My First Brew

Hello all, I did my first brew today.

It was an anchor steam beer clone.

i had my buddy who does All Grain brewing watch over me and give me some pointers for my first brew.

Everything went real smoothly.

It is now in my basement bubbling away. I put it in the carboy at approx. 4 pm and I have some major bubbling at 10 pm, with some foam just starting to form on the top.

I have some pics, i need to figure out how to upload them.

my temp in my basement right now ranges between 59 and 64. right now its 61.

per the recipe it should be between 60 and 66.

Looks good. How long after you pitched the yeast did you take the pics?

If you can on your next beer wait till the wort temp is down to the temp you want to ferment at. Other then that looks good keep it in a dark place and leave it alone for a few weeks.

1776 said:

Looks good. How long after you pitched the yeast did you take the pics?

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First pic shortly after, 2nd pic about 4 hours later

beerman0001 said:

If you can on your next beer wait till the wort temp is down to the temp you want to ferment at. Other then that looks good keep it in a dark place and leave it alone for a few weeks.

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ok, I was taking the advice of my buddy and letting the yeast get going real good for a few hours before moving it to my basement....

Here's what it looks like this morning. 64 degrees and bubbling about once every 10 seconds

Just gave it a paper grocery bag sleeve (saw it on a youtube video) so that its protected from any light in my basement.

Everything seems to be going great!!

Looking good.

beerman0001 said:

Looking good.

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Thanks!!

Look like beer!

plumbob said:

Look like beer!

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LoL! !

congrats! get the next batch going. you'll go through this one before you know it.

edie said:

congrats! get the next batch going. you'll go through this one before you know it.

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Wish i could, with Christmas right around the corner i can't afford the ingredients...but Im pretty sure i'll be getting some for Christmas!

its going real well so far. Nice thick head of foam at the top, has a bubble through the airlock about every 4 seconds.

Had to wrap it in a blanket because it was getting a little too cold. My basement is about 62 and my thermometer on the carboy said 60. Defintely don't want it to dip too low...

Still holding steady at 60. Airlock is definitely slowing down.


Just a quick update!

just racked to my secondary!!

gravity is 1.020

smells good!

By-Tor said:

Don't talk about secondary

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am i missing something?

its my gravity too high?? I just told my buddy who brews that i just racked. he asked what my gravity was, i told him 1.020, he said I should have left it go longer...

did i f it up?

I am assuming this is an extract batch. Sometimes extracts stop at about 1.020. It is best to take gravity readings over several days to determine that fermentation has stopped.

I doubt that you have created any problems.

kh54s10 said:

I am assuming this is an extract batch. Sometimes extracts stop at about 1.020. It is best to take gravity readings over several days to determine that fermentation has stopped.

I doubt that you have created any problems.

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yes, this was an extract batch. It was in the primary for 12 days...

california common Anchor Clone

BristolStBrewing said:

am i missing something?

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Allot of us do not secondary because, we do not see the need to secondary unless you are looking for long conditioning times, 3-6 months or late additions like fruit. I usually just leave mine in the primary for 3-4 weeks and then rack to a bottling bucket on bottling day. Since I have started this process, my beer has improved. It is not wrong to secondary it's just a choice some folks on HBT are passionate about.

Good idea putting the carboy on the 2" x 4"s. I'll have to remember that next time before I just set it on the cold garage floor! Great idea!

BamaRooster said:

Allot of us do not secondary because, we do not see the need to secondary unless you are looking for long conditioning times, 3-6 months or late additions like fruit. I usually just leave mine in the primary for 3-4 weeks and then rack to a bottling bucket on bottling day. Since I have started this process, my beer has improved. It is not wrong to secondary it's just a choice some folks on HBT are passionate about.

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gotcha...good to know! Thanks!

Dan said:

Good idea putting the carboy on the 2" x 4"s. I'll have to remember that next time before I just set it on the cold garage floor! Great idea!

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Thanks!! figured that'd help me stay a bit warmer than sitting on my basement floor!

Looks fantastic and sounds like your buddy gave you some great advice. It's going to be a tasty beer- let us know how it turns out. I'm BIABing an Anchor Steam clone for my next brew! Whose extract recipe did you use?

daksin said:

Looks fantastic and sounds like your buddy gave you some great advice. It's going to be a tasty beer- let us know how it turns out. I'm BIABing an Anchor Steam clone for my next brew! Whose extract recipe did you use?

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I used the recipe in the book "Clone Brews 200 commercial beer recipes"

It called for LME, i just converted it to DME.

oh, and it tastes good too! Im hoping it gets some more "hop" flavor, its really all malt flavor, but has a nice hop aroma to it.

Popped My first top on a bottle last night. It's definitely young, and needs to mellow a bit. Has some crazy flavors going on. I have a nut brown ale in secondary and is almost ready to bottle as well.

The california common is pretty good!!

Just bottled my Nut Brown yesterday

Going to brew a "beefed up brown ale" tomorrow.