Wish Me Luck

Well, I just started my first batch, it is just coming up to a boil as I type this. Wish me luck.

sgoehner said:

Well, I just started my first batch, it is just coming up to a boil as I type this. Wish me luck.

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Luck.

RDWHAHB ... Yes, even at this hour

Good luck.

And being that this is your first batch, RDWHA store bought beer.

A few things to remember:
1. Patience, patience, patience
2. Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize
3. Your instructions that came with the kit probably say that it will be ready to bottle in a week. Don't. Let it sit for 2-3 weeks, then transfer to a bottling bucket and bottle it up
4. Patience, patience, patience
5. It's really hard to mess up your beer. It might: be cloudy, smell different then you imagine, taste different than you expect, you might forget to do a step, might drop something in the wort, any number of things. Don't freak out, you'll end up with a beer you're proud of
6. Relax Don't Worry Have A HomeBrew (RDWHAHB), or your favorite commercial brew

And most importantly:
PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE

Oh yea, and good luck! I'm sure it will be great!

Best of Luck on Batch 001, and welcome to Home Brew Talk and the passion of home brewing. Tomorrow morning I am brewing batch 014 of my short brewing life, an IPA all grain. The starter is in the fridge cold crashing, harvested from Bell's Pale Ale. This is the second batch with the same recipe and yeast, the 1st was so good I have to make more before these run out!

Happy Brew Day Number One!

And the addiction begins! Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Good luck....

You will make beer.

Don't rush it and it will be good.

Pick up another fermenter and brew more while you are. waiting.

+1 for all of the above! Good luck!

Thanks everyone. I just put the airlock in and it is now sitting in the darkest room in the basement. I used the Northern Brewer Innkeeper recipe kitand it says to keep it in a room between 68 and 74. I have it in one that is 73 right now, but can move it to one that is in the 71-72 range. My electronic thermometer went on the fritz on me while I was cooling the wort an it kept telling me it was 138 deg. even after being in an ice bath for a decent amount of time, so i ended up cooling the wort a little more than the directions called for but it was still in the range the package of yeast called for, so I pitched it and that is that.

Gl

Thanks again everyone, went down this morning to check on it and the airlock is bubbling, so something is going on which is good.

On my first brew I just about wore out the steps to the basement checking on it.....

Now you have to learn the art of patience, which is extremely difficult for the first brew.

beergolf has good advice. Get another fermenter, build up that pipeline. It makes the waiting more bearable!
BTW, "Good luck. We're all counting on you!"

I just as well got the NB innkeeper kit for batch 2. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

One quick question before I forget to about it again. I have been doing as much reading on here as I can and have read that some people people check the gravity througout the fermentation, is this necessary, or do I just run the risk of contamination?

GL! I counted bubbles per minute with my first batch... RDWHAHB.

Small bit of advice: keep a journal. It will help tremendously as you progress.

sgoehner said:

One quick question before I forget to about it again. I have been doing as much reading on here as I can and have read that some people people check the gravity througout the fermentation, is this necessary, or do I just run the risk of contamination?

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As long as you see activity in the airlock, bubbling, then you know the yeast is doing its job. Did you take an OG reading? Just wait until there is no activity (around 1 week) and then you can check the gravity and decide if you want to let it stay longer or bottle it. It is recommended that you check it twice to see if it changes.

gl & hf

Sanitize the hydrometer prior to checking gravity

I did take an OG which was lower than what the recipe said it would be, but I am trying not to worry about that. It started bubbling withing 24 hours and it is going pretty good. I will check it after it stops bubbling, but what would be the benefit of letting it wait 2 weeks if it stops before then like the instructions say?

ETA: After reading some more, I think my OG is different because I topped off the fermenter with water after the boil.

Letting it sit for 2 - 3 weeks allows the yeast to clean up after themselves after fermentation is complete (which usually takes less than a week). Bubbling is reassuring to many, but fermentation can be active with no bubbling at all. Let it wait, and check the gravity in about 3 weeks. Three days in a row of the same reading and it's time to bottle or keg.

Good Luck. Follow the tips you see on this site and you will do great !

