Just finished my first batch!!!!

Ok I just literally finished my first batch. I waited a few weeks to do this because I felt I needed to read a little more before starting. Plus the temperature outside has been pretty cold. So here are my notes from it and if anyone happens to see an area that I messed up, could change or should improve please tell me.

Ingredients:
MALT:
5lb Light Malt Extract, 8oz. 120L Crystal, 8oz. Roasted Barley, 4oz. Black Malt, and 4oz. Chocolate Malt

HOPS:
1oz. Northern Brewer [:60], and 3/4oz. Willamette [:15]

YEAST:
White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Put Carboy, Brew Pot, and Stir Stick into dishwasher and put on SANITIZE. Once complete Heated 1 gallon of water and mixed 1 Tbspn of sanitizer (bought from LHBS) and sanitized Thermometer, Stir Stick, Brew Pot, Carboy, and Funnel.

Heated 2 Gallons of water to 150 DF. Place all dried Hops into brew bag, and let steep for 30 min. Removed from heat and removed bag and added LME. Brought mixture back to a boil and added 1oz. Northern Brewer Hops. Waited 10 minutes and added 3/4oz. Willamette Hops. Boiled for 60 minutes. Placed pot into an ice water bath and brought the temp down to 80 DF. Placed mixture into Carboy, along with water. Took a Hydrometer reading (OG: 1.044) and pitched yeast.

Congratulations. It looks like everything went smoothly. A couple quick points - generally speaking everything that touches the beer before and during the boil does not need to be sanitized. It doesn't hurt to do it, but most likely the hour boil would kill any and everything it touces. It is the after boil equipment that really needs to be carefully sanitized. It is a minor thing but could save you some time.

Second, what was the project OG?

Make sure you keep your carbor (assuming glass or better bottle) covered to prevent light messing with your yeast.

Congrats, enjoy and please let us know how it turned out.

I have a glass Carboy, and I have it sitting in the garage and covered with a towel. The project OG was 1.04.

Excellent! You are well on your way to nurturing 5 gallons of sweet elixir.

Way to go.

All the pre-boil sanitizing is unnecessary though.

Thanks guys for the input. I did all the sanitizing only because I keep seeing people say sanitize, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize so I figured if I sanatize everything I wont have alot to worry about, and dont forget anything.

fremsn:

looking good...best of luck.

Luv your signature.

OK here is question from you guys. As you can see from above I made my first brew about a week ago. Sometime this morning the yeast stopped working thier magic, I know this cause I always check my carboy and give it a hug and kiss goodnight. LOL Anyway I figured that it was time to take a hydrometer reading. The reading came out to 1.12, and the taste is OUT FRIGGIN STANDING, but it seems a bit cloudy. Is this normal, and is there something that i need to do to clear it. Currently my plans is to take another hydrometer reading tomorrow and then another one on Tues, and if they are the same I will move it to my secondary fermentor.

Definitely take hydro readings over thenext two days. The cloudiness is common. If you can wait, let it sit a few weeks and the cloudiness will go away. I understand as your first batch there is an eagernes to bottle, so go ahead as long as you get table readings. The bottles should clear as well.

Thanks for the information. I am eager to bottle but I am patient enough to wait, escpecially since I already plan on this taking atleast a month or more to do. Ok so I will take hdros for the next couple of days, then if good I will shift to the secondary fermentor, and let it sit a little longer.

Good plan. A couple other tips if you haven't picked these up yet. 1) Soak your primary bucket in a combo of oxyclean (get the one that is fragrant free, I believe it has a green lid). Letting it soak overnight should clean all the krausen off with little effort. Make sure you rinse very well. 2) with the primary empty, you are all set to brew again. 3) Start stocking up on bottles. 4) Keep that production line going.

Enjoy

Welcome to the addiction, young padawan. Please keep all bodily appendages inside the vehicle at all times.

eljefe thanks for the input, and I will have to go pick some oxyclean up. Did another hydro last night and it was the same as Sundays, so one more tonight and its over to the secondary. As far as stocking up on bottles I pretty much have that covered, especially since the DW has yet to figure out that it is cheaper to buy bottles at the LHBS than it is to buy Sam Adams. Plus I have a bunch of friends that are stock piling bottles for me in hopes of picking up a six pack or two from me. I have 3 recipes that I wanted to try but the DW put in a request last night for something similar to Corona, so now I am on the search for that.

brewers best makes a mexican lager kit as does Austin Home Brew:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=300

both use lager yeast so you need to ferment at lower temps than an ale. Garage works well in the winter assuming it is not heated.

If you have not visited AHS (Austin...) I highly recommend you do so especially the commercial beer clones.