first time brewing! (as I type)

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dfarm

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Hi all!

I've got my strike water heating for my first try at this. I'm attempting an all grain stout. (AHS stubby oatmeal stout) I may be in over my head, but everything looks pretty straight forward at this point.

The water is at temp now, time for the grains.

Wish me luck and feel free to give any words of wisdom / inspiration / whatever!
 
The water level in the kettle looks a bit low (1.25 its per pound of grain, per instructions ) can I heat some of my sparge water and add it to the strike to get the grains swimming some more, as it stands, I have to push the grain bag around with a spoon to get it all submerged.
 
It's on the boil now. It smells very good. I'm almost tempted to try eating the spent grains with a little butter like oatmeal. Lol
 
Just make sure the grain bag is as loose as possible and it'll be fine in the 1.25 gal/lb. ratio.

Congrats on your first brew day! :tank:
 
Good luck! I did my first ever brew last weekend and I used BIAB. OG was spot on according to the Beersmith calculation and when took a FG sample on Friday it was looking, smelling and tasting great. As long as you plan and prepare beforehand it's not that hard. I'll regret saying that this time next week when I discover my beer's infected...
 
Yep, it was in a bag.

I ended up adding about a quart of the sparge water to the mash/wart/steep/whatever it's called at that point. I think my pot was a bit too wide, resulting in a very shallow amount of water in the bottom of the pot. In my completely un educated, and in no way professional opinion, I think everything is ok at this point.

I think I am going to get a propane burner for my next batch(5gal guinness clone) though. I have a glass top range now, and it barely has the nuts to bring this one gallon batch to a strong boil, plus I'm a little worried about putting that much weight on the glass.
 
Can I put the hops in a bag during the boil? It boiled ip one time and left all of the hops stuck to the sides of the kettle. Lol
 
dfarm said:
Can I put the hops in a bag during the boil? It boiled ip one time and left all of the hops stuck to the sides of the kettle. Lol

I just dumped mine straight in. The rolling boil was very controlled (more luck than judgement) so I didn't have to deal with that problem, but if it happened to me I'd just get my paddle and push them back in. I figured that by having them loose, the maximum surface area would be exposed which would extract the maximum potential from them.
 
Ok. Time for some numbers.

The recipe calls for the OG to be "approximately 1.058" mine is 1.051. Is this close enough? I'm getting ready to pitch right now.
 
Ok. Time for some numbers.

The recipe calls for the OG to be "approximately 1.058" mine is 1.051. Is this close enough? I'm getting ready to pitch right now.

For your first AG batch, I would say that 1.051 is A-OK for a batch that was targeted to have a gravity of 1.058. I suspect that as you get more experience, and get better at controlling mash temps, you may see your efficiency rise a little. This is likely where the "missing" 0.007 gravity points went.

It sounds like you are well on your way to making beer. Congratulations! :tank:
 
dfarm said:
Ok. Time for some numbers.

The recipe calls for the OG to be "approximately 1.058" mine is 1.051. Is this close enough? I'm getting ready to pitch right now.

I'd take the view that it is what it is, there's nothing you can do about it now and you're going to end up with beer. Perhaps not the one you thought, but beer nonetheless. Enjoy!
 
Thanks guys.

There was lots of activity in the airlock after about 4 hours, but its slowed down a considerable amount now. The fermenter has cooled off a bit, going from 70 to about 66 according to the stick on thermometer on the outside of the bucket.

Are these temps ok?
 
Yes, you can bag your hops. It may reduce the amount of flavor extracted into the beer, which you can compensate for by increasing your hop usage slightly if you want. Otherwise, if you use a bag just try to keep the hops as loose inside the bag as possible, to ensure maximum absorption. Either way, you'll be fine. Enjoy!
 
It is possible the drop in temp (you said from 70 down to 66) has slowed the fermentation down. That would explain the slowing in airlock activity. This is not a bad thing. If it had stayed at 70, that would mean the internal temp could have been much higher, and you would've been risking off flavors from the yeast.

Higher fermentation temps are fine for some yeast strains/beer styles, but I don't think stout is one of them. So, if it stays around 66 throughout the fermentation, you should be in good shape.

