First Time Brewing HELP!!

Hello all. Well today I did it. I brewed my frist batch of beer, all by my self, which isnt probably the best idea for a first timer but hey, my buddies were at work. I used a Budweiser clone I found off the internet. I was a recipe for 5 Gallons but I only wanted to make 2 gallons of beer, being my first time and all I dont want 5 gallons of nasty stuff if it turns out bad. So i multiplied everything in the recipe by .40 to cut it down to a 2 gallon recipe. I rehydrated the wort cause I read that was a good idea, but it set out for about 2 hours, covered, cause I was trying to cool off the batch to 75 degress. Well not its all sealed so I'm hoping for the best. Anything I should watch out for? Thanks Justin

I would ask why to make a budweiser clone, but to each his own.

When you say "I rehydrated the wort ..." do you mean "I rehydrated the yeast"?

As long as it was covered, 2 hrs should be ok unless you live in a bread factory or are brewing in the bathroom.
Any airlock activity yet?

for the next brew you try, i would try filling your sink with cold water and ice and putting your kettle in it, it will help cool it down a hole lot faster

Budweiser clone? Isn't Budweiser a Lagered beer?

I don't think you are going to attain the desired (why would you desire Bud in the first place?!) taste unless you lager this beer. Even then it might be tough as Budweiser is obviously heavily filtered, etc.

Just my .02 but don't expect it to taste like BudWeiser (again, this might be a good thing!).

Yes, I meant I rehydrated the yeast, not wort, sorry. And I don't know why i would want to clone Budweiser, I know it wont tast like it though, I just wanted to try something that used as less amount of ingredients, and what the brew shop had on hand for me. I came home from work today and was happy when I saw activity, there is about half an inch of foam on the top and i saw movement, doesnt smell the best though...is this ok and normal? the only ventalation it gets is a crack in the lid, it sealed though, so only air can get out. so how do i know things are going ok? what should I look for? any suggestions? the batch is in a closet that stays at 70 degress all day and night.

If it's sealed, how does air get out?

The air is supposed to be displaced by Co2 production and escapes out the air lock. during the fermentation process.

If the only venting is a crack in the lid, that will work for the first few days, but once the activity slows down and there is less escaping CO2, it will really be risking infection from airborne nasties.
Get an airlock. Or make one from a racking tube immersed into a glass of water. At the very least wrap aluminum foil around the top of the bucket. Most airborne bacteria are falling straight down (in a closed space), so covering your cracked lid should prevent 99% of that bacteria.

It just a hair line crack running down the center of the lid. I was just trying to make a small one but it cracked across it. And what i mean by air just being able to escape and not get in is that when air wants to get out, enough pressure should build up inside the tank for that crack to separate a little for it to escape. I'll do the tin foil thing, but now im concerned that this crack isnt enough ventilation. I would do that glass water thing, but that means i have to remove this lid and place another on the tank with the glass ventor thing, wouldnt this be too risky? I know this all sounds like a pain, I am getting a 5 gallon bucket tomorrow and a large canning pot to make my next batch in so I wont have this problem, but I don't want this batch to be ruined. Today I came home and it looks the same, i see a thicker layer on the walls and some stuff on the bottom of the yeast foam. I don't know how to tell if it has gone bad or not, or if this is normal. I appreciate everyones help! Thank you! Anyone have any good strawberry beer recipe's? My lady doesnt like beer but I think she might like something like that. THank you.

chillHayze said:

If the only venting is a crack in the lid, that will work for the first few days, but once the activity slows down and there is less escaping CO2, it will really be risking infection from airborne nasties.
Get an airlock. Or make one from a racking tube immersed into a glass of water. At the very least wrap aluminum foil around the top of the bucket. Most airborne bacteria are falling straight down (in a closed space), so covering your cracked lid should prevent 99% of that bacteria.

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Quoted for Truth

One of my brewing mentors used to let his brew ferment in an unsealed kettle with a sheet of canvas laid over the top to keep the little airborne bugs out. He's an old timer and he did this in the 50's and 60's. It seems that the CO2 is heavier than the oxygen so it just pushed the ambient air out of the kettle top as it was produced. He did his fermentation like this in a barn no less! He swears that it tasted better.

Avoid the temptation to 'sneak a peek' at your brew, that would disturb the natural CO2 barrier. Trust the beer gods and stick with your origional timeline for transferring to a secondary fermenter and bottling. The best way to control all of the variables would be to invest a few bucks in a couple of clean, food grade plastic buckets or carboys and the air traps that go with them.

As far as strawberry kits go, there a lot of different places to order brew supplies from online, most of them have flavor kits like that. You can try these two sites, but there are many more out there:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/beer-flavorings.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByCat.aspx?Cat=40

jbrewer83 said:

My lady doesn't like beer but I think she might like something like that. THank you.

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This Apfelwein thing is pretty popular around here these days, perhaps the misses would like some of that? My girl doesn't like beer either, since it "all tastes the same", so I'm trying some of the apfelwein. Hopefully it will appeal to her feminine sensibilities.


Are you planning on racking to your new brew bucket after a week or so? That might be a better idea than leaving it in your open container with cracked lid deal. Then you can throw an air lock on there and not worry so much about it. And it's more difficult to open it up, so you won't be peeking every day.

Imbranato: Thanks for the info on the CO2 layering thing. I'm going to stick to plan, but I will make sure my secondary is a sealed container with a REAL blow off valve purchased at the brewery shop.
Chris_K: Thanks for the recommendation on the Apfelwein, it sounds declicious. I'm shocked there is no real cooking involved, if I read the recipe and directions right. I starting this batch on the 7th, so on the 17th im transfering to the second primary, and then in another 10 days im going to bottle, then hopefully a week after that I can enjoy it. The batch right now smells better than it did before, now it smells like bread. I'm just afraid that I didn't boil the wort long enough, it called for an hour, but I only did it for about 35 min. Will this effect clarity? Taste? Or does it really matter?

jbrewer83 said:

I'm just afraid that I didn't boil the wort long enough, it called for an hour, but I only did it for about 35 min. Will this effect clarity? Taste? Or does it really matter?

