My first ever home brew...

Hi everyone from London, England.

At Christmas I was treated to the Brooklyn Brew Shop's beer making kit.

I'm at the fermentation stage of my first ever brew and wanted to stop by to see if anyone has any tips/reassurances for me!

During the boil, a lot of the liquid evaporated. As instructed, I added water to the fermentation jar, to hit the gallon marker I needed to aim for. The added water amounted to around two litres, which I'm worried seems too much. Also, I topped up with slightly too much water an exceeded the gallon mark, so there's not as much emptiness/air as there should be...

By the end of day one, the jar of liquid was in two defined colours. Now one colour dominates the liquid and there's a big amount of gunk at the bottom of the jar. I'm worried that there's too much, and that nothing has really happened to the jar since...



Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.

I've recently started a craft beer blog where I posted an article about my debut in brewing. http://acraftyglass.co.uk/

Thanks so much,
Tony.

It'd also be interesting to hear your thoughts on whether I should stick to the instructions this first time round, or learn whatever 'secondary fermentation' is all about and try that out...

Thanks!

You are going to have some serious blowoff and a huge mess to clean up. You need more headspace than that. I'd get a blow off tube on there right away. They are easy/cheap to make, and you really should start every beer on one. Basically, you make a tube that goes in to a bottle of starsan, and stick it in the top of your fermenter. Many people, (myself included) just take apart the 3-piece airlock that you already have, and stick a tube on the post in the middle. Others just buy tubing big enough that it fits snugly in the top of the fermenter, without the airlock. You can find more information on making them on here.

The junk at the bottom is called trub, and it looks fine. It's just yeast and sediment. It will compact nicely in a while.

Secondary is really only necessary when adding fruit or other things. If you want to do it on a regular beer, it's really a personal thing (and where a lot of people here are divided). I never do though. It doesn't seem to have much (if any) benefit, and it does increase risk of oxidation, infection, etc.

I also started my foray into all-grain with the Brooklyn Brew Shop kit.

Based on my experience with the instructions in that kit, I am guessing that you probably didn't use enough sparge water. How did you do your sparge (rinsing the grains)? 2 litres is an awful lot of top up water to have to add to a 1 gallon batch.

With this tiny fermenter, your best bet is to use a blow off tube. That is a piece of vinyl tubing with one end put in the place of your airlock and the other end in a cup/bucket of sanitized solution. You want to use that whenever you have very little headspace (room between the top of the wort and the top of the fermenter), as in this case.

It looks like you got a little bit of hop stuff in the neck of the fermenter. How long after pitching your yeast did you take this picture? After 24-48 hours you should have developed a krausen, which is an evil looking foam on top of the beer.

Hi, thanks a lot for your quick reply.

At the kit instructed me to, I had a blow off tube attached for the first three days, before removing it and adding the air lock.

Do you recommend I remove the airlock and returned it? Does the jar not need to be air tight at this stage?

I was contemplating tilting some of the liquid out to create more headspace, but worried that this would disturb the trub too much.

Thanks,
Tony.

Hi Meevoo, the stuff at the neck of the jar appeared after day one of fermentation.

This photo was taken today. At the top of the liquid is a 1cm approx foam which looks pretty horrid!

Someone recommend I buy a hydrometer so I can take gravity readings throughout fermentation. I purchased one but have since decided that taking samples would disturb the jar's contents too much.

Thanks.

Just looked at your blog. You did everything right, so I think you will end up with good beer!

Just a couple of suggestions:
1. If you think you want to continue with all grain brewing, invest in some brewing software. I, and a lot of other users on this site, use BeerSmith. I think I paid $25 USD for it.
2. If you continue with all grain brewing, invest in a hydrometer. This will tell you what the starting gravity is of your wort (so you can calculate mash efficiency) and more importantly, will be able to tell you if fermentation is complete.

