Starting my first brew in t-minus 7 hours

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AMERICUS

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Okay, well I am starting my first brew tonight of Honey Nut Brown Ale (yummy)! I have been reading and reading on different topics and THINK I have most of it figured out. I'm a little concerned with the temperature of my fermenting area, but worst case is I'll leave it upstairs until I get some heating bands and move it downstairs for the second stage. On to a few questions...

Blow-off tubes, should these be installed for the first few days of all fermenting or is it specific to the yeast / style of beer? I have the 5 gallon buckets and 5 gallon carboys.

Also, I have read a lot on Irish Moss and there was some included in my recipe kit. I took the advice of the guy at my LHBS and bought the Super Irish Moss Extract and I didn't realize some came in my recipe kit. Should I substitute my extract (powder form) for the actual Irish Moss or does the Irish Moss should I use both (I'm leaning towards substituting since the directions call to add at the same time)?


Hopefully everything is a success and i will start my winemaking kit tomorrow (California Trinity White). I will post results, and unplanned disasters, later. Happy brewing!
 
AMERICUS said:
Okay, well I am starting my first brew tonight of Honey Nut Brown Ale (yummy)! I have been reading and reading on different topics and THINK I have most of it figured out. I'm a little concerned with the temperature of my fermenting area, but worst case is I'll leave it upstairs until I get some heating bands and move it downstairs for the second stage. On to a few questions...

Blow-off tubes, should these be installed for the first few days of all fermenting or is it specific to the yeast / style of beer? I have the 5 gallon buckets and 5 gallon carboys.

Also, I have read a lot on Irish Moss and there was some included in my recipe kit. I took the advice of the guy at my LHBS and bought the Super Irish Moss Extract and I didn't realize some came in my recipe kit. Should I substitute my extract (powder form) for the actual Irish Moss or does the Irish Moss should I use both (I'm leaning towards substituting since the directions call to add at the same time)?


Hopefully everything is a success and i will start my winemaking kit tomorrow (California Trinity White). I will post results, and unplanned disasters, later. Happy brewing!
Click to expand...

What yeast are you using and are/have you made a starter?

As far as the irish moss, I would definitely only use 1 of the 2, but wondering if you really need it at all on a brown ale as it is a fairly darker (brown) beer and not sure how much clarification you need.
 
Munton's dry yeast. After reading the directions it didn't sound like I needed a starter, but this could be my definite lack of knowledge...
 
AMERICUS said:
Munton's dry yeast. After reading the directions it didn't sound like I needed a starter, but this could be my definite lack of knowledge...
Click to expand...

what is the gram weight of the yeast package, just make sure you have enough cell count for get your full attenuations.

Check out mr maltys pitch calculator:

Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator
 
AMERICUS said:
Blow-off tubes, should these be installed for the first few days of all fermenting or is it specific to the yeast / style of beer? I have the 5 gallon buckets and 5 gallon carboys.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert, but for 5 gallon fermenter, I would think you definitely need a blowoff tube. If you have a 6.5 gallon bucket then it might depend on the yeast/style of beer, but I would think that brewing 5 gallons in only a 5 gallon fermenter would surely overflow regardless of yeast?
 
I imagine it is a larger bucket than 5 gallon (looks like it), it is just a 5 gallon kit I bought. So over lunch I bought tubing for the blowoff, a digital thermometer for the room which records mins/maxs too for $7 (SCORE!), my 4.5 gallon kettle, sponges and spring water for my wine. Think I should be good to go now, just need to make sure my room is alright of else I will have to go with my alternative location until the second stage.

As for yeast count, I am at work so I haven't looked at it, but it came as a recipe and I asked the guy if I needed yeast or if he recommended liquid yeast for my first attempt, but he said to just use the dry packet thats included.
 
I have done an Irish red in a five gal secondary and had no problems with overflow... I recently did a 5gal batch of Belgian and had to add a blowoff after the fermentation took off like a bat outta hell.

Maybe start with a blowoff tube and see how it goes from there (you can take it off and put airlock on after krausen goes down and bubblin decreases) or start without a blowoff and add one if needed - but keep your eyes on it.

