1st Brew

Just finished my first brew and WOW,was it a learning experience. Ive been a lurker here for a little bit and i finally took the leap. I made a standard IPA with Columbia and cascade hops. I actually got a kit for the everyday IPA from the Brooklyn brew shop. Quite a nice beginner kit with good instructions.... I hope. Lol

I wound up with a nice golden brown color and a creamy looking head from what I can tell. I just hope it taste as good as it looks.

Now I have some ?'s. My sediment levels. Not sure if they are too high or not or if it even matters. I tried to strain it through my funnel but it got clogged instantly. Sooooo that was a no go and had to use a different funnel without a built in strainer and i ran out of cheese cloth so my efforts we futile in that respect.

Next. Will the yeast increase my yield levels or not?

Thanks in advance

Anthony

Some trub in the fermenter is ok but what you really want to leave out is the hops. Did you use hop bags?

I`m not sure what you mean by yield levels.

Why is it that you say you want to leave the hops out? I have been keeping mine in the primary.... I didn't think it would hurt anything?

gweed said:

Now I have some ?'s. My sediment levels. Not sure if they are too high or not or if it even matters.

Click to expand...

Doesn't matter, except it takes a lot of space in the fermentor. Trub can occupy a gallon of volume in there. Ouch.

A good way to keep it in the kettle is to 1) use whirlfloc or irish moss, 2) get a good cold break by chilling your wort as rapidly as possible after boiling, 3) after chilling, let it settle for 30 minutes, and 4) only transfer the clear stuff on the top of the trub in your kettle.

Me, I transfer all of it, trub included. Won't hurt anything.

My yield levels means the amount I end up with and is it bad to leave my hops in cause I did strain it a bit with my fine colander but some def made it through

I take a strainer used for strained flour and that kind of that. I then put a grain bag in that strainer. I pour/rack my wort through the double-filter and I'm generally okay. My only problem is flow of wort because sometimes the filter gets really clogged.

If you have a grain bag you can try it next time.

Don't worry about the hops. Whatever contribution they were going to make to your beer is already done. If they get into the fermentor, nothing will change.

gweed said:

Will the yeast increase my yield levels or not?

Click to expand...

gweed said:

My yield levels means the amount I end up with

Click to expand...

Are you asking if the yeast will give you more consumable beer (yield) as an end result?

The yeast produce two main things, ethanol and carbon dioxide [C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2]. The yeast are eating sugars dissolved in an aqueous solution. These sugars add X amount more volume. Lets look at CO2 and C2H5OH separately. When the yeast produce carbon dioxide they consume X amount of volume of sugar and produce Y amount of CO2 gas which will eventually come out of solution and create a lesser total volume. Now the ethanol. When the yeast consume X amount of sugar, they'll produce Y amount of ethanol. Since ethanol is less dense than water, Z amount of ethanol (in weight) takes up more volumetric space than Z amount (in weight) of water or beer. This will account for a larger total volume. Since [(CO2)Yvolume] ≠ [(ethanol)Yvolume], it isn't an even exchange. But, since the amounts are negligible, I'd say the answer to your question is no. If anything you'll lose more due to the aqueous nature of the yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter.

I figure I must also point out the yeast themselves and the space that they take up. During the aerobic respiration cycle, the yeast replicating like crazy. All these new yeast cells take up space. Thus creating a larger volume. But they eventually fall out of suspension, and form the cake at the bottom of the fermenting vessel. I'd like to reference this handy graph:
Now, if you can imagine a mirror image of the graph where the line is in a rightward downward slope. This will account for the total amount of yeast in suspension over time as you let the beer sit after anaerobic respiration has come to an end. The volumetric space that the yeast take up in your beer gets lesser and lesser as they fall to the bottom and form the "cake". Again, the results are almost negligible. So my answer is still no.

wow, that was very informative and probably the longest no I have ever seen

Thanks Skaggs. Very informative, I just didn't want my bottle to over flow.

Now when I bottle I'm probably gonna use grolsh bottles. Now how much sugar/honey or whatever you guys suggest to me, should I use.

qweed said:

Now when I bottle I'm probably gonna use grolsh bottles. Now how much sugar/honey or whatever you guys suggest to me, should I use.

Click to expand...

Use this calculator ---> Tasty Brew Priming for figuring out how much sugar to add. For honey, probably use about 20% more, since honey is about 80% solids. Sugar is much easier though.

Also be careful to keep those Grolsh bottles out of the sunlight. The green glass cannot block the UV light that amber colored bottles can. The UV light can and will lead to a skunkiness flavor in your finished product.

Thank you... And I guess that explains hieneken