First brew (and post!)

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cubbies

Tastes like butterdirt
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I just want to start out by saying a general thanks to everyone on this board. Over the last couple of months I have been trying to soak up as much information about brewing as I could, and many members of this site really helped out a lot. So...thanks.

My interest in homebrewing started sometime late last year, and I began to mention it to my wife and other family members. Then for XMas, my sister in law got me a Mr. Beer kit. Obviously, Mr. Beer was not what I was referring to when I was talking about homebrewing, but I figured it would be a good way for me to get my feet wet on some of the basics in brewing. None of them turned out great (which was basically expected), but none were terrible either.

Then I figured I had gathered enough info through books and online (thanks again!) to start a "real" homebrew. I went to the local homebrew store and bought my first kit and some ingredients. I figured I would post my recipe here, and ask a few questions (some dumb ones I am sure). It is a pretty basic recipe.

3lbs Munton and Fison light hopped extract
2.5 lbs dark DME
1/2 ounce East Kent Goldings hop pellets
2 packets edme ale yeast

Boiled 1.5 gallons of water and added my extract and DME, then boiled for about 20 minutes. After that I removed from heat and added my hop pellets and let them steep for about five minutes. I strained into my primary fermentation bucket which already had 1.5 gallons of cold water and was sitting in an ice bath in the sink. After that I added cold water until it reached five gallons. I then stirred heavily and let it cool to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point I took a hydrometer reading that came out to 1.050. I added my yeast, stirred again, put on my lid and airlock, and put it in a dark 68 degree area. Within about 10 hours (maybe less I didnt check it until 10 hours had passed) it was pretty active, and has remained active for the couple days since.

Anyway, now that you know my story, I have some dumb questions :eek:

With my DME, I added it to about 2 quarts of cool water and slowly mixed it, and then added the liquid mixture to the wort. I did this because with my Mr. Beer batches, if I just added the DME straight to the hot wort, it would clump up and not dissolve properly. Is this something I should have done? Are there any disadvantages to this method?

Also, after straining I had a good chunk of hops in the strainer. I meant to boil some water to pour over strained hops but totally forgot. Is my beer going to lose a lot of character since I forgot to do this, or will it be relatively fine?

Also, I have a fermentation question. Please correct me if I am wrong. I have heard some conflicting reports on how long to ferment. Primary I am going to go with 7-10 days, or until the action in the airlock slows considerably. I am guessing a bubble every minute would be about time (it is bubbling every few seconds as of now). Then secondary fermenter is about the same amount of time I believe (7-10 days). After that I should see almost no bubbles, and the beer should become pretty clear. My main questions on this are, does these timelines sound right? If in the secondary it stops bubbling, but the beer is not clear, what do I do? Bottle, or let it ride?

Anyway, I apologize for the super long post, I promise they wont be this long in the future. Also, I apologize for what I am sure are stupid questions, but keep in mind I am totally new to this. Anyway, thanks again!!
 
cubbies said:
Also, I have a fermentation question. Please correct me if I am wrong. I have heard some conflicting reports on how long to ferment. Primary I am going to go with 7-10 days, or until the action in the airlock slows considerably. I am guessing a bubble every minute would be about time (it is bubbling every few seconds as of now). Then secondary fermenter is about the same amount of time I believe (7-10 days). After that I should see almost no bubbles, and the beer should become pretty clear. My main questions on this are, does these timelines sound right? If in the secondary it stops bubbling, but the beer is not clear, what do I do? Bottle, or let it ride?

Welcome, although I detest your taste in nicknames :)

7-10 is cool for the primary. Only leave it longer if you're getting plenty of action from the airlock - more than 1 every 15 seconds or so. You shouldn't see very few to no bubbles in the secondary. You should leave it there for 2 weeks.

Bottle after it's spend the time in the secondary. It's about clearing at that point - not fermenting. Good luck
 
Even if airlock activity dies within 4 days leave it alone for at least a week.
It's going to be tough. You will get impatient.
Just wait it out. Try to do this for every step....just wait
you won't be able to but at least try.
The 1-2-3 method has done ok by me
1 week in primary
2 weeks in secondary
3 weeks in bottles then drink!
of course it never hurts to take a sample, you know, just to see how its doing
 
Wow...three weeks in the bottle. That seems like an awfully long time. Doesnt carbonation take place in about a week usually? Will the beer develop more flavor in the bottle?
 
I usually bring my water to a boil, then remove it from the heat and add my DME. Then I stir until it is all dissolved and return the wort to boil. Yes it clumps and can be a pain, try adding it a little bit at a time.

I've never poured my top-off water over the hops in the strainer and have not had any problems getting hop flavors; all of the hop magic comes during the boil.

As far as fermentation goes, leave it at least 7 days even the airlock dies, airlock activity is not really a good indication of when fermentation is complete. Invest in a hydrometer, hyrdo readings are the only true indication of where you are in terms of fermentation.

Also, I almost never see any airlock activity in the secondary. Secondary is really about clearing and not fermenting. If you go to a secondary, give it time to do it's job and leave your brew in there for at least 2 weeks (I leave mine for 4-5 weeks usually) before bottling.

EDIT: Yes carbonation can occur within a week, but your beer will taste much much better the longer you leave it; mine usually peek after 3 months or so.
 
Wow, thanks for the post Jaded. Maybe, I will be able to eventually, but I dont see myself being able to wait three months for my beer. I guess I could pull off three weeks, but even that is asking a lot :)

As for the secondary fermentation, do you go by how long it has been in there, or do you just base it off clarity. I am using a glass carboy, and if I am understanding everyone correctly, I should ferment for at least a week, and then just let my eyes tell me when it is done in the secondary. Would you say that is correct?
 
cubbies said:
Wow, thanks for the post Jaded. Maybe, I will be able to eventually, but I dont see myself being able to wait three months for my beer. I guess I could pull off three weeks, but even that is asking a lot :)

As for the secondary fermentation, do you go by how long it has been in there, or do you just base it off clarity. I am using a glass carboy, and if I am understanding everyone correctly, I should ferment for at least a week, and then just let my eyes tell me when it is done in the secondary. Would you say that is correct?
The solution to that is to brew more beer. If you have several beers ready to drink and several more in the pipeline then it is easier to leave the majority for atleast 3 weeks and some for 3 months. This is really tough if you don't have any stores.
The problem is getting the stores built up. That requires even more frequent brewing.
Assume each 5 gal batch makes 48 bottles. Determine how long 48 bottles will last on average. Make sure you brew atleast that often. Buy a few sixes of different styles to compare or taste. Soon you will have a store of beer and you can wait out the time required.
Atleast thats the theory. I'm working on building my stores also.
Craig
 
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