Jeffro
Well-Known Member
I posted last weekend about my preperation for my first brew day and today I even got off work early to make it happen.
I just did an extract recipe using Muttons Old Ale and Briess Golden Light extracts. I started every thing last night by boiling about 7 gallons of tap water on my kitchen stove for 20 minutes to remove chlorine and just because I can. Then I took about a cup of that water and added just a smidge of the Muttons extract to it and boiled that for just about a minute or so. I cooled this concoction to 80 degrees and pitched my yeast that came with the Muttons kit in and into a sanitized pint liquor bottle that I fit an airlock ontop of. Within about 45 minutes the airlock was bubbling at a rate of about once every ten seconds. Yep... The yeast works.
I left the 7 gallons of boiled water sitting on the stove covered over night until I got home at about 11:30 this afternoon. I was somewhat surprised to see that the temp of the water was still at about 90 degrees after sitting at room temp all for over 12 hours.
First thing I did when I got home was to sanitize everything with I-O-Safe. I just measured out and poured 2 gallons of tap water into my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter and marked that level by sticking my stick on thermometer at that level. Then I toped off the fermenter to the 5 gallon level (which I just marked with a Sharpie) and added the I-O-Safe to that. I sloshed this mixture around for about 2 minutes then dumped it in my garbage pail that I bought just for sanitizing my brewing stuff. In that garbage pail I had my thermometer, hydrometer, hydrometer vial thing, funnel, siphon tube and airlock.
Then I hooked up my bottle/carboy washer thingie to my kitchen faucet and rinsed out my carboy. I rinsed my siphon tube and proceeded to siphon off 2 gallons of boiled water into my carboy and in the mean time I turned the heat back on to get it up to temp. Once I had my 2 gallons I measured out 2 more gallons for my partial boil and kept the other 3 gallons in a seperate sanitized carboy just in case.
I got the main pot up to about 170 degrees with just water in it when I realized I didn't have any ice for wort chillin. So I sent my son to the store to get ice. At the same time I had my cans of extract sitting in another pot on the stove that was about to boil. I add the extract to the water and the stuff is still pretty darned thick. So I just keep diping the cans in the water over and over until they come pretty clean.
Then I wait.... And wait... And wait... Finally when the temp hits about 190 I start to get some pretty good boil going on. I leave it at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes stirring the whole time and thinking about how this is going to be the best beer EVER!!!. I fill up a ziplock bag with ice and soak it in my sanitizing solution thinking this can help the cool off. I also fill the bathtub with as cold of water as comes out of our faucet and after 20 minutes of boiling I put the ziplock bag with ice in the pot and put the pot in the tub.
After I put the 2 gallons of boiled water in my fermenter I got to thinking. Damn.. I wonder how heavy this is. I have to pick this thing up, pack it down 4 stairs then walk out to my shed and heft the whole thing up into my chest freezer for the fermentation stage. So I pick it up and I think... Yeah... I better leave well enough alone and add the AFTER I put the primary in the freezer.
So I pack the carboy out to the shed and heft it up into the freezer (fermentation chamber). About this time my wort was to the point where I was ready to cool. I put the pot in the bathtub and put the ziplock bag with the ice in it. I got it chilled down to 70 degrees in about 40 minutes. Then I packed the pot out to the shed where the fermenter was and just dumped it right into the carboy though the nifty funnel that I bought at the LHBS. Once I saw that it was settled, I pulled a sample using a turkey baster to check the SG. 1.052 sounds good to me. The temp on the thermometer on the carboy showed 76 degrees. So I grabbed the pint liquor bottle that I started my yeast in, gave it a good shake and pitched it on in there.... That was about 2 PM this afternoon.
Then I cleaned up my mess because I don't want my wife to get mad at me... EVER... and took a nap. About 6 PM I went out and looked at it and this is what it looked like after I stired it up a bit. No airlock action yet, but you can see it's getting ready.
