Well, maybe that book was right after all, a couple more Shiners (no homebrew YET!) in me and maybe I wouldn't have given a damn! 
Hey Bräu Meisters!
Just put my first brew in the fermenter. So as I was reading 3 sets of instructions giving me different measurements and times to work with, I started looking for help! This is where I landed!
Really my first brew is quite comical and I can laugh about it now, ~ 18 hrs later.
After telling my wife over and over again I would like to try brewing my own brew, and pick that up as a hobby, she went out and bought me a kit for Christmas!
Saturday, the brew was on! So here we are; the water about to boil, the two bags of malt sitting in a pot of warm water... me, reading the instructions and stressing out. (No homebrew to drink yet)
So, in goes the malt, and me back to the instructions.... evidently for too long, because after adding my first packet of hops and beginning to stir, my eyes about popped out of my head when I seen a big black chunk of something swirling in my brew! (NOT COOL! )
Panic was set in and I'm scrambling trying to figure out what I've done, how this happened, and how I'm going to get it all out and not ruin my first batch of brew. The spoon wasn't getting it, couldn't find the little metal mesh strainer, so I put the lid on it, and jumped online for help.
Forum writers did not seem too concerned with their episodes of burnt malt chunks in their brew, so I started to calm down and think could just leave it in there. So I wondered; how burnt does it really taste? Horrible like charcoal I bet! So, I threw a big old flake in my mouth and started to chew.
At first it just had the sweet flavor of the malt and a nice hint of the hops. As I crunched, the flavor started to go away, and the tiny little pieces of burnt malt spread through my mouth, in my teeth, and across my tongue. The texture was not fun... but it was after all dried up burnt stuff. NOTICE: I did not ever taste a charcoaly burned flavor! It went from tasting like the boil, to tasting like nothing! HA! GOLDEN! I thought to myself! All is still well in the virgin brew.
As it was close to finishing I realized, hey! I can just transfer the brew from this pot to my other pot as soon as I take it off the stove! And I will use the big 'tee bag' (as I call it) to filter out the burned flakes! HA!! I'm a genius I thought!
Now with my clean ready pot, sitting in the sink, surrounded by ice, the 'tea bag' over the pot with the boil, I began to tilt the boil to let it run through the 'tea bag' into the new pot.
The 'Tea Bag' bulged with the boil! The thick boil was not running through the 'Tea Bag' at the rate it needed to for the angle I was holding the very heavy pot at! The boil began to run out between the side of the 'Tea Bag' and the pot, into the sink. I began to panic! AHHH!!! I'm losing my brew!!! It was heavy and very hot!! Still nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit! I looked again and the boil made it the rest of the way down the long 20 quart pot and was now spilling on my leg! As I 'knee jerked' out of the way, the boil sloshed and bounced the 'tea bag' side to side. The motion caused a greater flow between the bag and the pot, and set in the next more painful sequence of events.
Large flows of brew ran over both of my hands, on to my leg and both of my feet. The pain was too much to further beer. I released hold of the 'tea bag' dumped everything quickly into the second pot and set down the first pot. I pulled my 'tea bag' which was floating now in the second pot. The temperature is still 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I turned the cold water on and got my hands under it. The burns weren't all that bad, not too bad at all really. They stung like crazy, mostly on my left hand over my knuckles.
As the water flowed, I looked at my boil; I was down to about 2 gallons of boil instead of the original 3 gallons. I'm looking at the mess I have to clean up before I continue, it's manageable, I should be able to get this all cleaned up and the equipment resanitized in the 20 or so minutes it's going to take the boil to cool down. The burns weren't too bad, probably equivalent to first degree, so I began the clean up.
I dunked my washcloth into the bucket of sanitizer that was below the sink when catastrophe struck. Needless to say, it was contaminated by spilled brew boil. I should point out here that sanitizer + first degree burns = PAIN!!!
That was smarts! But, I dealt with it, wiping everything down; I just left the already clean stirring spoon in the boil as it cooled. Stirring every once in a while to help transfer heat out.
