First batch fermenting!

I've been trolling here for about a month now, soaking up tons of great knowledge. This is such a great site, with tons of helpful people.

Anyways! I pulled the trigger on the Midwest Supplies groupon last month and got the Autumn Amber Ale kit with it. I made a trip to the LHBS yesterday to get the odds and ends not included with the intention of waiting for the weekend to brew....couldn't wait! Got my first batch fermenting now. Several things learned through the process:

1. Boiling 6.5 gallons (which I found out was a bit too much) on an electric range takes waaaay too long. Investing in a turkey fryer burner soon.
2. Cooling the wort off in a bathtub also takes way too long.....wort chiller also coming soon!

That being said, everything went really well! The target sg was 1.042-1.046 and mine read at 1.038ish...could that be because i started with a bit much water? I also waited a little too long to add the yeast after I activated it, but the airlock was bubbling this morning so I know something is going on in there!

Thank you for the plethora of wonderful information, and I look forward to seeing where this hobby goes!

What kind of kit was it? If it was all extract or extract with just steeping grains, it's pretty difficult to miss OG by that much. Not that it's going to be a problem though. Do you know what temperature the wort was when you took your hydrometer reading? They read accurately at 60 degrees.

Anyhow, congratulations on the first brew and first fermentation! Now the hard part comes: waiting. I think most people would say start on a second batch.

tom petty said it best... the waiting, is the hardest part...

welcome aboard! i love this place. it's been amazingly helpful to me in my first batch, and formulating my 2nd and 3rd recipes.

Congratulations!!! Now it's time to start another batch.

The temp might have played a factor too...it was about 80...right before I added the yeast. It was an extract kit with some steeping grains. So it might have turned out closer then if it was closer to 60, we will see what the fg reads! And yes, the waiting sucks!! I plan on brewing again next weekend!

I just received my kit in the mail the other day and I am really excited to get started!

I have what may be a dumb question, but seeing as I've never done this before I thought I should ask. I know that you are supposed to run the grains through a mill before you brew. I received this kit and cannot really tell if they milled them at Midwest or not. Does anyone have any ideas of how I might be able to tell? Or, if they haven't been milled, does anyone have any suggestions how I can do it at home?

Thanks

Do the grains look whole or do they look crushed with a small amount of fine flour in the bottom? You should just be able to tell by appearance. If they're not milled and you only have a small amount, you can toss them in a ziploc bag, get out a rolling pin and crush them yourself, though this is a little labor intensive. I've certainly done it before though.

look in the bag and see if there is anything that looks like flour or cracked hulls. the flour usually hangs out at the bottom of the bags. thats really all i can say. other people may have a better answer.

I called up Midwest and they told me they had crushed the grains for me. I guess now I know what crushed grains look like