First Brew; Not getting warm fuzzies...

Hello all!

I have read through many of the sticky posts, and have yet to find a good answer to my questions. I followed John Palmer's How To Brew to brew a Cincinatti IPA from extract.

The instructions were.. less than stellar.. I think I made the following mistakes:

• The temperature of the wort boil changed (the book didn't mention any specific boil temperature, just to 'boil it'). It went from a light boil to a heavy boil a few times.
  
• I didn't sterilize the entire fermenting bucket. Again, the instructions said to fill it with 5 gallons of sterilized water. I have a 6 gallon bucket, so there was some headroom that was not sterilized.
  
• The book said to boil water, and then use it to mix the yeast. The water was still steaming slightly (but about 5 minutes off a boil) when I mixed in the yeast.

It has been >72 hours, and so far as I can tell nothing is happening.

Questions:

• Should I re-pitch the yeast?
• Is there a better resource than 'How to brew' that is for new brewers that will point out the problem areas (ie, sterilize the entire container.. dont use hot water for the yeast).
• Does the boil temperature matter? Or just that it is boiling.. fast..slow.. or anywhere inbetween?

The level of your boil was not likely the problem. I have seen several different brewers do their thing, and even amongst the best the idea of a rolling boil varies quite a bit. As long as the water is rolling you are good.

Although sanitation is very important in this case it is not likely your problem, I believe you pitched your yeast into water that was too hot and may have killed them.

Yeast should be activated/started at your fermentation temperature. I usually cool down the boiled water in an ice bath to get it to my fermentation temperature. A cheap 'instant read' digital thermometer from the grocery store can be a great start on checking you temperatures before pitching.

Do not worry; repitch some fresh yeast and you should be good to go. As for a good resource, the homebrewtalk forums are contain some of the best advice and knowledgeable people you may ever find, just keep digging around here and asking questions.

My guess, you tried to rehydrate the yeast in water that was too hot, and killed it. However, the ONLY way to know for sure is to take a hydrometer fading and find out if its fermenting. It may be fermenting, even if you're not seeing physical signs of it.

IMO, there is no better book than Palmer. You just have to use common sense ... If you read the chapter on cleaning and sanitation, he's very clear that ANYTHING that touches the wort after the boil must be sanitized. He is also pretty Clark in stating that the water you rehydrate the yeast in should be cooled to pitching temps prior to rehydrating.

My advice: take the hydrometer reading. If its not fermenting (meaning your gravity hasn't changed from when you first pitched the yeast), hen simply pitch new yeast. Remember to let the sanitized (boiled) water sit until it comes down to room temperature prior to rehydrating. Alternately, with most dry yeast, simply sprinkling it over the top of the wort will work.

A few things.

Its important that we have sanitary practices and sanitize, not sterilize the equipment.
You should be fine wuth your fermenter.

Im concerned you may have killed the yeast with the high temps. If you have another packet, hydrate it and pitch.

Depending on your elevation, water typically boils, and stays at 212F. It doesn't get hotter, it just boils off. The more rolling you get your boil, the better however.

You will need more yeast. Hot water will kill it. Get your hands on some as fast as possible.

The boil shouldn't matter that much, just be sure to keep the lid off. Try to keeps rolling boil next time

Repitch. Dry yeast should be rehydrated at approx 102-104F, steaming is way too hot. After rehydrating, you slowly temper the yeast mixture with your wort to get them within 10-15F of each other before pitching. Ideally you would want them both about 2 degrees below your fermentation temp and let it rise to your optimum temp as the yeast become active.

First of all...WELCOME to HBT! Secondly, Merry Chritmas!

Ill try to answer this from my limited knowledge...If Im wrong, one of the others will be along soon to correct me -

The temperature of the wort boil changed (the book didn't mention any specific boil temperature, just to 'boil it'). It went from a light boil to a heavy boil a few times.
I dont think you really need to worry about this too much. Boil is boil. Dont sweat this one.

