Recent content by dfarm

Well, I've sampled a couple of these so far, and they are not too bad. The carbonation is a little lighter than I'd have preferred, but its completely drinkable. It did turn out a bit sweet, but its not bad at all.

Well, its in bottles. Wish me luck! Its going to be a long 3 weeks! Lol

So, what should I do at this point? I'm afraid to bottle because of the high fg, but nothing happened after I swirled it around a bit. I was hoping to be drinking this stuff last might for new years, but that didn't work out. Lol. Since its just a 1 gallon batch, could I bottle, then put the...

That's kind of what I was thinking. Its been a couple of weeks at that sg, so I was thinking that it wasn't going to change much more. But this is my first brew.

I don't recall exactly what my mash temps were, but I remember them being high a few times and having to lower the heat to get them back to where they should have been. The fermenting temp was right around 68°f. The yeast was Muntons Ale Dry Yeast. Thanks again for the help.

Ok, so I think I have an issue. My recipe for this beer says that my og should have been 1.058(I had 1.051) I put it into the secondary after 14 days. The sg when I racked it was 1.024 when the recipe says the gravity should have been 1.011. I racked it on 12/9 and I checked the sg today and it...

I hope it is! My first batch of beer ever is in my primary now, and it is a one gallon, all grain oatmeal stout kit from ahs. It was done BIAB (im still not clear on the difference between this and mashing), and I'm hopeful that it'll turn out ok. I'll report back in a few weeks! Lol

Oh. I gotcha. I was thinking about checking the sg starting Wednesday to rack into a secondary on Sunday, as that would be two weeks in the primary, and there isn't any activity in the airlock (and maybe I want to free up my primary so I can start my Guinness clone lol), but I'm not quite ready...

Lol. That's a great idea! Why is everyone saying to be patient with a stout? Is it somehow different than brewing other beers? I'm a real noob when it comes to brewing, so I'm not trying to be a smart alec or anything, I'm just ignorant to any of the real cause and effect type stuff with beer.

Thanks guys. There was lots of activity in the airlock after about 4 hours, but its slowed down a considerable amount now. The fermenter has cooled off a bit, going from 70 to about 66 according to the stick on thermometer on the outside of the bucket. Are these temps ok?

Ok. Time for some numbers. The recipe calls for the OG to be "approximately 1.058" mine is 1.051. Is this close enough? I'm getting ready to pitch right now.

Can I put the hops in a bag during the boil? It boiled ip one time and left all of the hops stuck to the sides of the kettle. Lol

Yep, it was in a bag. I ended up adding about a quart of the sparge water to the mash/wart/steep/whatever it's called at that point. I think my pot was a bit too wide, resulting in a very shallow amount of water in the bottom of the pot. In my completely un educated, and in no way professional...

It's on the boil now. It smells very good. I'm almost tempted to try eating the spent grains with a little butter like oatmeal. Lol

The water level in the kettle looks a bit low (1.25 its per pound of grain, per instructions ) can I heat some of my sparge water and add it to the strike to get the grains swimming some more, as it stands, I have to push the grain bag around with a spoon to get it all submerged.