As somebody else already said, this is the time to be patient. Definitely check out the airlock activity. Sniff it to get an idea of what your beer smells like as it ferments. If there is gunk clogging the airlock, be prepared to switch to a blow-off tube. But don't pop it open repeatedly to check on it visually. That will open you up for many more potential problems. Give it a good 2 weeks before you open it to take a gravity reading. I know you will want to do it sooner. Just wait. It'll be worth it.
 
As somebody else already said, this is the time to be patient. Definitely check out the airlock activity. Sniff it to get an idea of what your beer smells like as it ferments. If there is gunk clogging the airlock, be prepared to switch to a blow-off tube. But don't pop it open repeatedly to check on it visually. That will open you up for many more potential problems. Give it a good 2 weeks before you open it to take a gravity reading. I know you will want to do it sooner. Just wait. It'll be worth it.

+1

Go out and buy yourself a couple of sixers of good craft beer--get a mixed pack of singles if your local beer store does that kind of thing. Then each night, when you come home and you want to open the lid of the fermenter, DON'T, and reward yourself with one (and only one!) of your tasty beverages. At the end of 12 days you'll have tried a bunch of really good beer, and it will be time to check the gravity on your homebrew.

Don't worry, it gets much easier to be patient when you've got three or four batches of homebrew bottled and sitting in your pantry.
 
Lol. That's a great idea!

Why is everyone saying to be patient with a stout? Is it somehow different than brewing other beers? I'm a real noob when it comes to brewing, so I'm not trying to be a smart alec or anything, I'm just ignorant to any of the real cause and effect type stuff with beer.
 
+1

Don't worry, it gets much easier to be patient when you've got three or four batches of homebrew bottled and sitting in your pantry.

I can't wait for this.. I be bottling my first brew in 2 weekends and immediately starting a 2nd batch.. I'm very eager as a newbie, but this 12 pack of Sam Adams should tid me over..(until the weekend). Looking forward to having a few different brews available to drink at one time.
 
Be careful. I have found that buying fermentation buckets is just as addictive. Makes it easier to keep batches fermenting.

Speaking of which... I think I may need to pick up a couple more when I visit the LHBS after work.
 
Absolutely--you start to think, "If I just had one more carboy, I could fit in that brew this weekend." Then, when you've got extra carboys hanging around empty, you've got to fill them with something...it's a self-reinforcing cycle.
 
Lol. That's a great idea!

Why is everyone saying to be patient with a stout? Is it somehow different than brewing other beers? I'm a real noob when it comes to brewing, so I'm not trying to be a smart alec or anything, I'm just ignorant to any of the real cause and effect type stuff with beer.

It is not because it is a stout that you need to be patient, it is because you are making BEER. Many of the experienced brewers will tell you that one of the hardest things to do (and one of the BEST things you can do for your beer) is to put it in the fermenter and ignore it for 3 weeks. This gets a little easier when you have a "pipeline" going, and ready-made homebrew to drink, but can be extremely challenging for a new brewer.
 
It is not because it is a stout that you need to be patient, it is because you are making BEER. Many of the experienced brewers will tell you that one of the hardest things to do (and one of the BEST things you can do for your beer) is to put it in the fermenter and ignore it for 3 weeks. This gets a little easier when you have a "pipeline" going, and ready-made homebrew to drink, but can be extremely challenging for a new brewer.

Amen brother.
 
Oh. I gotcha.

I was thinking about checking the sg starting Wednesday to rack into a secondary on Sunday, as that would be two weeks in the primary, and there isn't any activity in the airlock (and maybe I want to free up my primary so I can start my Guinness clone lol), but I'm not quite ready to start the next batch, as I don't have a big enough pot, and I want to get a propane burner so I can boil outside, so if it won't hurt anything to leave it in the primary for a while, it can stay until I actually need the bucket.
 
Oh. I gotcha.

I was thinking about checking the sg starting Wednesday to rack into a secondary on Sunday, as that would be two weeks in the primary, and there isn't any activity in the airlock (and maybe I want to free up my primary so I can start my Guinness clone lol), but I'm not quite ready to start the next batch, as I don't have a big enough pot, and I want to get a propane burner so I can boil outside, so if it won't hurt anything to leave it in the primary for a while, it can stay until I actually need the bucket.

