BaconManic
Active Member
Hello,
Yesterday I did my first whole boil extract brew. Wow I did not realize how much work went into this! Work, but fun!
The weather turned nice and I finally got my hands on a turkey fryer. Cleaned our the turkey fryer, looked over to make sure no rust (it was used 1 time). Did a 6 gallon boil and let it cool to see if I got all the grease and oils out from the 1 time fry. All was good.
Now the event was fun, just a few things happened I was not ready for. Dumb me while the grains (malt?) was in the brew boiling I walked away for a few seconds. Then I hear my wife " Hun! The beer is doing something" Come back to see a boil over! Oh no! I turned down the heat and gave it a stir. Question one, Will this cause any issues? It seem like the consensus is just relax. So that is what I did.
After about 45 minutes I removed the grains and found out that the sack and turn a little back in an area about the size of a quater! Damn! must have burnt a little. Question two, Will this cause any major down side or issue?
So I go through the rest of the process without an issues. Time to cool down! I put my pot in a big bucket with cold water. I changed this out a few times and waited about 30 minutes. When I pulled it out of the cooler water I saw some weird floaties in it, almost white. I am just going to assume this is some left over from the hops and grains that escaped the muslin sacks. Question three, is my assumption correct or am I making an ass out of u and me?
So I get it cooled and into the fermentor. Now because of all the boiling my beer does not sit at a whole 5 gallons. So I top it off with some cold water. Question four, is this a normal processes? It seems to be a normal practice to me.
So I add the yeast to the fermentor and put it up in my "fermenting" room. I let it sit the rest of the night and I check it this morning. The air lock looks like it as hundreds of tiny bubbles in it, but it does not look active. Is this what is meant by an active airlock? I am trying to resist opening my bucket to look inside, but I have this thing with playing and tinkering with stuff.
So to recap my questions:
1) Will the boil over cause any problems with the beer?
2) will the burning of the muslin sack and grains in my small quater size area cause and problems?
3) White looking floaties in the end product just left over escapees from the hops and gain in the muslin sacks?
4) Topping off with cold water to bring to 5 gallon mark normal practice? (less then a gallon of water needed)
5) Active Airlock activity mean just a bunch of little bubbles in the three-piece air lock?
Whew that is a lot. I feel that maybe I just need to relax, but that is not in my nature. I hope this whole learning to brew process helps me learn to relax a little more.
Thank for the input all!!!
Yesterday I did my first whole boil extract brew. Wow I did not realize how much work went into this! Work, but fun!
The weather turned nice and I finally got my hands on a turkey fryer. Cleaned our the turkey fryer, looked over to make sure no rust (it was used 1 time). Did a 6 gallon boil and let it cool to see if I got all the grease and oils out from the 1 time fry. All was good.
Now the event was fun, just a few things happened I was not ready for. Dumb me while the grains (malt?) was in the brew boiling I walked away for a few seconds. Then I hear my wife " Hun! The beer is doing something" Come back to see a boil over! Oh no! I turned down the heat and gave it a stir. Question one, Will this cause any issues? It seem like the consensus is just relax. So that is what I did.
After about 45 minutes I removed the grains and found out that the sack and turn a little back in an area about the size of a quater! Damn! must have burnt a little. Question two, Will this cause any major down side or issue?
So I go through the rest of the process without an issues. Time to cool down! I put my pot in a big bucket with cold water. I changed this out a few times and waited about 30 minutes. When I pulled it out of the cooler water I saw some weird floaties in it, almost white. I am just going to assume this is some left over from the hops and grains that escaped the muslin sacks. Question three, is my assumption correct or am I making an ass out of u and me?
So I get it cooled and into the fermentor. Now because of all the boiling my beer does not sit at a whole 5 gallons. So I top it off with some cold water. Question four, is this a normal processes? It seems to be a normal practice to me.
So I add the yeast to the fermentor and put it up in my "fermenting" room. I let it sit the rest of the night and I check it this morning. The air lock looks like it as hundreds of tiny bubbles in it, but it does not look active. Is this what is meant by an active airlock? I am trying to resist opening my bucket to look inside, but I have this thing with playing and tinkering with stuff.
So to recap my questions:
1) Will the boil over cause any problems with the beer?
2) will the burning of the muslin sack and grains in my small quater size area cause and problems?
3) White looking floaties in the end product just left over escapees from the hops and gain in the muslin sacks?
4) Topping off with cold water to bring to 5 gallon mark normal practice? (less then a gallon of water needed)
5) Active Airlock activity mean just a bunch of little bubbles in the three-piece air lock?
Whew that is a lot. I feel that maybe I just need to relax, but that is not in my nature. I hope this whole learning to brew process helps me learn to relax a little more.
Thank for the input all!!!