Just want to talk about my first brewing experience!

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
kingofmalkier

kingofmalkier

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2013
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Concord
I hope this is the appropriate forum for this, but I've already talked my coworkers' and SWMBO's ears off and I figured it would be impossible to talk too much about brewing here.

I learned a lot about how to make the brew process more difficult for myself when I started on the 6'th. Boil appeared to go pretty well, but I hadn't planned well enough for the cooling/transferring piece; I was too focused on the boil. Mainly it took forever to cool and I didn't really aerate at all. I don't think either problem will be too severe (RDWHAH) but I can certainly do better next time.

I refused to get worried when 24 hours had passed and I basically just had a big jar of brown water. Thankfully the next morning I got this:

Just Getting Started by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I was so relieved to see anything happening, working with the theory that even slow progress would allow me to be patient and wait for the yeast to work. With no progress I was starting to think maybe I needed to do something - thankfully I just kept waiting.

Things kept going and I awoke this morning to find this:


Krausen by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I'm assuming there will be at least some effect from the slow start, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't notice it at all. I enjoy all kinds of beers, but I don't think I can say "this is at least 17 IBUs below proper IPA standards." I can say "Why the bananas?" so hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Lastly, I'm fortunate enough that SWMBO supports this hobby (she brewed with her father as a kid) and so I was allowed to purchase these beautiful little babies.


New Corny 2.5G Kegs by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I can't wait to fill 'em up. I think I'm going to try force carbing one and conditioning the other with sugar to see if one method works better/tastes better.

PS: The first time I heard a bubble *pop* out of the blowoff tube, I reacted exactly the same as my sister-in-law feeling her baby kick for the first time. :D Anyone else have that happen?
 
You know it! Honestly, how many time did you stick your nose in that water to get a nice whiff of each bubble?

Looks like a success on your first try.
 
congrats - welcome to the obsession!

kingofmalkier said:
I'm assuming there will be at least some effect from the slow start, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't notice it at all.
Click to expand...
what was your OG, how much yeast did you pitch, and if it was liquid yeast did you make a starter?

a long lag time like that is usually indicative a long reproductive phase. when you pitch yeast, the first thing the cells do is divide until they have a sufficient population to tackle the job at hand (at least they'll try to create a sufficient population, sometimes they can't and your beer won't fully attenuate). if you pitch a lot of yeast (over-pitch), little reproduction is required and fermentation will take off quickly. if you under-pitch the yeast fermentation will be delayed. most yeast flavors are created during the lag/reproductive phase, hence slightly under-pitching is a way of promoting more yeast flavors. it's useful for belgians where you want a lot of yeast characteristics, not so great for IPAs when you want to keep it clean. so an impact on your beer might be that you have additional yeast flavors. hopefully you're keeping that beer in a good temperature range, so those flavors are nice.

kingofmalkier said:
PS: The first time I heard a bubble *pop* out of the blowoff tube, I reacted exactly the same as my sister-in-law feeling her baby kick for the first time. :D Anyone else have that happen?
Click to expand...
every single one of us, buddy.
 
kingofmalkier said:
I hope this is the appropriate forum for this, but I've already talked my coworkers' and SWMBO's ears off and I figured it would be impossible to talk too much about brewing here.

I learned a lot about how to make the brew process more difficult for myself when I started on the 6'th. Boil appeared to go pretty well, but I hadn't planned well enough for the cooling/transferring piece; I was too focused on the boil. Mainly it took forever to cool and I didn't really aerate at all. I don't think either problem will be too severe (RDWHAH) but I can certainly do better next time.

I refused to get worried when 24 hours had passed and I basically just had a big jar of brown water. Thankfully the next morning I got this:

Just Getting Started by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I was so relieved to see anything happening, working with the theory that even slow progress would allow me to be patient and wait for the yeast to work. With no progress I was starting to think maybe I needed to do something - thankfully I just kept waiting.

Things kept going and I awoke this morning to find this:


Krausen by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I'm assuming there will be at least some effect from the slow start, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't notice it at all. I enjoy all kinds of beers, but I don't think I can say "this is at least 17 IBUs below proper IPA standards." I can say "Why the bananas?" so hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Lastly, I'm fortunate enough that SWMBO supports this hobby (she brewed with her father as a kid) and so I was allowed to purchase these beautiful little babies.


New Corny 2.5G Kegs by king0fmalkier, on Flickr

I can't wait to fill 'em up. I think I'm going to try force carbing one and conditioning the other with sugar to see if one method works better/tastes better.

PS: The first time I heard a bubble *pop* out of the blowoff tube, I reacted exactly the same as my sister-in-law feeling her baby kick for the first time. :D Anyone else have that happen?
Click to expand...

Looks tasty! I'm also about to brew my first batch and look forward to it!

BTW, when you woke up the second morning to find your yest going crazy, was it the same feeling that you experienced as a child on Christmas morning?
 
What yeast did you pitch and what's the ambient temp? I would ask what kind of brew you made, but its been asked a couple times already.
 
