If the Vikings could do it, so can I...

Well, after being interested in the craft beer scene for several years I have finally decided to take the plunge in homebrewing. I have wanted to do it for a long time but I have a tendency to get really interested in a hobby, spend a bunch of money, and then lose interest after a few months - so I've put it off and enjoyed the fruits of professional brewers' labor.

I went to my LHBS on Friday (3 hours' drive away - I'm stationed in Puerto Rico) with the intention of buying their basic starter kit with an extract recipe. I learned then that they had recently done a Groupon and sold out of nearly everything! The owner of the store was extremely helpful and generous and got me set up with just about everything I need - to brew all grain for my first batch!

I'm planning on brewing in a week or two, because I'll be going off-island for the first 2 weeks of February - A perfect amount of time to let the beer ferment.

I bought a 10 gallon brew kettle, a single 5 gallon Better Bottle and airlock - that was all they had available - and last night I built up two 5-gallon Home Depot / Rubbermaid coolers as a hot liquor tank and mash/lauter tun.

I'll be going shopping for a propane burner and then I should be set. Billy (LHBS owner) set me up with a 3-gallon IPA recipe due to the smaller headspace in the 5 gallon carboy. I don't have the recipe sheet handy but I believe it's 8lb 2-row and a bit of crystal malt, and Columbus and Centennial with Safale S-04 yeast.

Just wanted to introduce myself, I've been reading How to Brew like crazy the past couple of days and am going to be writing a detailed checklist for myself prior to the brewday to make sure I don't miss some critical step at a critical moment! Looking forward to being part of the homebrew community

I'm like you when it comes to investing in a hobby and getting burnt out.
Once you taste the final product though you my find you are addicted. That's what happened to me.

I jumped into 10gal all grain right off the bat and since my first tasting haven't looked back. Just wish the weather would be more brewer friendly here as I brew outdoors.

pb

Welcome!! It's an awesome hobby to be a part of. Trust me, things will only go up from here. Tinkering, messing around with and adding equipment to your set up. Testing new recipes and eventually making your own. There is TOO much to learn and do to ever get bored of this. Have fun and if there is one piece of advice I can give you, it's relax. Everything usually turns out.

And if it doesn't, who cares. Just and excuse to brew some more

And next week I want you to build a boat and sail it across the Atlantic...

Thanks for the responses all!

I just realized there's a seperate forum for introductions, this would likely be better placed there but I do plan on posting more about how my first brew day goes.

PhelanKA7 said:

And next week I want you to build a boat and sail it across the Atlantic...

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Let me call in a few favors and I'll get back to ya I'm in the Coast Guard and you should see some of the boats (called yolas) that the Dominicans and Cubans use to ferry migrants across the Atlantic!!

Here's the recipe that was whipped up for my first batch. If anyone is willing to take a glance and point out any glaringly obvious errors, I'd appreciate it! I downloaded a trial copy of BeerSmith and have been playing around with a few numbers just to see what other numbers change.

Recipe: 6th St. IPA TYPE: All Grain
Style: American IPA
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 10.6 SRM SRM RANGE: 6.0-15.0 SRM
IBU: 47.3 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.059 SG OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.014 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 0.802 Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz Est ABV: 5.9 %
EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 3.50 gal Boil: 4.96 gal BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------


Total Grain Weight: 7 lbs 12.0 oz Total Hops: 1.95 oz oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
7 lbs 4.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 93.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.5 %


Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 9.69 qt of water at 167.3 F 152.0 F 60 min

---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 72.0 F/72.0 F
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD BOIL CHEMICALS BEFORE FWH
Fly sparge with 3.72 gal water at 168.0 F

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.051 SG Est OG: 1.059 SG
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.45 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop 3 27.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 11.7 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 7.7 IBUs


---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 01/20/2013 - 14.00 Days at 67.0 F
Secondary Start: 02/03/2013 - 10.00 Days at 65.0 F
Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols
Bottling Date: 02/03/2013 with 2.3 Volumes CO2:
---NOTES------------------------------------


Brew day is here!! Woke up early and started heating water. Just started the mash about 5 minutes ago - had to add about a quart of boiling water to bring the mash up to 152.5. About to start sanitizing some stuff and heating more water to sparge.

Have fun!

Thanks! Well, it's been a learning experience. I'll post my thoughts a little later on once I've had a chance to clean up. Hopefully that brown liquid I made ferments into something drinkable!

Hope it all goes well. This is an addicting and exciting hobby. Enjoy your brew.

you won't loose interest. not after you drink your first pint and realize there is no mystery or magic in making beer, not a chance at all.
plus there is so much to obsess over and forget about, im nearly over being exited about amarillo hops...


nearly....

I had a few issues with the vorlauf and sparging - not a stuck sparge, just some issues due to the small amount of water used in this batch. I vorlaufed and drained the first runnings, BeerSmith wanted me to batch sparge in two steps, 0.8ish gallons and 2.5 or so. Trying to vorlauf 0.8 gallons was not working because when I started to get clear wort running out, the MLT would run dry. I was standing there with a pitcher of cloudy wort and a 'dry' grain bed wondering how I could pour the wort back into the MLT without stirring up all the grain again! I ended up just adding a large quantity of water to the MLT, vorlaufing, and running it out into the brew kettle until I hit me preboil volume.

