Getting ready for the first brew...double check my process

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newbrewguy11

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Ok, it's almost time for me to do my first brew. Waiting on a couple last things to be delivered and then it's off to the races.

Here is the process I intend to do. I am looking for 100% precision here as I will go down this list and check off each item as it is done. If you see anything amiss with the ingredients, order, temps, time, process, etc I would love to hear the feedback. Things I am unsure about or have a question about are in red.

This is not a tested process I have never brewed before so anyone who wants to follow this, well don't :eek:

This is the recipe kit that I will be brewing:
http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/20107bef/shoultzmeyer-brewery-extra-imported-stout

1) Fill kettle with 3 gallons of distilled water

2) Put kettle onto burner, get it to 158 degrees, check using thermometer

3) Add "Crisp Crystal Malt 60L", "Crisp Roasted Barley", "Crisp Chocolate Malt" into the included bag and steep for 30 minutes.

4) Remove grains from kettle

5) Turn OFF burner

6) Add half of heated "Briess Pilsen Extra Light Liquid Extract" to the mixture. Stir like crazy.

7) Bring to a rolling boil (will be boiled a total of 60 minutes) -

8) Add "Brewers Gold Pellets" to mixture

9) After 40 minutes (20 minutes remaining), add the remaining heated "Briess Pilsen Extra Light Liquid Extract"

10) At the same time as number 9, place chiller into boiling liquid to sanitize it

** Sanitizing important after this step **

11) At 60 minutes, turn off boil, connect hoses and commence wort chilling by turning on water to IC

12) Chill to 65-70 degrees (thanks BBL) with IC. Use sanitized stainless spoon to agitate the wort and create turbulence around the chiller pipes

13) While that is cooling, take the "SAFALE S-04" and pour it into a cup of lukewarm water (90-100 degrees) for 10 minutes to rehydrate it.

14) Pour cooled water into plastic fermenter bucket (cleaned/sanitized)

15) Mix yeast/water mixture into wort in the bucket

15a) Top up to 5 of distilled and probably boiled gallons. Will use boiled distilled water.

16) Place cover over fermenter bucket, ensure airlock is sealed and filled half with vodka.

17) Ferment ~2.5 weeks, monitor airlock to make sure it's not making a mess. Take hydrometer reading on final few days to ensure that it is not changing. This ensures fermentation is done when they are the same reading give or take.

18) ignore will do all in bucket - Transfer to glass carboy using clean/sanitized autosiphon

19) ignore will do all in bucket - Affix airlock and/or blow off tubing to bowl with sanitized water

20) ignore will do all in bucket - Ferment for another 5-7 days, monitor airlock

--
Bottling

21) Clean bottling bucket, racking cane, siphon, bottle caps, and bottles using oxiclean and jet bottle washer for bottles. Do not use abrasive anything. Just a sponge or brush for glass things.

22) Sanitize the same items in star san solution using proper mixture

23) Hang bottles on bottle tree

24) Leave all other items in star san until ready to use

25) Heat up 1 cup of water

26) Add 5 oz of priming sugar

26) Bring to a boil for approx 5 minutes

27) Allow to cool

28) Add priming sugar mixture to bottling bucket

29) Siphon beer with autosiphon from fermenter to bottling bucket on top of sugar, may lightly stir if not getting a mixing swirl out of autosiphon

30) Place bottling bucket above dishwasher

31) Pull a bottle off of the tree rinse with vinator

32) Cap with sanitized cap (will have 2 people)

33) Store in a 60-70 degrees for 2-4 weeks.

34) Drink
 
Are you a computer programmer? ; )

JK, looks good.

Edit: Just saw 8. For 8, Google "hot break." As long as your boil is moving enough to rid your pot of the hot break, you should be good to go.

for 15a: You can boil it, but if I was a good brewer I'd buy some distilled water from the store. Of course, I'm lazy so I use tap water. easy peasy.

After 15A: Take this time to shake the hell out of your carboy to get some oxygen in your wort which acts as a nutrient for the yeast.

On 20: you don't have to worry about Hydro readings. It won't change.