Wow! Lots of replies. :)

I pitched "YEAST: 1 Sachet". :p I used the Brewer's Best IPA kit that was a christmas gift. I suspect it will be a little on the dark side of "P", but I know it will be lighter than it looks now. I'm afraid I don't remember the type of yeast that came in the kit, although I can say for certain it was a dry yeast. I simply pitched it straight onto the top. It looks like a lot of people rehydrate and/or do starters, but on my first attempt if I had a choice between "Works best" and "Works alright but is super easy" I chose the latter. Pitching temperature was 80F, which I recognize is a bit high, but it was 11:30PM on a Sunday and I felt very uncomfortable leaving wort in the dangerous temperature zone overnight. So for better or worse I decided pitching a little high was the safer option and employed high levels of RDWHAH. (I will use *very* different techniques next time for cooling. Most importantly cooling 2.5 gallons in a metal kettle instead of 5 gallons in a glass carboy.)

Ambient temperature has held steadily at 64F. I think this is pretty solid but am open to suggestions.

About OG... I got fairly flustered and attempted to take an OG by auto-siphoning a sample into the hydrometer vial. That part worked okay (have a beer thief now) but I didn't mix properly and so I got mostly water. The hydrometer bounced off the bottom! :eek: I'm going to assume I got the kit OG of 1.063 because I have no other number to go with.

I have not tried smelling the CO2 bubble yet, but now I'm definitely going to have to. Also, yes the huge amount of bubbles in the morning felt rather christmas-y.
 
I think its cool your swmbo helped her dad brew beer as a kid. I have a 13 year old son who hates to clean the house, but will spend all day brewing in the back yard with me.
 
I just realized that when people asked about the recipe, they probably wanted more than the style. So, from the kit instructions:

Fermentables
-------------
6.6 lb Light LME
1 lb Golden DME

Specialty Grains
---------------
1 lb Caramel 40L
8 oz Victory

(Steeping was pretty cool. Like a giant cup of delicious smelling tea.)

Hops
-----
1 oz Columbus Flavoring
1 oz Cascade Bittering
2 oz Cascade Aroma

Yeast
------
1 Sachet (not sure why they're so vague on that one ingredient)


OG: 1.061 - 1.065 (sure, don't see why not. You can prove nothing!)
FG: 1.014 - 1.017

Related to the SG numbers: how often and/or how many times to folks typically test this? I'm battling the desire to check every day to chart progress and the desire to never check until I use two readings in a couple weeks to verify completion of fermentation. I know I should be comfortable taking a reading, but it feels like a potential time to mess things up and so I've put it off thus far.
 
Great job on the first batch! Make sure you post back on the thread about how it tastes. Im happy to say I've been brewing for 5yrs and still get very excited about an active carboy!

A little advice; take detailed notes and try to only change one variable at a time. I wish i took better notes in the beginning.
 
The kit I just did had a sachet that just said "yeast" on it as well. I emailed and asked, and they politely refused to tell me what kind they used. They claimed it was proprietary. Most likely they fear that if they give up every detail of the kit, people will bypass them and just buy the ingredients elsewhere and brew the beer off their recipe.

Cant say I totally blame them.
 
kingofmalkier said:
Related to the SG numbers: how often and/or how many times to folks typically test this? I'm battling the desire to check every day to chart progress and the desire to never check until I use two readings in a couple weeks to verify completion of fermentation. I know I should be comfortable taking a reading, but it feels like a potential time to mess things up and so I've put it off thus far.
Click to expand...

I go 14-17 days before checking. My aim is to hit 3 consecutive days with no change about 21 days after pitch.
 
regarding starters and how much yeast to pitch: check out http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html - learn it, love it.

kingofmalkier said:
I'm going to assume I got the kit OG of 1.063 because I have no other number to go with.
Click to expand...
since you're making an extract brew, your actual OG is almost certainly as expected- assuming you got water volumes right. extract is very dependable in its performance, it's not variable like all grain where the concept of "efficiency" comes into play.

kingofmalkier said:
Related to the SG numbers: how often and/or how many times to folks typically test this? I'm battling the desire to check every day to chart progress and the desire to never check until I use two readings in a couple weeks to verify completion of fermentation. I know I should be comfortable taking a reading, but it feels like a potential time to mess things up and so I've put it off thus far.
Click to expand...
wait at least 14 days before taking a reading, 21 is even better. you don't want to open up the fermenter too often. yes, i know, waiting sucks. that's why you need to get going on your next brew
 
Thanks, sweetcell and the_trout. I think I'll wait 21 after my pitch date because things got a slow start and then I'll start checking SG. In the meantime I'll occupy myself with gazing at the carboy twice a day (this is probably more effective on my first batch because everything is new and fascinating) and preparing a very detailed procedure for the next brew.

