natelindner

Recipes 

Hi all,

I just finished my first brew day ever! Most things went smoothly I believe but I have just a few concerns:

1. When all was said and done and I put my wort into the fermenter it was 20% less volume than I was expecting. I'm wondering why that could be when I used a calculator to determine how much water to use. I added back the difference so I also hope thats not an issue.

2. I've never done this before so is it normal that my wort doesnt really smell like how finished beer smells? It smells a bit like cheez-its mixed with hops.

3. When I was pouring into my fermenter I had a very hard time not letting the sediment from the boil get in with my wort. Is this a major issue? And how in the future might I keep that sediment out?

Thanks in advance!

Beernik

Recipes 

1. You can lose some volume to boil off. How much depends on air temp & pressure, elevation, boil time, and how vigorous the boil is.

2. It doesn't smell or taste like finished beer. Cheez-its sounds a bit weird though. I've always found it to be kind of sweet & syrupy. Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol & reduces the sweetness.

3. Sediment shouldn't hurt it. I avoid transferring sediment by racking from the boil pot to my bucket/carboy.

histo320

Recipes 

1. Did you boil inside or outside? What was your expected volume? If you didn't do a full boil you will have to add water to get up to your expected volume.

2. Wort will not smell like the finished beer. Cheez-its? not sure i've smelled that before.

3. Not an issue at all. All of the sediment will drop during fermentation to the bottom of the fermenter. In the future you can use a strainer to catch the hop sediment. You can just pour the wort into the fermenter or rack it with a racking cane.

My first brew day was terrible due to my poor planning but it will improve with time. Always make sure to take notes and reflect on the brew day so the next one will better. After about 5 brewdays you will have your process down.

Keep brewing.

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anico4704

Recipes 

1.Did you take into account boil off? Everyones boil off rate is different, it took me about 3-4 batches to get the numbers exactly right, now its changing again because it is not as cold out, which causes more boil off

2.Yes the wort doesn't taste anything like the real thing, the yeast needs to do its magic, and everything will be all good!

3.About 50% of the time I let all the sediment get into my fermenter and I taste absolutely no difference from batch to batch. I wouldn't worry about this at all unless it is a very light beer (Pils). We would need to know if you have a valve in your kettle, or are you dumping it into the fermentor, or do you have a racking cane from kettle to fermenter.

cluckk

Recipes 

One thing to remember, it doesn't taste or smell like beer because you haven't made beer. You've made wort, so it smells like wort. "Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer."

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"Cast your bread upon the waters for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." Ecclesiastes 11:1f

Who knew there was an ancient recipe for beer in the Bible?

My paraphrase: "Since you don't know what disasters might befall you , when you make beer share it with friends. Someday you might need them to share with you."

Cyclman

Recipes 

If the beer ends up tasting like Cheeze It's post the recipe. I've had stranger beers at the GABF, for sure.

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