My method for sparging (rinsing) my grains is this: I put a large strainer inside one of the really fine mesh grain bags. I put that over my boil kettle, then dump the contents of the mash kettle into the strainer. I feel like I get a really goot strain this way, no little bits of grain/husk coming through. When the wort has drained out, I spoon the grains back into my mash kettle, put in the appropriate amount of sparge water and repeat. I then do it one more time.

Most people would probably say I am making this unnecessarily difficult and that I could just do the brew in a bag method, but it has been working for me, so I'm going to stick with it.

Anyhow, welcome to homebrewing!

Looks like we posted at the same time. The hydrometer is the only thing that will be able to tell you when the beer is done fermenting. You don't have to take them very often. I wait 3 weeks before I start taking any readings.

Thanks for visiting the blog. It summarises the main steps I followed. There were a few smaller ones that I didn't bother writing up.

There's a small chance that when sparging, I didn't use as much water as I should have. But I was pretty attentive to the instructions. Maybe I boiled at slightly too high a temperature… Hopefully the added water doesn't mean my brew's doomed?

I'll use the hydrometer in a couple of weeks then. Will tilting the jar to collect a sample do much damage to the contents? It'll shake up the turbo a fair bit…

Thanks for all your help and a warm welcome to home brewing. Exciting times!

Do you have any idea what the starting volume of your wort was? I shoot for 1.4 gallons because my kettle boils off about 58 oz in an hour. I'm guessing you probably started with about 1 gallon, then boiled off about half of that. One of the nice things about BeerSmith is it will tell you exactly the amount of water to use in your mash and sparge, so that you end up with the right amount of wort at the start of the boil.

The best way to get a sample is to either use a sanitized Fermtech Thief or a sanitized turkey baster of some sort then use your hydrometer on that. With the Thief, you can put your hydrometer right in it. That's what I use (the Thief).

Additionally, I would use corn sugar (dextrose) when it comes time to bottle. Using honey on this type of beer is going to really change the flavor, probably in a negative way. Also, an auto siphon is going to make your life a lot easier. If you get one, make sure to get the SMALL one. Any of the other sizes won't fit into the opening of the gallon jug.

1.4 sounds like a familiar measurement. I think that's what I was at before the boil

I'll take a look at BeerSmith now. Thanks a lot for your tip.

One last question, as the 'explosion' and 'mess' comment above scares me!

Shall I return the blow off tube and lose the air lock then?

Cheers.

ACraftyGlass said:

Shall I return the blow off tube and lose the air lock then?

Cheers.

Click to expand...

I don't think that is necessary at this point.

That thick layer of sediment will compact nicely over the next few days. Give that beer its due and let it rest for at least two weeks before going to the next stage. The picture tells me you had vigorous fermentation and the yeast will need some time to clean up after themselves.

Thanks! The fermentation stage began with me pitching and then shaking the jar solidly for some time. Perhaps I went a bit too enthusiastically on the shaking

There's never been any signs of bubble and blow off at this stage.

You can't get too enthusiastic on the shaking. You want to introduce as much oxygen as you possibly can immediately after pitching the yeast.

Here is a good explanation of what yeast do throughout the fermentation. It looks like your beer has gone through the first 2 stages with one more to go, the longest and the silent one where it looks like nothing is happening.

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

Hi everyone. Very little's changed visually since my original post. In two evenings time it'll have been in this state for two weeks.

Should I move to the next stage of my brewing instructions and add honey/start bottling, or should I wait until I notice some change in appearance?

There's been no blow off and the gunk at the bottom of the jar isn't becoming more compact.

Any tips appreciated.

Many thanks,
Tony.

The only real way to know if the beer has stopped fermenting is to take a couple of hydrometer readings a couple of days apart. If the two readings are the same, then the fermentation has stopped.

That being said, leaving it for 3 weeks in the primary is what most folks on here advocate. It will help the beer by allowing more time for yeast that may still be in suspension to fall out. You can also help that process by cold-crashing.