Everything went fine with the boil - It took a long time for the wort to get up to temperature, nothing was happening for ages - I stepped into the kitchen for 30 seconds and when I came out it was at full rolling boil!

Here's where my brew day went a little bit bad. I built a wort chiller, and leak tested it the other day; I did my 5 minute hop addition, then dropped the wort chiller in the boil. There was still a little bit of water inside the chiller coil, which of course also got up to boiling temperature. When I hooked up the hose at flameout, I wasn't hanging onto the outlet hose and some of that boiling water sprayed out and burned me. Not bad - nothing a little ice and ointment couldn't fix, but still! I was a bit distracted while the wort was cooling.

Turns out my ground water here in Puerto Rico was only able to chill the wort to 81*, which was highly annoying as I didn't have any ice on hand, so I whirlpooled it, let it settle, drained into my 5 gallon Better Bottle - LOTS of hop matter towards the end, and I had to leave a decent amount of liquid behind with the break material. Aerated well, put the carboy in my fridge for about 20 minutes while I rehydrated the dry yeast and pitched. It was showing about 70* ish when I pitched so hopefully it will be OK as it's been in the fridge getting cooler. I have an old kegerator set up as a fermentation chamber and set at about 62* so I will be monitoring the temperature closely to make sure it settles into the right range when it starts fermenting.

Wecome to the board! Congrats on going AG out of the gate. For an "American" IPA, try the Safale S-05 next time...I have used the British strain S-04 quite a bit as well, and it took me a long time to realize I prefer the 05 over the 04...just my 2...happy brewing!

Tupperwolf said:

Turns out my ground water here in Puerto Rico was only able to chill the wort to 81*, which was highly annoying as I didn't have any ice on hand, so I whirlpooled it, let it settle, drained into my 5 gallon Better Bottle - LOTS of hop matter towards the end, and I had to leave a decent amount of liquid behind with the break material. Aerated well, put the carboy in my fridge for about 20 minutes while I rehydrated the dry yeast and pitched. It was showing about 70* ish when I pitched so hopefully it will be OK as it's been in the fridge getting cooler. I have an old kegerator set up as a fermentation chamber and set at about 62* so I will be monitoring the temperature closely to make sure it settles into the right range when it starts fermenting.

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So long as your sanitation is good, you can airlock the carboy and come back and pitch when your wort reaches pitching temp. I've done this overnight once or twice even with no ill effects.

wilserbrewer said:

Wecome to the board! Congrats on going AG out of the gate. For an "American" IPA, try the Safale S-05 next time...I have used the British strain S-04 quite a bit as well, and it took me a long time to realize I prefer the 05 over the 04...just my 2...happy brewing!

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Thanks for the advice! I asked the LHBS owner that gave me the recipe about the yeast, and if I should use Wyeast 1056 instead, but he said that he liked the character the S-04 gave to this beer and recommended it. I'm not sure my batch will come out anything like his beer, but we'll see

dryboroughbrewing said:

So long as your sanitation is good, you can airlock the carboy and come back and pitch when your wort reaches pitching temp. I've done this overnight once or twice even with no ill effects.

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Thanks, that is good advice. I was actually thinking about doing this but I already had rehydrated the yeast in ~100* water and read that it should be pitched within 30 minutes for best results. I think it'll be OK... I'm just going to RDWHAHB (actually RDWHASamAdams because my pipeline is not yet established)

Your recipe sounds good.

Wow, Only one thread showed up at the bottom of the page. I was looking for more of a tie-in fro your thread title. I was wondering where it was leading.

How much snow have ya got?

Tupperwolf said:

Turns out my ground water here in Puerto Rico was only able to chill the wort to 81*, ... It was showing about 70* ish when I pitched so hopefully it will be OK as it's been in the fridge getting cooler.

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You should be fine.

My first time at all-grain was rough too.

Hello fellow coastie it sounds like you made yourself a good brew. This is by far the best forum for brewing. People are very willing to answer your questions above all have fun.

The best part about this hobby, is you can pick it up in the winter/summer/whenever, make a whole lot of beer or wine, lay it down for months or years, then pick up the hobby again.

The only thing that goes bad is the ingredients, the rest of it keeps forever

aarong said:

Hello fellow coastie it sounds like you made yourself a good brew. This is by far the best forum for brewing. People are very willing to answer your questions above all have fun.

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Hey fellow Coastie! Thanks, I haven't perused any other brewing forums than this one. I don't see much reason to look elsewhere. Great forum.

Here's a photo from my boil. I've been hearing rumors that there's some kind of cold spell up in the states? I don't know anything about that

As i am a full flegged VIKING id just like to say wlecome to the addiction....and VIKINGS do it BEST

I want to say it in a nice way but I can't I hate you. haha enjoy the nice weather!

I think it was around 30f in my garage for this boil.