First batch brewed!

Brewed up my first batch Saturday night. It is the Honey Nut Brown Ale from Midwest Supplies. The process seemed to go reasonably well with a few minor errors to learn from. My first mistake was steeping the grains in the full boil volume (around 6 gal). For some reason I had a brain fart and forgot to steep in a smaller volume. I'm hoping to just condition a few weeks longer to hopefully smooth it out. The boil went well, only 1 minor boil-over, but I boiled out side, so no worries about the small mess. After the boil, I cooled by putting the pot in a snow bank (that and the 0*F weather in MN) which cooled to 75*f in about 30 min. My OG was right on par with the reccomendations at 1.054 (the receipe calls for 1.052-1.056). I transfered the batch to my plastic 6.5gal bucket for fermentation. Before pitching, I violently shook the bucket for about 10 minutes, hopefully aerating enough. I used Wyeast 1098 Activator. It was late when I started fermantation, about 11 or so. When I checked the airlock the next morning, it was bubbling about twice per second, so thats a good sign.

Overall, I'm pretty excited to get back into this great hobby. I used to help some buddies back in college, but never by myself. I'm hoping for a good first batch, hopefully I didn't wreck it with the steeping, but I'll remain optimistic. I tasted the sample that I measured the OG from, it tasted decent, flat ans sweet, with a very minor tea taste (probably from the steeping).

I just wanted to share my story and to say thanks to the HBT community for sharing so much information with each other.
So... PROST!!

No worries about the full boil steeping - you didn't steep IN a full boil right?

Shaking - always nice but there is a debate how much it actually helps on a small 5G batch! Did take the 6G carboy and shake it over your head as recommended?

LOL - sorry - I just pictured someone doing that - Clay Mathews might be able to do it! But then it would toss it onto the ground!

OH - sorry - just saw you are from Minnesota!

ANYWAY - we're all family here!

Next time make a Starter - just one small tweak you can do for Batch #2. Brewing is just putting lots of little things together to make a great beer!

No steeping in a boil, I started the steep in 155*F water, by the end of the half hour, the temp was about 165-170.

Congrats on brew #1! And I agree steeping in the full volume is no problem at all. I can't think of any way it would make a difference.