for 60 minutes of bittering, and the remaining 1.5 ounce of Kent Goldings hops during the last 5 minutes of the boil for flavor and aroma.

For those keeping track I got the Briess Sparkling Amber LME and Briess Pilsen light DME in Toledo. The rest I got at Two Brothers Brewing Company.

I am kind of following the proportions that my first kit had, but not necessarily the ingredients. The kit had two cans of light LME, whereas this batch is amber, so it will be a darker beer and possibly sweeter. I think I will have an extra half ounce of hops more than the kit, but that should be OK because of the extra sweetness, plus I like hops.

I am just using dried yeast ($1 or $2) and not liquid yeast ($8) because I am still not confident yet, and if I screw up I don't want to waste money on premium yeast. If this one turns out good the following batch will have liquid yeast.

I'm looking forward to it! I will try to get all of my chores out of the way on Saturday so I can dedicate Sunday to beer and brewing.