I didn't sterilize the entire fermenting bucket. Again, the instructions said to fill it with 5 gallons of sterilized water. I have a 6 gallon bucket, so there was some headroom that was not sterilized. Well, this could present a problem or it may not. Generally, you want to use the star-san or whatever you have for sterilizer to fill the bucket you are using for a fermenter (or carboy). You really should sanitize ANY parts of ANYTHING that will touch the post boiled wort. That upper 1.5 gallons may not touch the wort, or it may if you slosh the bucket or move it. Even if it does, it still may not cause an infection. Nothing you can do about it now - live and learn.

The book said to boil water, and then use it to mix the yeast. The water was still steaming slightly (but about 5 minutes off a boil) when I mixed in the yeast. Well, this one im not REAL sure about, but if that water was above the temps recommended on the yeast package, you may get some off flavors from it. Usually if you boil the water to rehydrate the yeast, it should cool first to 65-70 degrees. The yeast package will tell you the optimum range for temps for pitching the yeast and people around here recommend pitching it at the LOW end of that range.

It has been >72 hours, and so far as I can tell nothing is happening. If the water that was used to rehydrate the yeast was steaming hot, it may have killed the yeast and you may need to repitch the yeast. Im not absolutely certain that this is exactly correct so I would wait on some of the gurus around here to answer this question. It does take sometimes up to 72 hours for anything to start happening and you cant go by what your airlock is doing (bubbling or not).

I hope this helped a little. again, if Im wrong, the gurus will be along...just give em a little time.

New myself, just brewed my 7th yesterday, but I'll throw my two cents in. First, the boil shouldn't matter as long as you didn't scorch the wort on the bottom. Second, Palmer's book is excellent, however there's no substitute for your own experience. You'll learn the best methods for you as you go. Third, sterilize EVERYTHING that touches the post boil wort. I wash then spray my fermenters with starsan. I'm meticulous - as you should be - with sanitization. Lastly, I would re-pitch. Yeast is very finicky about temperature. You may have killed a lot of them if the hydrating water was too hot (80° +). I boil my rehydrating water toward the end of my wort boil, put a top on it and stick it in the freezer. I then take the temp every so often till it reaches 70°, then rehydrate the yeast. It usually works out that the yeast is rehydrated by the time my wort is at pitching temp. Good luck, and merry Christmas.

DAMMIT! Im SLOW!!! No one had answered this question and I typed this book. LOL

GeorgiaTiger said:

DAMMIT! Im SLOW!!! No one had answered this question and I typed this book. LOL

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Ha ha, me too.

At least my responses were right. LOL. Im learning this game!

Merry Christmas!

Can someone explain (as you would to a 5 year old) how I get liquid from my sealed fermenter into a hydrometer? Reviewing Appendix A of 'How To Brew' (how to use a Hydrometer) seems to assume you already know this.

I have an auto-syphon, some tubing, and a hydrometer.

beer_stan said:

Merry Christmas!

Can someone explain (as you would to a 5 year old) how I get liquid from my sealed fermenter into a hydrometer? Reviewing Appendix A of 'How To Brew' (how to use a Hydrometer) seems to assume you already know this.

I have an auto-syphon, some tubing, and a hydrometer.

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I highly suggest you just go get some yeast like Nottingham or US 05 and toss it in. If you don't see any krausenn (yeast bubbling at the top of beer) or see a lot of yeast on the bottom showing they are reproducing, milky whiteish color is yeast. If these have not happened throw in the new yeast. Sit back have a beer and wait a couple days

To get a sample, get yourself a beer or wine thief. Go to northernbrewer.com and search for it. Or get a turkey Baster, sanitize it well and use it. Use the tube your hydrometer came in to test if you don't have a tester.

beer_stan said:

Merry Christmas!

Can someone explain (as you would to a 5 year old) how I get liquid from my sealed fermenter into a hydrometer? Reviewing Appendix A of 'How To Brew' (how to use a Hydrometer) seems to assume you already know this.

I have an auto-syphon, some tubing, and a hydrometer.

Click to expand...

