It is time.....

My brewcloset (downstairs half-bath) is finally staying in the mid-upper 60's. I picked up the last of my ingredients this weekend. Tuesday night SWMBO will be at work all evening. My assistant brewer (daughter) and I will be on our own so...

... my first homebrew will be born.

Awesome what are you planning on making?

kaptk2 said:

Awesome what are you planning on making?

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Ummmm... not tellin' yet.

I'm not doing what I should be doing and skipping the tried and true recipes and kits. I'm starting out with a PM of my own construction. I don't really wanna post my recipe because I don't want anyone to talk me into any changes. I want the first one to be all mine, sink or swim. If it's sink... or even down the sink in the end, then I'll learn from my mistakes.

But in general terms... it'll be a brown ale.

I'm pulling for you! Let us know how it turns out.

I'm sure I'll be talking about it. I have "Is my beer ruined" programmed as a macro on my keyboard just in case.

Well be sure and let us know how it turns out. And then maybe share the recipe

Definitely. I'll either post it as "Look at this great beer I put together" or as "Look what I screwed up". Either way, I'll post it after tasting.

ChshreCat said:

My assistant brewer (daughter) and I will be on our own so...
... my first homebrew will be born.

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Have fun, and welcome to the obsession.

It may be helpful to have your plan written out and ingredients measured before starting, but I suspect you're already doing that. If you name the first batch after the kiddo or the SWMBO it may reduce the SWMBO's anger at finding sticky malt extract on the walls of the kitchen when she gets back...

OKAY, waitaminute...waitafreakin minute...

You've been here since August...

You have over 400 posts...

You've kinda been on the radar for awhile...

And you've not brewed yet???????????????????????????????

I commend you on soaking up the knowlege around here for awhile before diving in...

But if you use that macro......

I'm gonna shoot you

But you haven't figured out your inaugural brew yet?

It's gotta be something special...it can't be just any old brew.

hehehe Well, as a kid I used to help my dad brew, so I'm not a TOTAL rookie. And I'd have brewed by now, but I have no AC, so I've been waiting for the temps to drop enough to make it easier.

My first one isn't going to be anything too difficult. But it'll be my own construction so it WILL be special. To me at least.

No AC? Sheesh man, Stanwood isn't exactly the smouldering jungle you know. I've been brewing all summer with wild abandon and I don't have AC either. I don't have (although I should) have any kind of temperature control either, just set the carboys in the dining room.

Ches' you shouldda asked us about temp control....my loft can get into the high 80's in the afternoons in high summer if my Ac's off and I still manage to brew...

I introduce you to my...SWAMP COOLER





I can keep my fermenters down nearly to 60 degrees...adding a fan to blow air onto it helps as well.

No AC? Sheesh man, Stanwood isn't exactly the smouldering jungle you know. I've been brewing all summer with wild abandon and I don't have AC either. I don't have (although I should) have any kind of temperature control either, just set the carboys in the dining room.

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My dining room was 90 degrees for much of august and wasn't below 75 until about 10 days ago.

Ches' you shouldda asked us about temp control....my loft can get into the high 80's in the afternoons in high summer if my Ac's off and I still manage to brew...

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Oh, I'm well versed in all the tricks! I just wanted to wait another couple months so I could do my first few brews without having to worry about it. Come summer time, if I want to brew a beer, I'll be doing that. Or I might just stock up in the spring and spend the summer doing meads and wines.

That's actually what my assistant brewer wants me to do more of. She's 15 and she gets a bottle or two of every mead or wine she helps me make set aside for when she turns 21.

ChshreCat said:

That's actually what my assistant brewer wants me to do more of. She's 15 and she gets a bottle or two of every mead or wine she helps me make set aside for when she turns 21.

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Your assistant is quite brilliant...and knowing how this obsession goes she is going to have quite a haul when she turns legal...Dayum that's gonna be quite a bash on her B-day

My first baby is in the bucket!

It's just perfect. Came out just how I wanted it to, looks-wise at least. I'm completely happy so far.

My only "oops" moment was when I was cooling my wort down in the sink and I was checking the temp and the thermometer slipped and I grabbed it, dunking three fingers right into the 110 degree wort. I don't think it was an issue because I'd been holding the thermometer in that hand about 2 minutes before when I sprayed it down with starsan, so they should've been relatively sanitary.

I even kept notes and remembered to take an OG before sprinkling on my 05 and sealing it up.

I'm a happy, happy man.

since it's made now you need to post the recipe here so we can pick it apart

Nope. Not until I taste it.

I will say that the OG is a little lower than I thought it would be, but I wasn't using any of the fancy software folks on here use. I just calculated in my head.

Not even a picture to share?!

That, I can do. I'll try to get a pic soon.

I actually spoke too soon on the OG. I estimated wrong and my OG is fine for the style.

There ya go. Exciting pic, huh?

Sitting at 68F.

I risked a peek into the airlock hole. Nice krausen on it already.

My baby turned one week old last night. I took a peek through the airlock hole and the krausen's fallen (and it can't get up) so things seem to be on schedule. I'm going to bottle my Apfelwein over the weekend and then transfer this one to secondary next tuesday at the 2 week mark. I looks damn good. I'll be using a better bottle for secondary, so I can actually have a pic of the beer.

