elvisali

Recipes 

Hello everyone, I have browsed your forum for a month or so, and decided it was time to join! I have been very impressed with not only the knowledge here, but the friendly nature as well, which is something you dont always see in interst/hobby forums like this.

A little about myself......I am in my 30's and was married aproximately 2 years ago and currently live in NY. My screename is derived from my love of Elvis Presley music and Muhammid Ali and is a screen name I created for some other forum sites after looking up at a picture of Elvis and Ali that hangs in my computer room and thinking...."yea, that works".

I had always been interested in trying to homebrew my own beer, and luckily, Santa brought me a full kit for Christmas. I did my first batch of American Ale today.............and lets just say it was definitly a "learning process" But I figured the first batch is just that,a real learning process, and I learned a lot. If it doesnt come out well, I will just chalk it up to the learning curve!

I had some questions and if anyone has the time, would appreciate any answers people could provide( I apologize in advance if they are less than intelligent, naive or silly!!!!!)

My questions are:

1- If I am using a wort chiller hooked up to a kitchen sink, how long, on average should it take to cool a boiled wart to the proper yeast pitching tempature(which everything I have read says is between 74 F and 90F). I didnt have the attachment to hook the chiller up to the sink, so I improvised, and I think it took longer than it normally would have, but was wondering how long on average it should take

2- I have tried to go through a lot of the posts here and see several discussing the merits of an air lock vs a blow off tube. As a first time brewer, should I just use the airlock and wait to use the blowoff tube next time? If I have put an airlock on the fermenter for this batch...if I wanted to switch to a blowoff tube, could i do that without damaging the batch? Also, my airlock has a loose fitting red cap on the top end, should this stay on, or be taken off?

3- Does anyone have a preferred method for cleaning the wort chiller after use, and sanitizing it before the next use. Are there any maintence concerns I should be on the look out for?

4- Anyone have any general recommendations for the soon to be second time brewer?

5- What signs indicate it is time to move my brewing beer to a secondary fermenter?


Thank you,

EA

Beer Snob

Recipes 

Welcome! Welcome!

2. The answer is ... it depends.... What is your primary? How many gallons do you have....? Is it a 5 gal glass carboy? If it is then you definatly want a blow off tube. Is it a 6.5 gal bucket or glass carboy? If it is you should be just fine with an airlock on it. Although I was not. I have a 6.5 glass carboy and the air lock got all stuffed up. No biggie... I just took it off and put on a blow off tube... later when the problem went away I put the airlock back on. Airlocks take up less space and there is no bucket to trip over you know...

5. Well assuming the fermentation has not stopped prematurely... When the airlock stops bubbling.. making noises.... then your ready. There is no rush really... you dont want your beer sitting on spent yeast and turb for weeks you know... noises stops... wait a few more days to be sure. There is nothing worst then exploding bottles.

__________________
Michael

"Don't worry, have a homebrew." ,"The "Bible"

Cherries in the wheat
Michael's Wheat

Johnwongfat

Recipes 

Hi, I'm glad you decided to join. I'm still new myself and the wealth of knowledge on this site is very impressive. I will give you my answers as a fellow newbie and maybe that will help you out as well.

1) It usually takes my wort chiller between 25-45 minutes to cool my 5 gallon batch, it depends on the tempature outside. I usually brew in the evenings so it tends to be a little cooler. The batch I brewed at 40 degrees cooled the quickest and the 80 degree batch took about 45 minutes before it got down to 75 or so. I've read a lot of things that say not to pitch your yeast above 80 degrees, so I always shoot for 75 to be safe.

2) I've only had to use a blow off tube once, and that was on my Imperial Stout in my carboy. I've only had it bubble out of the air lock one other time and that was just a little bit. Sanitation isn't that big a deal if it overflows as everything is going out, so it's very difficult for any contamination to get in. If it overflows just wipe it down with a towel, remove the airlock, rinse it, and stick it back in. I typically use vodka in the airlock just because it gives me a little more piece of mind.

3) I always just wash my chiller with some dish soap and a scrubber and let it air dry after use. Sanitation isn't an issue since you are going to be putting it in 200+ degree water. Just make sure there aren't any hunks of anything sticking to it and you should be fine.