Nope, won't hurt a thing. As long as you don't leave the beer in primary for more than a year or so, all will be fine. (even several months has been reported to be OK with no problems at all!) In fact, for the most part, longer primaries are better (within reason) I say leave it in there until you need to make another batch, and all will be well.
 
Ok, so I think I have an issue. My recipe for this beer says that my og should have been 1.058(I had 1.051) I put it into the secondary after 14 days. The sg when I racked it was 1.024 when the recipe says the gravity should have been 1.011.

I racked it on 12/9 and I checked the sg today and it was 1.023. Should I go ahead and bottle, or is something broken?

Thanks for the help.
 
Ok, so I think I have an issue. My recipe for this beer says that my og should have been 1.058(I had 1.051) I put it into the secondary after 14 days. The sg when I racked it was 1.024 when the recipe says the gravity should have been 1.011.

I racked it on 12/9 and I checked the sg today and it was 1.023. Should I go ahead and bottle, or is something broken?

Thanks for the help.

1.023 is probably still too high for bottling. It is possible that you racked to secondary before the beer finished fermenting. There may not be enough yeast in the secondary to finish the job. I would try raising the temp on the fermenter to about 72 degrees or so for a few days. a GENTLE swirl of the fermenter to stir the remaining yeast back into suspension may also help the fermentation finish out.

This was an All-Grain batch, correct? It is also possible that your mash temp was higher than ideal. This can cause a higher percentage of unfermentable sugars in the wort, causing a higher FG.

Let us know what your mash temps were, what yeast you are using, and what the fermentation temperature has been and we can offer a better answer as to what may have happened, and what to do next.

I would NOT bottle at 1.023, because I would be afraid of exploding bottles. Wait until we diagnose the high FG and make sure it is fermented as far as possible before attempting to bottle. Bottle-Bombs are NO FUN AT ALL!
 
I don't recall exactly what my mash temps were, but I remember them being high a few times and having to lower the heat to get them back to where they should have been. The fermenting temp was right around 68°f. The yeast was Muntons Ale Dry Yeast.

Thanks again for the help.
 
That's kind of what I was thinking. Its been a couple of weeks at that sg, so I was thinking that it wasn't going to change much more. But this is my first brew.
 
So, what should I do at this point? I'm afraid to bottle because of the high fg, but nothing happened after I swirled it around a bit.

I was hoping to be drinking this stuff last might for new years, but that didn't work out. Lol.

Since its just a 1 gallon batch, could I bottle, then put the bottles in plastic buckets with lids to contain any "grenades"? how do I know when its ok to bottle?
 
So, what should I do at this point? I'm afraid to bottle because of the high fg, but nothing happened after I swirled it around a bit.

I was hoping to be drinking this stuff last might for new years, but that didn't work out. Lol.

Since its just a 1 gallon batch, could I bottle, then put the bottles in plastic buckets with lids to contain any "grenades"? how do I know when its ok to bottle?

Since this batch has been in the fermenter for quite some time, and you have tried swirling to rouse the yeast, I would say that this one has fermented as far as it is going to. For some reason (probably mash temps) the wort had a higher concentration of unfermentables than you expected. That would explain the high finishing gravity.

In general, it is safe to bottle when the gravity has been stable for 3-4 days. since your gravity has been stable much longer than that, I do not see any reason to worry about bottling safety.

I suspect that the only "bad" thing that will come of this high finishing gravity is a beer that is sweeter than expected. Some really big stouts can finish at 1.023, so I do not think that the beer will be bad, just a little on the sweet side.

Go ahead and bottle, let it condition for a few weeks, and let us know how it turns out.
 
Well, its in bottles. Wish me luck! Its going to be a long 3 weeks! Lol
 
Try and give it at LEAST 3 weeks. When I give people my stouts I give them 2 and tell them to enjoy one now and "hide" one for a few weeks/months and see the difference. Give em some time to grow.

GL and welcome. You sound like you are well on your way to making some REALLY TASTY BREWS!
 
Well, I've sampled a couple of these so far, and they are not too bad. The carbonation is a little lighter than I'd have preferred, but its completely drinkable. It did turn out a bit sweet, but its not bad at all.
 
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