First brew is in the fermenter!

Brewed my first batch finally! I did a partial mash this past Sunday, AHS’ version of Fullers ESB. Went well I think.

I did a starter Feb 3 planning on brewing on that weekend but it got canceled so I did a “restarter” on Sat morning to brew on Sunday afternoon…had plenty of yeast from the looks of things.

Did an hour at 155 in a 5 gallon cooler and then full boil in a keggle for an hour after that…all per AHS instructions, both written and verbal

I cooled with a IC. I filled a cooler with 40lbs of ice, topped it off with water and dropped in an old 700gph aquarium pump I have laying around and fed the IC with that water. Collected the runoff in a homer bucket just to measure what it took and it was about 4 buckets and 14 minutes to go from full boil to 80…this is counting leaving the burner on for the first 5 minutes cause I was not paying attention

In the future I think I need to leave the IC in action while I transfer because I shut it down at 80 degrees and the temp jumped back up to 90 pretty quick after. I almost threw the IC back in but decided against it since I just threw it in the un-sanitized ice bath and cause I was already transferring to the fermenter.

Also think I could have gotten by with only 20lbs of ice but it took 40lbs to fill the cooler so I erred on high side just in case. The initial 5 gallons or so came out really hot so in the future I think those will hit the ground but the rest was pretty cool so I think it can just go back in to the cooler to make things easier next time.

I am fermenting in a 7.75 gallon sanke (shorter variety) which is in a small chest freezer attached to a Johnson controller.

After 12 hours I checked on it and it was bubbling away, 24 more and its bubbling much slower but still going.

Drew a sample to check the gravity and its right on 1.060 which is what the recipe called for.

I don’t know how you guys wait, it is not even 48 hours in the tank and I want to drink it!!!

Drew a sample to check the gravity and its right on 1.060 which is what the recipe called for.

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I assume this is before you pitched and not after 24 hours. Completely recommended if it is the former; not necessary for the first few days if it is the latter.

Sounds like you just jumped right in going for a partial batch. Probably most of us started off with a kit of some sort. Not to mention you have the aquarium pump and the cooler going. You could probably just use a grain bag instead of the cooler if you are going to be doing partials for a while.

Regarding waiting, is it pretty much the hardest part, but it gets easier if/when you start getting multiple batches fermenting or bottle conditioning. Just remember to RDWHAHB - or in this case, some good craft beer.

Congrats on the first batch.

Yes, before I pitched I took the sample.

I actually used the bag, in the cooler. Seemed the best way to maintain the temp.

Not a bad idea. And now you have a cooler to convert into a mash tun.

Was picking up some ant killer at HomeDepot and saw how cheap they were...just made sense. $18.29!

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

...and the 10 gallon one was a little less than double.

I read it as "Fish brew is in the fermenter!"

I was like.. Uh O.