First ever home brew today
 

My first ever home brew batch is in the primary! Having said that, I know I made some mistakes. Biggest mistake? Not pre-filling and marking the 6 gal carboy at the 5 gallon level. I don't know how much liquid was lost to boiling. I added water to bring level in the primary up to where I thought it should be. The SP was 6 points higher than target, but the volume looks right, so I left it and pitched the yeast.

Any advice or comments anyone?

Primary: Pre-prohibition Lager

Congrats!
I would not worry about the SG, you will just have a little stronger beer.

What about extra hops/bitterness? The recipe calls for about 18 IBU. I mistakenly added too much hops to early, according to calculations it should turn out to be about 24 IBU.

Sounds like you made a very good beer. Now it's time to sit back, relax, wait and and enjoy the yeast storm.

i always enjoy watching them ferment in the carboys. too bad i hate handling them and pulling off gravity readings from them :mad:

Congrats on the first batch. It seems like you did a great job, it's important to keep good notes and analysis your process so that you can make adjustments and improve your brewing process. Regarding the OG, I'm not sure how much water you added to reach your final volume, but adding water can skew the gravity readings as the water and wort may not have been mixed thoroughly enough; it takes a lot of mixing to get an even sample.

Marking the carboy at the 5 gallon mark is a good idea, you may also want to make marks at 5.5, or 5.25 gallons. If you get exactly 5 gallons into the fermenter, you'll probably not have 5 gallons at bottling time due to absorption and transfer loss. Many home brewers aim to get 5.25-5.5 gallons into the fermenter in order to get a full five gallons at bottling/kegging time. That's something that took me a few batches to get right. Good luck, enjoy your first beer and enjoy the process to making even better batches in the future. :mug:

Thank you for your advise. I intend to take the total weight minus weight of empty carboy after transfer to get the liquid weight. Then take FG X 8 and divide into liquid weight to get volume. I did vigorously shake an slosh the wort and added water in the fermenter. Also, the temps of the 2 liquids were equal or very close, which should facilitate better mixing.

It turns out that I was about a quart low on my guessed volume in the primary. After gravity samples were taken, the volume transferred to the secondary is 4.75 gal. That probably explains why the OG was 6 points higher than expected. That I'm not worried about. It's just a gentle reminder to get it right next time! After 2 weeks in primary with D-rest (now in secondary), it tastes good. That I do care about! Now, with filled and marked carboys I won't have to guess at the volume. Same goes for the brew pot, with marked up stir spoon.

Thanks for all the hel[p and encouragement.

Congrats! Stepping out with a lager on the first brew too. Continued success. :mug:

"Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, waste a lifetime." Congrats.