Brewed my first batch

Chose a sweet stout for my first brew. Nice and dark and flavorful to hide any mistakes.

Thanks to Death Brewer's excellent partial mash pictorial, I had no problems mashing 4 lbs of grains in a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in a stock pot and then transferring to the next pot and then to the compost bin. Funny how the books I looked at don't show this easy way to do partial mash.

At the LHBS, everything got packed into the same bag: grains, hops, yeast, stoppers, air locks, and strainer. When I unloaded from the car it hit me that everything in the bag was now covered in grain dust. So, after I had the grains in the pot and mashing I cleaned everything in the bag and sanitized everything in sight including the kitchen counters.

LHBS was out of Safale S-04 and Danstar Nottingham, so I got talked into Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast. My first and probably my last experience with Wyeast. I smacked the pack, heard a hissing noise and could not feel the inner pack any longer. When opening the smack pack, I noticed the inner pack was floating free and one of the membranes was still full. While I held the outer pack my wife sanitized the kitchen shears and used them to fish out the inner pack, cut it open and she then poured the inner contents into the outer pack. If I had not looked and just dumped the outer pack contents, I would have poured the inner pack straight into the fermenter.

Air lock was showing about 1 bubble every 3 seconds at 12 hours and 1 to 2 bubbles a second at 18 hours. Doing nicely even though the temperature is more to the low end for the yeast: 65F to 68F.

Other notes:
Hop Plugs create an amazing amount of leafy matter but they collect easily in the strainer on the way into the fermenter. Waiting for 3 gallons to cool down in the sink in an ice bath takes way too long. Now I need to start thinking about removing the labels and sanitizing the 40 half liter flip top bottles I have collected. I went beyond concern into worry during some parts of the experience, should be more relaxed next time, as I will hopefully have a homebrew to mellow me out.

Well, congratulations - you have been bitten by the homebrew bug. You will not be able to drink a commercial brew the same way again!

Sounds like your first batch went off rather smoothly minus the smack pack. I've only use a smack pack once before and if SWMBO didn't smack it a few times I wouldn't have known I didn't smack it hard enough.

Also sounds like you had some rigorous fermentation which actually raises the temp of your beer a few degrees so if you thought you were on the low end, you are probably right where you want to be.

Good job starting off with a partial mash! Again, welcome to the club.

Congrats! Hopefully the first batch of many.

Wyeast does take a bit getting used to. I went from dry to White Labs to Wyeast (last change primarily due to access). Tips for using it are to make sure you locate the inner package before you smack (by feeling through the outer foil), work it into a corner and smack hard. Then locate the inner pack again and feel if its "deflated". If not, repeat the smacking. If it is, shake and let sit for a few hours - pack should puff up quite large - almost like a balloon ready to pop.

Then, when ready to pitch, sanitize the whole pack, shake again and then just snip a corner and pour out. This will make sure the nutrient pack stays behind.

Or, switch to White Labs. Or, stick with dry.

Wish I had started with a partial like that years ago. Sounds like a textbook brewing session to me.

Ive never used wyeast, but the smack packs sound more entertaining then typical dry or white labs yeast that I use.

One other thing I did not do was buy a hydrometer. I plan to get one but I felt that it was going to be one more thing to have to deal with on my first brew day.

Using everclear in the air lock and it seems like I have to top it off about twice a day. Will switch to the cheapest vodka I can find as the everclear was technically purchased to pour over fruit.

Yes, I think this will be something I will like doing - hey I have been making my own bread, yogurt, pretzels, and recently mozzarella; so this just adds a new home food dimension. Already planning what to brew next once the stout is in the bottles - weather is cooling down here in Oregon, so a California steam beer will be next.