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As long as you had a good strong 'rolling' boil that was enough to sanitize the wort and get most hot break proteins to drop out (Clarity). Your hop utilization may be lower, and the beer will be less bitter than if you had done a 60 min boil (Taste). All and all you'll be ok.

Thanks chillHayze. Does anyone have any idea about how much prime I should use when I go to bottle since I only made two gallons? And am I just suppose to bring that to a boil, put it in another container, then add my batch to it while its still hot, or do I let it cool? Then does it have to sit for a while or can I bottle immediately?

Using your 40% calculation you should boil 2oz corn sugar in 6-7 oz of water (or just call it an 8oz cup). Let it boil in a small pot with the lid on loosely for 5 minutes then close the lid and cut off the heat. The sugar should be safe from bacteria with the lid on. You don't have to wait for it to cool but it helps. Are you using a bottling bucket, that makes the job much easier. You don't boil your beer after fermentaion, you'd evaporate the alcohol, kill the yeast and kill the beer. You might want to pick up a homebrewing book, there are several good ones out there and they cover the process from start to finish. Welcome to homebrewing!

Is a bottling bucket the fancy keg containers with the spicket on the bottom of it that you can turn on and off? No I don't have one. Im just using buckets right now. I'm going to sanitize the siphon hose with bleach water and just fill up each bottle one at a time, my friend has a capper. If this batch turns out half decent, I'm going to invest in much more equipment. I've read a lot on the internet so far, the e-book "How to brew" by John Palmer has helped a lot, along with other people's "how to" guides. You have all been the most help so far though. I also saw in a magazine last night The Beer Machine, i think its at www.beermachine.com , the only thing though is that you have to use THEIR recipe mixes, which probably isn't much fun. I like to take my time with every aspect of this.

A bottling bucket is a plastic bucket with a spigot (plastic usually) at the bottom. It's cheap and makes the process simpler. Since you want to go cheap I recommend at least getting a bottling wand if you have a homebrew store nearby. They're only a couple bucks and make controlling the flow of beer into bottles MUCH easier and cleaner.

I'll second the suggestion of a bottling wand. When you push it against the bottom of the bottle a valve opens and beer flows in. When the beer gets to the very top of the bottle release the pressure on the wand and the flow will stop. When you pull the tube out of the bottle the beer level will drop to the correct level of head space. Really a great piece of equipment. One caveat though is that they are difficult to clean if you get anything in the valve.

dantodd said:

One caveat though is that they are difficult to clean if you get anything in the valve.

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I broke mine and replaced it just a couple days ago with one that's spring loaded and comes apart into 3-4 pieces (kinda like a ballpoint pen). Cost me only $2.30 and can't wait to try it out.

Yeah, mine came with my "brewing kit" from the LHBS. When this one goes I'll get one that comes apart too.

Is there a way to measure the alcohol content? Or do we just guess-timate?

You can measure/estimate alcohol content with a hydrometer.

I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the formula is something like:

(OG-FG)*131

Simple example would be:

1.050 - 1.010 = .040 * 131 = 5.24%

So if the batch has reached the alcohol level that I want, is there any need to transfer it to a second container for another 10 days? Can't I just bottle it?

You certainly can go straight from primary to bottle. If your fermenters are 5gallons I'd suggest doing so since you'll have a lot of oxygen in the secondary with a 2 gallon batch. Secondary fermentation is really just clarification time for most beers. You can certainly do that in your bottle.

Be sure to divide your priming sugar too! I'd hate to see you use a full 5 gallon dose of dextrose on your small batch.

Good luck and be patient, it takes 3 weeks or so for the beer to really get good in the bottle, especially if you skip secondary.

edit: It isn't the alcohol level you "want" that you need to be concerned with. You have to let the yeast fully attenuate the beer. If you bottle before the yeast is done fermenting all the beer it is capable of then you may get over carbonated beer, possibly even enough pressure to explode the bottles. (That's a bad thing!)

Imbranato said:

Quoted for Truth

Avoid the temptation to 'sneak a peek' at your brew, that would disturb the natural CO2 barrier. Trust the beer gods and stick with your origional timeline for transferring to a secondary fermenter and bottling. The best way to control all of the variables would be to invest a few bucks in a couple of clean, food grade plastic buckets or carboys and the air traps that go with them.

As far as strawberry kits go, there a lot of different places to order brew supplies from online, most of them have flavor kits like that. You can try these two sites, but there are many more out there:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/beer-flavorings.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByCat.aspx?Cat=40

Click to expand...

I second all of that. I would suggest a good wheat beer base for your strawberry project. I once made a raspberry wheat and my wife liked it a great deal.

Well I transfered to the secondary on the 17th, so I have a few more days to go until bottling. I got a taste of it though, wasn't bad at all for warm beer. It has really cleared up too, has a nice amber color to it. I noticed that I lossed almost half a gallon of fluids though. I suppose it was sucked up by the yeast? I don't know. I've decided that I next want to persue a ruby-brown ale and the hard apple cider recipe that someone posted for me that I dont know the name of. I hope im not getting my self in too deep doing two at once. Anyways, when I go to bottle, how should I sanitize the bottles? I was looking on the sanitize forum and I couldn't find a straight answer to this. And do I just siphon the batch onto the primary after its been cooked and go straight to bottling it? Do i stir it around a little? Let it sit to a certain temperature?