Ok, so I did something stupid and did more reading on the site. I kept reading to keep the fermenter cool, keep it cool, keep it coolish. I was running at about 70-72 and my yeast recommended temp was 65-74. I kept reading that the lower end was better, so I thought I would try to cool it down so that I wouldn't get the off flavors I kept reading about, so I put it in a swamp cooler and got it down to 66-67. Now the bubbling has stopped for the most part and I am worried that I knocked the yeast out, what the heck should I do now?

sgoehner said:

Ok, so I did something stupid and did more reading on the site. I kept reading to keep the fermenter cool, keep it cool, keep it coolish. I was running at about 70-72 and my yeast recommended temp was 65-74. I kept reading that the lower end was better, so I thought I would try to cool it down so that I wouldn't get the off flavors I kept reading about, so I put it in a swamp cooler and got it down to 66-67. Now the bubbling has stopped for the most part and I am worried that I knocked the yeast out, what the heck should I do now?

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RELAX!!!

It is a hobby that takes patients and relaxing. You didn't knock the yeast out, it is just finishing up active primary fermentation and the krausen is settling out. Wait another week and bottle it, but just chill out man. You are making me stressed with all the worrying over your first batch.

This is supposed to be fun, not work, and not stressful in the least.

Good luck with your first batch. It will be just fine. When the airlock goes dormant, wait about a week and check your gravity 2 days in a row. If your readings are the same, you can either rack to a secondary for a week or just go ahead and bottle it up. The only thing you really need to worry about is that everything is sanitized through the post boil process. Try not to get hung up on exact temperature "requirements". If we all followed that letter of the law to the T, we would spend oodles of money on separate fridges and what nots. Before I had my current setup, I would ferment in the garage, spare bedroom, closet, or where ever I could get close to my target temperature depending on the time of the year. If your first beer doesn't come out exactly like you expected, don't worry. It will still be drinkable. I personally have never screwed up a brew to the point where I had to ditch it. A bad homebrew is usually still better than a MCB.

Thanks again everyone. I hvae chilled out after watching it last night and am ok now. I really do need to relax.

So everything seems to be going alright, primary ferm has been done for a few days and the gravity readings are holding steady. I am likely going to bottle on Friday as I have to leave town on Saturday for a little while. I have it around 68 degrees currently in a swamp chiller and the room is around 75, should I let it warm up at all before bottling or just keep it where it is? Also, the directions don't call for it, but would it be beneficial to rack to a secondary for the last couple of days?

Keep the temps as uniform as possible. There are a range of temps that are acceptable for yeasts (dependant on the strain), so a couple of degrees one way or the other won't matter too much. Most people would agree that if you're not making a heavy beer or adding fruit, coffee, etc., there's no reason to secondary. I think you could wind up adding more O2 when you don't want to. Batch prime prior to bottling. Add the primimg sugar to 2 cups of water, boil and let cool a bit (although adding 2 cups of hot water to 5 gallons of fermenting beer shouldn't be a problem). Stir gently into the beer. While you're waiting for everything to settle down, you can sanitize your bottles. By the time you're done with that, you can begin to bottle.

What he said...

Don't secondary unless adding something (e.g. Dry hopping, fruit, etc) or if it will be in primary longer than 4 or 5 weeks.

I put boiling priming sugar water in bottom of bottling bucket and siphon beer right on it, but if you are good, you could bottle from the primary ... Just do t stir vigorously when priming.

sidboswell said:

do t

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= don't

sidboswell said:

What he said...

Don't secondary unless adding something (e.g. Dry hopping, fruit, etc) or if it will be in primary longer than 4 or 5 weeks.

I put boiling priming sugar water in bottom of bottling bucket and siphon beer right on it, but if you are good, you could bottle from the primary ... Just do t stir vigorously when priming.

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I plan on doing what you do for bottling as I have never done it before, so I figure this is the best approach.

Ok, so today was bottling day, I think everything went well, just one final question before I sit back and wait. I think I left a little too much head space, about 2 inches instead of .75 which I read on Palmer's site is about right. Is this going to cause me any problems besides less beer in each pour?

No. I use a bottle filler and with the bottle filler submerged to press the tip in the bottom of the bottle, o fill to the top (and sometimes even run a small amount over). When you remove the filler the amount it displaced while submerged is about perfect.

If you under filled there is a small additional amount of O2, but not enough for you to tale any corrective action. Since this is your first batch, I imagine it won't age so long the oxidation will be very noticeable. WIt three weeks and enjoy...while you are waiting brew another batch!