rmcanaugh
New Member
Hello. This is my first batch, and I've read a lot of RDWHAHB. Just looking for insight from others first experiences and what problem I may be having. Disclaimer: I think I have most of the terminology down, but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Bought the Personal Home Brewery Kit #4 from Morebeer.com. Very happy with it, came with pretty much everything I need.
Came with a "Light Ale" kit. Had 6lbs Light LME, steeping grains, yeast, Whirlfloc tablet. It comes with an 8gal brew kettle. I stove-topped it over two burners, started with about 6.5gal of water. I have a 6gal plastic fermenter, but came up with maybe 4 gallons (about 2/3 of the fermenter).
Used a wort chiller, well cleaned the night before, brought the temp from 215-220F to 70F in about 20 minutes.
I drained the wort through a sanitized steel mesh strainer to catch the runoff hops and a little bit of the grain that steeped through the included mesh bag. Not sure if I was supposed to do that (ferment with the hops/break sediment strained out). The wort was crystal clear for the first 3ish gallons into the fermenter.
I didn't shake it to aerate it. More or less let the wort drip from the tubing through the mesh onto the funnel and drip into the fermenter. I wasn't sure completely about aerating it, but I felt like it was probably enough (though I've seen some Youtube videos of people shaking the fermenter vigorously).
Been fermenting at 62F-64F as well controlled as it can be (Being New England, it was 80's last week and now hitting 30-40's overnights, I have it fermenting in a bucket of water, controlled by adding hot water/iced bottles to maintain 60's range.)
Lag time was about 18 hours, been fermenting steadily since (Sunday-today, 4 days). The top layer of foam never really rose much, and its got a yellowish tinge to it. There's a ring of gunk about an inch from the top of the wort, which I assume is from the krausen.
Though it's not even near bottle time, just looking for insight. Other than the obvious overboiling. Makes me wonder if I caramelized the wort.
OG at racking to fermenter was 1.042 at 70F.
Thanks!
Bought the Personal Home Brewery Kit #4 from Morebeer.com. Very happy with it, came with pretty much everything I need.
Came with a "Light Ale" kit. Had 6lbs Light LME, steeping grains, yeast, Whirlfloc tablet. It comes with an 8gal brew kettle. I stove-topped it over two burners, started with about 6.5gal of water. I have a 6gal plastic fermenter, but came up with maybe 4 gallons (about 2/3 of the fermenter).
Used a wort chiller, well cleaned the night before, brought the temp from 215-220F to 70F in about 20 minutes.
I drained the wort through a sanitized steel mesh strainer to catch the runoff hops and a little bit of the grain that steeped through the included mesh bag. Not sure if I was supposed to do that (ferment with the hops/break sediment strained out). The wort was crystal clear for the first 3ish gallons into the fermenter.
I didn't shake it to aerate it. More or less let the wort drip from the tubing through the mesh onto the funnel and drip into the fermenter. I wasn't sure completely about aerating it, but I felt like it was probably enough (though I've seen some Youtube videos of people shaking the fermenter vigorously).
Been fermenting at 62F-64F as well controlled as it can be (Being New England, it was 80's last week and now hitting 30-40's overnights, I have it fermenting in a bucket of water, controlled by adding hot water/iced bottles to maintain 60's range.)
Lag time was about 18 hours, been fermenting steadily since (Sunday-today, 4 days). The top layer of foam never really rose much, and its got a yellowish tinge to it. There's a ring of gunk about an inch from the top of the wort, which I assume is from the krausen.
Though it's not even near bottle time, just looking for insight. Other than the obvious overboiling. Makes me wonder if I caramelized the wort.
OG at racking to fermenter was 1.042 at 70F.
Thanks!