First Brewing Day - Jan 1, 2009

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am now the proud owner of a two stage blow-off system and I have 2 English Pale Ale (extract) recipes. I picked two of the same so a little compare/contrast can be done. I think I will do them 2 weeks apart (maybe 3 - depends on work).

I'm not planning on changing anything in the recipes and focus more on the process for now.

I'll be using Palmer's "How to Brew" book as a reference.

If anyone has any tips for the first brew day, I'd certainly be happy to get them.

Thanks - BH

Good luck! I'm still a beginner too so I don't have much experience to speak from. All of my problems in the past came from impatience. Don't rush anything and keep your utensils clean.

Happy Brewing!

Congratulations! 2009 just might be your best year yet.

My advice is DO NOT PANIC! Most things that go wrong during the first brew comes from folks panicking because something happens they don't expect and they do something stupid.

Other than that in not particular order:
1. Relax, this is suppose to be fun
2. Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize
3. Be patient...no matter how much you want it, you can't rush good beer

Here's the details on the recipe:

Brewmaster's Select English Pale Ale
Starting Gravity: 1.058 +/- Final Gravity: 1.010-1.016 +/-
Color Rating: 16
Alcohol: 4.8% +/-
IBU: 42
Dry Yeast: Safale #S-04
6 lbs. Light DME
3 Cups Crystal malt 120L
1-1/2 oz. Centennial Bittering Hops (pellet)
1 tablet Whirlfloc
1/2 oz. Fuggle hops
1 Cup Priming sugar (dextrose)

I have a 16 qt. stainless steel brewpot, so no full boil just yet. I just didn't feel like investing in a wort-chiller just yet.

What helped me the most on my first brewday is that I wrote down absolutely everything I did. What I did, when and how I did it. I look back now on that stuff and it is super helpful. . .

Good luck and welcome to the 'sickness.'

Hey man- welcome to the world of brewing.

I just finished bottling my first 2 beers. My advice for the first day of brewing?

Two words.

Wort. Chiller.

That is all. There isn't enough ice in the world or room in your sink to chill down a 7 Gallon pot **** off 5 gallons of hell-wort.

Other than that, mise en place. Get everything together and be ready as your progress.

Thats all I can say... then again, I'm a noob myself.

Welcome to the obses^h^h^h^h^hHobby.

My advice to new brewers is this:

Take your time, sanitize well. Afterward, take your fermenter, put it in a cool, dark place, and ignore it for two weeks. Don't worry about it, and let the yeast have some time to work at it before you start taking any samples.

Be anal about sanitation.

Get ready the night before so you can get a good start in the morning.

Don't crack that first Barley Pop till the burner is turned off.

RDWHAHB.

Thanks everyone!
JDS - good point on the dark place and that brings up a question: SWMBC has agreed to let me have the primary inside the house (by no means a small victory here), but has asked that I use the bath tub as it would be the easiest place to clean up in the event of any mishap. I am cool with that, the problem is that there is a slight absence of dark in that particular room. There is a decent view, but I think that might be lost on the yeasties. Is it OK to jus place a large cardboard box over it to make it appropropriately (or at least adequately) dark?

Thanks - BH

Covering it with a box would work fine. Good luck on your first brew!

Not necessarily regarding your first brew day but for your first brew I think its helpful to remember that fermentation temperature (IMHO) is one of the most important keys to a tasty beverage. Try to keep the fermenter (not the ambient temperature) in the mid 60s, use a swamp cooler if needed (a small basin filled with water that the fermenter bucket/carboy sits in), and try to keep the temperature constant. High temps can create esters/banana flavors/off tastes and wild fluctuations in temperature can create similar problems and stress your yeasties.

Good luck and welcome.

From another new brewer doing partial boils and not using a wort chiller yet, one suggestion that helped me was to prepare some ice as top off water. I have had success using a volume approximately equal to 1/2 of my boil volume to bring the wort down to pitching temperature in about 15 minutes. The night before my brew I boil the top off water and put into sanitized screw top tupperware containers. Just remember that water expands when it freezes, and it expands a lot more than you think.