For 33: I suggest since this is your first brew, Take a beer at the end of week 1, Label it "week 1" and put it in the fridge, this will end the carbonation process. Do the same for week 2 and 3 or 4.

Then, a week after the last week, try them and compare. You'll learn why you should wait 3 weeks or more before drinking your HB.
 
Looks like better instuctions than what I got in my first kit. A couple of things.


Yes, it's a good idea to boil and cool your top off water.

Also, I would pitch your yeast at a lower temperature than 78F. I would shoot for more like 68-70 (or even a bit lower).

As for transfering to a carboy, that's debatable. You could leave the beer in the primary for 2-3 weeks instead of racking it over. Either way is fine though. Also, you don't have to get super crazy with the hydrometer readings. After a couple of weeks take a reading, then take another one 2-3 days later. If it hasn't changed any then you're done. Taking a million readings will just expose the beer to more chances of infection and oxidation and will prevent more beer from reaching bottles.

Other than that, you're instructions look ok.
 
Thanks guys!

I will either get distilled or boil and cool some water. Perhaps distilled is easiest, one less thing to worry about at least for my first run.

I won't go crazy with the hydro readings. Will just take a couple there!

In terms of fermenting bucket vs carboy, I never did understand the point of changing it over to a different vessel. What is the benefit of a carboy over a bucket, or is there none? If it's all about time, then how come a bucket isn't good enough?

Since you mentioned infection, I am worried about this so I'm trying to have everything planned out as best as possible. Any other words of wisdom appreciated on this front.
 
1) Fill kettle with 3 gallons of tap water

2) Put kettle onto burner, get it to 158 degrees, check using thermometer

3) Add "Crisp Crystal Malt 60L", "Crisp Roasted Barley", "Crisp Chocolate Malt" into the included bag and steep for 30 minutes.

4) Remove grains from kettle

5) Remove kettle from burner

6) Add half of "Briess Pilsen Extra Light Liquid Extract" to the mixture

7) Add "Brewers Gold Pellets" to mixture - no. Wait until the wort starts boiling, then set your timer for 60 minutes and add the hops.

8) Bring to a boil (will be boiled a total of 60 minutes) - how hard a boil? temp range? Boiling is boiling- you want a nice rolling boil, not a simmer, but you don't need it to be harder than simply a rolling boil.

9) After 40 minutes (20 minutes remaining), add the remaining "Briess Pilsen Extra Light Liquid Extract" That may really cool off your wort, plus addding the chiller. You can do it, but I often add the LME at flameout to avoid totally cooling off my boil[./B]

10) At the same time as number 9, place chiller into boiling liquid to sanitize it

** Sanitizing important after this step **

11) At 60 minutes, turn off boil, commence wort chilling by turning on water to IC

12) Chill to 65-70 degrees (thanks BBL) with IC. Use sanitized stainless spoon to agitate the wort and create turbulence around the chiller pipes

13) While that is cooling, take the "SAFALE S-04" and pour it into a cup of lukewarm water (90-100 degrees) for 10 minutes to rehydrate it.

14) Pour cooled water into plastic fermenter bucket (cleaned/sanitized)

15) Mix yeast/water mixture into wort in the bucket

15a) Top up to 5 gallons. Should this be water that has been boiled??- will use distilled water or boiled and cooled water (Thank gregpio and BBL) Use either- just make sure you end up with 60-70 degree wort when added.

16) Place cover over fermenter bucket, ensure airlock is sealed and filled half with water.

17) Ferment 5-7 days, monitor airlock to make sure it's not making a mess. Take hydrometer reading on days 5,6,7 to ensure that it is not changing. This ensures fermentation is done when they are the same reading give or take.

18) Transfer to glass carboy using clean/sanitized autosiphon I'd personally skip this step (along with #19 and #20), and leave it in the fermenter for 14-20 days total, before checking the SG and then bottling after three days of stable readings.

19) Affix airlock and/or blow off tubing to bowl with santized water

20) Ferment for another 5-7 days, monitor airlock. Take hydrometer readings?

--
Bottling

21) Clean bottling bucket, racking cane, siphon, bottle caps, and bottles using oxiclean and jet bottle washer for bottles. Do not use abrasive anything. Just a sponge or brush for glass things.

