First brew in process!

My first brew is boiling away on the stove. Pictures coming soon!

what is it?

Congrats! Get another going soon!

Its a holiday ale

It is sitting in the carboy and ready to go. I hope to get some pics up tomorrow.

spiced christmas ale. always goes over well

Heres the brew. I am really paranoid about screw it up and contaminating it, but I guess I have to wait to find out!

whoa sorry about the huge pic.

it's hard to screw it up. the yeasties know what they're doing

lumpher said:

it's hard to screw it up. the yeasties know what they're doing

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Yep, it's sit back and relax time....But.... in order to fill up the pipeline it's time for the next brew.

iaefebs said:

Yep, it's sit back and relax time....But.... in order to fill up the pipeline it's time for the next brew.

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true. what you waiting on?

I only have one carboy... at the moment

The ONLY thing I am worried about is if something got in my beer but I guess that is always something you worry about.

slantedbolt said:

I only have one carboy... at the moment

The ONLY thing I am worried about is if something got in my beer but I guess that is always something you worry about.

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Just as long as you practiced proper sanitization rituals, you'll be fine. I remember how anal I was about Sanitizing everything when I first started. To tell ya the truth, I'm still just as anal. I just don't get worked up about it like I used to. Give your first batch some time for theyeasties to do there work and enjoy!

Bubbling has started slowly. And so it starts...

slantedbolt said:

bubbling has started slowly. And so it starts...

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victory!!!

Its bubbling about once every 3 seconds, and has a nice foam about an inch thick and its churning away pretty heavily. Really cool to see. Looking good guys...

Quick question... Should the carboy be in a dark most of the time? I have it on my kitchen table, which doesn't get much direct sun light, but normal lighting most of the night.

slantedbolt said:

Quick question... Should the carboy be in a dark most of the time? I have it on my kitchen table, which doesn't get much direct sun light, but normal lighting most of the night.

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Please correct me if I'm wrong here people... but it can't be any different then how you would treat your normal beer bottles. I keep mine in a cool dark place. How cold is your house, only curious because of the fermenting temperature of your kitchen table may not be ideal.

It is about 64-70 depending on the time of day.. I may be wrong, but I read it needed to be around 68-74 degrees for the best results when fermenting, before bottling.

If I am wrong, PLEASE let me know. I am new

So I did some more reading, and I found 65-70 is where you SHOULD keep the temp for ales. But my question is, since I want to SEE my beer, is indirect sunlight going to screw it up?

What I do is wrap up the carboy with a towel. If you do that carefully, you can remove it when you want to take a peek, but it is still dark 99% of the fermentation.
Prost!

Thats a good idea. But I have moved it to my basement where the light only comes on when I do laundry on Sundays.

As of now, its bubbling about once a second if not more then that. Its chugging along!

Here it is... 2 days of foam:

Looks like future beer to me!

That looks like a VERY happy fermentation! Congrats!

Pipelines are a VERY good thing. Currently, I have 3 carboys, 2 buckets and 5 one-gallon jugs full of fermenting goodness My one empty carboy will be put into use in 2 days for another good brew... Once the pipeline is set-up, you can wait for everything to age well and you won't need to drink green beer!

I remember reading that any fluorescent light will skunk the hops in a beer, whether it's fermenting, or bottled. I think there was an argument that even a little bit of light will skunk the hops. I'd keep it dark just to be safe.

Well, I have it wrapped in a towel so it should be ok. I am guessing to much light will skunk up bottled beer more.

Not get off topic, but since you speak of bottled beer, how is most of the commercial beer we buy not skunked? Lots of fluorescent lighting in beer stores!

Hope your batch goes well slantedbolt!

Thanks Tronny, ya you are 100% correct about the lights.

tronnyjenkins said:

Not get off topic, but since you speak of bottled beer, how is most of the commercial beer we buy not skunked? Lots of fluorescent lighting in beer stores!

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Brown glass blocks out most of the light at the wavelengths that skunk beer and most beer comes in brown glass. Green glass (Heineken) and clear glass (Corona) block out very little of those wavelengths and those particular beers are usually skunked when you buy them. People are just used to those beers being skunked and think that it's supposed to taste like that.