First brew tonight - Overview

I decided that I love great beer. I also decided that I wanted to make it. So I got the stuff together and tonight I brewed batch 1.

This is how it went.

1. Guy on Craigslist selling equipment for cheap. I jump on it.
1a. Immediately after I head to Home Brew Mart (aka Ballast Point Brewing) and buy a recipe for an American Pale Ale.

2. I go home and make a bucket of bleach and a spray bottle of iodophor/water (low concentration, but I guess that's enough) then thoroughly clean everything and sanitize.

3. I put cracked grains in clean steeping bag and steep in 1.5gal water til near boiling temperature, maybe 165-170F. Sparged with a quart of hot water I microwaved to about 170F.

4. Remove from heat, added liquid extract to pot. Attempted to get pot to a boil but my burner sucks (pot was covered and lid was weighted down as well). So at about 175 added bittering hops. Acheived boil about 10 minutes later.

5. Continued to boil for 50 minutes after that, spraying everything I was going to use to transfer with/to and ferment with liberally. Even my hands got a great iodophor bath about 90 times.

6. 30 seconds before stopping the boil added finishing hops. Stirred quickly. Covered and transferred to ice bath.

7. Waited until about 90 degrees (yes, thermometer was sprayed liberally and air dried) and added to carboy which already had about 2 gallons of chilled water in it. Added 1.5 gallons of room temperature bottle water.

8. Covered carboy with plastic and swished/shook it like mad. Temperature ~70F. Pitched liquid yeast. Gave a little swirl to distribute and popped the airlock on (3 piece, HEAVILY sanitized, tapwater inside)

9. Placed carboy in a large plastic tub with a black t-shirt over it and took it to the garage in a nice shady area. Planning on adding water/ice to tub for ghetto cooling when it gets hot out there.

Anyways. I feel good about it. Definitely felt like I was sanitizing everything all of the time, even when I didn't have to. But a few questions remain.

Question 1: I never strained any of the hops or grain sediment so now there is a large amount of solid on the bottom of my fermenter. Is this going to affect the outcome? I wasn't planning on any secondary fermentation. Maybe a bottling bucket?

Question 2: I have a 3-piece airlock, and wasn't all that familiar with how it was going to function. So after putting it on, I noticed that the outer chamber (the one outside of the central tube) was empty. So I got a small test tube of water and tried to refill it, but as i did so, water started leaking into the fermenter. Praying there was no bacteria in that water, I got the spray bottle and added some of the diluted iodophor to the airlock water. It seems as if the lock only keeps water in the central tube chamber and not in the outer chamber. Is that normal? Or a defect?

Sorry if that wasn't clear. I tried to spell it out clearly.

Anyways. I felt good about the whole process. Made the house smell great and I have high hopes for future endeavors.

Hoping it turns out good. Cheers!

Leaving the hop and goop in the fermenter is fine. Most people strain out the hops and also the break material, but you don't have to as long as it doesn't end up in the bottles. Let it ferment for at least 3 weeks (which is the hard part when it's your first time)

A little bit of water leaking into the fermenter is also OK. Some people use cheap vodka as the water in the airlock. The airlock is designed to keep floating particulates out, and most important to keep fruit flies and other bugs out. Insects are filthy creatures and can ruin a batch. Also it's to let the CO2 escape.


And don't worry about oversanitizing. Better to oversanitize than not enough! As you keep making batches you'll figure out when sanitizing is critical and when it's not so much.

A few of my own questions; Did you boil with the lid on the entire time, or just until it hit boiling tempurature? You have to keep the lid off because Dimethyl Sulfide is generated during the boil, and it needs to evaporate. DMS tastes kinda like cooked cabbage. Not a flavor you want in beer.

And did you take the steeping grains out before you started the boil as well? Boiling the grains can leach out tannins and make the beer taste just like yummy aspirin pills.


All in all, sounds like an awesome brew day! Congrats!

EvilTOJ said:

A few of my own questions; Did you boil with the lid on the entire time, or just until it hit boiling tempurature? You have to keep the lid off because Dimethyl Sulfide is generated during the boil, and it needs to evaporate. DMS tastes kinda like cooked cabbage. Not a flavor you want in beer.

And did you take the steeping grains out before you started the boil as well? Boiling the grains can leach out tannins and make the beer taste just like yummy aspirin pills.

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I had the lid on for much of the boil just because I couldn't acheive a solid boil without it. But I did frequently remove the lid to prevent boilover and to stir the pot. Bleh. We'll see what happens there.

I took the grains out after the water got hot and then sparged with a quart of hot water. Then I pitched them and added extract to the pot.

Update: No fermentation overnight at ~70F. Hopefully will see some begin later today.

Sounds like a very solid first brew session.... the proof will be in the beer, but by your account everything should turn out well. Definately ditto on the wait time. Your patience will be paid off with excellent beer...

videoman said:

Sounds like a very solid first brew session.... the proof will be in the beer, but by your account everything should turn out well. Definately ditto on the wait time. Your patience will be paid off with excellent beer...

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3 weeks?

Time to hit Beverages and More...

Sounds like a good first session. Were you in there with a friend? I think you asked me a few questions. Good to know it went well! And yes, you're in for a wait on the first one. Once you get into the swing of things you learn to brew enough in advance so you always have some around.

