my first brew day... done...phew...

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doc5md

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Well, I did it. First brew is in the fermenter in the cool basement.
I was hoping to brew today, but with Sandy approaching wasn't sure I'd get to it. Had a break in the weather, though so I decided to go for it- not knowing when I'd get my next chance at it.
Went well aside from a few rookie mistakes towards the end.
Threw together my 1/2" - 50' immersion chiller. Bought all the parts from cooper tubing supplies. It went very easily. I wound it around a keg, soldered a couple joints and off to brewing.
Brewed NB Brickwarmer kit.
The burner worked great. Brought 4gal of water to 160 and steeped the specialty grains for 20min. Back to boiling and added DME and some of the LME. Added hops and stirred. All going as planned....
Then, it began to rain. Ugh. LOL. holding umbrella over the pot. Cleaned IC into the wort at 15min left. More hops and the remaining LME at 10min left. Orange bits at flameout. Fired up the IC and brought it to 70 degrees in 10min or so. IC pulled out.
Then the problems began... Poured the wort to the fermenter, pulled out big particles with slotted spoon I had been using for stirring the wort with the chiller. Then added the top-off water. Two errors here- it came up higher on the spoon handle than I would have liked, and it wasn't cooled as well as I thought! UGH. water back up to 90. Carried bucket into the house, up the steps and to the tub. Started the cold water and poured in all the ice from the ice maker into the tub. Took forever to get down from 90 to 78. It futzing around with the ice bath, I think I may have gotten one drop of dirty tub water in the beer (it was either that or sanitizer run off). Dry yeast was rehydrated, though I forgot to check the water temp before adding them to the rehydration water. So, I put that in a 70 degree bath in the sink. covered with plastic wrap and forgot to sanitize it until about 10min later.
But, now everything is cleaned up and put away, so I'm relaxing with ANOTHER brew- I've earned a couple! :)
oh, OG was 1.060 and box said should be 1.062, so I'm happy.
:tank:
 
Sounds like a good day! Congrats on your first brew! The waiting stinks but you should brew another so the waiting isn't so bad :)
 
Good work, it's a great feeling when you get to sup your first pint as the others have said though the waiting is a royal pita!
 
Lucky you got a break in the weather. We've gotten the effects of that storm for the 4th or 5th day in a row now. Bad part is,the hurricane is driving a noreaster several times it's own size. Ohio is completely covered by the storm atm. Cold,rainy,howling winds. & my battery's dead. Outside rigging charger now. Goody. Wish I had a beer right now...
 
Nice! SO what the heck did you brew!??

I did the Northern Brewing
Here's the recipe from the kit:
Specialty Grain:
0.5# English Dark Crystal
0.25# Bairds Carastan
0.25# Pale Chocolate

Fermentables:
6# NB Gold LME
1# Wheat DME
1# Amber DME

Hops:
1oz US brewer's gold (at 60min)
1oz Stryian Goldings (10 min)
1oz Sweet orange peel (end of boil)

Yeast: I went with the dry yeast option for my first brew.
Safale S-04 Ale yeast.
 
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