Brewed my first batch today

I've been reading this site as well as a few others for several months on and off and took the plunge yesterday and bought a starter kit with ingredients.

For under $100 I got a Brewer's Best equipment kit and a Brown Ale ingredient kit from my local brewing supply store.

Started sanitizing this morning around 9:00AM and had wort in my fermenter sealed up by 1:30PM!

All of my questions have been answered thus far by searching the site and I look forward to learning more about home brewing and hopefully expanding my operation someday!

Any tips about patience?! I'm thinking that will be my biggest problem with this batch!

Glad to hear it man - brown ale is always a delicious choice.

This forum will answer any questions you have so don't hesitate to reach out.

Waiting is definitely the hardest part, so read some books, browse over the discussions on here, and keep at it!!

You're right man...the patience and waiting is the hardest part, especially at the beginning. My advice is to get a good pipeline going....I try to brew every 2-3 weeks, so I always have something new to try.

Do some searches for 'green beer' and read about all of the poor results people get when they don't wait. I've bottled too soon...conditioned for too short of time...and gotten exactly the crappy results everyone else has.

Start planning your next batch, figuring out what to buy next or how to optimize your brewery and process, learn how to make a yeast starter....anything to keep your mind off it dude!

Ron

I'm forcing myself to be patient with my IPA which is on week 2 in bottles. It's tough, but your best bet is to go buy some craft brew, keep reading about and studying the brewing process, and plan for your next batch. You'll learn something new with every brew.

Cheers!

Close it up, keep the temperature where it should be (esp. for the first 4-5 days) and in a few weeks take a look.

This is a picture of a Northern Brown ale at the 2 week mark. Still some yeasties floating around but the beer is getting very clear, the surface is free of krausen and looks like flat brown beer. The trub layer is compacting and will even tighten up some more in the next week or two. Then into the bottles..

bosco

PS, That is a 7+ gallon batch with everything from the kettle (hot break, cold break and hops) dumped in together...

I've got my bucked 2/3 submerged in a 30 gallon tub of water to better regulate the temp and hopefully cut down on fluctuation. I used white labs yeast and the temp range was 65-70 so i'm trying to hold it around the 70 mark!

Aeration is my only concern because my instructions weren't exactly clear on how much was enough

I suggest going down to the library and checking out a bunch of books on homebrewing and start reading them for the next month. Your beer is going to be better after 30 days than it is after 10 or even 20. Try to keep a few bottles and drink them in 3 to 6 months. I think you will be pleased.

The only literature I have read so far is "Home Beermaking: The Complete Beginners Guidebook" and it seemed pretty informative for how short it is. I'm planning on reading John Palmer's online book ASAP!

I'm starting to see some bubbles about 5-6 mins apart.

Future plans are to get another fermenter and start another batch in 2-3 weeks, and hopefully let at least 75% of this batch rest for 5-6 weeks (I'll be forced by my curiostiy to try a couple after 3-4 weeks im sure!)