philly224

Recipes 

Hey guys, I am going to be doing my first brew on Wednesday and I had a few questions first. Here is a list of questions I have for each step. Thanks for any help in advance!

1. Sanitize all equipment and put it off to the side. I plan on sanitizing everything with san star in one of my buckets. I will also clean out my brew kettle with pbw or something (I don’t think it really matters since it will be hot anyway right?)

2. Put grains into muslin bag and add two gallons of water to the pot. Bring to 155 degrees and add the grains in the bag for 15-30 mins (How do I know when to stop? My instructions say 15-30 minutes).

3. Bring pot to a boil and then take off burner and add malt extract and after it starts boiling again add hops. Let boil for 60 minutes (Do I need to keep the temp at a certain level here or do I just keep it to a boil for a full 60 minutes?)

4. Pour wort into the fermenter after cooling down and top off with water.

5. Add yeast. I am going to be using dry yeast, do I need to mix it with water or can I just pour it in?

jayy42

Recipes 

1. Sanitation is the most important part. Don't worry about sanitizing anything that happens before the boil, just make sure its relatively clean. No need to use expensive PBW on your kettle. Just rinse it out. I usually start the sanitation process 5 min before the end of the boil.

2. Just time the mash to whatever the instructions say. Don't over shoot the temperature by too much.

3. Make sure all the extract is incorporated and stirred in before you move the pot back on the heat. If there is extract sitting on the bottom of the pot it will burn. Just keep it hot enough for a rolling boil (lid off!).

4. Use a sanitized thermometer to make sure the wort is about 80 degrees before topping off with cool water. This will bring you down to about 70 when you top off.

5. For your first time, just pitch it, you already have enough to worry about! Just sprinkle it in an even layer across the top of the fermenter (assuming its a bucket and not a carboy).

dneubeck85

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Sanitize everything is good. Steep your grains at least the 15 min. Steep until u get the desired color for your style. I would add half of the extract at the beginning and half with about 15 min left in the boil. Reduces scorching, and will stop your wort from darkening. Don't forget to aerate the wort after you top off, and before you pitch the yeast. I sometimes rehydrate my yeast, but have also just pitched it dry. All preference. Have a blast brewing!!

philly224

Recipes 

Thanks! Good info.

I have a carboy and a bucket but I am just going to use the bucket for the first time and not move it to a secondary. I think it will be easier that way and I don't have a funnel to get it into the carboy so I can't use that as my primary.

CatHead

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Also be careful about fermentation temperatures. I pitched yeast too hot which I guess caused the yeast to go crazy and get hotter still.

__________________
Primary: Pale Ale Lite
Bottled: Miller Lite Clone, Guiness Clone
Planned Next: ? Not sure, maybe something in wheat family.
Gone: Dry Irish Stout, Pale Ale

alane1

Recipes 

1.you only need to sanitize equiptment that comes in contact with wort post boil, everything else just soap and water clean.
2.what i do is put the grains in as the water is heating up and remove them when the temp reaches about 170, you get a little bit extra if you rinse the grains after removing the bag with a quart or so of water.
3.full boil on high the entire 60 min
5. you can rehydrate yeast by boiling and cooling 2 cups of water adding it to a sanitized container, pitch yeast and cover with tin foil, or you could just pitch it in the fermenter.
good luck on your first brew.

F250

Recipes 

Yep, cool the wort to at least 65, then place it somewhere that's under 70.
I love my coal room, it's 60 degrees today.

Rick

__________________
Primary - Big Pale Citra Ale (AG)(1.063)
Secondary - Bitter (AG)
Bottled - Best Bitter, Bitter, SNPA clone
On deck - Tank #7 clone.

Yesfan

Recipes 

If this is a typical extract kit, I would just follow the directions given. Do that to get a feel of the brewing process. Then on your next kit, you can then see what you can tweak (bigger boil volumes, longer primary fermentation, etc.) to get better results.

Also, you mentioned you had a bucket and a carboy? If this is part of a starter kit you purchased, chances are your bucket is the primary and the carboy is the secondary. Most secondarys are 5 gallons instead of 6.

What are you brewing? If it's a simple recipe with no type of extra additions (hops, fruit, etc. after primary fermentation), then you could make it easier on you and not bother using your secondary fermentor. Just keep it in your bucket for an extra week, then transfer to your bottling bucket when you're ready to bottle.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

__________________
On Deck: Strawberry Blonde
Primary: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (2G)
Bottled: Edwort's Apfelwein (1G), cranberry/raspberry "wein" (1G)
Kegged: Caribou Slobber, Caribbean Stout, The Innkeeper

philly224

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Yeah the carboy is 5 gallons and is meant to be the secondary but I dont plan on using a secondary fermentor for my first batch. Seems pointless to me.

Could I use the carboy as the primary if I wanted to though?

RM-MN

Recipes 

If you can figure out how to put 5.25 gallons of wort in to a 5 gallon carboy without the krausen going all over you can. Why not use that carboy for something else, like apfelwine or cider?