From my understanding it has alot to do with the yeast, recipe and temp. - so there are variables.

Cheers
N8
 
That's good information to know. I figure I will hook up the blowoff tube since it really isn't any more work, especially when compared to mopping my ceilings--although as a third party it does some kind of funny.

One quick question, if the recipe calls for X gallons of water in the boil, do I have to add anymore to this if I am going to boil / sanitize the water or will the lid prevent any from boiling off?
 
Okay so the recipe calls to grind the grains and we are using a beer bottle to grind them up. How fine do you have to get the grains or is it mainly just splitting them?
 
I believe that all the Munton's yeast come in 6 gram packets. I'm not fond of Munton's yeast but I would definitely get at least two packets for a brew if I was going to use it.

Of course if it were my brew, I would put in Nottingham or 05. :D
 
Should I filter the wort before putting it into the primary fermenter or just pour it all in?
 
Grrr my post didn't go through I guess, but anyways. DONE...:rockin: had a fun time doing it and learned a lot. I think it took longer than necessary, but I have some good notes and learned some things I can improve on. Everything is in the primary fermenter and blowoff tube installed, but not my first choice of location. I need to bring the temperature up for my first choice and was wondering what is the best way to do so? I have seen the bands, blanket wraps and heating pads that the fermenter sits on, but which is best / most controllable? It is currently sitting at 68, but would like to move it downstairs where the ambient air temp was 55, but changes through out the day.

I even had a chance to make dog treats from the spent grain. I have to agree with others that if there were sugar in those things, they would not be given to the dogs! :)

Overall I had a good time and will hopefully be enjoying this in the weeks to come. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I attempt my first wine - California Trinity White. Anyone have any good recommendations for the next brew?
 
Okay so I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock yesterday and it was bubbling at a good pace. Today I noticed the bubbling slowed to about once every 12-15 seconds so I thought I would check the SG. It was 1.016 and the finishing gravity said .010-.012. I will check again for the next three days and see if I continue to get the same reading before transferring to the carboy.

This is the first time I have opened the primary and I noticed a lot of sandy mud on the side of the container above the "water" line. I imagine it was the krausen that formed and had some hops in it, but I was wondering if I should let it settle on the sides or push it down. What is the general consensus? I was planning on running this through my filter screen before putting it into the carboy thinking it would help clear (I know its a nut brown, who cares about clarity), but I am not sure what to do in the mean time with the sludge on the side walls. Thanks everyone!
 
Does it matter when I transfer to the primary to the secondary? My airlock has stopped bubbling, but my SG is at 1.014 with the final SG supposed to be at .010-.012. If I transfer over to the secondary, will this still come down or should I wait for the SG to settle within that range and just use the secondary for clearing and yeast cleanup purposes?
 
Next step, next question...So I transferred over to the secondary yesterday and have a few questions. Now that I am in the carboy, I can see the layer of trub at the bottom. I was careful not to siphon too much, but I have about a 1/2" - 3/4" layer at the bottom unfortunately. When I look at the beer, the top 3-4" look like a nice colored nut brown ale, but below that the color is more cloudy. 1) Will this continue to clear from the top down? 2) Within the "good lookin' beer" there looks to be pulp that keeps bobbing from the beer line to the cloudy part, will this "pulp" settle? I am going to move it to my basement in a few days where it is in the mid 50's (fahr.). I did use Irish Moss in the boil, but when should I start to see the results of the clearing or introduce gelatin? Thanks in advance!
 
Yes it will continue to clear from the top down and more sediment is normal. That is why you put it in a bright tank after all. Everything should settle down to the bottom but occasionally you get a yeast clump that just float around. Your beer is very young and it will take a couple weeks for it to clear completely.
 
Great, just what I was hoping to hear! Thanks a lot for all your help / encouragement Nurmey!

Nurmey said:
Yes it will continue to clear from the top down and more sediment is normal. That is why you put it in a bright tank after all. Everything should settle down to the bottom but occasionally you get a yeast clump that just float around. Your beer is very young and it will take a couple weeks for it to clear completely.
Click to expand...
 

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