Take a look at my first brew in primary

Extract brew with 1lb specialty grains, hops, and dry yeast (rehydrated and pitched at 76º. I managed to cool wort in about 5 minutes. Had a wicked hot break also.
Poured wort through strainer into funnel and into carboy, worked really well for keeping all the hops out.

Does all this gunge look normal to you all? What am I seeing? Hot break & cold break boogers?

Pictures taken about 1.75 hrs after pitching. I've left it alone since then. No bubbles yet, but I don't expect them until tomorrow (no starter).

Should I be worried? Probably not, but it's my maiden brew.












Any input is appreciated.

Kevin

looks good enough to drink!

Ah, that's another thing. I did take a shot glass sized sample when I took my OG (1.066 corrected for temp). It tasted super sweet and very very hoppy. I think it's going to be great. (Honey Cream Ale).

Woohoo!


Anyone else want to comment on the boogers? Is that normal?

That looks fairly normal to me... The scottish 80/- I did recently looked exactly the same as that. Its the yeast working. I had the same striations (sp) as the yeast got to work. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Fantastic.

Ugly as hell isn't it? (in a beautiful beerish sort of way!)

Kevin

when that yeast on the bottom makes it's way to the top.....

it' might blow....

Is that what it does? Works it's way from the bottom up?

Man, that's a good lookin batch. It might sneak up on ya later. A blow-off tube would be a good idea, or you'll be up @2 am to check on it.

Is it uncommon to have a brew look like this? I'm totally green as to what this should look like. I feel like I just had my third kid, hope it doesn't grow up spoiled.

all is normal.

wait until that yeast stops multiplying and starts eating! you will see one hell of a crazy, swirling, chaotic scene, and the fermenter will start to warm up.

You gotta love glass fermenters... it's a hell of a show in there.

-walker

Awesome!!! I'll try to post pics tomorrow morning. Good night all!

Well, approx. 14 hours into fermentation, she's really taking off!

It's a constant 62º in the basement, and the fermometer shows 74º.





I'm a happy guy!

I've read all your posts.

If your intent is to NOT make beer then you are a failure.

If you wanted to make beeer then you are an overnight success! I wouldn't want it any other way!

Man I've gotta get a glass primary, that looks friggin sweet. Or, as the Canadians would say "That's wicked sweet, eh?".
Kevin do you have a 5.0 fox mustang by chance?

That looks cool. I'm going to get a glass carboy for the next batch.

beerlover84 said:

Kevin do you have a 5.0 fox mustang by chance?

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No, a 5.0 Ranger. Full disclosure: doesn't run yet.

Thanks guys, this site has been a huge help, I've enjoyed every step of the process thus far.

Kevin

homebrewer_99 said:

I've read all your posts.

If your intent is to NOT make beer then you are a failure.

If your want to make beeer then you are an overnight success! I wouldn't want it any other way!

Click to expand...

Thanks Bill! Hopefully I'm on the right track.

Here's an update as of hour 20 of fermentation:

3" krausen!

Sounds like the proud new parent of a baby beer!

No kidding. This is fun stuff.

I need a bigger carboy. I rigged up a half assed blow off tube last night with a rubber bung and my siphon tube (into a small bucket). This morning I went to check on it, and the floor was all wet near the carboy. I guess it had been burping hard enough to splash water all over the floor, even though I had the lid partially on the bucket!

I'm amazed how much CO2 this thing can produce! It's belching a steady stream of 1" bubbles...and shows no sign of slowing down. Pretty neat stuff.

Kevin

Boy, that's a great looking batch. What kind of yeast did you put in there? I didn't see it mentioned? It IS amazing how much CO2 those little buggers fart out. And each C02 is related to an alcohol molecule in your beer.... it's beautiful . When that big head of foam breaks down, and things settle out a bit, you can move that beast into secondary and get the next one rolling!