4) As far as general recommendations, avoid distractions and indulging in too many homebrews during the brew, it tends to lead to silly mistakes. Good notes are always good. There have already been a few times when I've wondered what I did at a certain point last time.

5) Generally you want to move to a secondary once the airlock stops bubbling, or slows to 1 bubble every minute or two. The secondary "fermenter" is more of a conditioning bucket and very little fermentation actually takes place here. It is more to allow solid particles to settle out and improve clarity and flavor of the beer. Some people follow the rule of 1-2-3 (1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in the bottle for carbonation/conditioning) but I usually just watch the airlock.

I hope this helps you out, hopefully nothing is too far off base. It's a great hobby and I'm already hooked after 2 months.

Tony

Recipes 

First, Welcome to the forum, as well as the addiction...I mean homebrewing!

With New England ground temperatures, when I used an immersion chiller (Im assuming thats what you are using)it took from 24 to 35 minutes to get the temps down to 80 degrees. Using a plate type chiller, it takes about 5 minutes

In my opinion, and in my own findings, A blow off tube set up, used immediatey will allow for uninhibited active fermentation, allowing CO2 gases to be able to exit your fermenter quicker, and in case of a huge ferment, carry off foam and partices as well. Its customary to use the blow off set up until the real active ferment slows, then switch over to an airock. Just have it sanitized and ready to go when switching. No problem. As for your airlock top, Im assuming its the "S" type. Add a small level of water and replace the cap. It doent have to be real tight, just able to stay on top.

If you are indeed using an immersion chiller, you can either clean it with hot a water/sanitizer soak, or boil it, or both. Plate chillers use a backflush with hot water/sanitizer, and then rinse with hot water.

Brew extract brews until you are comfortable with your brewing process and have fun as well. Keep a writting log as well, and document any changes in procedure, and all of your times and methods. Get comfortable with the process, as you will shave off time and learn a lot. There are many good extract kits on the market, Northern Brewer, More Beer, Midwest , Beer-Wine.com etc... all of these site make up their own kits and clone many of the popular beers you see on the market. Once you are finished brewing, fermenting, bottling one of the clone beer kits, buy a six of the actual beer and compare yours. You will be amazed.


There are a couple ways. First, for the new brewer, give the primary 10 to 14 days, or until the bubbling in your air lock slows to a bubble every 2 minutes. Later, once you are comfortable with brewing, you will be using a hydrometer to calculate gravity, which is the sugar levels in your wort. (High gravity = high sugars, low gravity = low sugar levels) You will check your original gravity of your newly finished wort, to see how close you come to the estimated gravity level, and after fermentation slows to see if you are close to final gravity, which really tells you if all your sugars have been consumed by the yeast.

Good luck and dont be a stranger on the forum. Post often and keep us up to date!

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Passload

Recipes 

Welcome, like you I am a newbie and have brewed only one beer so far and it is in the secondary right now.
You have come to the best forum and everyone will be glad to help with any and all questions.

__________________
Cheers! J.R.



Zuckerflüsschen Brauend Firma
On Deck: Whatever I Want
Primary: Sugarcreek Amber Ale
Brite Tank:
Aging: Philr-er-up Rockwell
Drinking/Kegged: The Golden Quitty

"It's just like anything else"
"It's not rocket science"

DesertBrew

Recipes 

You got some replies; I'll expand on some of them.

Put your wort chiller in your kettle the last 15 minutes of the boil will ensure it is sanitized/sterile. Careful however if it has any water left in it, it'll spit out at you. I just hose mine off after use and use a scrub pad to get any chunks off of it. I don't use soap...

If you have a secondary (sounds as you do) typical rule is to rack to the secondary after the krausen falls. Usually after 5-7 days. Then leave it in the secondary for 2 weeks but I'd check it with a hydrometer to ensure it's done before bottling. If it doesn't fall, I rack it anyways after about 10 days. This depends on what your brewing and typically you won't have this issue but if it happens, nothings wrong, you just have a slower fermenting batch.

anthrobe

Recipes 

I have used my wort chiller a couple of times now. What I did was make a pre-water chiller. This is a mini immersion chiller that I put in the sink with water and ice. My tap water only gets down to around 70 degrees. With my pre-chiller I get it down to around 60 degrees which does help cool the wort faster. Usually it takes me about 10 minutes to cool 3.5 gallons of hot wort to 80 degrees then I add 2 more gallons at room temperature.