Oh and to answer your question run the end of tubing under hot water to loosen it up. Shove it on tip of auto siphon. Now sanitize auto siphon and then use it to extract your wort. Extract just a little into a cylinder with your siphon. Stick hydrometer in take reading voila

First put the floating hydrometer into the empty test jar. Next, sanitize the siphon and tubing. Next, connect the siphon and tubing, then siphon some of the beer into the test jar as best as you can. Try to fill the test jar close to the top but not spill it. If you haven't used the siphon before, practice with some regular water prior to sanitizing.

beer_stan said:

Merry Christmas!

Can someone explain (as you would to a 5 year old) how I get liquid from my sealed fermenter into a hydrometer? Reviewing Appendix A of 'How To Brew' (how to use a Hydrometer) seems to assume you already know this.

I have an auto-syphon, some tubing, and a hydrometer.

Click to expand...

Use a turkey baster or a wine thief to fill the hydometer sampling tube, I do this with the hydrometer in the tube. Either remove the lid (pail) or remove the airlock (carboy) and take the sample. Most suggest, tasting the sample and then dumping it. Do not put it back into the fermentor.

Since you mentioned that you have a bucket for a fermenter, take the lid off, sanitize something (turkey baster works, wine thief works, measuring cup works, coffee cup works) to remove a sample for testing , then put the lid back on loosely. If your hydrometer says it didn't ferment, add yeast.

My biggest piece of advice is to come here daily and check out the beginners forum and read any thread that even slightly grabs your attention. My second brew went 100 times smoother because of other peoples questions. There are people here that are great at breaking down answers to make sense. And will usually answer follow up questions as well.

beer_stan said:

Questions:

• Is there a better resource than 'How to brew' that is for new brewers that will point out the problem areas (ie, sterilize the entire container.. dont use hot water for the yeast).

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You're looking at it. Don't be afraid to ask questions, especially in this Beginner's section.

beer_stan said:

Merry Christmas!

Can someone explain (as you would to a 5 year old) how I get liquid from my sealed fermenter into a hydrometer? Reviewing Appendix A of 'How To Brew' (how to use a Hydrometer) seems to assume you already know this.

I have an auto-syphon, some tubing, and a hydrometer.

Click to expand...

Stan, if you have a copy of Palmer's book, read it!!! Don't just thumb through it, read it!!!

Good luck.

Rick

RM-MN said:

Since you mentioned that you have a bucket for a fermenter, take the lid off, sanitize something (turkey baster works, wine thief works, measuring cup works, coffee cup works) to remove a sample for testing , then put the lid back on loosely. If your hydrometer says it didn't ferment, add yeast.

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I bolded the above. Don't waste your money buying a wine thief or whatever. Just use a cup of some sort, well sanitized, of course, and take about 5 oz out of the fermenter (unless you've got a really big hydrometer jar/tube, then more), being careful not to touch the wort with anything not sanitized (of course).

The thief is only necessary for a carboy.

The "theif" is great though... your hydrometer fits right in it and it's easy to sanitize. Maybe not necessary, but there's a lot of unnecessary stuff that is just handy... especially for beginners that are concerned about sanitization (i.e. me!)

Jeffro74 said:

The "theif" is great though... your hydrometer fits right in it and it's easy to sanitize. Maybe not necessary, but there's a lot of unnecessary stuff that is just handy... especially for beginners that are concerned about sanitization (i.e. me!)

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Hey, no problem. I'm just pointing out that you don't need to buy one, as it's often stated (especially by those selling them, of course). There are many things that get touted, and then bought by beginners, that just aren't necessary. Many would like to know before wasting money.

But I do have to ask: what does sanitization have to do with it? You can take a sample with other things (as pointed out previously) without one; at no cost to sanitary practices.

Onlooker said:

But I do have to ask: what does sanitization have to do with it? You can take a sample with other things (as pointed out previously) without one; at no cost to sanitary practices.

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I don't want to hijack the thread... but the point is just that it's easy to sanitize. It's an uncomplicated handy tool that I, as a beginner, find useful. If it was hard to sanitize, it would not survive as a product. Yes, you are correct... you don't "need" it. But the original post had mentioned questions about sanitization... (because it is a beginner forum) and a separate one about how to get a hydrometer sample.

Merely stating my opinion... not trying to tell anyone my way is the right or only way...