Looks like a success to me. Better start planning that next batch

Kevin K said:

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Looks almost identical to mine right now, but mine has already come out through the airlock. Good stuff eh? SWMBO is already naggin about making sure I leave it alone until its ready. I told her I would try, but no promises.

Sasquatch said:

Boy, that's a great looking batch. What kind of yeast did you put in there? I didn't see it mentioned?

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I used the dry Lallemand Nottingham yeast that came with the kit. I'm quite happy with the results. I think next batch I'll use a starter, just to compare.

http://www.lallemand.com/Brewing/eng/PDFs/Nottingham July 2004.pdf

HAHAH!!! I KNEW that was Nottingham. I have seen some funky crazy stringers... star-shaped fountains of krausen etc, with that stuff. Great yeast. It has kind of a dry finish in flavour (if anything). I've done a pale ale, a brown, a bitter, and recently a pilsner with that stuff, and they all came out awesome. It's not quite as fast as some other dry yeasts (notably Cooper's) but it is dead reliable, and seems to add no bad flavours to the beer at all.

I wish I would have taken a picture of my primary. It sorta looked the same way as your but not as many straiations <sp>. It took about 48 hours for my yeast to start actively fermenting then all hell broke loose... Sweet pictures

I figured it'd be fun to keep a pictorial log of some sort...I've been checking on it every few hours, and it's been fun to watch the changes.

Small update, the krausen has started to fall, but the airlock (blowoff tube) activity is still fairly steady. Still have a steady stream of 1" bubbles going.
It's hard to see anything though, because the krausen made such a mess on the top of the carboy.
Much less swirling and movement now, it's relatively calm, and the bubbles rising are pretty much the only movement visible.

Can anyone give me an idea of what kind of alcohol % I should expect? I used 3.2 KG of LME (7lbs) and 1lb of steeped "honey malt" grains. My OG was 1.066 (corrected for temp).

Anyone want to guess what kind of FG I'll hit?

There will be no fermentables worth counting from the 1 lb of honey malt if you just steeped it, so you can just count the LME contributions.

Is this a 5 gallon batch?

7 lbs of LME in 5 gallons should only give a starting gravity of about 1.053-ish. Even if you got 100% effeciency out of the honey malt, it would still be below 1.060.

I don't know how you got up to 1.066.

Anyway.. if you were up at 1.066 to start, there is a good chance your beer will end up with roughly 6.5% alcohol by volume, give or take a half percent.

-----------------

However...

If I assume good fermentation, 7 lbs of LME, 40% effeciency from the honey malt, and ignore your recorded OG reading and use approximations, the recipator calculates that you would get an OG of 1.055 and a FG of 1.012, this would yield 5.5% abv.

-walker

Sorry, should have mentioned batch size. It was indeed 5 gallons. My hydrometer measured 1.064 at 76&#186;, corrected that should be 1.066. I spun the hydrometer in my thief to make sure I had no bubbles, and to make sure it wasn't sticking to the side of the thief. The reading was taken after I topped up with water (partial boil).

I don't know what else to tell you, other than this was my first hydrometer reading with wort, and I had tested it in 60&#186; water, it read a perfect 1.000

Kevin

Kevin K said:

Sorry, should have mentioned batch size. It was indeed 5 gallons. My hydrometer measured 1.064 at 76º, corrected that should be 1.066. I spun the hydrometer in my thief to make sure I had no bubbles, and to make sure it wasn't sticking to the side of the thief. The reading was taken after I topped up with water (partial boil).

I don't know what else to tell you, other than this was my first hydrometer reading with wort, and I had tested it in 60º water, it read a perfect 1.000

Kevin

Click to expand...

Herein lies the reason that many here distrust hydrometers. From the proportions of ingrediants you described, it's really not possible to get an OG of 1.066 in a 5 gallon batch. It is possible that your top off water wasn't well-mixed with your wort and you somehow got a denser sample than the overall finished product.

If that's true, it's no worry, because the action of fermentation would more than adequately mix the wort.

