Brewed first batch last night, the air lock is bubbling as I write.

For my first recipe I decided to go with Lord Crouchbacks special bitter found in HOW TO BREW with a few modifications. I used 5 lbs of pale DME and 1 lbs of dark DME instead of the 6.6 lbs of LME, Centennial hops for bittering instead of Target, and Crystal 40 malt instead of 60. At first I wasn’t going to use all of the dark DME but decided to toss it in along with my left over hops at the end, instead of keeping them around and letting them get stale.

Some errors I made.

1) I forgot to and my DME at knock out after I tossed in my left over hops. I had the heat off for a few minutes and it took about 10 more to get a boil going again.

2) When cooling the wort in an ice bath I was stirring vigorously was not splashing but I did get a good swirl going. I hope I did not oxidize the wort too much. Although I did manage to cool it in a little over 10 min, my cheap stainless steal pot floated and as I stirred, the pot was rotating in the ice bath, cooled real fast.

3) When pouring the wort into the pail I tilted the pot a little too much and the wart pored out over my fingers but I think my hands were clean.

Except for these mistakes I think my first brew went pretty well…

Right now I plan on doing primary for 3 weeks then bottle.

Cheers

I hear ya; I've been brewing for about a year. I have done some ungodly things to my brew/wart and it's always bene ok. It'll be fine

Congratulations on your first brew! The "mistakes" you describe seem pretty harmless to me, and I think your beer will turn out fine.

You are way ahead of the game if you've already read "How To Brew." Way to go!