You guys are awesome. Yes this is my first batch. I was just following the instructions "boil 45 min, remove from heat and add yeast at 80 F." Didn't say anything about ice or cooling down by any means other than room temp. I'm sure I should have researched more before I did this but what the heck. Sure is fun. Thanks again for all the quick responses. Oh yeah, when can I "taste" the wort/beer to see if it fermented ok? I just don't want to wait 3-5 weeks to know if I should start over. Want to get my first GOOD batch ready asap. Thanks, Robert
When did you pitch your yeast?
Give it a week. If your airlock is still bubbling, give it a while longer. You can't tell via taste if your fermentation is done.
Here's what you need to do.
1. Go to the store and buy a 12 pack of beer. Not Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, because you don't want an A/B comparison. Judge your beer on it's own merits when you're done.
2. Relax, drink your beer, and just make sure you keep the fermentation bucket around 60-70 degrees as much as you can.
3. Check your beer for a few minutes once a day to track what's happening. Continue drinking your beer that you bought.
4. Give it a few days after bubbling stopped. If the foam on the beer has fallen, wait another day or two and get your SANITIZED beer thief or turkey baster, and take a hydrometer reading. If it's not in your predicted FG range, give it another few days. If it is, wait until tomorrow, take another reading. If it's dropping still, wait a few more days. If it isn't, wait one more day, take a reading, and if it's still the same, rack to either secondary or bottling bucket. You can taste the sampling if you want to see how things are going.
5. I know you're impatient, but really, your beer needs to sit 2-3 weeks in the bottle to carbonate. I know you *really* don't want to wait, so if you have to cheat, crack one open over the sink after a week or so just to satisfy your curiosity.
I know how you feel. I was impatient too with my first batch. The only other thing I can suggest is to start reading up on your new hobby. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is considered a staple, and I also am working through the Homebrewer's Companion, and I have How To Brew on my reading list as well. Understanding what's going on, both on a microscopic level and a macro level really helps me appreciate what it is I'm doing, and all this reading is eating up weeks of time!
Once your beer is bottle conditioned, you can start drinking it, and you have something to tide you over while you brew your next batch. Keep a notebook (or a notepad on your computer or whatever), note what you did wrong, what you did right, things you liked and didn't like about your beer, temperatures, boil times, etc etc. Your beer journal will help you learn what you're doing right and wrong, and will help you see where you need to work on your technique.
Cheers from another novice!