I am excited to hear the recipe. I want to see what you came up with for your first batch

And here I thought you were intentionally hiding the contents of the primary when you took that first pic. (which I thought was funny) Good luck. I am right now looking at AHS and B3 to try to put together some stuff that I need without the Dragon's Wrath from SWMBO.

hcarter said:

And here I thought you were intentionally hiding the contents of the primary when you took that first pic. (which I thought was funny) Good luck. I am right now looking at AHS and B3 to try to put together some stuff that I need without the Dragon's Wrath from SWMBO.

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My SWMBO has discovered she really likes the wine kits. So I get off the hook easily now.

Racked to secondary tonight. So far so good!



2 weeks old. SG is at 1.010. Smells FANTASTIC. Tastes... green, but nothing bad I could detect. Just like flat green beer.

Saccharomyces said:

My SWMBO has discovered she really likes the wine kits. So I get off the hook easily now.

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Mine... well ... She's not much for all this home brewing. I couldn't bribe her with a wine kit if I tried. I even offered to make her some apfelwein, she said no thanks!! Hey Ches nice looking brew so far. When are you gonna let us see the recipe?

Alrighty... I was going to wait until tasting, but since it's pretty much too late for anyone to talk me into changing my beer, I'll post it. Here it is

BBD Brown Biscuit

6.5 lbs Amber LME
1lb Special B
.5 lb Biscuit
.5 lb 6-row
1 oz Fuggles at 45min
1 oz Fuggles at 10min

That's it. Kept it simple. Time for folks to pick it apart. heheh

Congrats - it looks great!
Did you do a full boil or partial boil? Did you steep the grains or Partial Mash them? What was the AA% on your hops?
I'm only asking because this looks like a great inside brew for when the snow flies and my AG equipment and outdoor brewing are shut down for the winter. I'd like to plug it into beersmith to get some data.
Sometimes (most times in my experience) the simplest recipes make the most delicious beer!

Partial boil and a partial mash in the oven. Hops were 4.4% IIRC.

I'm assuming a 5 gallon batch with a 3 gallon boil, Where did your OG come in at? Right now, using a 50% efficiency for the Partial Mash beersmith is telling me your OG should have been 1.061 and the IBU's at 12. I have also classed this as an American Brown.
Again this is probably why you were averse to posting the recipe in the first place. Too much techno-geek beer speak instead of RDWHAHB. Let me know if I ask too many questions.

Nah. It's all good. I didn't post it because I didn't want "Add some of this" and "Put in less of this". I wanted it to be all mine.

My OG came in lower. 1.048. I know what my mistakes were that caused it, so I'm fine with that.

Congrats on the first brew. Now if everyone put this much effort into their first, we wouldnt have any problems!

I applaud you for skipping the extract phase. Yea you learn the basics, but thats about it. I started brewing with a friend who had just stepped into all grain. To this day, I've still never done an extract kit. I feel like I got a better understanding since we basically learned the all grain brewing process together. I think it was better for me than someone telling me "put that syrup in water, boil it for a while, cool it, pitch yeast and BAM, you have beer...

Yeah. To me, doing a kit was kind of like buying a TV dinner. Yeah, I'm cooking it, but am I really "cooking"?

Again congrats to you.
I followed a slightly similar arc (although not as extended as yours) by joining here, reading Joy of (papizian), and How to (palmer), and doing some research prior to my first batch. I went with a kit extract with steeping grains (a brown ale too) but subbed the yeast and hops based on info I got here and where I thought my tastes woiuld be. My next batch was also a kit the 3 after were counter top PM since then I'm AG and I've now got 10 batches under my belt and that first brew is still in the top 3. I don't know if it's nostalgia or what.

Thanks for the good words.

I'll be PMing for a while. I'm an apartment dweller and don't have anywhere to do an AG. I'm fine with that. By the time I can do AG, I should have many, many PM batches under my belt... or hanging over it.

Not to follow up my own post, but...

I have to add that when I racked last night, I was amazed at how compact the sediment at the bottom of my primary was. I was literally able to get all but a few ounces of my beer off without rousing any of the crap in the bottom.

I'm guessing that was from going 2 weeks in primary instead of just 1. If that was it, then I'm doing that EVERY time!

ChshreCat said:

Not to follow up my own post, but...

I have to add that when I racked last night, I was amazed at how compact the sediment at the bottom of my primary was. I was literally able to get all but a few ounces of my beer off without rousing any of the crap in the bottom.

I'm guessing that was from going 2 weeks in primary instead of just 1. If that was it, then I'm doing that EVERY time!

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You are correct! After you get a few beers in the pipeline, try 3 or 4 weeks in primary for even better results.

24 hours after racking and I already have a nice little layer of goo on the bottom of my carboy.

Downloaded Beer Smith today. I think I did this right...

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - BeerSmith Brewing Software, Recipes, Blog, Wiki and Discussion Forum
Recipe: BBD Brown Biscuit
Brewer: BBD Brewing
Style: American Brown Ale
TYPE: Partial Mash
Taste:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.5 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 23.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 50.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.50 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 76.47 %
1.00 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 11.76 %
0.50 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.50 lb Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (45 min) Hops 11.0 IBU
1.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 9.9 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 2.50 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 1.40 qt of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F

One week to bottling. One month and I get to taste it!

How do you STAND the WAIT?!?!?!?