TheFratGuy
Member
Hey Y'all,
I'm new to this board. I just began brewing my first batch of home brew last thursday. I became interested in home brewing when I tried a homebrew that one of my frat buddies brewed this spring. Then about three weeks ago, the culligan man accidentally left two 5 gal. carboys full of spring water on my front door step. I did some internet searches to find the simplest recipie for good homebrew and came up with this website. (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-1.html) if the link doesn't work just go to howtobrew.com and navigate around.
I purchased all the supplies I needed from beer-wine.com.
Here are some questions I have. You can refere to my recollection of the brew below if you don't understand where I'm coming from with my questions.
1. Should you pour all of the cooled wort into the fermentor or should you leave out the green clumpy stuff on the bottom?
2. How long does the fermentation process last after an air lock discontinues it bubbling?
3. Is 'racking' necessary or recommended, and if so, how many days after the start do you rack your brew.
4. I brewed a 2nd. batch two days ago, and avoided the boil over during the addition of bittering hops by keeping the heat low 190 - 200 deg. (still boiling), Everything seemed to go allright, except for that I had a full 5 gal carboy. I started with an air lock, but by yesterday afternoon the foam add came up into the airlock. I replaced the airlock with an 8ft 1/4 hoze that is submerged in a 2 liter bottle of santized water. The pop bottle is now bubbling like crazy (looks like an airator in a fish tank). Is that Normal?
5. Also both of my brews are a dark to medium brown color. Will they stay that color or will they lighten up.?
6. Finally, I have almost ten gallons of brew going and no bottles. I thought about buying some 1 gal jugs or just having my frat brothers donate some empty bottles. Any suggestions. Should I use clear class, brown, green etc.
Heres how the first brew day went.
Anyways I followed the recipie that Mr. Palmer gave and now I have a few questions. First of all the online store I ordered from sent me Munton and Fusion Amber LME instead of the pale malt extract that was called for. Now keep in mind the recipie calls for both DME and LME. Anyways I folled the recipie and I had an inevitable boilover immediately after I hadded the bittering hops 15 mins into the boil. I lost at least half a gallon of the wort, but I contined boiling. I didn't have a large enough brew pot so I was using two smaller ones (is that a bad Idea?). Only one of the pots boiled over. I took every possible precautionary to prevent contamination. After I finished the boil and cooled the wort in an ice bath I added it to 2 gal of spring in water which I had poured into a santized 5gal bucked and then added the prepared yeast at 80 deg. F. , I poured the wort in, mixed it well, then trasferred it to the plastic culligan carboy. I capped the carboy of and put an airlock on it. There was just a little more than 4 gal. in the carboy. That was all thursday, by saturday the airlock had completely stopped bubbling.
The second brew day was pretty much the same, but I knew what I was getting into and was a bit more prepared.
I'm new to this board. I just began brewing my first batch of home brew last thursday. I became interested in home brewing when I tried a homebrew that one of my frat buddies brewed this spring. Then about three weeks ago, the culligan man accidentally left two 5 gal. carboys full of spring water on my front door step. I did some internet searches to find the simplest recipie for good homebrew and came up with this website. (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter1-1.html) if the link doesn't work just go to howtobrew.com and navigate around.
I purchased all the supplies I needed from beer-wine.com.
Here are some questions I have. You can refere to my recollection of the brew below if you don't understand where I'm coming from with my questions.
1. Should you pour all of the cooled wort into the fermentor or should you leave out the green clumpy stuff on the bottom?
2. How long does the fermentation process last after an air lock discontinues it bubbling?
3. Is 'racking' necessary or recommended, and if so, how many days after the start do you rack your brew.
4. I brewed a 2nd. batch two days ago, and avoided the boil over during the addition of bittering hops by keeping the heat low 190 - 200 deg. (still boiling), Everything seemed to go allright, except for that I had a full 5 gal carboy. I started with an air lock, but by yesterday afternoon the foam add came up into the airlock. I replaced the airlock with an 8ft 1/4 hoze that is submerged in a 2 liter bottle of santized water. The pop bottle is now bubbling like crazy (looks like an airator in a fish tank). Is that Normal?
5. Also both of my brews are a dark to medium brown color. Will they stay that color or will they lighten up.?
6. Finally, I have almost ten gallons of brew going and no bottles. I thought about buying some 1 gal jugs or just having my frat brothers donate some empty bottles. Any suggestions. Should I use clear class, brown, green etc.
Heres how the first brew day went.
Anyways I followed the recipie that Mr. Palmer gave and now I have a few questions. First of all the online store I ordered from sent me Munton and Fusion Amber LME instead of the pale malt extract that was called for. Now keep in mind the recipie calls for both DME and LME. Anyways I folled the recipie and I had an inevitable boilover immediately after I hadded the bittering hops 15 mins into the boil. I lost at least half a gallon of the wort, but I contined boiling. I didn't have a large enough brew pot so I was using two smaller ones (is that a bad Idea?). Only one of the pots boiled over. I took every possible precautionary to prevent contamination. After I finished the boil and cooled the wort in an ice bath I added it to 2 gal of spring in water which I had poured into a santized 5gal bucked and then added the prepared yeast at 80 deg. F. , I poured the wort in, mixed it well, then trasferred it to the plastic culligan carboy. I capped the carboy of and put an airlock on it. There was just a little more than 4 gal. in the carboy. That was all thursday, by saturday the airlock had completely stopped bubbling.
The second brew day was pretty much the same, but I knew what I was getting into and was a bit more prepared.