ThatGeekGuy
Well-Known Member
Brewed my first beer in about 30 years yesterday, good times. A mini-mash 'Oktoberfest' (style) from True Brew, with possibly the worst instructions I had ever seen. Glad I did my homework and found the great resources and folks here at HBT, otherwise Lord knows how bad it could have turned out. But overall, I think things went well:
- Directions said to bring water to a boil, turn off, and soak grains for 20 minutes. Instead, I brought water to 160F, held temp and soaked for 30 minutes. Also said to only use 1 - 1.5 gals of water, that seemed really low so I went with 2.5 gals.
- Directions said to bring to boil for only 20-30 minutes? Ignored that and went with 60 minute boil. Could never get a strong 'foamover' type boil rolling, even straddling two burners on a gas stove. Did get a decent boil, though not as agressive as hoped. Turkey fryer now on shopping list.
- Directions said to add all 2oz of hops at same time as LME and DME, WTF? Added 1oz at 30 min and 1oz at 45min. Also added a Whirlfloc at 45min.
- The 50' SS chiller worked great, even though half of the coils weren't even in the wort. Used a 30gpm submersible pump sitting in an ice chest with about an inch of water and 15lbs of ice, took it down to 60F in 20 minutes.
- Hydrated the Muntons dry yeast in 1/3c water as directed.
- Added wort to primary, topped of with water to 5gal, and pitched yeast at 65F. OG measured about 1.046.
- Placed fermenter into a Cool Brewing bag with a 2L bottle of frozen water. Taped a thermocouple on the outside of the fermenting bucket, measured 68F this morning. Swapped out bottle for another fully frozen one, will see how well this works. A fermenting fridge is on the list for later, this seemed like a good way to get by until then.
- Will now try to wait patiently for three weeks without touching the fermenter. Then open, measure FG and keg this bad boy.
So other than ignoring 90% of the instructions, and instead relying on the good info learned here, is there anything I may have mucked up? Any advice for my next batch in a few weeks?
- Directions said to bring water to a boil, turn off, and soak grains for 20 minutes. Instead, I brought water to 160F, held temp and soaked for 30 minutes. Also said to only use 1 - 1.5 gals of water, that seemed really low so I went with 2.5 gals.
- Directions said to bring to boil for only 20-30 minutes? Ignored that and went with 60 minute boil. Could never get a strong 'foamover' type boil rolling, even straddling two burners on a gas stove. Did get a decent boil, though not as agressive as hoped. Turkey fryer now on shopping list.
- Directions said to add all 2oz of hops at same time as LME and DME, WTF? Added 1oz at 30 min and 1oz at 45min. Also added a Whirlfloc at 45min.
- The 50' SS chiller worked great, even though half of the coils weren't even in the wort. Used a 30gpm submersible pump sitting in an ice chest with about an inch of water and 15lbs of ice, took it down to 60F in 20 minutes.
- Hydrated the Muntons dry yeast in 1/3c water as directed.
- Added wort to primary, topped of with water to 5gal, and pitched yeast at 65F. OG measured about 1.046.
- Placed fermenter into a Cool Brewing bag with a 2L bottle of frozen water. Taped a thermocouple on the outside of the fermenting bucket, measured 68F this morning. Swapped out bottle for another fully frozen one, will see how well this works. A fermenting fridge is on the list for later, this seemed like a good way to get by until then.
- Will now try to wait patiently for three weeks without touching the fermenter. Then open, measure FG and keg this bad boy.
So other than ignoring 90% of the instructions, and instead relying on the good info learned here, is there anything I may have mucked up? Any advice for my next batch in a few weeks?