Newbie here, so take it for what it's worth.

1st brew day yesterday. Organization was key for me.

Set up table with everything laid out:
5 gal sanitizer (no rinse) in 6 gal bucket, holding stir spoon, rack cane and hose with pinch lock (full of sanitizer... ready for racking) Pitcher for transfer and cleaning of thermo, wine thief, Hydrometer etc.

Grains in bag

Hops bagged (cheese cloth) then put back in sequence and purchase bags with time indicated.

Extract (wet and dry)

Cleaned Brew pot (both 3 gal and 8 gal)

Then even with all the planning things did get dicey as I turned my back twice on it and had to think quick. But the layout of everything made the fix easy each time and I don't think it hurt the wort.

Clean up was easier too as there was less mess and less clutter in the end.

Wishing you all the best on your first brew day! It's a day you will not soon forget! Completely enjoyable!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! And just to reiterate what every1 else hass said take your time and just ahve fun.

Congrats! I think everyone has hit on everything, so I'll take a stab at summarizing ...

1) Have fun. Don't worry about messing up. Just relax and enjoy the experience.

2) Be organized. As FxdGrMind noted, laying everything out ahead of time can help with #1.

3) Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Having said that, don't make it a PITA, or you might find #1 to be difficult. I think Palmer suggests saran-wrapping everything when not in use ... if it's easy for you, by all means do it, but I don't because the thought of being THAT anal makes me cringe.

4) Prep your ice ahead of time. Either pre-boil and freeze ahead of time to use as top-off as DuckAssassin suggests (don't forget to sanitize!) or collect your ice days in advance for the ice bath. If doing the ice bath, swirl or stir (sanitize the spoon!) your wort every so often as it chills to expose the hot wort in the center to the cold edges of the pot.

5) Save the drinking for later. Getting buzzed while you brew is fun, but dangerous. Maybe have one during the brew, but save the party time till after your fermenting vessel is in the tub.

6) No light. Stable temp. Sounds like the tub should work fine. To keep out light, you might use an old blanket or bath towel. It'll let you observe the fermentation progress (will prolly put your nose over the airlock to take a sniff a few times a day) much easier.

7) Take notes. Keep that blog updated so you can learn from your experience, and so everyone else here can too!

With two of the same kit, you might wait to do the second until after you've bottled and tasted the first so you can get an idea of what you want to change up for the second time around. To keep your mind off of it, maybe do a batch of Apfelwein instead?

You're just two days away ... good luck!

Hey PKPDOGG,

Great point on spacing out the two EPA brews a bit - makes sense to taste the results first

Happy New Year everyone!

BH

EdWort said:

Be anal about sanitation.

Get ready the night before so you can get a good start in the morning.

Don't crack that first Barley Pop till the burner is turned off.

RDWHAHB.

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I got to disagree. I'm not saying get trashed or even drunk. But I find I am a lot more relaxed and calm about brewing and enjoy it more it I've had a beer or two. Takes the anxiousness off of it for me.


The cardboard will be fine. lots of people use the box the carboy came in with a hole for the airlock to stick out.

bhethcote said:

Is it OK to jus place a large cardboard box over it to make it appropropriately (or at least adequately) dark?

Thanks - BH

Click to expand...

Certainly. If you have a carboy, you could also try a t-shirt/sweatshirt of some kind. This has the added benefit of adding insulating and temperature control. If you want to drop fermentation temperatures, just soak the shirt in water and the evaporation will drop the carboy exterior temperature a few degrees F.

When working nights (long ago and far away) I had to sleep during the day. 2 words:
Aluminum Foil.
Reflects light, controls temp as well as light. Just tape a few sheets together over the window. Doesn't look terrible from outside, either.
Good luck!

IrregularPulse said:

The cardboard will be fine. lots of people use the box the carboy came in with a hole for the airlock to stick out.

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This works for me...I don't close the lid though, just put the whole thing in the Pantry and close the door.
Granted this is my first go... so I'm just figuring it all out bit by bit.