22) Sanitize the same items in star san solution using proper mixture

23) Hang bottles on bottle tree

24) Leave all other items in star san until ready to use

25) Heat up 1 cup of water

26) Add 5 oz of priming sugar

26) Bring to a boil for approx 5 minutes

27) Allow to cool

28) Add priming sugar mixture to bottling bucket

29) Siphon beer with autosiphon from carboy to bottling bucket on top of sugar, do I need to mix this? You can gently stir, if you're concerned that you don't have a nice "swirl" without aerating as you fill the bottling bucket from the fermenter.

30) Place bottling bucket above dishwasher

31) Pull a bottle off of the tree rinse with vinator Why? Use the vinator to squirt the sanitizer (in the sanitizing step), stick on the bottling tree and then put the vinator away. Star-san is a "no rinse" sanitizer!

32) Cap with sanitized cap (will have 2 people)

33) Store in a 60-70 degrees for 2-4 weeks.

34) Drink


Pretty good synopsis, but I put my corrections in bold. Anything not bolded is just as I'd do it!
 
Put your container of Pilsen Light into a pan of water and slowly heat it while your bigger pot is heating up for steeping. That will make it pour easier. Instead of taking the pot off the burner, turn the burner down and stir like mad while adding the liquid extract if you wish. I've had good luck this way.

Make sure your grains are crushed before you add them to the water for steeping so you can extract all the color and flavor. When you pull the bag out let it drain well.

You want a rolling boil but don't get carried away with it. Boiling is to polymerize the hop oils to give you the bitterness that the beer needs.

You can skip the step 13 and just sprinkle the yeast into the fermenter on top of the wort. It's ok if it lands on top of a bunch of foam and stays there, it will find its way to the rest of the wort.

I top off with tap water but I have a well and the water is good. If you have city water, you need to find out the chemical used to keep it safe. If it is chlorine, you can boil it out but chloramine needs a campden tablet to get rid of it. Otherwise, you can use drinking water you buy at the grocery store to top off.

When your wort is cooled it will have some gunk in the bottom. This gunk is proteins and hops. You can filter it, siphon above it or just do as I do and dump it all into the fermenter. It will all settle out in the yeast cake when the beer is done.

Speaking of done, your beer isn't going to be done on day 5 or day 6. The time it takes to be done is up to the yeast and they don't follow a schedule. It won't hurt your beer to stay in the fermenter longer. Mine stays 3 to 4 weeks or sometimes even more and it makes good beer. I usually wait until I'm ready to bottle to take a hydrometer reading just to make sure it really is done. Your kit will give you an expected FG and after 3 weeks it should be there. Start your ferment cool if you can, low to mid 60's and leave it for a week and then bring it up to room temperature so the yeast are encourged to complete the ferment.

When you are ready to bottle, heat up some water and dissolve the priming sugar in it and dump it into the bottling bucket. You don't need to wait for it to cool. Being boiling hot it will kill a few million yeast cells but your beer will have billions so it won't affect the carbonation at all.

Store your bottles at 70 to 75 degrees after they are filled. You want the yeast to carbonate as quickly as possible, not take a nap. Enjoy!
 
i'm going to make sure you see the fact that tap water can ruin your beer.

1.You need to find out if it has chlorine/chloramine in it (check your water report). If it does you need to at least run it through a charcoal filter.

2.You'll also not just want to fill airlock with water but with a sanitizer mix or vodka.

3. Do everything you can to keep your fermentation temperature around 67-68. Not ambient but actual wort temp.
 
Yea, steps 7 and 8 should be reversed. You want to wait until you have a good rolling boil to add your first hops. Overall it looks like you're way ahead of most first timers.
 
Well thought out! Take Yoopers suggestions and you'll have a good first batch! A plan and practice makes waiting easier. Cheers:rockin:
 
i'm going to make sure you see the fact that tap water can ruin your beer.

1.You need to find out if it has chlorine/chloramine in it (check your water report). If it does you need to at least run it through a charcoal filter.

2.You'll also not just want to fill airlock with water but with a sanitizer mix or vodka.

