1st brew in the fermenter

well it was a very easy 1st brew day

brewed a midwest kit "Hanks Hefe weizen"

everything went smooth
steeped the grains at 150f ish for 30 min

added the LME and DME
brought to a slow boil

at one time had almost 3 inches of foam lowered heat a little settled right
down

at start of boil added hops only used half what was in the kit as some
others on here in another post "night before first brew"
stated that might be too much hops for a 60 min boil

so I was able to cool the stuff down to 75 ish in 15 min using
a large rubbermaid tub full of ice water

pitched the yeast

placed glass carboy in closet at 8:47pm cst tonight

only thing is it seemed really fully maybe I used too much top off water
only about 4 inches from the lip of head space

rigged a blowoff tube just incase

started with 3 gals used 2 to top off

so wish me luck

gonna keep an eye on her

this is a fun hobby so far
but man my clothes reak of the wort from boiling and watching and sniffing

ok I'm done

sounds like you did things the way they should be done. Now is the hardest part.....waiting!

I hope you top'd off the fermenter with boiled/cooled water if that is what you said? That is important. Regular tap water is not OK because of chlorine and some bacteria can survive too to wreck the beer. You may get away with this, it all depends on the water quality. Keep the fermenting beer steady at 66F if you can.

used bottled chilled(in freezer) spring water in all uses

except for the first three gals not chilled

wow woke up this morning at 11:00 am

lots of foam in the blowoff tube and just bubbling away in sanitizer

looks like it started in 12 hrs or so

temp moving between 68 and 70

wet T shirt and fan applied

only downside is my wife called me at work to say she broke one of my glass thingies to make beer in this afternoon

having visions of my second new glass carboy in shards

she said no the little glass tube thing

looks like I will be needing a new hydrometer

quick update

had to swap out the pan of sanitizer the blow off tube was in

filled up with brown beer like suds

still blowin like mad keepin her at 66-68 with wet T shirt and fan method

three days and I still can not put an air lock on there as it is still blowin foam into the blow off tube

Question, when you guys say keep it at 66 degrees, are you talking about the temperature in room that the fermenter is in, or the temp inside the actual fermenter? If it's the fermenter, does that mean you're sticking a thermometer in the beer to check the temp?

most brew kits come with a liquid crystal thermo that you peel and stick

to the fermenter

my 3$ digital thermometer find

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/3-wired-digital-thermometer-82194/

I'm glad I bought 6 of them, since the time of post my primary count went up to 3 and I have a pending acquisition of #4.

looking at the brown stuff (can not seem to get enough of watching)

the fermentaion has slowed (not blowin brown foam into the blow off tube and pan)

looks like I can see 4 in or so of white haze near the foam head
churning around

lots of small bubbles makin bigger bubbles moving up into the mass of foam
on top

you should see all the brown stuff at the top and in the blow off tube

:rockin:

Sounds like you did everything totally by the book. I think your top-off was just fine...3 on 2 is about right. Most guys even go to 5.25 total with more or less the same amount of wort.

Out of curiosity, what strain of yeast are you using?

danstar munich dry yeast

came in the kit

bhughes said:

Question, when you guys say keep it at 66 degrees, are you talking about the temperature in room that the fermenter is in, or the temp inside the actual fermenter? If it's the fermenter, does that mean you're sticking a thermometer in the beer to check the temp?

Click to expand...

You want the beer itself as close to 66F as you can get (each refrigerator or freezer has a different recovery time so each will vary a bit). Set your temperature controller accordingly because of the exothermic effect of fermentation. After the first 2 days this will go away and you may have to raise the temperature so the carboy will not get too cold. It all depends on how you sense the temperature.

WATER BATH:
Keep the water bath at the desired temperature with ice.


REFRIGERATOR:

• Thermal well in the beer
  
• Ambient air in the fridge (not as effective)
  
• Taped to the carboy with bubble wrap over it to keep ambient air from the sensor.

well tomorrow will be 1 week in primary removed the blow off tube and installed an airlock

man the blow off tube was hard to clean out all that dried brown stuff

gonna start my second batch tomorrow

this time a Porter has a lb and 1/2 of grain to steep

man this is turning out fun

havent even sampled the hefe yet

my wife broke the hydrometer =-(

but I figured by the time I am ready to bottle and need one I can afford to buy one