polvofiloso
Well-Known Member
I've been away from home brewing (though not away from drinking craft beers and friends' home brews) for almost 20 years. Way back in the day I loaned my equipment to a buddy, we drifted apart, and I sort of lost my stuff in the process. Always wanted to get back into it and glad that I finally have. My wife (who's been my craft beer drinking partner for the past 15 years) is fully on-board too, we're jumping in to this together.
While I did brew a little in a past life, it was only a few extract batches, and it was so long ago that I have to consider as beginner status. In fact some of the mistakes I made today reinforce that. But the beer is in the fermenter and despite my best attempts to eff everything up, it looks good and the fermentation has started so I'm stoked.
My wife and I went to the LHBS yesterday and I bought a starter equipment kit. I was glad to have a well-stocked store close by so I could make some substitutions to the kit. For instance I wanted to have some future expandability so I swapped out the included 8-gallon kettle for a 15 gallon one, and bigger wort chiller to go with it. I also ditched the included American Light Ale ingredient kit with something more up my alley, one called Jim Baumann's Milk Stout (named after the store manager--MoreBeer in Riverside, CA).
So today my lovely brewer's assistant and I got everything out and brewed up my first batch in almost 20 years. Had a couple of issues:
1. I didn't start out with enough water for the 5-gallon batch. Pretty bonehead move on my part. Instructions said to start with 6 gallons. I filled up the bottling bucket to the 5 gallon mark. It didn't have a 6 gallon mark so I guessed how high the next hash mark should be. When I was done with the boil and transfered it to the fermenter and it only came out to about 4 gallons I then figured out that each hash mark on the bucket was only a half gallon. Duhh.... And on top of that I think I lost a lot more due to boil-off than the recipe anticipated.
2. I thought I was being clever by buying such a big kettle and wort chiller, so I could step up to bigger batches later. Only problem was that now the top 2/3 of the wort chiller were above the level of the wort. So it took a little longer than it probably should have to cool it.
3. In my excitement coupled with the slow cooling issue I think I may have pitched the yeast while the wort was still a little too hot. I've been worried about it but now I see fermentation starting so I hope its OK. The kit came with White Labs liquid American ale yeast.
I remedied the wort shortage by boiling up some additional water, cooling it, and adding it to the fermenter as quickly as I could. I was as sanitary as I could be about it, I hope it turns out OK.
All in all it was a great time and we're jonesin' to do another batch. If the home brew store was open today we probably would have ran down and grabbed another extract kit to piggyback another batch. This was my first time brewing outside and I loved it. The Camp Chef cooker I bought at the LHBS kicked butt. And I was able to run the chiller run-off right in to the swimming pool rather than down the sink drain, so it wouldn't go to waste.
Not sure what the etiquette is on starting a thread about a batch of beer, but I was pretty excited about it so here it is. I promise I won't subject you guys to this with every batch!
I took a few photos, I'll see if I can attach some...
While I did brew a little in a past life, it was only a few extract batches, and it was so long ago that I have to consider as beginner status. In fact some of the mistakes I made today reinforce that. But the beer is in the fermenter and despite my best attempts to eff everything up, it looks good and the fermentation has started so I'm stoked.
My wife and I went to the LHBS yesterday and I bought a starter equipment kit. I was glad to have a well-stocked store close by so I could make some substitutions to the kit. For instance I wanted to have some future expandability so I swapped out the included 8-gallon kettle for a 15 gallon one, and bigger wort chiller to go with it. I also ditched the included American Light Ale ingredient kit with something more up my alley, one called Jim Baumann's Milk Stout (named after the store manager--MoreBeer in Riverside, CA).
So today my lovely brewer's assistant and I got everything out and brewed up my first batch in almost 20 years. Had a couple of issues:
1. I didn't start out with enough water for the 5-gallon batch. Pretty bonehead move on my part. Instructions said to start with 6 gallons. I filled up the bottling bucket to the 5 gallon mark. It didn't have a 6 gallon mark so I guessed how high the next hash mark should be. When I was done with the boil and transfered it to the fermenter and it only came out to about 4 gallons I then figured out that each hash mark on the bucket was only a half gallon. Duhh.... And on top of that I think I lost a lot more due to boil-off than the recipe anticipated.
2. I thought I was being clever by buying such a big kettle and wort chiller, so I could step up to bigger batches later. Only problem was that now the top 2/3 of the wort chiller were above the level of the wort. So it took a little longer than it probably should have to cool it.
3. In my excitement coupled with the slow cooling issue I think I may have pitched the yeast while the wort was still a little too hot. I've been worried about it but now I see fermentation starting so I hope its OK. The kit came with White Labs liquid American ale yeast.
I remedied the wort shortage by boiling up some additional water, cooling it, and adding it to the fermenter as quickly as I could. I was as sanitary as I could be about it, I hope it turns out OK.
All in all it was a great time and we're jonesin' to do another batch. If the home brew store was open today we probably would have ran down and grabbed another extract kit to piggyback another batch. This was my first time brewing outside and I loved it. The Camp Chef cooker I bought at the LHBS kicked butt. And I was able to run the chiller run-off right in to the swimming pool rather than down the sink drain, so it wouldn't go to waste.
Not sure what the etiquette is on starting a thread about a batch of beer, but I was pretty excited about it so here it is. I promise I won't subject you guys to this with every batch!
I took a few photos, I'll see if I can attach some...