Finally the kitchen was (mostly) clean, the fermenting bucket was resanitized and the boil was at about 84 degrees Fahrenheit. I had a dilemma over what to do next, I had 2/3 of the original recipe in my pot; how do I deal with that!?! Not knowing how to compensate the yeast for a partial recipe, I opted for going with the original intended 5 gallons. My malt started at 6.6 pounds, I lost approximately 1/3 so... I might still end up with a good brew. So that's what I did.
I added the 3 gallons of filtered water to the wort inside the fermenter to total 5 gallons. Gave it a gentle stir, and then grabbed the yeast bag. Where are the directions for this I wondered as I held the swollen, taut bag of yeast?
'Grab the nutrient bag inside the pouch and burst it' YEAH NOT!!!! This bag was way too swollen and taut to do anything like that, so I just cut it open. I fished the nutrient bag out with a sanitized set of tongs, to find that it was already torn open. I noticed the smell of alcohol from the pouch of yeast. I went with it! I figured heck, worts case (<-- I'm being punny) I have to go get more yeast.
So, dump in yeast, gentle stir, and get the (sanitized) fermenter lid on nice and tight (sanitized airlock already installed). It is supposed to be a cool night here Austin, Texas, so I decided to put the fermenter on my deck where the lager wort could ferment at about 46 degrees Fahrenheit (provided my yeast was going to do anything at all).
So I woke up this morning, and went and checked the air lock. I was staring at it for about 2 minutes when it finally burped! Houston! We have fermentation!!!! HOOT and HOLLER! It has been slowly bubbling ever since, about every 5 mins I get a bubble, but I'm not really watching that closely.
After about 3 days I plan to throw it in the car boy and into the fridge where I plan to let it sit for a couple weeks before bottling. I am hoping to have my first brew ready for the super bowl.
Well, hope you enjoyed the story. Oh yeah, my left hand is really already recovered, my skin is a little dry, very mild (hardly any) pain. Huh, must be all the vitamin B
C U in the forums!
Tony
Hey Bräu Meisters!
Just put my first brew in the fermenter. So as I was reading 3 sets of instructions giving me different measurements and times to work with, I started looking for help! This is where I landed!
Really my first brew is quite comical and I can laugh about it now, ~ 18 hrs later.
After telling my wife over and over again I would like to try brewing my own brew, and pick that up as a hobby, she went out and bought me a kit for Christmas!
Saturday, the brew was on! So here we are; the water about to boil, the two bags of malt sitting in a pot of warm water... me, reading the instructions and stressing out. (No homebrew to drink yet
)So, in goes the malt, and me back to the instructions.... evidently for too long, because after adding my first packet of hops and beginning to stir, my eyes about popped out of my head when I seen a big black chunk of something swirling in my brew! (NOT COOL!
)Panic was set in and I'm scrambling trying to figure out what I've done, how this happened, and how I'm going to get it all out and not ruin my first batch of brew. The spoon wasn't getting it, couldn't find the little metal mesh strainer, so I put the lid on it, and jumped online for help.
Forum writers did not seem too concerned with their episodes of burnt malt chunks in their brew, so I started to calm down and think could just leave it in there. So I wondered; how burnt does it really taste? Horrible like charcoal I bet! So, I threw a big old flake in my mouth and started to chew.
At first it just had the sweet flavor of the malt and a nice hint of the hops. As I crunched, the flavor started to go away, and the tiny little pieces of burnt malt spread through my mouth, in my teeth, and across my tongue. The texture was not fun... but it was after all dried up burnt stuff. NOTICE: I did not ever taste a charcoaly burned flavor! It went from tasting like the boil, to tasting like nothing! HA! GOLDEN! I thought to myself! All is still well in the virgin brew.
As it was close to finishing I realized, hey! I can just transfer the brew from this pot to my other pot as soon as I take it off the stove! And I will use the big 'tee bag' (as I call it) to filter out the burned flakes! HA!! I'm a genius I thought!