Hi guys, I've just taken my first reading. I think the brew's currently at around 3% alcohol content. As it's around 1.030 on the gravity reading, I think..

Does the alcohol level increase or decrease as the brewing process goes on?

There's still little sign of change in the brew's appearance. It smelt very sweet.

This Wednesday will be the three week mark since pitching.

Advice very welcome and appreciated!

Cheers.

ACraftyGlass said:

Hi guys, I've just taken my first reading. I think the brew's currently at around 3% alcohol content. As it's around 1.030 on the gravity reading, I think..

Does the alcohol level increase or decrease as the brewing process goes on?

There's still little sign of change in the brew's appearance. It smelt very sweet.

This Wednesday will be the three week mark since pitching.

Advice very welcome and appreciated!

Click to expand...

Looking at the bottom picture I would read that hydrometer at 1.022 and while it is a little higher than I would like to see, it may be done since you have had it in the fermenter for nearly 3 weeks. Take another reading on Wednesday and if it is the same you should bottle that beer.

There's no way to know for sure now, but the reading in that OG picture seems a little suspect to me. It looks like the hydrometer might be resting on the bottom of the test cylinder and not floating.

sherma said:

There's no way to know for sure now, but the reading in that OG picture seems a little suspect to me. It looks like the hydrometer might be resting on the bottom of the test cylinder and not floating.

Click to expand...

I don't think that was an OG picture. Look at the amount of trub in the jug.

RM-MN said:

I don't think that was an OG picture. Look at the amount of trub in the jug.

Click to expand...

Yes, you are right. Bad on me.

sherma said:

Yes, you are right. Bad on me.

Click to expand...

I looked at that picture several times trying to read the OG before I realized that it wasn't the OG that I was trying to see.

Hey everyone, I did another reading - see pics. This reading was more scientific/accurate.

I'm currently at around 2.6% in alcohol volume. The brew's three weeks old.

The instructions in my brewing kit suggest I should have bottled at two weeks, and left the bottles for three weeks.

Questions:

Will the alcohol content continue to increase?
Should I bottle now?

The brew smells a lot less sugary than when I did the first reading around five days ago.

Many thanks,
Tony.

The alcohol level will increase over time as the yeast eat more sugar, until there isn't any more sugar to eat, or they get too saturated with alcohol. Beware though, you do not tell the ABV with the scale listed on the hydrometer. That number is the POTENTIAL alcohol that you can get if that is your OG reading. You need to take a specific gravity reading before fermentation starts, and after fermentation ends. This will be something like OG (original gravity) = 1.040 and FG (finishing gravity) = 1.010. You put these numbers in an ABV calculator, and it will tell you your ABV. Your SG (specific gravity) looks to be about 1.024, which I would think would be a little high for your FG. The ONLY way to know for sure if it is finished is to check your SG two days apart, if it is the same, you are probably ready to bottle. The yeast don't know what your instructions say, or follow any sort of timeline.

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to let you know that I've just opened my first ever bottle of home brew and it's been a success! It's rather on the sweet side, but is smooth and drinkable. There's a nice level of carbonation/head and I couldn't be prouder

Thanks a lot for all of your help. It was incredibly useful and helped me reach this point! A home brew review's going up on www.acraftyglass.co.uk shortly.

Cheers.

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to let you know that I've just opened my first ever bottle of home brew and it's been a success! It's rather on the sweet side, but is smooth and drinkable. There's a nice level of carbonation/head and I couldn't be prouder

Thanks a lot for all of your help. It was incredibly useful and helped me reach this point! A home brew review's going up on www.acraftyglass.co.uk shortly.

Cheers.

The beer's not entirely clear. It's a bit cloudy and quite sweet.

Do you think it's worth leaving the other bottles for another week?

The fermentation took around 2/3 weeks. The brew's been bottled for 2 weeks.

Cheers.

It'll clear more as it conditions. Store it somewhere cool and dark. It should just get better with time.