First Brew - Make Me Feel Ok

Brewed my first batch last night with the assistance of my brother (minimal assistance, but he was a great deal of help) -- Simple IPA from the Brewers Best kit with no additions or subtractions. Everything went very smoothly during the prep and boil stages. Took a little longer than I wouldve liked to cool down (went from boil to 70 degrees in about 1/2 hour using cold water and ice).

My bro said it was ok and wouldn't affect it much. I was more worried about infection, but he said he's taken longer (I actually witnessed them working on a Porter a couple of weeks ago that took longer than that to get into the fermentation vessel...) and turned out fine.

My other concern is that when I was siphoning (I was using an autosiphon) I continually clogged the intake portion of the siphon, causing significant amounts of air bubbles. Due to this, I also needed to restart siphoning several times (maybe 10-15?)...

Again, my brother reassured me that this would not horrendously affect the final product in any way. I kept disagreeing, and figured I'd come here. If a few of you can let me know what to expect, or how that might affect the quality of my brew, I'd appreciate it.

Also, FWIW, fermentation started quickly and properly, and my brew is happily bubbling away as we speak.

By having to restart and stop siphoning you probably actually did more good than harm. You probably gave it extra oxygen, which is good for your beer.

It's fine. You just have a case of noob nerves.

Your beer is hardier than most new brewers think it is...

Here, read this, Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry. You might find the info and advice helpful....And see what we've all done to our beers in this thread, What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

What were you siphoning?

30 min is not bad to cool a brew to fermentation temps. its actually pretty impressive using just an ice water bath.

if you were filling the fermentor from the kettle with the siphon, then that is not a problem at all. you want to oxygenate the wort as much as possible at that time. yeast need oxygen in their reproduction stage before fermentation starts to take place.

oops. revvy beat me to it.

Actually you want those air bubbles in your wort prior to fermentation beginning. Did you shake the crap out of your bucket/carboy to help oxygenate it? The yeast need that oxygen to help reproduce before they tackle fermentation. Either way fermentation has begun so you should be good to go. After fermentation has completed and you go to rack to a bottling bucket/keg is when you want to be carefull to avoid oxygenating your beer. Now just keep those fermentation temperatures in the proper range for the yeast you are using and you'll be getting M.C. Hammered off some good tasting home brew in no time!!! Well, in like 6 weeks or so.

You're just fine. At this point the air bubbles probably helped your beer a bit by introducing oxygen. After fermentation is complete however, introducing air is a bad thing. Listen to your brother.

You WANT bubbles before pitching the yeast!

I let my beer cool on its own over night before pitching and it comes out fantastic.

I pour the beer through a strainer from the boil pot into the fermenter to aerate it!

RDWHAHB!

You guys are awesome. Thanks. I'll keep you posted as I move along. Revvy - those threads have given me a great deal of peace of mind. Thanks.

I see others have posted not sweating the chill time, I whirlpool for 20-30 minutes post boil but before chilling, then I begin chilling while I continue to whirlpool. I find this adds a lot more value to my late hop additions as far as flavor and aroma and to date has had no ill effects on the beer flavor or clarity.

Congrats on your first brew, better start on your next batch, that first one wont last long!

azscoob said:

Congrats on your first brew, better start on your next batch, that first one wont last long!

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Start the pipeling now because your first brew will vanish very quickly! Welcome to the affliction/addiction.

VillageBrew said:

Start the pipeling now because your first brew will vanish very quickly! Welcome to the affliction/addiction.

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I guess I'll need to buy more buckets...

Gratz on your first beer!!!

YOU RUINED YOUR BEER!!! (just kidding)

As stated, brew more now. You do not want to run out. I would do a batch a week for a month, then go to every other week. You want to build a supply that is constantly being replenished. Of course this depends on how much you drink. My goal is to buy as little beer as possible.