I think next I'll do another kit - although a White Ale this time - and work on getting the details of the brew (especially the cooling/transfer/pitching portion) right. If things go more smoothly I'll start experimenting with different hops and yeasts to see if one particular variety really suits my tastebuds. Definitely not getting remotely crafty with ingredients until I feel more confident with the process.
 
kingofmalkier said:
Ambient temperature has held steadily at 64F. I think this is pretty solid but am open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the hobby/obsession called brewing! I am very new myself and also started off with a partial mash kit IPA. About your ambient temp that is a very good one but the fermentation itself creates a lot of thermal energy when the yeast are chowing down so your wort temp could be potentially 10F higher than your ambient which is a little high for some ale yeasts. You will still most likely have a nice tasting batch of beer and that's an awesome accomplishment on your first go around but you may want to try and find a simple method of keeping those temperatures firmly in the mid 60s range 64-68 would be awesome. A cheap but somewhat high maintenance method is a swamp cooler. Basically a vessel bigger than your carboy that you fill with water and some frozen water bottles to keep the temp in that range. You will have to tweak it to see how much ice you need to reach the desired temp. But once you do it can greatly benefit your overall quality. Temperature control you will come to learn like I did is probably the best thing you can do to make your beers truly great.

Welcome again and looking forward to seeing you in the forums!

Cheers

Dave
 
Thanks, Dave.

I've been controlling the temperature just by changing the thermostat. It's on the top floor so low 60's isn't too bad to keep the house and at night we just use lots of blankets. I could probably drop the temp another degree or two without any complaints.
 
I wanted to check back in now that my beer is in the kegs. The actual process of transferring from primary to keg went very smoothly, although carbing has been a bit more of an adventure. I made a mess by overcarbonating the first keg, and the second keg is not yet carbonated so the only sample I got was almost 100% flat, but it was still decently tasty. I liked the amount of hops and the aftertaste. I also didn't detect any off flavors from the initial slow fermentation, so that's good. Beyond that I think I'll have to wait for it to fully carb before I judge. As soon as I get home I'm going to give it a good shaking to speed things along a bit. With some luck I'll have a drinkable IPA for the family Super Bowl party.
 
I have started my brewing by hitting the blogs, you tube, etc... I bgan with a Mr. Beer brewing set my wife got me for Christmas. I must admit, when I asked for a brewng kit I expected a little more than this, but this proved to be a great start. It taught me the best principles of priming. I began with the Mr. Beer and primed as it stated, with table sugar and pouring it int each plastic bottle. I then I tried glass bottles with priming sugar and this was much better, but still fell a little short in taste. So I began triple checking temperatures and experimenting with the gravities. This I am still working on mastering. Now I brewed my own actual IPA with a kit I built. So far so good, watched the temperatures and batch primed the beer. Only problem is the rookie in me wants to refrigerate it and drink it now. I have bottled them two days ago. I see some posts wich report o drink an IPA right away to maintain the integrity of the beer and the hoppiness of the IPA character. So muc of this is by trial and errorand experimentation. My next steps are kegging with some CO2, it just sees much easier.
 
I hear ya. Just brewed my 5th batch last weekend. I was just as excited to hear those first bubbles as I was on the 1st. Walking downstairs to the "beer cave" is always like Christmas morning the next day.
 
So I just tried my fourth batch of beer kind of a mix of te last of my Mr. Beer HME and various tweaks. This was the batch I made on the same day or hours before my IPA. This batch was essentially a Lager like Corona. So I couldn't waitand tried it. It is probably about as good as it i going to get for the Mr. Beer. I added Irish moss this and also bttled it in the 12 OZ glass bottles. I batch primed it and letmetell you it was 100 times better than doing it bottle by bottle, priming sugar or not. So far thus far, the priming ugar was the toughest part of the process thus far. So the Corona Lager beer type is delicious and I feel I am improving all around. The IPA is thetrue test since this was more involved and thorough and from scratch.
 
kingofmalkier said:
I wanted to check back in now that my beer is in the kegs. The actual process of transferring from primary to keg went very smoothly, although carbing has been a bit more of an adventure. I made a mess by overcarbonating the first keg, and the second keg is not yet carbonated so the only sample I got was almost 100% flat, but it was still decently tasty. I liked the amount of hops and the aftertaste. I also didn't detect any off flavors from the initial slow fermentation, so that's good. Beyond that I think I'll have to wait for it to fully carb before I judge. As soon as I get home I'm going to give it a good shaking to speed things along a bit. With some luck I'll have a drinkable IPA for the family Super Bowl party.
Click to expand...

I am new to brewing as well. I have read joy of home brewing, watched probably 100 YouTube videos and got some tips from my LHBS. Doing all of that, I still managed to completely mess up my first batch! However, even though I messed it up, it was still better than most store bought brews. One thing I did right from the start was carbonating my keg. Hope this will help with your future kegging. I force carbonate at 30 psi for 24 hrs shaking it for about 45 seconds twice during that time. Then after 24 hrs, turn down to 7-11 psi for pouring. That's it, you are ready to drink. I made my third batch this weekend and am starting to really enjoy the process and the final product! Good brewing man!
 

Similar threads

Tony B
Curious fermentation
Replies
15
Views
761
redrocker652002
R
R
First timer
Replies
17
Views
802
oakbarn
oakbarn
Gytaryst
First Brew in 5 years - I Have Questions
Replies
14
Views
886
Gytaryst
Gytaryst
RumOnTheDocks
First brew plans
Replies
13
Views
1K
Jag75
Jag75
N
My Experience with SS Brewtech
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
ninkwood
N
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top