3. Do everything you can to keep your fermentation temperature around 67-68. Not ambient but actual wort temp.

I haven't tested it completely yet but I believe tap water is the reason for some bad tastes in my beers. I will be using RO water from here on out.
 
I use bottled water; Crystal Geyser Spring, it has a nice soft profile that can be adjusted to just about any chemistry I need....it does add about $7 to a 5 gallon batch but I have a water softener that I use Potassium Chloride in and I just don't trust using it for brewing.

When rehydrating your yeast, don't use distilled water.

Looks like a great process...be sure to keep it handy and take notes if anything doesn't go as planned.
 
Thanks guys for all of the comments.

- I reversed steps 7 and 8, will get it to a boil before adding in the hops
- Will do a nice rolling boil
- Will do a temp of 60-70 prior to pitching the yeast.
- Will turn down the burner instead of turning it off
- Will heat up the malt extract prior to adding it
- Will use distilled water overall.

So questions:
1) If I do the ENTIRE batch with distilled, how many gallons do I need to buy for a 5 gallon batch? Was thinking of maybe buying 8 for a little cushion. If I find out the tap is good enough down the line I'll certainly use that but for this first run distilled seems like a good (relatively inexpensive) investment

2) Now that I understand that I will be topping off the batch. If I am starting with only 3 gallons, at a minimum I have to add 2 and that doesn't account for any water boiling off. My question is about temperatures and using the IC. At what temp should I stop the chiller and dump into the bucket? Since I'll have further to go down when I top off. I don't want to end up too cold for the yeast, right? Any general ideas. I had planned to cool all the way down with the chiller, but that seems like a bad idea now that I think about it.

Fermentation
2) I guess the general consensus is that the carboy isn't worth it and that I can just do the entire fermentation in the bucket? Why is this? When is carboy usage warranted?

3) I'm glad I posted because I'm also confused about the amount time needed to ferment in the bucket, carboy (if used), and then sit in the bottles. I was planning on about a week each in the bucket then carboy, then about 4 weeks in the bottles.

The comments here (BBL, Yooper, and RM-MN) seem to indicate the just going for longer (upwards of 3 weeks) in the bucket should do the trick.

All the reading that I've done seems to indicate that the second fermentation gives beer clarity? For you guys with lots of experience how do you decide whether to do a secondary fermentation and how long each should be?

As always I am super appreciative of you guys helping me out. Everyone has to start out somewhere and it would be a lot harder without folks like you sharing your collective experience!
 
1) If I do the ENTIRE batch with distilled, how many gallons do I need to buy for a 5 gallon batch? Was thinking of maybe buying 8 for a little cushion. If I find out the tap is good enough down the line I'll certainly use that but for this first run distilled seems like a good (relatively inexpensive) investment

You may need about 6.5 gallons total.


2) Now that I understand that I will be topping off the batch. If I am starting with only 3 gallons, at a minimum I have to add 2 and that doesn't account for any water boiling off. My question is about temperatures and using the IC. At what temp should I stop the chiller and dump into the bucket? Since I'll have further to go down when I top off. I don't want to end up too cold for the yeast, right? Any general ideas. I had planned to cool all the way down with the chiller, but that seems like a bad idea now that I think about it.

chill to about 70 degrees, then add the water to top off, if the water is chilled or cool. You want to end up with 5 gallons of 65 degree-ish wort

Fermentation
2) I guess the general consensus is that the carboy isn't worth it and that I can just do the entire fermentation in the bucket? Why is this? When is carboy usage warranted?

If you're making a lager, or oaking a batch, or otherwise plan on doing "something" with the beer, using a carboy is useful.

3) I'm glad I posted because I'm also confused about the amount time needed to ferment in the bucket, carboy (if used), and then sit in the bottles. I was planning on about a week each in the bucket then carboy, then about 4 weeks in the bottles.
I rarely use a carboy unless I'm oaking, but two weeks in the fermenter (or longer if you get busy) sounds fine.

The comments here (BBL, Yooper, and RM-MN) seem to indicate the just going for longer (upwards of 3 weeks) in the bucket should do the trick.
I've never gone longer than 3 weeks, usually less, but the beer will be fine until 3 weeks if you want to bottle then.

