My first brew....just checking in

So this our first brew and wanted to check in. My brother in law gave us a recipe kit and we borrowed the equipment. My wife and I are really hoping this turns out.....it may even turn into another hobby. We do have a few questions which can be found below in bold.


About the beer

Beer is Steamer Lane (California Common Style Beer)
Named for a famous Santa Cruz Surf Break this is a strong moderately hopped hybrid beer. It consists of a ale style ingredients, but uses bottom fermenting yeast for a crisp dry flavor with a hint of fruitiness. Northern Brewer hops provide an authentic profile for the San Francisco style brew.

5 gallons of beer

• 7 lbs light malt extract syrup
• 1 lb Crystal Malt
• 2 oz Northern brewer hops
• lager yeast
• 1 Whirlfloc Tablet
• 1 cup Corn Sugar

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Cleaned all my equipment and sanitized using iodophor. Followed the directions for the boiling adding hops at 3 different time points. What is the point of adding hops at 3 times points and not all 2oz at once?. We placed the kettle in an ice bath to speed the cooling alongand after 15-20min the wort was at 70F. How quick should the cooling be done? How does this effect the final product, that being fast chill vs slow chill?. After letting the cooled wort sit for 60 minutes we siphoned it to a bucket. We left 99% of the junk on the bottom of the kettle. Is this called trub?

Once in the bucket we tossed it back and forth into the kettle until we had a good 6-8 in of foam. Hopefully this was enough aeration as it took 8-10 min to transfer it back and forth maybe 12-20 times.

During this time the yeast was soaking in warm water (90F) for 15-20 mins. Is this pitching?

This has been a very fun experience. We have tasted just about every ingredient and the wort at different time points. Just before adding it to the Fermenter we tasted the soon to be beer. Very sweet but wonderful flavors. I can't wait to taste it after the sweetness is gone

The house is at 70-72F but someone told us to place a wet T-shirt on the fermenter because the wort will be 5-10F warmer than ambient air. I'm afraid this might be to cold so I took off the shirt. What do you think?

I wish I had a hydrometer to measure the starting Gravity. I'll try to buy one later this week.

Should I buy the oxygen bottle caps or just regular caps?



If this turns out I might be buying a few books and leaning more about brewing. What books do you recommend?

Pictures:
My dog loved the wort. She licking up some of the boil over.


The dogs also loved the foam that was made during aeration.


0 hours. only time the house was 68F


0 hours with the T- shirt


34 Hours in the fermenter. T- shirt taken off.

Ok lets tackle this

What is the point of adding hops at 3 times points and not all 2oz at once?.

The hops you add with an hour to boil only give bitter flavor, no taste. Ones at 30-20 minutes give taste, and little bitterness, the last ones give aroma and even less bitterness. Its very important.


How quick should the cooling be done? How does this effect the final product, that being fast chill vs slow chill?

Faster the better, but some people leave it for hours to cool naturally. Basically you want to get the yeast in ASAP to stop other micro nastys getting a foothold in your beer, but you cant put the yeats in until its cooled down to 70ish.

. Is this called trub? YES!

During this time the yeast was soaking in warm water (90F) for 15-20 mins. Is this pitching?

No, this is just rehydrating the yeast, and I would have done it a little cooler. 90 is on the upper end of What yeast likes as far as temp is concerned, you risk shocking em a little which slows them down. Might mean ferment is a day or so late.


I'm afraid this might be to cold so I took off the shirt. What do you think?

No, I think its probably too WARM not too cold! the most important thing is keeping temps constant, but if your at 70 degrees your doing well.

Should I buy the oxygen bottle caps or just regular caps?

Not sure what the difference is? but they need to be airtight to build pressure.


If this turns out I might be buying a few books and leaning more about brewing. What books do you recommend?

Read this site all i ever did.

EDIT:

Also notice that your carboy/better bottle is clear, and looks like its in your bedroom, ie probably gets alot of sunlight. You need to keep that badboy covered up. Sunlight is the enemy.

