IndyMatt
Active Member
So I got my first brew in the fermenter! I was a little freaked out that I added the smack pack without a starter, next time a starter will be made! It did start bubbling within 24 hours luckily! It took me a long time due to the reasons below:
1. Boiling Time - It takes forever on a stove top to get 4 gallons to boil! We have a propane burned for a turkey fryer that will be used next time! Plus my lovely wife keeps complaining of the smell. I think it smells wonderful, her not so much!
2. Chilling - I plan on either building or purchasing (more likely purchasing due to the sheer cost of copper!) a wort chiller. I used a bath tub of ice and it cooled down but took a while.
3. New - This was my first brew so it took some time to get things organized and I was super anal about cleaning/sanitizing things! I used a sink full of Star San to soak and sanitize items.
Of all of the things above the most annoying was the use of the stove top. It worked just extremely slowly! So to all you new brewers look into a turkey fryer/banjo burner to use.
I used a sweet georgia brown recipe from my lBS, Great Fermentations. It is an extract with specialty grains recipe. Overall I think it went well. It has been in the fermenter since Tuesday and is bubbling nicely. It will be thrown into the secondary for a few days then bottled. I cooled the wort to 75 degrees and then pitched a smack pack of Wyeast. The smack pack was activated earlier that day. It is fermenting at around 68 degrees in 6.5 gallon Carboy, undisturbed! The OG was higher than the recipe suggested but the overall content could be the reason, from memory I think the recipe states 1.052ish and mine was 1.062 although the reading I took was at the 75 degree mark. It seems to be fermenting well and I did rinse the grain bag really when into the wort after steeping.
I will update when I transfer to secondary and then to the bottles. Overall it went well, I have done a lot of reading on here as well as How To Brew and The Joy of Homebrewing. It has all helped me a lot! I am already looking at the next recipe!
One quick question, harvesting yeast out of the fermenter, how is this best done out of a carboy? Also how long can the yeast last refrigerated? Due to some upcoming travel I will be gone for about three months and would like to use the yeast again if possible.
Thanks Again guys for all your help!
1. Boiling Time - It takes forever on a stove top to get 4 gallons to boil! We have a propane burned for a turkey fryer that will be used next time! Plus my lovely wife keeps complaining of the smell. I think it smells wonderful, her not so much!
2. Chilling - I plan on either building or purchasing (more likely purchasing due to the sheer cost of copper!) a wort chiller. I used a bath tub of ice and it cooled down but took a while.
3. New - This was my first brew so it took some time to get things organized and I was super anal about cleaning/sanitizing things! I used a sink full of Star San to soak and sanitize items.
Of all of the things above the most annoying was the use of the stove top. It worked just extremely slowly! So to all you new brewers look into a turkey fryer/banjo burner to use.
I used a sweet georgia brown recipe from my lBS, Great Fermentations. It is an extract with specialty grains recipe. Overall I think it went well. It has been in the fermenter since Tuesday and is bubbling nicely. It will be thrown into the secondary for a few days then bottled. I cooled the wort to 75 degrees and then pitched a smack pack of Wyeast. The smack pack was activated earlier that day. It is fermenting at around 68 degrees in 6.5 gallon Carboy, undisturbed! The OG was higher than the recipe suggested but the overall content could be the reason, from memory I think the recipe states 1.052ish and mine was 1.062 although the reading I took was at the 75 degree mark. It seems to be fermenting well and I did rinse the grain bag really when into the wort after steeping.
I will update when I transfer to secondary and then to the bottles. Overall it went well, I have done a lot of reading on here as well as How To Brew and The Joy of Homebrewing. It has all helped me a lot! I am already looking at the next recipe!
One quick question, harvesting yeast out of the fermenter, how is this best done out of a carboy? Also how long can the yeast last refrigerated? Due to some upcoming travel I will be gone for about three months and would like to use the yeast again if possible.
Thanks Again guys for all your help!