Just finished my first beer brew!

Hello everyone,

I just finished my first beer brew 2 days ago. I basically im experimenting with 1 gallon batches to see what I can make and how good it will be.

The recipe:

1 Gallon of Water to boil with 1 gallon top off pre-boiled water as a precaution to loss.

1.25 (20 ounces) Pounds of Northern Brewer Amber LME

1/16 Ounce (0.0625) = 27.4 Grains of Galena Hops Pellets (60min)
1/16 Ounce (0.0625) = 27.4 Grains of Ahtanum Hops Pellets (15min)

2 Grams = 30.86 Grains of Coopers Ale Yeast (Rehydrated)

I had to use my powder measuring scale for reloading since I didn't have a scale that would get it to those measures acurately.

What do you guys think it will turn out like? I am just experimenting right now.

So far it has spent 2 days fermenting. The first day the airlock was bubbling like crazy. It has slowed down right now but it is still bubbling. Is this normal? Fermentation temp is 70F right now.

I plan on bottleing it in 2 weeks on 1/29


Expected Parameters:

1.046 OG
1.013 FG
4.37% ABV
19.32 IBU
10.63 SRM

You may want to cool it down to around 62-64F, or is 70 the vessel temp. Congrats on the reload brew, sounds like a plan. Cheers

Congrats! I just put my first brew into the second fermenting bucket. Not getting any bubbles now. Is that gonna be a problem?

Curently the air temp in the room is controlled at a constant 70. Since it is such a small amount it is not worth using a hydrometer on since the theif will take up so much. I have a refractometer on order since I realized this fault with these small batches. Is it possible since this is such a small amount of brew that it would be done so soon?

Right now it is having 1 bubble every 20 seconds. Yesterday it was constant almost 1 bubble every second. Is that normal?

I aerated it by pouring it between my fermenter and brew pot prior to pitching yeaster several times too.

As the brew ferments it creates more heat inside the vessel. We use stick on thermometers (aquarium thermometer) to judge the fermentation temp, by lowering the ambient air you will bring the temp of the actual fermentation down to the temp range of the yeast. The temperature for the yeast is what you want to control. You can move the brew to a cooler area, or use what is called a swamp cooler to keep the vessel temp in the desired range. The hydrometer is the way to tell if you have reached FG, Refractometers are a good tool to have, if you use it from start to finish. But I still finish with the hydrometer. I have had brews bubble for 30 days if I press down on the bucket, bubbles are not a reliable guide to go by. If I were you I would simply wait 3 weeks to bottle and test once with the hydrometer and refractometer, record the readings for future reference, drink the sample and move on to the next LARGER batch. Cheers and enjoy; you can not rush the process.

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully it goes good and I will let you know if it is a good beer or a bust. Recommended temp for the Coops Ale Yeast I used is 65-75F so i take it im in the green with 68F right now.

varack said:

Curently the air temp in the room is controlled at a constant 70. Since it is such a small amount it is not worth using a hydrometer on since the theif will take up so much. I have a refractometer on order since I realized this fault with these small batches. Is it possible since this is such a small amount of brew that it would be done so soon?

Right now it is having 1 bubble every 20 seconds. Yesterday it was constant almost 1 bubble every second. Is that normal?

I aerated it by pouring it between my fermenter and brew pot prior to pitching yeaster several times too.

Click to expand...

Ale yeasts eat the easy sugars pretty quickly, sometimes only a couple of days so if your bubbling is slowing that is pretty normal. The yeast still need time to finish but there will be little bubbling during that time as the sugar is gone and the rest of the compounds don't cause the CO2 that the sugars do. I'd leave it as is for another couple days and then warm it up a few degrees to encourage the yeast to finish.

ok thanks. See how it goes. I cant wait to get it in bottles and try it out when its all said and done