All the reading that I've done seems to indicate that the second fermentation gives beer clarity? For you guys with lots of experience how do you decide whether to do a secondary fermentation and how long each should be?
First, secondary fermentation is a misnomer. Since fermentation is done before you rack, there isn't any "secondary fermentation" going on. In a brewery, the second vessel is called a "bright tank"- a clearing vessel. They use it to get the finished beer out of the fermenter when they want to put another beer in the fermenter. The bright tank is where clearing takes place but it's not necessary, as if the beer is left in the fermenter, it'll clear there as well. There is nothing magical about moving the beer. It clears when it clears- the only reason to move it is if you need the fermenter.

As always I am super appreciative of you guys helping me out. Everyone has to start out somewhere and it would be a lot harder without folks like you sharing your collective experience!

I answered any questions in bold. Keep in mind that it's a forgiving hobby, so you can leave the beer longer, or for less time, or bottle it later, and it'll still be perfectly fine!
 
I noticed in the original instructions that the first hop addition was added before the boil but I thought maybe they were meant to be first wort hops.
 
It takes however long the yeast want to get all the sugars eaten and then some more time to digest the esters and phenols before the yeast clump up and drop out of suspension. By 3 weeks in the fermenter the beer should be clear. It may be clear before that but I use a bucket and can't see what it is doing and perhaps if I used a carboy I would be ready to bottle sooner but I have several beers in bottles and don't feel any need to rush.

When I rack to the bottling bucket I usually end up sucking some yeast with my siphon as I try to get that last half bottle of beer but since this yeast had clumped up, it settles out pretty fast in the bottling bucket and the beer going into the bottles is pretty clear again. I know that there will be more yeast activity in the bottles as it carbonates and that will settle too so I'm not terribly concerned if I happen to get a little extra.

I've used my carboy twice to rack my beer onto some fruit and I used it once as a fermeter vessel but I hate trying to get the wort down that little hole since it is so much easier just to pour it into that wide opening of a bucket and the buckets are so easy to clean and cheap to replace if needed. I won't be using the carboy much in the next year as I only intend to do one batch with fruit addition.

Many people are concerned about leaving the beer in the primary for too long as they fear autolysis (dying) of the yeast causing undrinkable beer but it doesn't seem to happen in the smaller fermenters and at least one member of this forum has reported leaving beer in the fermenter for over 6 months with good results. The only caution on that is to keep checking your airlock as they can dry out if left unattended too long.

I hope our experience helps you make good beer. When I started I had only the instructions that came with the kit. I made fair beer, not great beer but it was MY beer. As I kept on I learned some things and like to pass on my experience. I learned that you shouldn't bottle as soon as some kit instruction say when I started getting bottles that were way over carbonated, I learned to ferment cooler when I noticed the hot alcohol from too warm of a ferment, and I learned how the flavor changed as I went to a longer time in the fermenter and how it changed again with more time in the bottle.
 
Thanks again to you guys for your responses.

I am certainly intrigued by the discussion on carboys. I almost bought a kit with 2 carboys but am glad I went with only one at this point since I may not end up using it as much as I had originally thought/planned. One of my big goals is to minimize chance for infection so frankly opening the bucket and siphoning into a carboy just makes for another chance to get infected, apparently for little other gain.

I will only, at least at this point, consider moving to a carboy if I decide I want to do another batch at the same time. Frankly, though, I don't have the bottles for that so it may be a while before I bother.

Initial post updated, I may create a carboy poll thread later on :)
 
I will only, at least at this point, consider moving to a carboy if I decide I want to do another batch at the same time. Frankly, though, I don't have the bottles for that so it may be a while before I bother.

You can buy another fermenter bucket with a lid and airlock for about $15 and you may be able to get bottles from a bar or the recycle center or you could buy empties for around $12 per case or maybe a little more and they can be reused indefinitely so they are a real bargain.
 
You can buy another fermenter bucket with a lid and airlock for about $15 and you may be able to get bottles from a bar or the recycle center or you could buy empties for around $12 per case or maybe a little more and they can be reused indefinitely so they are a real bargain.