Also, keep ice on hand for this weekend. It is going to be hot here in SD and you'll want to keep your fermentation temps low. I don't know what part of town you live in, but that will be important.

It sounds like the temperature out there might not be too constant - i would recommend adding water to the tub the carboy is in, without ice, to help keep the temperature changes to a minimum.

add ice if needed.

Congrats on the first brew! Sounds a lot like my first session...I was a nervous wreck about sanitation, but everything turned out fine. In fact, I impressed myself and friends with the quality of beer I made! I know it's hard to wait for your beer to mature in the bottle, but it is completely worth it. Wait at least two weeks before you have one...I find that is the minimum for any kind of decent carbonation. However, the beer won't really start to taste it's best until 3 weeks, so don't drink it all before then! There is nothing more sad that drinking your last 12 pack at the 3 weeks and realizing "Damn, this is way better than it was last week!".

Sounds like you did your research! I'm sure your glad you did. I learned alot during my first brew and used this to prepare myself for my second batch. Now go out and get yourself another carboy for next weekend!

carnevoodoo said:

Sounds like a good first session. Were you in there with a friend? I think you asked me a few questions. Good to know it went well! And yes, you're in for a wait on the first one. Once you get into the swing of things you learn to brew enough in advance so you always have some around.

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If you were the guy measuring out a metric ton of grains in prep for three brews this weekend (crazy) then yeah. That was me. I was in there with my brother. He's a food chemist and loves that kind of stuff so I figured he'd have a field day.

carnevoodoo said:

Also, keep ice on hand for this weekend. It is going to be hot here in SD and you'll want to keep your fermentation temps low. I don't know what part of town you live in, but that will be important.

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Up in Poway. Gets hot out there. Trying to figure out the best place to put the fermenter. It's in the garage currently under a table in a plastic bin I have some ice water lining the bottom of. Has a black t-shirt draped over it to soak the cold water up into. Hopefully it does the trick.

Wrathbone said:

It sounds like the temperature out there might not be too constant - i would recommend adding water to the tub the carboy is in, without ice, to help keep the temperature changes to a minimum.

add ice if needed.

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Plan on keeping ice in it most of the day and then just letting it ride all night. Temps were 70-71 this morning ~9:30am when I left and 68-70 ambient in the garage. Left the garage door slightly popped and the screen door to the house open(68 ambient in there). Should be well ventilated with little or no sunlight. Going to have my brother check on ambient/fermenter temps around 1 to let me know.

Milhouse said:

Sounds like you did your research! I'm sure your glad you did. I learned alot during my first brew and used this to prepare myself for my second batch. Now go out and get yourself another carboy for next weekend!

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I read all I could so hopefully it turns out. Would the second carboy be for moving this batch into secondary? Or just to get a second batch moving so I never run out? I guess either way I'd have an open fermenter next weekend... Dumb question.

Cheers guys! Thanks for all of the encouragement and advice!

Sounds like a successfull first brew session, congrats!

Hikeon3 said:

If you were the guy measuring out a metric ton of grains in prep for three brews this weekend (crazy) then yeah.


I read all I could so hopefully it turns out. Would the second carboy be for moving this batch into secondary? Or just to get a second batch moving so I never run out? I guess either way I'd have an open fermenter next weekend... Dumb question.

Cheers guys! Thanks for all of the encouragement and advice!

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That was only 40 pounds of grain for this weekend! And 3 beers is crazy, but I am not normal. Welcome to the obsession! And if you have any questions you're too embarrassed to ask in a forum, feel free to email me. I sit in front of a computer so I can answer them pretty regularly.

As for the secondary question... Don't bother with secondaries. I think the comment was made for you to get a second batch going. Let this one have two weeks in primary, make sure it is done fermenting, and after that you'll be fine. Most people agree that unless you're looking to clear a beer, age it long term, or to do some sort of other technique that requires a secondary, there's really no need for it.

Got a mini-report from my brother via text messaging.

Ambient air temperature in 70-71F in the garage (it's 88F outside) and the fermenter is sitting between 68-70F. Pitched yeast approximately 14 hours ago and still no bubbles at all. Lazy yeast...

I hope I'm not keeping things too cold.

Hikeon3 said:

Got a mini-report from my brother via text messaging.

Ambient air temperature in 70-71F in the garage (it's 88F outside) and the fermenter is sitting between 68-70F. Pitched yeast approximately 14 hours ago and still no bubbles at all. Lazy yeast...

I hope I'm not keeping things too cold.

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Nope. Give it time. I've had lags of yeast up to 48 hours. some people have had longer. It might be doing something and just not showing signs yet. Let it ride. Your temps will start to rise with an active fermentation. I will imagine you'll see bubbles somewhere tonight or tomorrow morning.

yeah, give it time. I had an IPA take 72 hours before fermentation started.

Fermentation is affirmative. Not really vigorous but it's noticeable. Left the house around 6:30pm to a clear wort, no krausen. Returned at 11pm to a krausen-topped wort with light, periodic pressure bubbles in the airlock.

Feeling good about it. Would like to see a little more pep in this yeast of course.

Oh don't you worry, you'll be seeing plenty of pep soon enough.


*evil laugh*