Chronicles of a rookie

My new bells kit showed up last night. As soon as I had everything unpacked I immediately sanitized everything. It is now brew day, I am typing this in preparation to re-sanitize all of my brew day equipment and begin brewing my brewers best weizenbier extract. I'll be posting pictures and updates through the whole process. I am thrilled to finally be a part of this community and look forward to everyone's input and help!

Hopefully someone out there reads this....should I continue stirring after I add the lme and it returns to boil? (once hops are in)
This is why I called it chronicles of a rookie

You don't have to stir constantly

Beginning and end of my first batch. My buddy came to help, and thank goodness for it. The 40 minute boil, plus the fact that I'm pretty sure I didn't use my auto-siphon correctly.

looks fine!
Don't worry too much about the left over hops and trub getting into the fermenter,the beer will clear up fine with some cold conditioning.

I notice that your Burner is indoors. I have to ask, did you boil in the house with that burner?

RLinNH said:

I notice that your Burner is indoors. I have to ask, did you boil in the house with that burner?

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That was my thought too. Yikes!

It doesn't look much like it from that but it's actually on a screened in porch. Which isn't a heck of a lot better....but it's something.

Only reason I askd is because you never, ever, ever, NEVER should use a burner such as the one you own indoors. They are for outdoor use only. And tha my fellow homebrewer is today's safety tip.

How did your frs brew go, all in all? Did you hit your O.G.?

gcdowd said:

That was my thought too. Yikes!

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I also have to ask... That looks like a brand new setup congrats.. The pot does not look like you have ever used it. You should before you're next brew, boil water as full as you can get it in the pot for 30 min to get a nice oxidation layer on it. When done, don't scrub it with a harsh pad to get the black off, that's the protective layer.

Brew on... Have fun

divrguy said:

I also have to ask... That looks like a brand new setup congrats.. The pot does not look like you have ever used it. You should before you're next brew, boil water as full as you can get it in the pot for 30 min to get a nice oxidation layer on it. When done, don't scrub it with a harsh pad to get the black off, that's the protective layer.

Brew on... Have fun

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I actually did this the morning of the brew before use. Though I've posted here a few times in the last couple weeks, I have mostly been lurking and learning.

RLinNH said:

Only reason I askd is because you never, ever, ever, NEVER should use a burner such as the one you own indoors. They are for outdoor use only. And tha my fellow homebrewer is today's safety tip.

How did your frs brew go, all in all? Did you hit your O.G.?

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Absolutely. Carbon monoxide, burn the house down, etc. I was using it in a corner area of a screen porch with a brand new fire extinguisher right to the side (out of camera view).

The brew was a lot of fun, and a learning experience for sure.
There were a few things that as it came up I thought, the HBT folks would say to do this, so I did that. Then there was a point where the instructions said add water, etc, be careful to not fall out of your OG range. Sooo I ended up with a 4-4.5 gallon batch that has gravity at its lowest end of the OG range.

vogtenstein222 said:

I actually did this the morning of the brew before use. Though I've posted here a few times in the last couple weeks, I have mostly been lurking and learning.



Absolutely. Carbon monoxide, burn the house down, etc. I was using it in a corner area of a screen porch with a brand new fire extinguisher right to the side (out of camera view).

The brew was a lot of fun, and a learning experience for sure.
There were a few things that as it came up I thought, the HBT folks would say to do this, so I did that. Then there was a point where the instructions said add water, etc, be careful to not fall out of your OG range. Sooo I ended up with a 4-4.5 gallon batch that has gravity at its lowest end of the OG range.

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Congrats on your frst batch!!! Kee a cloe eye on fermentation temps and let us know how your beer turns out. :fro:

RLinNH said:

Congrats on your frst batch!!! Kee a cloe eye on fermentation temps and let us know how your beer turns out. :fro:

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Thanks I definitely will. I'm planning on 3 weeks primary. No secondary. Until tax season, I'll be bottle carbing, then I'm hoping to switch to kegging.
I'll keep everyone posted on how this goes! Impatience will be my bane, but I think for the sake of an awesome beer I'll make it.

So I'm sitting here enjoying a Free State Wheat State Golden, reading over things, getting my brew station reorganized per SWMBO's request, when it occurs to me it's been 12 hours since I went to primary...time to uncover my pail and check airlock activity.


NOTHING!

So, by way of the magical search function and a proper query, I discover that I need to aerate a bit. So I give a light, but firm, brisk shake, as per the recommendation...wait about ohhhhhh 30 seconds....and BAM! A bubble!!!! A couple moments and another.

Best part of my day, week, month and year so far!

Day 6 of fermentation.
I am being patient. I am NOT freaking out. But after several days of awesome bubbling in the airlock, it tapered off and I now have no activity.
So I've worked out a few things.
1) It's only been 6 days, no way fermentation is done.
2) I am closing in on day 10, when i planned to pop the top and do a gravity reading (unless otherwise advised by someone who knows what they're doing)
3) are my yeasties dead? Or should I continue to be patient and see if they start again. It IS the weekend after all and we all deserve some good rest.

Also.
In checking my gravity...do I remove the airlock, open the lid (I'm in an ale pail) and thief it from there then relid? Or is there some other way i don't know about?

all is well my friend, the vigorous fermentation usually only lasts a few days then settles down considerably. Its not uncommon at all for your airlock to go silent atfer 2 days of nonstop bubblage. As Im sure you know, your hydro readings are the only way to really know what is going on. 3 days of consecutive reading and your done.

I try to let my brews sit 14-17 days before I start taking readings with my goal to be racking after 21 days in primary.
Your sampling proceedure looks good to me. Just remember to sanitize your thief and dont pour your sample back in. I like to taste mine.

A little trick I do is to gently press down on the lid, you should see some bubbles then in the airlock. Towards the end of fermentation things slow down quite a bit and the co2 produced will build up in the headspace and only burp out once every hour or so, unlike active fermentation where its practically percolating. Your fermentation is past the active stage. This does not mean it is done by any means. Leave it be to allow the yeast to clean up and fall to the bottom. The longer you wait the better. If you really feel like you have to check open the.lid and see if there are any bubbles on top or krausen, if there is some sort of foam or bubble on top, your brew is still fermenting and most likely needs a bit longer.

emmdubb23 said:

A little trick I do is to gently press down on the lid, you should see some bubbles then in the airlock. Towards the end of fermentation things slow down quite a bit and the co2 produced will build up in the headspace and only burp out once every hour or so, unlike active fermentation where its practically percolating. Your fermentation is past the active stage. This does not mean it is done by any means. Leave it be to allow the yeast to clean up and fall to the bottom. The longer you wait the better. If you really feel like you have to check open the.lid and see if there are any bubbles on top or krausen, if there is some sort of foam or bubble on top, your brew is still fermenting and most likely needs a bit longer.

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the_trout said:

all is well my friend, the vigorous fermentation usually only lasts a few days then settles down considerably. Its not uncommon at all for your airlock to go silent atfer 2 days of nonstop bubblage. As Im sure you know, your hydro readings are the only way to really know what is going on. 3 days of consecutive reading and your done.

I try to let my brews sit 14-17 days before I start taking readings with my goal to be racking after 21 days in primary.
Your sampling proceedure looks good to me. Just remember to sanitize your thief and dont pour your sample back in. I like to taste mine.

Click to expand...

Thanks to both of you.
Mainly wanted to make sure i was staying on the right track.
I'll try the light pressure on the lid and see what's up but I certainly don't want to upset my yeast.
And I absolutely plan to use that thief sample to taste it! I'm almost looking forward to that more than the finished product. Ha.