Now with my clean ready pot, sitting in the sink, surrounded by ice, the 'tea bag' over the pot with the boil, I began to tilt the boil to let it run through the 'tea bag' into the new pot.
The 'Tea Bag' bulged with the boil! The thick boil was not running through the 'Tea Bag' at the rate it needed to for the angle I was holding the very heavy pot at! The boil began to run out between the side of the 'Tea Bag' and the pot, into the sink. I began to panic! AHHH!!! I'm losing my brew!!! It was heavy and very hot!! Still nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit! I looked again and the boil made it the rest of the way down the long 20 quart pot and was now spilling on my leg! As I 'knee jerked' out of the way, the boil sloshed and bounced the 'tea bag' side to side. The motion caused a greater flow between the bag and the pot, and set in the next more painful sequence of events.
Large flows of brew ran over both of my hands, on to my leg and both of my feet. The pain was too much to further beer.
I released hold of the 'tea bag' dumped everything quickly into the second pot and set down the first pot. I pulled my 'tea bag' which was floating now in the second pot. The temperature is still 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I turned the cold water on and got my hands under it. The burns weren't all that bad, not too bad at all really. They stung like crazy, mostly on my left hand over my knuckles. As the water flowed, I looked at my boil; I was down to about 2 gallons of boil instead of the original 3 gallons. I'm looking at the mess I have to clean up before I continue, it's manageable, I should be able to get this all cleaned up and the equipment resanitized in the 20 or so minutes it's going to take the boil to cool down. The burns weren't too bad, probably equivalent to first degree, so I began the clean up.
I dunked my washcloth into the bucket of sanitizer that was below the sink when catastrophe struck. Needless to say, it was contaminated by spilled brew boil. I should point out here that sanitizer + first degree burns = PAIN!!!
That was smarts! But, I dealt with it, wiping everything down; I just left the already clean stirring spoon in the boil as it cooled. Stirring every once in a while to help transfer heat out.
Finally the kitchen was (mostly) clean, the fermenting bucket was resanitized and the boil was at about 84 degrees Fahrenheit. I had a dilemma over what to do next, I had 2/3 of the original recipe in my pot; how do I deal with that!?! Not knowing how to compensate the yeast for a partial recipe, I opted for going with the original intended 5 gallons. My malt started at 6.6 pounds, I lost approximately 1/3 so... I might still end up with a good brew. So that's what I did.
I added the 3 gallons of filtered water to the wort inside the fermenter to total 5 gallons. Gave it a gentle stir, and then grabbed the yeast bag. Where are the directions for this I wondered as I held the swollen, taut bag of yeast?
'Grab the nutrient bag inside the pouch and burst it' YEAH NOT!!!! This bag was way too swollen and taut to do anything like that, so I just cut it open. I fished the nutrient bag out with a sanitized set of tongs, to find that it was already torn open. I noticed the smell of alcohol from the pouch of yeast. I went with it! I figured heck, worts case (<-- I'm being punny) I have to go get more yeast.
So, dump in yeast, gentle stir, and get the (sanitized) fermenter lid on nice and tight (sanitized airlock already installed). It is supposed to be a cool night here Austin, Texas, so I decided to put the fermenter on my deck where the lager wort could ferment at about 46 degrees Fahrenheit (provided my yeast was going to do anything at all).
So I woke up this morning, and went and checked the air lock. I was staring at it for about 2 minutes when it finally burped! Houston! We have fermentation!!!! HOOT and HOLLER! It has been slowly bubbling ever since, about every 5 mins I get a bubble, but I'm not really watching that closely.
After about 3 days I plan to throw it in the car boy and into the fridge where I plan to let it sit for a couple weeks before bottling. I am hoping to have my first brew ready for the super bowl.
Well, hope you enjoyed the story. Oh yeah, my left hand is really already recovered, my skin is a little dry, very mild (hardly any) pain. Huh, must be all the vitamin B
C U in the forums!
Tony
