Had my first homebrew today!

I couldn't resist. I brewed a Cream Ale Dec 26th, it's been in the bottle a week and I figured what the heck, so I put one in the fridge Friday. I popped it open just a few minutes ago and it sounded like beer. Poured it in the glass...hmm smells like beer. Tasted it...guess what...it's beer!

It's pretty well carb'd and tastes pretty darn good. I'm going to sample another one next weekend to see how it's coming along, but I have to say I'm pretty darn happy. Even SWMBO said it was pretty good....unfortunately she liked it too much and drank nearly the whole glass! I think in another 2 weeks this is going to be a fine beer.

Congrats!!
Now Brew another batch to keep your mind off of drinking this one!

Now that you know the joys of homebrewing you can also slow down now. I brewed a beer (my belgian wit) on the 26th that is still has at least another week to go in primary before I bottle it. And you've already bottled? Time makes beer better, if you haven't read that here enough yet.

Well, this was a fairly light beer so I figured that about 30 days would be good, but I had to do some "in process quality control...."....actually the guys at the plant that donated bottles were egging me on so I figured what will it hurt to chill one bottle... it was good though.

I've got an irish red in the fermenter now and I think I'll do a big Belgian next and just let it sit in my secondary that has gone unused so far......speaking of Belgians, you should have seen me taking clothes out of my checked bag to get it down to weight the last time I was there.......it's amazing how much glass full of liquids weigh

Congrats on the first beer, now get yo a$$ fermenting the next couple of batches to keep ahead!

Dave258 said:

Congrats!!
Now Brew another batch to keep your mind off of drinking this one!

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This

Feels awesome drinking that first bottle!

Wade E said:

Congrats on the first beer, now get yo a$$ fermenting the next couple of batches to keep ahead!

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I was planning on giving my first batch (an Irish Red) two weeks in the primary and two weeks in the secondary before bottling, and I plan on having a second batch in my primary by the time I bottle (possible an oatmeal stout). I was wondering though, is there a maximum amount of time you want to leave the beer in the fermenter before bottling?

somecallmetex said:

I was planning on giving my first batch (an Irish Red) two weeks in the primary and two weeks in the secondary before bottling, and I plan on having a second batch in my primary by the time I bottle (possible an oatmeal stout). I was wondering though, is there a maximum amount of time you want to leave the beer in the fermenter before bottling?

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This is an ongoing debate amongst the pros on this site. And I am sure some of them will point you in the right direction. It all depends. If your FG has not changed over a period of 3-4 days then it is done fermenting and you can bottle or transfer over to a secondary. Some people will leave it in the primary for at least 3 weeks because that amount of time will guarantee that fermentation is complete. I have made beers that went from 1.060 to 1.012 in 7 days.

I would say that you dont want to leave it in the primary for more than 3 weeks because of the possibility of autolysis. I do not know much about autolysis but there is plenty of thoughts and comments on this website.