Woot! I have beer...

That's right, I said woot!

I finally made the time for my first brew day, yesterday, and I woke up to this. I beautiful carboy full of fermenting beer. It makes some serious glubs from the blow-off tube going into the jug of sanitizer. It's Norther Brewers Three Hearted kit.



Like I said, it was my first brew day and it went pretty smooth and I learned a thing or two.

First, and foremost, I bent the SWMBO over for a quickie. Not sure how long I will be able to maintain this step on brew day, but I intend to for as many brew days possible.

I had three minor hiccups. First, I forgot to get ice for the ice bath until I had already started steeping the specialty grains. No biggie, I went to the store after my boil started and my wife minded the pot.

Next, after the ice bath, I didn't get that great of a whirlpool. Lots of stuff still floating. The auto-siphon stopped siphoning. I thought I just had too much stuff floating around. It was actually clogged. Next time my siphon stops, I will check that, instead of dumping the wort into the fermenter. There was quite a bit of trub left in the pot, but not as much as I would like to have left.

The last little thing I did not like was how I pitched my yeast. After topping off and aerating the wort, there was a nice foamy head. I sprinkled the yeast on top of that. After the head settled, I had a huge clump of yeast. Perhaps, next time, I will give the wort some time to settle before pitching the yeast.

Aside from those three things, I thought the brew day went great. And those are some minor details, anyway...

Congrats dude! I can only imagine that that is as close to the feeling of child birth that we'll actually come. Without the pain of shooting something the size of a watermelon out of our bottom.

Cheers man.

I'm going to have to that SWMBO thing on my next brew day. It may not help the beer but it couldn't hurt.

Its a great feeling. Wait till you drink the beer, another great feeling.

Congrats

If the yeast is just hanging out on top, maybe next time try rehydrating it. While you don't have to it could help with the problem you are seeing.

By the following morning, it was fine. Very active and has gone glub glub every couple seconds for two days, so far. It's pretty amazing to watch...

But I do think next time I will rehydrate it, first. My next beer is the NB Bourbon Porter

JohnnyO said:

Congrats dude! I can only imagine that that is as close to the feeling of child birth that we'll actually come. Without the pain of shooting something the size of a watermelon out of our bottom.

Cheers man.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean. This is like sitting with your buddy while his kid take his first step.

Dont forget to tell us how it comes out Xtant.

Down to a glub every 30 seconds or so. After over two days of giving it hell, the yeasties are slowing down...

The krausen dropped. The glubs are pretty far apart. Far enough apart that I am not gonna stand around timing them. lol....

Time for a gravity reading......

What is it?

it was 1.016 yesterday. SG was 1.064. That's 75% attenuation so it might be close to finished. I pitched the Safale us-05. 75% falls right in with what I was expecting, but it seems people on here have reached 80%+ so we'll just have to see what it actually settles to....

I took another specific gravity reading this morning and it is still sitting at 1.016. I guess when I get around to it, I'll transfer to secondary and dry hop. Maybe this weekend, but most likely next weekend, but that weekend is packed with rock climbing and trail work...we'll see....

cool ready to keg or bottle anytime in the next 3 months. Take your time, go climb.