After all this time...

Looks like I'm going to brew me a gallon of beer. After over a year of tinkering with JAOM and Apfelwein and thinking about how maybe someday I might brew some beer, my lovely wife forced my hand.

Sure, its a gallon Brooklyn Brew Shop kit. But its a start right?

Wish me luck.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll be hooked. Good luck and welcome to the hobby(obsession)!

Good Luck Creamy!

Wait--you've never brewed beer before Creamy? That's shocking--I don't know why but I assumed you were an old-time brewer like some of the others on here...I pictured you sitting with Revvy on cheap lawn chairs in flip-flops, watching a kettle bubble happily.

OK, so maybe I've got mental images of the people on this site...

At any rate, welcome to the fun!

jerrodm said:

Wait--you've never brewed beer before Creamy? That's shocking--I don't know why but I assumed you were an old-time brewer like some of the others on here...I pictured you sitting with Revvy on cheap lawn chairs in flip-flops, watching a kettle bubble happily.

OK, so maybe I've got mental images of the people on this site...

At any rate, welcome to the fun!

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To be thought of in the same light as Revvy is a huge compliment. Maybe someday I can claim to be like him as a brewer, and I hope I am thought to be like him in quality of sense of humor currently .

My sarcasm detector is pegged right now.

I started with a brooklyn gallon kit 9 months ago. now i'm about to start my first batch on my 15.5 gal keggle setup!! catches on like fire...

Geez, bubbles are different! Breadyeast kind of makes a little raft of bubbles at the top and every so often a big one rises to the top. This ale yeast looks like a full on riot! I could hear the blow-off tube from the bedroom!

Yeah, I'm excited.

Beer was bottled and primed (poorly Im sure) and is sitting in my cabinet for the next two weeks. Fingers crossed.

Finally you enter our world! (Sorry I missed this earlier btw)

Thanks, bro. I'm half expecting it to be a disaster... lol!

2000+ posts and you're just now brewing?? I guess better late than never. For the record, one gallon is better than no gallons.


As others have said, welcome to the hobby. It's a delicious one!

hey I was making mead before! I was brewing! .

Thanks for the kind words.

CreamyGoodness said:

hey I was making mead before! I was brewing! .

Thanks for the kind words.

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whoops! Guess I need to get out (of the beer forums) a little more.

Nicely done Creamy. Let it sit for at least two weeks before trying it, maybe three. That way you don't get down if you try it at 2 weeks and it tastes a little "green".

thanks for all the encouragement guys! I already counted a couple things I can do differently next time, but I figure I'll still have beer at the end, right?

Definitely. And you'll get better at it as you go. The learning curve is pretty steep the first couple of tries. But you've got an advantage, since you've been making mead you understand the basics about fermentation, sanitation and analysing and improving your procedures. You'll be a regular old hand in no time.

The real difference is in the steps leading up to the pitch. The recipe called for a dry yeast pitch... I'm used to that... but the boil? The sparge? TEMPERATURE READINGS? All new to me.

I can see how this is going to cause you exceptionally high levels of stress. Relax, it's just beer. Sit down. Put on some soothing music, and write down the steps and think about them in your mind.

It's very easy. If "Take Some Advice" can make beer at home, I know ANYONE can do it!

But come on. 1 gallon batches? That's for P#$$##$. You must have larger pots at home than that.

Creamy, did you jump right into all-grain? That's pretty impressive, and I'm not surprised that it seemed a little daunting. You *might* want to try extract for your first few batches (not counting this one of course), just to limit the amount of new things to learn. I think of brewing as being along a continuum in terms of complexity, with cider/mead/etc being the simplest, since it really only requires control over the sanitation/fermentation process. Next is extract brewing, since the boil and cooling phases are added, and finally AG, which requires knowledge of (if not mastery!) all of those processes, plus the mashing/extraction process as well. It's just an additional wrinkle to add on top, if you like, once you're comfortable with the rest.

That said, some people jump straight into AG and swear by that method as well. So do what feels right.

Ok last night I opened the cabinet and looked at the beers through the bottles. I couldnt see any head retention or lacing through the grolsch bottles.

Brooklyn Brew Shop sent me a bad kit. I am boycotting.

