Noob Experiment

Being new to home brewing, but very curious, I wanted to experiment with a few ideas and methods I've read about over the past couple months.

Up to know, I've only completed a couple Cooper's kits and a few gallons of cider. I've been happy with the results so far but wanted to try making a Blue Moon influenced batch just to see what would happen.

I brought 2 gallons of water to a boil and added 3.3 lbs (1 can) of Cooper's Wheat LME. Stirring regularly I added another 3.3 lbs of the same LME. After 30 minutes into the boil, I added 2 oz of Styrian Golding hops. At the 50 minute mark, I added .5 oz of Tettnanger hops, and 1 lb of candi sugar. I then added .5 oz of bitter orange peel and .75 oz of coriander seed for the last 5 minutes of the 60 minute boil (for what I hope will give it more of an orange flavor). After the boil, I strained the all the floaters from the pot.

To cool the brew, I poured it into my fermenter and did what I think may be a serious deal breaker. I topped it off to the 5 gallon mark with filtered cold water, stirring it in thoroughly. I put the fermenter outside cooling it down to about 75 degrees F, then pitched a tube of WLP400.

It's been about 15 hours and I'm being a pessimist, thinking it's a dumper, but it's actually getting a good layer of krausen.

I'd appreciate any input on this fun night I had, and how I might be able to make a winner next time.

Congrats....sounds like your going to have beer to me!

But why sucha small boil? Is your equipment limiting you? Taking into consideration all the water loss and straining of the trub from the boil...seems like your 2 gallons that you boiled went down to about .5 and you added 5 gal of water?? If you can, try stepping up your boil to the largest amount of water possible. It will yield far better results...and just make sure your yeast are as healthy as possible (steady fermentation temperature, correct pitching temp, lots of oxygen). Treat those yeast good and they will pay you back with great tasting beer!


There is an endless amount of information on these forums you can utilize to improve your brewing techniques...Just use the search tab up-top and look for

- Full Boil on Stovetop
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Thanks, I feel a little better now. I got so caught up in the recipe and process, I didn't even think about my pot. I was limited to a 3 gallon cooker I've got in the kitchen. I kept it down to 2 gallons of water to avoid a boil over after adding everything else. Had a gravity of 1.040, which was a good bit lower than I was hoping for. I was expecting to be in the mid to high 1.050's.

I've also seen the FG should be anywhere from 1.008 - 1.014? Since mine started so low, would it be advisable to let it go all the way down to 1.000? What benefits does the brew gain by bottling it at 1.010 versus 1.000?

No, No, No......all wrong. Only solution is to send it to me for taste testing.....HAH!!! Seriously, sounds fine to me....BEER!!!!

VB

Pouring the hot (> 80 deg) wort into the fermenter can cause off flavors. Probably not good for a glass carboy either. You want to cool the wort down to under 80 before aerating it.

Of course, the flavors this will give the beer might be considered desirable to someone from Belgium ;-) A country known to let any odd flavor into beer and call it good. LOL

pkeeler said:

Pouring the hot (> 80 deg) wort into the fermenter can cause off flavors. Probably not good for a glass carboy either. You want to cool the wort down to under 80 before aerating it.

Of course, the flavors this will give the beer might be considered desirable to someone from Belgium ;-) A country known to let any odd flavor into beer and call it good. LOL

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Pouring the wort is fine. In fact, you want to aerate it as much as possible in order to get as much oxygen into it as you can. Yeast use oxygen while reproducing.

If the OP using a glass carboy, then correctamundo: don't pour boiling liquids in there. It will eventually crack (I have experience this exactly ugly phenomenon).

Belgian beers are good.

Pouring the wort is fine. In fact, you want to aerate it as much as possible in order to get as much oxygen into it as you can. Yeast use oxygen while reproducing.

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Pouring the wort is fine, but not when it is hot. That will oxidize your beer. Funny, I was just catching up on old Basic Brewing podcasts today. Just listened to the one where they aerated hot wort in one batch and not in another. The former was undrinkable and the latter was fine. I think Fix puts the temp. at 86F, but I wouldn't aerate until you are at pitching temps.

This episode of Brew Strong is an interview with Dr Charles Bamforth about hot side aeration. Worth a listen in regards to this discussion (he's an interesting beer guy anyway). He basically calls out HSA as a more myth than fact. That said, I always keep my cooling brew kettle closed up until the wort is at pitching temp.

Captain Damage said:

This episode of Brew Strong is an interview with Dr Charles Bamforth about hot side aeration. Worth a listen in regards to this discussion (he's an interesting beer guy anyway). He basically calls out HSA as a more myth than fact. That said, I always keep my cooling brew kettle closed up until the wort is at pitching temp.

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Bamforth is the real deal. He comes off as a bona fide authority on everything he discusses (unlike Jamil and Palmer, who shoot from the hip mostly).

Regarding HSA, I've heard it's a myth also. I'll have to give that Basic Brewing show a listen. I circulate my boiling wort for 15 minutes to sanitize my tubing and plate chiller. If there is some negative affect, I haven't picked it out. My beers aren't perfect, but I have a dozen ribbons to say that they are not bad.

Not to spoil the podcast for anybody, but he basically says that for industrial beers oxygenation issues are almost always traced to the packaging process. So I can't help but wonder if this is even an issue for homebrewers who bottle condition, since we're actively cultivating yeast in our bottles - the yeast will consume all the oxygen before carbing up our bottles. While prudence dictates that we take care not to abuse our beer, I think a lot of brewers panic about things that ultimately aren't that big of a deal.