I've often gotten puzzling hydrometer readings at pitching time, but usually a little low ratehr than high, which I assume is because the top-off water was not well-enough integrated.

Kevin K said:

Sorry, should have mentioned batch size. It was indeed 5 gallons. My hydrometer measured 1.064 at 76º, corrected that should be 1.066. I spun the hydrometer in my thief to make sure I had no bubbles, and to make sure it wasn't sticking to the side of the thief. The reading was taken after I topped up with water (partial boil).

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Did you stir the wort very well after topping it off with water to evenly mix in the water? If not, your sample might not be representative of the actual batch. (Someone on here recently made this same mistake, and their 1.053 estimated recipe was measured at 1.090!)

I don't know what to tell you about it either.

If your reading was correct, you are in the 6.5% range.

If the reading was not correct and 1.055 is more accurate, you are in the 5.5% range.

-walker

I (almost) always stir in my top off water and wait 5 mins then stir again before taking any measurements.

I did not stir, as I can't fit my spoon into the carboy. I did pour my water into the carboy quite vigorously though (through a funnel). Would 2 gallons of water not be enough to stir up the wort? If not, that explains things.

Here's the recipe I followed (wasn't provided with a recipe, but I plugged it into the recipator). What makes this a cream ale as opposed to a regular ale? No lactose or other sugars in here...have I been duped into thinking an ale is a cream ale?



Here are the details on the Honey Malt -

Honey malt: Honey malt is the company's best description for the unique European malt known as brumalt. Its intense malt sweetness makes it perfect for any specialty beer. It has a color profile of 20-30 °L and is devoid of astringent roast flavors.

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http://www.brewingtechniques.com/bmg/gambrinus.html

when I see "cream" in the name, I generally think of lactose or corn, but (as far as I know) 'cream ale' is not officially a real style so I guess there can't really be an official guideline.

edit:
I stand corrected. I found BJC's description of the style:
http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category6.html#style6A

-walker

Kevin K said:

Here's the recipe I followed (wasn't provided with a recipe, but I plugged it into the recipator). What makes this a cream ale as opposed to a regular ale? No lactose or other sugars in here...have I been duped into thinking an ale is a cream ale?

Here are the details on the Honey Malt -
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/bmg/gambrinus.htmlhttp://www.brewingtechniques.com/bmg/gambrinus.html

Click to expand...

How did you get the Recipator format to stay that way when you posted it?

I hit print screen when viewing the recipe. I then opened my image editing software (infranview) and pasted the image in, cropped it, saved it, uploaded it to my website, and hotlinked the image.

Does that make sense? If not, I'll try to explain better later.

Kevin

Fermentation is pretty much done after 4 days. I was getting a bubble every 20 seconds or so out of the small (siphon) blow off tube. I put the 3 pc airlock back on, and it doesn't even bubble once a minute. I figured it'd be a good time to check my SG, so I sanitized my thief and hydrometer. It read 1.012. If Walker is correct (and I suspect he is) in thinking my OG reading was actually closer to 1.055, I should be looking at a nice 5.5 or 5.6% beer.

I tasted the sample, and although a bit green, it sure was good. It tasted like beer, and had a nice subtle honey flavour to it. Fairly strong honey aroma, but very small hint of honey taste. Just what I was hoping for. I'll check the SG again tomorrow, and if it's constant, I'll rack it to the secondary.

Question about that beautiful yeast cake - how long can I leave it be in the carboy? Does it have to stay wet in order to re-use? I'd really like to re-use it, but I'm afraid it'll be a few weeks before I can brew another batch.

Kevin

Racked to secondary last night. SG was still 1.012. Sample tasted only slightly better than the last one. I think it's going to be pretty good, but is sure tastes green.

I've got the secondary in the cellar (60&#186 where it's quite a bit cooler than the rest of the basement. I'm hoping this will lead to a nice clear beer.