You will want to use a blow off tube when your furmentation is going hard. Different strains of yeast will produce different fermentations. Since I have started using yeast starters, I immediately use a blow off tube after I pitch the yeast. The krausen gets up into the 3 piece airlock, clogs it, then pressure builds and blows off your lid. After a couple of days with the blow off tube I just install the 3 piece airlock.

To clean my wort chiller, I just rinse it off with hot water and some very mild dish soap. To sanitize just add to your wort at 15 minutes before the end of boil. As desertbrew said, watch out when it starts to heat up. It will be spitting hot water out of the hose.


Just remember to have fun and with more brews under your belt, the better it gets.

__________________
On Deck -
Primary1 -Hop Knot 10/04/07
Primary2 -
Secondary1 -
Secondary2 -
On Tap
Tap1 - Kelly's Rasberry Cream Ale 7/11/07
Tap2 - Black Stap Porter (8/25/07)
Tap3 - Hefeweizen 7/05/07
Waiting for tap\Conditioning
Keg1 -
Keg2 -
Keg3 -
Bottles
-
-

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DeRoux's Broux

Recipes 

no stupid questions here, so no worries!

all good rec's from the others.. here's what i'd say/do:
1. it should take 15-30 minutes depending on how cold the chiller water is (for 5 g batch). you can try using a pre-chiller along w/ the immersion chiller to speed up the process. it looks like a little immersion chiller, that you set into a bucket of ice water, then hook it up to the chiller. the tap water will flow through the pre-chiller, then through the immersion chiller. that way colder water is flowing through. of course, your tap water is a bit colder than ours here in Texas, so you may not need one? if you can, i'd try to get the wort as close to 70 degrees, and as fast a possible as you can, prior to picthing yeast.
2. i've never used a blow-off tube, and have only had one instance where i needed one. a wild hefeweizen ferment that went crazy. i prefer the air lock myself....and you can switch to a blow-off tube, no problem.
3. i always scrub mine w/ soapy water and my bottle brush. when i clean up. then rinse real well w/ water and let it drain/dry real well before i store it away for the next bacth.
4. be patient, and don't try to rush the process. get some good brew books, (Designing Great Beers, Brewing Quality Beers, www.howtobrew.com, www.cruisenews.net/brewing/ , Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Brew Your Own magazine) to keep you occupied while your fermenting away! be a freak about cleaning and sanitation. take care of your yeast, so they'll take care of you!
5. well, the best way is to take a specific gravity reading prior to racking to your secondary. most people just count bubbles in the air lock. me, i'm lazy, plus i ferment in a glass 6.5 g primary fermenter. i can see the activity, so i know when she's done a brew'n. i'd wait until you see no activity in the air lock for at least a couple minutes. most average ales ferment out in 3-5 days, at the proper ferm temp. lower temp's will take longer to ferment out.

i know there's other and better way's, but this is just my $0.02 worth. good luck, keep us posted, and welcome aboard!

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Cheers!
DeRoux's Broux

david_42

Recipes 

All I have to add is: Eventually your work chiller will tarnish (assuming it's copper). Although wort is acid enough to take the tarnish off and some copper is good for the yeasts, too much makes your beer taste odd and can slow the ferment. I use a commercial cleaner, Tarn-X, to clean the chiller. It's a wipe-on rinse-off cleaner. I'll soak the chiller in water after cleaning and give it another wipe off before using.

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SuperBrew

Recipes 

Welcome friend. Good responses from everyone so far. I would only reiterate what was already said, especially keeping notes when brewing. I have found that is crucial. When I first started brewing I underestimated the value of keeping a brew-log. It is really helpful in refining a recipe over multiple attempts.

I assume soon you'll be dreaming up an all-grain brewing sytem, visiting your local breweries for yeast samples, and growing your own hops in the back yard. Soon you'll be hopelessly addicted to this hobby like I know I am.

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