If you can't find cheap or free empty bottles, buy some of your favorite craft beer with crimp on caps and re-use those. Usually, for about the same price as empties from the LHBS, you can get bottles with beer in them :mug:
 
Updated process looks great, I would re-edit #5. You NEED to turn that burner OFF. Adding heat (even a little) is going to raise the temp of your steeping water over the course of 30 minutes, probably way into the danger zone (170F plus). I promise you won't be losing a significant amount of heat. There is more than enough thermal mass in 3 gallons of liquid to be extracting plenty of flavor and color from the grains for more than half an hour. As long as you're above, say, 145, you're getting what you need from the grain.

A few more comments after a very thorough reading (other peeps, feel free to jump all over these if I'm off base)

#11- This was me being stupid, but I should mention that I accidentally was being an idiot last week and left the silicone hoses attached to the chiller while it was boiling. The heat from the flame melted the hoses. That was awesome. Don't connect the hoses until you have the pot off the flame- silicone will take a lot of temperature but it doesn't need to be directly on the flame to melt. I use some silicone oven mitts and screwdriver to tighten the hose clamps. Just something to take note of.

#12- Your warm water for rehydrating should be boiled first. Didn't see it mentioned, but you want that water to be as sterile as possible.

#15a- I'm going to disagree on this one and say your water should be boiled before topping off. Tons of people do it without, some people use water straight out of the tap, but the cleaner you know that water is, the better. You never know what's on the outside (or the spigots, or around the caps) of those containers of distilled water that have been trucked around the country and stored in odd warehouses. Maybe I'm too anal about it, but I can boil water the day before and not worry about it if I know I'm doing a partial boil batch. Up to you, I suppose.

#16- you can use some leftover sanitizer in the airlock- that's what I do. That way I can save all the vodka for drinking. Haven't had an airlock go dry yet. I would imagine you'd have to ferment for months before that was an issue as long as your airlock has a cap on it.

#18-20- Didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but you will be 100% more satisfied with your beer if you give it 5-7 days on the yeast AFTER you hit your FG before bottling. Please do this- anything worth doing with the attention to detail you're giving it, deserves to be done right.

#21- I like to spray down the bottle tree with some starsan before I hang up my first bottle. Again, that could just be me being anal.

#27- No real need to cool the sugar solution- there's so little of it that it will be mostly cool (big surface area in the bottom of your bottling bucket) by the time you start racking onto it, and the huge thermal mass of the beer won't be affected by the tiny cup of sugar water.

#32ish- somewhere I hope you intend to FILL the bottles before capping, and after grabbing them? ;)

#33- you really should shoot for 70F, the warmer you are, the faster they will carb

Another tip/step: give your bottles a some time (say 30 seconds?) before capping them- some residual CO2 will come out of solution and make a happy little blanket over your beer so there's no oxygen trapped in the bottle when you cap it. This will give you a little security should you want to age your beer, which a stout will appreciate.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
 
I think you are very wise to have thought all of this through, written it down, then asked questions to understand the entire process.

My one other suggestion is to be physically organized. Know where all your hardware is, wipe or spray it with Star San (this way you know everything has been hit at least once), think about the brewing steps and organize your layout so you're not running around looking for stuff as the kettle is about to boil over......if you are doing this indoors, warn the wife or GF that the place is going to smell like a brewery for a few hours (they don't always like that smell)....have some damp rags handy (soaked in Star San and wrung out) and some dry ones....pot holders/oven mitts...if your bucket has a spigot, make sure it doesn't leak (run Star San though it while open, remember to close it!!).....Star San is reusable, collect it back into your sanitizer bucket (I use a 2 gallon pail for Star San solution with sponges with the white scrubbie, not the green).

Have fun!!!
 
Thanks guys for the additions.

- I will consider boiling the distilled, not sure if this is overkill though I am planning to overkill this one :)
- Will definitely boil the water for the yeast rehydration
- WIll spray down bottle tree with starsan
- I will be patient with the fermentation. I am still debating about the secondary, etc.
- Haha, I will fill the bottles before capping but good catch
- I will do the best I can on the fermentation temperature

I am doing this outside with a propane burner, any other words of wisdom with regards to this being outside, particularly with regards to sanitization
 
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