Brewday prep!

Hello everybody,

I want tomorrow to be my brewday and I wanted to solidify a few ideas I wasn't quite sure about.

First off I intend to make an American Brown Ale I found on Brew Masters Wearhouse. 0n the site as an extract recipe, but it seems more like a partial mash to me.

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/fd2ddd24/shoultzmeyer-brewery-67-brown-ale

US-05 American Ale starter
Cluster pellets - 6.9 AA - 1 Oz.
Yakima Gold Pellets - 4.5 AA - 2 Oz.
Crushed grains mixed together - ( Briess 2 Row Caramel 60 @ .5 lb + Briess Special Roast Malt @ .5 lb + Pale Chocolate Malt @ .25 lb)
Mixed extract - (Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract @ 5 lb and Traditional dark liquid extract @ 2 lb)



It says that efficiency is 5 gal @ 70 or 75%. I was curious if this reflects how much water you intend to start with to get that 5 gallons? Do you begin with 5 gallons and of water?

My issue is that I only have a 5.5 gallon stock pot, but I wanted to produce as close to 5 gallons of brew possible in this first batch. I figured worst comes down to it I could scale down the recipe. As of now though I want to try to stick as close to 5 gal as I can without risking too much boil-over. Is it true that a few pennies will help prevent boil overs from occurring?

Thanks for any help!

Steep grains at 158 for 30 minutes. Boil time is 60 minutes. Add 1/2 of the LME at the beginning of the boil, add the remaining LME with 20 minutes left in boil. Ferment at 65-70F.

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Not really a PM as you are just steeping the grains.

I would follow the instructions and use 3 gallons of water in your kettle. Boil as noted adding the hops on schedule. Cool the wort when done and add to Primary then top off with water to 5 gallons. Shake like crazy to mix and aerate then pitch your yeast and wait.

With this being an extract kit, you don't necessary need to do a full 5 gal boil; you will be fine with a 3 gal boil and topping off your finished boil up to 5 gallons.

Are you boiling on a stove top or do you have a burner? If on the stove, I'd follow the reciepe as written. Steep your specialty grains and then boil your 3 gallons as called for. Top off up to 5 gallons, cool and pitch your yeast.

hey, a great way to airate is to just pour your wort from the pot to the fermentation bucket and then pour it back into the pot. Do this a few times. Also helps cool it. Just be sure to have good aim and really get it churning when you pour it in.

Also, I wouldn't put change in your beer. Just be attentive and stir. Be careful when putting in your hops as that WILL cause boilovers if you are not careful. I put in haf a pack, stir for 5 seconds and then do the other half of the pack.

there are no base grains in the recipe so its not a partial mash. its an extract with specialty grain. the recipe may be assuming a full boil. read the instructions. if its a full boil you will have to convert it to a partial boil. start by steeping the grains in a grain bag for 30 minutes in 1 gallon of water at 160F +/- 10F. assuming its a full boil and is expecting you to add enough water to bring it up to 5 gallons your going to have to do some math here. figure out how much you can safely boil in your pot. then add enough of the extract to bring that volume of wort up to the boil gravity (or OG) of the recipe, don't forget your grains added some sugars to the mix. next add the water and bring it up to your target volume. then follow the hops schedule as indicated in the recipe. next cool your wort. now add enough water to reach the target volume of the recipe. keep in mind you boiled off some water so your going to have to add a little more water to make up the difference. then transfer to your carboy, aerate, and pitch yeast.

Also, I wouldn't put change in your beer

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I forgot to comment on this, do not put pennies in your beer. If you are worried about a boil over (and you should to some extent) get some FermCap S. Minus that, just be very attentive as the temperature gets close to boiling point and back off the heat a bit while stirring. And as was said before, watch those hop additions as they tend to cause boil overs, too.

Oh ok, well I was under the wrong impression about what makes a partial mash and what makes an extract kit. I just got done doing my steeping and now I'm cooling my wart. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but then again Ive had organic chemistry labs in my back ground and those are far worse! Any how things went well because I did the 3 gal boil w/ for steeping and the other 3 gal was boiled before I put it in the ferm. Why do you have to use the full volume for the mashing as opposed to the steeping process for the grains that only requires half the amount of the total volume?

Thanks for the responses.
Hope it turns out well!

Edit: no pennies were put in my beer. I was just reading through the How to Brew book to make sure I had it all down, but once I realized I didn't need the full volume to steep I figured it wasn't an issue. Not to mention as a microbiology major I know what kind of bacteria could be growing on a penny not to mention the infections it could cause later on. Any how you guys have lax standards for sterility and cleanliness compared to the lab work I do. This stuff is a cinch!

MasterWan said:

hey, a great way to airate is to just pour your wort from the pot to the fermentation bucket and then pour it back into the pot. Do this a few times. Also helps cool it. Just be sure to have good aim and really get it churning when you pour it in.

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Wouldn't you be stirring up the trub too?

Good things have happened. I managed to stabilize my fermenting temps to around 68*F By placing the fermenter in container with water to transfer heat out. Unfortunately it sat at 72-74 for a quick minute before I found a solution to my heat issue. Do you guys think that will cause many problems?

Almost 4-5 hours after adding my yeast I had signs of fermentation via the airlock. US-05 is a vigorous yeast from what I can tell! And pitching before hand seems worth it too to give the yeast a boost.

Is it possible to recover the yeast strain used from the post-fermentation process? Is that yeast washing?

thanks!

I have let mine get up to 72-74 in the past. I haven't noticed any problems.

It is possible recover the yeast and you can "wash" it. I haven't done this, but it is on my list of things to learn over the summer.

Yeast Washing

Good to hear your brew day went well. Take a close look at the yeast washing thread that was provided. It really isn't all that hard and is a great way to cut down on the cost of your brews. If you can boil and cool water, then pour into a container;...you can wash yeast.

Should I be looking for a signal to put on the blow-off hose? Right now I'm using the airlock supplied with the kit. However Im doing a 5 gal brew in a 6.5 gal fermenting bucket so my recipe may not even call for it since it's not high gravity of any sort.

Also I wanted to note the OG read 1.061 and the recipe states that OG should be around 1.059, so it looks like I'm doing good! Hopefuly the FG will be close 1.015 the recipe states. Will my stop point be when fermentation stalls/slows and the FG is around 1.015?

If so how often should I be checking the change of gravity? Also coupled with my first question: How often can I open the fermenting chamber to check the gravity?

Thanks a ton for helping a newb out! Also thanks for all the tips and tricks so far!

when you start to notice the foam getting into the airlock it would probably be a good idea to switch to a blow off tube pronto. also if you come home and find the airlock and stopper on the floor and the room covered in beer you know you need a blow off.

good to hear about the slightly higher OG. you got more than the projected efficiency out of the grain. your stop point is when the SG stops falling for more than 3-4 days. it should theoretically be around 1.015 but you have to remember that some yeast are more attentive than others (they usually have a range of percentages) and extract isn't as fermentable as AG. close is close enough.

check the SG when you see no other signs of fermentation going on. as long as fermentation is going on and your sanitize everything you can check as much as you want. the CO2 production of the yeast will protect your brew from oxidation.

Any batch near 1.060 and above I always attach the blow off tube from the get go.

Why not?