First batch is bubbling away!

So my first batch is in the fermentor and bubbling away already! I did the AHS Belgian Whit, mini-mash, alcohol boost, and yeast fuel.

I made a yeast starter a couple of days ago that I pulled out of the fridge this morning, decanted off the wort/beer. I obviously had increased my yeast count.

So this afternoon I set off to get it going. Everything was going fine, but I did a full boil instead of partial. I started off with 5.5 gallons of water and I ended up having to add a full gallon at the end which was a little disturbing.

I had my hops and flavor agents added to a bag, and when I pulled it out I failed to realize that there was probably a good 2 cups of water above the hops that then spilled out onto the ground when I pulled them. grrrr.

Also, when I dropped my wort cooler in at the 15 minute till flame out mark I failed to drain the water in it from testing it. So my boil immediately stopped. I got it going again within a minute or two. Will it be a problem to drop it out of boil and then restart it? Once I did reach flameout the temp came down from boiling to about 75 within 12-15 minutes so I think I'm good there.

My OG was a little low, as the expected OG was 1.048 and I assumed with the alcohol boost it would be a little higher than that. I ended up with 1.046/7 so I guess I lost a little goodness to spillage.

6 hours later and my airlock is bubbling like a champ. I have to say that between the yeast starter and the yeast fuel it sure didn't take long to start working. I saw the first bubbles at about the 5 hour mark.

I learned a few things that I did wrong, so hopefully I won't do them again. Now the wait begins. After this batch hits secondary next week I'm doing the AHS Dos Equis Special Lager clone (but I'm not going to actually lager it).

Thanks for all the great threads, vids, tips, and tricks that I've been lurking on for a month or so.

Tony

Losing the boil and bringing back up is fine. Also remember that your hydrometer is probably calibrated at 60 degrees Fahrenheit so be sure to use a calculator, you may have hit your OG perfectly.

In case you need a calculator for determining ABV with taking temperature into account check out this site: www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php

Thanks Earwig, I guess i probably should have read the instructions on the Hydrometer, huh. I'll go dig em out and see.

Thanks for the link!

Turk, Congrat's on your first batch! Impressed that you are tackling a Whit on your first batch and a Lager on your second. Can be tricky stuff on these types of brews. I recommend you lager that 2nd batch, not too hard to do, as long as you have the routine down. Check out the lager methodology before you hit that next batch.

Hey, seems overwhelming in the beginning, but before you know it, all your skanky neighbors will be lurking around trying to drain the secondary!

sparky, i don't have any way to cool it down to lager it. I've already spent more than the wife first expected and if I told her I had to buy a chest freezer and a thermostat she'd probably flip her lid. I'll do one eventually, but i have to get a drinkable product the wife can taste and enjoy before i spring more purchases on her. Its in the upper 60's at night and well into the 70's here during the day right now so outside is out of the question.

and earwig you are exactly right. my og is 1.048/1.049 with the temperature correction. Good to go!

UPDATE at 48 hours after pitch.

My OG was around 1.048/1.049 with temperature correction.

So tonight, I popped the lid to see what we got. 48 hours in and I have a very thick Krausen that has formed. The beer smells like a Chimay White more than a Blue Moon currently which I'm happy with. The orange and spices are definitely coming out in the nose of the beer. The current gravity is 1.031 and the fermentation temp is 69 degrees.

I think all is going well. Is it normal to be very anal about opening the lid? I think I washed my hands a half dozen times, washed and sanitized my bucket opener, thief, hydrometer, etc. Sanitized my hands, didn't touch the door knobs, haha. Something tells me if you had to be this clean man never would have invented beer because you'd think i was going into surgery. lol. oh well, better to be too clean and not worry..

Congrats on your 1st brew and welcome to the obsession!!

The first batch is racked off the to secondary and start bubbling away again. I had to run a hose to a container with starsan in it because the bubbling kept filling up the lock. I assume this is normal, but its fairly vigorously bubbling again.

I waited 7 full days before racking to secondary. I didn't test the gravity since the other day.

My wife even commented on how good it smelled when I popped the top on the fermentor.