Did you open a bottle? Why would you expect to see head/lacing in an unopened bottle? How long has it been in the bottle?

Just popped open the first bottle. Its good! Its really good! Cloudier than I was expecting (I don't remember if I could see through the last commercial IPA I drank). But the flavor is wonderful, nice mouth feel, and HEAD RETENTION AND LACING TO DIE FOR!

Ok. I thought it was just the first bottle... but so far every bottle I pop has been a geiser and I lose 1/4 a bottle to foam. Something I did wrong?

CreamyGoodness said:

Ok. I thought it was just the first bottle... but so far every bottle I pop has been a geiser and I lose 1/4 a bottle to foam. Something I did wrong?

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Maybe you overprimed? How much sugar did you use, and what kind? Also, chill the bottles at least 24 hours before opening!

Maybe its the underchilling... I will confess that I have popped some bottles in the fridge the same day when I knew friends were coming over.

I used a tablespoon of honey for a gallon batch.

CreamyGoodness said:

Maybe its the underchilling... I will confess that I have popped some bottles in the fridge the same day when I knew friends were coming over.

I used a tablespoon of honey for a gallon batch.

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I don't know how much a tablespoon of honey weighs, so that is something I can't help with. Normally, you'd use about .75 ounce of corn sugar, by weight.

Will leaving it in the fridge for a few weeks make it less cloudy as well?

The batch in question was 2 weeks ferment, 3 weeks conditioning, and then whatever time in the fridge (varied).

Thank you, by the way, Yoop.

Leave it in bottle out of fridge until 24-48 hours before drinking. Refrigerate at least 24 hours (to help dissolve the CO2 and keep down the gushers). its possibly you overprimed, as I havent used honey to prime before I cant say anything either, but just give it a little more cold timeand it should be better. Also, more room temp and more cold time will clear it up a bit, but being an IPA, you probably want to drink it youngish or else it can lose some hop profile.

In the meantime, relax, dont worry and drink that scary looking okra mead of yours and let us know if it kills you. We really want to know.

drunklejon said:

in the meantime, relax, dont worry and drink that scary looking okra mead of yours and let us know if it kills you. We really want to know.

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+1!

CreamyGoodness said:

Will leaving it in the fridge for a few weeks make it less cloudy as well?

The batch in question was 2 weeks ferment, 3 weeks conditioning, and then whatever time in the fridge (varied).

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Yes, the longer in the fridge, the less cloudy the beer will be. There are a couple of reasons- one, the yeast will flocculate more. But mainly, if you have any chill haze, a couple of weeks in the fridge will fix it. So if you have a cloudy beer, sticking the bottles in the fridge once they are carbed up will really help with clarity!

Well gosh... youd think spending all this time with you folks that would have rubbed off on me already!

Oh shoot, how did I miss the defloration of Creamy! I had no idea you were a 40-yr old virgin.

Sure wish I was closer, I'd come by and help you out.

Regarding the gushing, lots of things could cause that:

• Incomplete fermentation. At 65 or higher, all yeasts are going to be done in a week.
• Warm beer. When they are warm they tend to fizz a lot more. They still shouldn't gush though.
• Too much priming sugar. Stick with half a cup of sugar per 5g for now.
• Infection. Most likely candidate. Sanitation. You know the drill.
  
  

Clarity:

• Cold works wonders. Give fermentation 2 weeks, then try get your carboy down to 35F (fridge temps). It will clear at those temps quickly, and much more quickly if you add gelatin once it's cold.
• Finiings in the boil: whirlfloc, irish moss, isinglass, polyclar, etc. I like Whirlfloc.
• Make sure you're getting a good fast chill. The "cold break" you get from chilling your beer after the boil coagulates all sorts of hop material and haze-causing protiens, and they sink to the bottom and out of solution.
• Chill bottles for days before opening.

^Ditto. Congrats on your first, Creamy.

So technically, if I were to bottle condition in the fridge rather than the closet, that would be a good thing?

For what it's worth, I bottle condition 2 weeks out of the fridge and 1 week in. If I'm in a pinch and I don't have any cold, I crash them in the freezer for a couple of hours and then into the fridge they go. Not the ideal situation, but they still get beer. Congrats on popping your cherry.