Burgs
Well-Known Member
To celebrate National Homebrew Day yesterday, I brewed up 5 gallons of Cream Ale from Northern Brewer.
Originally I wanted to try BIAB/all-grain for this, but convinced myself otherwise & that I should still be trying to get the basics down - and I think I definitely improved from batch 2.
Basically, I realized that I'm probably ending up with way too much volume in the fermenter - but I also couldn't tell you how that affected my previous gravity readings because I didn't take any.
SO, this time around I marked (in my head) where 5 gal hit in the kettle, as it was filling with water. I also took note of where the water level was at when I had added my 6lbs of extract.
Previously I've only done 60 minute boils, and I don't think that cuts it on the kitchen stove. At 60 minutes yesterday, I hadn't boiled off nearly enough - this was probably true for the two batches I did previously too! So, I let it go for 30 more minutes, chilled, transferred to fermenter and I was right on the money - 5 gallons in the better bottle. I also took a gravity reading and hit my target of 1.040.
12 or so hours later, I've got a nice little cap of foam on the beer and I have high hopes for this batch!
So, newbies - don't just boil for 60 minutes cause the directions tell you to!
Originally I wanted to try BIAB/all-grain for this, but convinced myself otherwise & that I should still be trying to get the basics down - and I think I definitely improved from batch 2.
Basically, I realized that I'm probably ending up with way too much volume in the fermenter - but I also couldn't tell you how that affected my previous gravity readings because I didn't take any.
SO, this time around I marked (in my head) where 5 gal hit in the kettle, as it was filling with water. I also took note of where the water level was at when I had added my 6lbs of extract.
Previously I've only done 60 minute boils, and I don't think that cuts it on the kitchen stove. At 60 minutes yesterday, I hadn't boiled off nearly enough - this was probably true for the two batches I did previously too! So, I let it go for 30 more minutes, chilled, transferred to fermenter and I was right on the money - 5 gallons in the better bottle. I also took a gravity reading and hit my target of 1.040.
12 or so hours later, I've got a nice little cap of foam on the beer and I have high hopes for this batch!
So, newbies - don't just boil for 60 minutes cause the directions tell you to!