First brew today!

My equipment kit came yesterday, which was perfect as I had the day off today. I already had a NB cream ale (extract) kit waiting, so brewed it up today.
I have been involved in brewing a couple of batches at a friend's house, but this was the first solo batch with MY equipment.

Everything went rather smoothly while brewing, although as many have stated, the screen in my funnel got completely clogged while pouring the wort into the primary. I ended up just pouring all the junk in. I'll have to get a better strainer for next time.

I employed several techniques that I have been reading about over the last couple of weeks, so I am optimistic that I can make improvements over the other batches I've helped with. I added most of the extract late in the boil and used distilled water, as suggested by many for extract kits. Also, I'll be paying attention to the fermentation temp and giving the wort/beer plenty of time in primary/secondary and keg for conditioning...things we didn't worry too much about with the other batches. I'm interested to see how things turn out.

Now that the wort is in primary, I am working on cleaning up the Cornies and deciding on a freezer.

senorswiss said:

Now that the wort is in primary, I am working on cleaning up the Cornies and deciding on a freezer.

Click to expand...

Nice.... just brewed your first batch and you're already kegging.....

Getting wort from the kettle to the fermenter was always something I struggled with when I first started brewing. Your racking cane and a bit of whirlpooling might help alot.

About 2 days after bottling my first batch, I ordered a kegging kit. Never looked back!

i saw a thread where people line their primary bucket with a paint strainer, pour the word in, then pull the paint strainer out. ill be trying this next.

Glad to see someone else is immediately kegging, as im doing the same thing! good luck and have fun!

A nice tip I learned at the LHBS was that if you want clear beer going into the fermenter, rack your beer out of the kettle into a spare primary bucket. Let it sit a couple hours in there, then come back and rack into your primary fermenter. Within the hour or so of sitting, most of the trub will settle to the bottom.

Thank you all for the feedback - I'll certainly consider those methods further.
As for the the kegging setup...well I was pretty sure I'd not want to bottle
everything in the long run, so I figured I'd just skip buying the bottling
equipment and use that money for kegging.

Tax season is a good time to start new hobbies when you get a refund

Way to go senorswiss:rockin:
Keep on brewing!

Took a grav reading just now - down to 1.015 from 1.040. Hopefully it'll come down a bit more. I'm having a hell of a time trying to get the hydrometer not to stick to the sides of the thief, though, so my readings aren't perfect.

I am pretty happy with the color, though. I think it'll look pretty nice once it clears up.

one thing i do with my clogged funnel is just use my stirring spoon to scrape back and forth along the screen.

sorta pull the gunk to the walls of the funnel and the wort can get through. once it's through, i scoop the hoppy gunk out and into a bowl or something. this also helps aerate the wort a bit as it's dripping down. it's a bit of a pain, but usually only takes 5-7 cycles.

it's too bad you can't use that paint strainer technique with a glass carboy.

brendanb said:

one thing i do with my clogged funnel is just use my stirring spoon to scrape back and forth along the screen.

sorta pull the gunk to the walls of the funnel and the wort can get through. once it's through, i scoop the hoppy gunk out and into a bowl or something. this also helps aerate the wort a bit as it's dripping down. it's a bit of a pain, but usually only takes 5-7 cycles.

it's too bad you can't use that paint strainer technique with a glass carboy.

Click to expand...

I actually did try scraping with the spoon but eventually the whole thing got plugged up. On my second brew, I used a muslin bag for the (pellet) hops, and that worked wonderfully. There was virtually no junk in the kettle, so I didn't have to leave any wort behind.

senorswiss said:

...I used a muslin bag for the (pellet) hops, and that worked wonderfully. There was virtually no junk in the kettle, so I didn't have to leave any wort behind.

Click to expand...

Good to hear, especially since that was my plan for the next batch