Home Brew Day #1: so far, so good

a little anxious at the get go, but pretty much smooth sailing so far.....nice to finally get into the process after thinking about it for so long and getting prepared, etc.

mixing seemed a little awkward w/ the size of my pot (8 gallon) and not so big spoon...dumped the DME in a little fast, so extra time getting all that to dissolve

wort is back on boil and next round of hops due in about 30 mins....quite the burst of aroma went you drop those first hop pellets in

is stirring recommended on the boiling wort?

To answer your immediate question first: I never stir during my boil except to get hops off the side of the pot. The boil should be vigorous enough to keep it all moving for you.

And congrats on the first brew! Make sure you start a new one pretty soon because that first one disappears FAST.

I stir when brewing with DME, because it seems like it always clumps up and turns into a big taffy chunk until I mix in a bit. Same cause though, I pour it in too fast sometimes.

Make sure you stay extremely sanitized throughout the process to avoid dissapointment later on...

You want to stir until the DME is completely dissolved and there are no more clumps left behind. After that, you can just let it boil. If you add the DME or LME prior to boiling you should stir the wort continuously until it comes to a boil to minimize scorching. Just be careful you don't get burned when it foams up (and it will foam a lot.)

thanks for all the info!!! wort is now being chilled

on sanitizing the primary....it looks like there are a few small flakes of one-step left on the inside....if i rinse that out with a little hot water, is it no longer sanitized??



the other items are sanitized and air drying on a sanitized rack

Go ahead and rinse it out but don't wipe it or anything. It should be fine.

well, the last 25 mins. or so was a flurry of activity....cold water in, wort in, more water, sanitize yeast package, yeast in, cap & lock on....phew!!!



i have to agree that the process may be simple, but that doesn't mean everything went perfectly.....will know in a few weeks



almost 5 hours with all of the cleanup...just enough time to grab a few (non-home) brews and a cheap bottle of champagne to pop for the bosox sweep tonight!!!

kraeusen after 25 hours

That looks pretty good, I made my first batch Sat.

Of course mine is in a plastic fermentor, so I can't see a thing, but the airlock is bubbling away..

Oh man I can't wait to make my first batch!

Congrats. My first one was a month ago. In retrospect I was occasionally not so sanitary, but everything turned out fine. But better to be too safe than sloppy.

transfered from primary to secondary on sunday....very smooth....dry hops in and now back to the waiting game...will pass some time by starting a new batch this weekend