First brew ever, a 10gal all grain.

Hi guys, I'm new here... and new to brewing....an old hat at drinking however

I converted two kegs to a HLT and a boil kettle, converted a 60qt Ice Cube to an MLT with copper manifold and fabricated an immersion chiller. The system appearently worked the way it was supposed to. I brewed a 10gal batch of a Boulevard Wheat clone yesterday. My OG was really close to target, coming in at 1.048. I split the batch between two 5gal carboys, pitched one smack pack of Wyeast 1050 between the two and had visible evidence of aggressive fermintation within a matter of hrs.

My plan is to keg everything once it's time.

One question i do have is about secondary fermintation as opposed to leaving the wort in primary. What is the advantage to transferring to secondary and can I get the same results leaving the batch in primary?

Thanks for your input!

IMO something like a wheat beer is perfect for a single stage primary only fermentation. IMO secondary ferms are more applicable to bigger beers that require more time to condition and clear.

One smack pack for a ten gal batch seems a bit low to me but what the heck? Sounds like you are doing great for a first batch. I would just primary it for two to three weeks and carefully rack into your kegs. If you are eager you can force carb for earlier satisfaction, but the beer will continue to condition nicely while in the kegs.

I second wilsers comments. A wheat is perfect for SingleStage. You (or at least Style) want them cloudy. Secondary just allows for clearing and is a place for additives such as dry hopping, oaking, fruit , ect.
Next time give each 5G batch it's own smack pack. It will still ferment as you are seeing, but will put some stress on the yeast most likely causing some off flavors. The y may or may not be noticable. You may also have problems getting it to ferment out completely.

I use my kegs as secondary fermentors. After your ready to take it out of the primary just rack it to kegs and put a little pressure on it to make a good seal and leave it for a while.

wilserbrewer said:

One smack pack for a ten gal batch seems a bit low to me but what the heck? .

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Yeah, thats what I thought when I initially made the ingredient order. The brewer at Midwest said it would be fine to split the pack between the two, since there is roughly 100 billion cells per pack. My gut said to use two packs but I went with what I was told, since it was the first batch ever. Hopefully it'll turn out well.

Thanks a lot for your input guys, I appreciate it!

I'm guessing it will be more than fine...a first timer going for a ten gal. all grain batch. I commend your ambitious attitude!!

Paraops said:

Yeah, thats what I thought when I initially made the ingredient order. The brewer at Midwest said it would be fine to split the pack between the two, since there is roughly 100 billion cells per pack. My gut said to use two packs but I went with what I was told, since it was the first batch ever. Hopefully it'll turn out well.

Thanks a lot for your input guys, I appreciate it!

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He's an idiot, plain and simple. Not you, the dummy at Midwest.

wilserbrewer said:

I'm guessing it will be more than fine...a first timer going for a ten gal. all grain batch. I commend your ambitious attitude!!

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Yeah..... I'm a jump in head first sort a guy I tried to do my homework and felt okay about starting out full throttle. So far, so good.

As far as the yeast volume is concerned, I just went to the basement to check on the fermentation. Is it common for fermentation to go from a rolling boil and constant air lock bubbling (lasting about 30hrs) to an airlock bubble every 15-20 sec or so within the first 48hrs of fermentation? I was suprized to see such a decrease in activity so soon.... but then again, I have no real experience to draw from.

Paraops said:

Yeah..... I'm a jump in head first sort a guy I tried to do my homework and felt okay about starting out full throttle. So far, so good.

As far as the yeast volume is concerned, I just went to the basement to check on the fermentation. Is it common for fermentation to go from a rolling boil and constant air lock bubbling (lasting about 30hrs) to an airlock bubble every 15-20 sec or so within the first 48hrs of fermentation? I was suprized to see such a decrease in activity so soon.... but then again, I have no real experience to draw from.

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It's fine. Even no bubbles in the airlock is fine. You know activity has started, so long as there is not a huge temperature change the yeast will do their job. At this point the best thing you can do with your beer is forget about it until your done in the primary. One of the biggest rookie mistakes is trying to rush it.

Thanks man!

This is the second of a double post of the original thread. If there is any reply posts in this partucular thread, please place them in the other, of the same name. This thread needs to be deleted. Thanks.