Priemus said:

Also notice that your carboy/better bottle is clear, and looks like its in your bedroom, ie probably gets alot of sunlight. You need to keep that badboy covered up. Sunlight is the enemy.

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The carboy is in a spare room with the blinds down and door closed. It stays dark in there 24/7 expect for when I take a peek.

singlemaltwhisky said:

The carboy is in a spare room with the blinds down and door closed. It stays dark in there 24/7 expect for when I take a peek.

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Awesome, had to check. Shame to do almost everything right, then not realise leaving the fermenter in sunlight for a month was a bad thing

Btw, instructions suggest leaving it to ferment 3 or 4 weeks? highly recommend you do.

Is that a digital surface thermometer? If so, where did you pick it up at?

Priemus said:

Awesome, had to check. Shame to do almost everything right, then not realise leaving the fermenter in sunlight for a month was a bad thing

Btw, instructions suggest leaving it to ferment 3 or 4 weeks? highly recommend you do.

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Instructions say "Ferment at 60-70F for 7-14 days." Then it says to add the sugar and bottle. Bottles should age 2-3 weeks at 65-70F then 2 weeks at 40-50F

So no harm in leaving it in the Fermenter longer than 14 days?

724b said:

Is that a digital surface thermometer? If so, where did you pick it up at?

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No its just my thermometer from my humidor. it's measuring air temp around the carboy.

An amazing book that will help with traditional styles as well as experimentation:

"Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher

It's written well (easy, enjoyable to read), has charts, graphs, anecdotes, recipes, and other random musings. Other than that, this site is king for homebrewing information.

singlemaltwhisky said:

Instructions say "Ferment at 60-70F for 7-14 days." Then it says to add the sugar and bottle. Bottles should age 2-3 weeks at 65-70F then 2 weeks at 40-50F

So no harm in leaving it in the Fermenter longer than 14 days?

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No harm at all. I think Revvy (bound to be dropping in on thread soon) once left a beer on yeast cake 6 months with no problem.

I ALWAYS leave it on a month. If you leave it on the yeast cake for 3 weeks you give the yeast time to clean up some of the off tastes and crud they produce in the first few days of fermenting. Plus the sediment and protiens drop out and cake on the bottom of the fermenter, meaning the beer will be nice and clear.

So aging it a week or 2 longer will produce cleaner better tasting beer. Painful having to wait though

And then yes, 3 weeks in the bottle (no less than 2)

singlemaltwhisky said:

Instructions say "Ferment at 60-70F for 7-14 days." Then it says to add the sugar and bottle. Bottles should age 2-3 weeks at 65-70F then 2 weeks at 40-50F

So no harm in leaving it in the Fermenter longer than 14 days?

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No, no problem. Most people here recommend leaving it in the primary for 3-4 weeks. This gives the yeast more time to clean up and finish the beer. For bottling, most people around here say to leave them at around 70f for 3 weeks, then throw a couple in the fridge and try em out. I like to drink about one a week for those first 3, just to see how it's coming along.

**IMPORTANT**
Not sure if you've seen these threads, but there's a few around talking about how hops are VERY TOXIC to dogs. Make sure you dispose and store them somewhere your dogs can't get at them.

Enjoy!

mikebowman said:

No, no problem. Most people here recommend leaving it in the primary for 3-4 weeks. This gives the yeast more time to clean up and finish the beer. For bottling, most people around here say to leave them at around 70f for 3 weeks, then throw a couple in the fridge and try em out. I like to drink about one a week for those first 3, just to see how it's coming along.

**IMPORTANT**
Not sure if you've seen these threads, but there's a few around talking about how hops are VERY TOXIC to dogs. Make sure you dispose and store them somewhere your dogs can't get at them.

Enjoy!

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The dogs did not get any of the Hops, just some foam and boil over. Good to know this for future batches.

I dont think the wort or the beer would ever be much of a problem. Dogs and hops reffers to you leaving your 2oz baggy of hops laying around, coming back and finding the dog scoffed the entire thing. Thats gonna end badly.