Now it's 10 PM and we definitly have some action going on!
Damn this is fun!!!
I just did an extract recipe using Muttons Old Ale and Briess Golden Light extracts. I started every thing last night by boiling about 7 gallons of tap water on my kitchen stove for 20 minutes to remove chlorine and just because I can. Then I took about a cup of that water and added just a smidge of the Muttons extract to it and boiled that for just about a minute or so. I cooled this concoction to 80 degrees and pitched my yeast that came with the Muttons kit in and into a sanitized pint liquor bottle that I fit an airlock ontop of. Within about 45 minutes the airlock was bubbling at a rate of about once every ten seconds. Yep... The yeast works.
I left the 7 gallons of boiled water sitting on the stove covered over night until I got home at about 11:30 this afternoon. I was somewhat surprised to see that the temp of the water was still at about 90 degrees after sitting at room temp all for over 12 hours.
First thing I did when I got home was to sanitize everything with I-O-Safe. I just measured out and poured 2 gallons of tap water into my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter and marked that level by sticking my stick on thermometer at that level. Then I toped off the fermenter to the 5 gallon level (which I just marked with a Sharpie) and added the I-O-Safe to that. I sloshed this mixture around for about 2 minutes then dumped it in my garbage pail that I bought just for sanitizing my brewing stuff. In that garbage pail I had my thermometer, hydrometer, hydrometer vial thing, funnel, siphon tube and airlock.
Then I hooked up my bottle/carboy washer thingie to my kitchen faucet and rinsed out my carboy. I rinsed my siphon tube and proceeded to siphon off 2 gallons of boiled water into my carboy and in the mean time I turned the heat back on to get it up to temp. Once I had my 2 gallons I measured out 2 more gallons for my partial boil and kept the other 3 gallons in a seperate sanitized carboy just in case.
I got the main pot up to about 170 degrees with just water in it when I realized I didn't have any ice for wort chillin. So I sent my son to the store to get ice. At the same time I had my cans of extract sitting in another pot on the stove that was about to boil. I add the extract to the water and the stuff is still pretty darned thick. So I just keep diping the cans in the water over and over until they come pretty clean.
Then I wait.... And wait... And wait... Finally when the temp hits about 190 I start to get some pretty good boil going on. I leave it at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes stirring the whole time and thinking about how this is going to be the best beer EVER!!!. I fill up a ziplock bag with ice and soak it in my sanitizing solution thinking this can help the cool off. I also fill the bathtub with as cold of water as comes out of our faucet and after 20 minutes of boiling I put the ziplock bag with ice in the pot and put the pot in the tub.
After I put the 2 gallons of boiled water in my fermenter I got to thinking. Damn.. I wonder how heavy this is. I have to pick this thing up, pack it down 4 stairs then walk out to my shed and heft the whole thing up into my chest freezer for the fermentation stage. So I pick it up and I think... Yeah... I better leave well enough alone and add the AFTER I put the primary in the freezer.
So I pack the carboy out to the shed and heft it up into the freezer (fermentation chamber). About this time my wort was to the point where I was ready to cool. I put the pot in the bathtub and put the ziplock bag with the ice in it. I got it chilled down to 70 degrees in about 40 minutes. Then I packed the pot out to the shed where the fermenter was and just dumped it right into the carboy though the nifty funnel that I bought at the LHBS. Once I saw that it was settled, I pulled a sample using a turkey baster to check the SG. 1.052 sounds good to me. The temp on the thermometer on the carboy showed 76 degrees. So I grabbed the pint liquor bottle that I started my yeast in, gave it a good shake and pitched it on in there.... That was about 2 PM this afternoon.
Then I cleaned up my mess because I don't want my wife to get mad at me... EVER... and took a nap. About 6 PM I went out and looked at it and this is what it looked like after I stired it up a bit. No airlock action yet, but you can see it's getting ready.
Now it's 10 PM and we definitly have some action going on!
Damn this is fun!!!