Jeffro
Well-Known Member
I posted last weekend about my preperation for my first brew day and today I even got off work early to make it happen.
I just did an extract recipe using Muttons Old Ale and Briess Golden Light extracts. I started every thing last night by boiling about 7 gallons of tap water on my kitchen stove for 20 minutes to remove chlorine and just because I can. Then I took about a cup of that water and added just a smidge of the Muttons extract to it and boiled that for just about a minute or so. I cooled this concoction to 80 degrees and pitched my yeast that came with the Muttons kit in and into a sanitized pint liquor bottle that I fit an airlock ontop of. Within about 45 minutes the airlock was bubbling at a rate of about once every ten seconds. Yep... The yeast works.
I left the 7 gallons of boiled water sitting on the stove covered over night until I got home at about 11:30 this afternoon. I was somewhat surprised to see that the temp of the water was still at about 90 degrees after sitting at room temp all for over 12 hours.
First thing I did when I got home was to sanitize everything with I-O-Safe. I just measured out and poured 2 gallons of tap water into my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter and marked that level by sticking my stick on thermometer at that level. Then I toped off the fermenter to the 5 gallon level (which I just marked with a Sharpie) and added the I-O-Safe to that. I sloshed this mixture around for about 2 minutes then dumped it in my garbage pail that I bought just for sanitizing my brewing stuff. In that garbage pail I had my thermometer, hydrometer, hydrometer vial thing, funnel, siphon tube and airlock.
Then I hooked up my bottle/carboy washer thingie to my kitchen faucet and rinsed out my carboy. I rinsed my siphon tube and proceeded to siphon off 2 gallons of boiled water into my carboy and in the mean time I turned the heat back on to get it up to temp. Once I had my 2 gallons I measured out 2 more gallons for my partial boil and kept the other 3 gallons in a seperate sanitized carboy just in case.
I got the main pot up to about 170 degrees with just water in it when I realized I didn't have any ice for wort chillin. So I sent my son to the store to get ice. At the same time I had my cans of extract sitting in another pot on the stove that was about to boil. I add the extract to the water and the stuff is still pretty darned thick. So I just keep diping the cans in the water over and over until they come pretty clean.
Then I wait.... And wait... And wait... Finally when the temp hits about 190 I start to get some pretty good boil going on. I leave it at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes stirring the whole time and thinking about how this is going to be the best beer EVER!!!. I fill up a ziplock bag with ice and soak it in my sanitizing solution thinking this can help the cool off. I also fill the bathtub with as cold of water as comes out of our faucet and after 20 minutes of boiling I put the ziplock bag with ice in the pot and put the pot in the tub.
After I put the 2 gallons of boiled water in my fermenter I got to thinking. Damn.. I wonder how heavy this is. I have to pick this thing up, pack it down 4 stairs then walk out to my shed and heft the whole thing up into my chest freezer for the fermentation stage. So I pick it up and I think... Yeah... I better leave well enough alone and add the AFTER I put the primary in the freezer.
So I pack the carboy out to the shed and heft it up into the freezer (fermentation chamber). About this time my wort was to the point where I was ready to cool. I put the pot in the bathtub and put the ziplock bag with the ice in it. I got it chilled down to 70 degrees in about 40 minutes. Then I packed the pot out to the shed where the fermenter was and just dumped it right into the carboy though the nifty funnel that I bought at the LHBS. Once I saw that it was settled, I pulled a sample using a turkey baster to check the SG. 1.052 sounds good to me. The temp on the thermometer on the carboy showed 76 degrees. So I grabbed the pint liquor bottle that I started my yeast in, gave it a good shake and pitched it on in there.... That was about 2 PM this afternoon.
Then I cleaned up my mess because I don't want my wife to get mad at me... EVER... and took a nap. About 6 PM I went out and looked at it and this is what it looked like after I stired it up a bit. No airlock action yet, but you can see it's getting ready.
Now it's 10 PM and we definitly have some action going on!
Damn this is fun!!!
I just did an extract recipe using Muttons Old Ale and Briess Golden Light extracts. I started every thing last night by boiling about 7 gallons of tap water on my kitchen stove for 20 minutes to remove chlorine and just because I can. Then I took about a cup of that water and added just a smidge of the Muttons extract to it and boiled that for just about a minute or so. I cooled this concoction to 80 degrees and pitched my yeast that came with the Muttons kit in and into a sanitized pint liquor bottle that I fit an airlock ontop of. Within about 45 minutes the airlock was bubbling at a rate of about once every ten seconds. Yep... The yeast works.
I left the 7 gallons of boiled water sitting on the stove covered over night until I got home at about 11:30 this afternoon. I was somewhat surprised to see that the temp of the water was still at about 90 degrees after sitting at room temp all for over 12 hours.
First thing I did when I got home was to sanitize everything with I-O-Safe. I just measured out and poured 2 gallons of tap water into my 6.5 gallon primary fermenter and marked that level by sticking my stick on thermometer at that level. Then I toped off the fermenter to the 5 gallon level (which I just marked with a Sharpie) and added the I-O-Safe to that. I sloshed this mixture around for about 2 minutes then dumped it in my garbage pail that I bought just for sanitizing my brewing stuff. In that garbage pail I had my thermometer, hydrometer, hydrometer vial thing, funnel, siphon tube and airlock.
Then I hooked up my bottle/carboy washer thingie to my kitchen faucet and rinsed out my carboy. I rinsed my siphon tube and proceeded to siphon off 2 gallons of boiled water into my carboy and in the mean time I turned the heat back on to get it up to temp. Once I had my 2 gallons I measured out 2 more gallons for my partial boil and kept the other 3 gallons in a seperate sanitized carboy just in case.
I got the main pot up to about 170 degrees with just water in it when I realized I didn't have any ice for wort chillin. So I sent my son to the store to get ice. At the same time I had my cans of extract sitting in another pot on the stove that was about to boil. I add the extract to the water and the stuff is still pretty darned thick. So I just keep diping the cans in the water over and over until they come pretty clean.
Then I wait.... And wait... And wait... Finally when the temp hits about 190 I start to get some pretty good boil going on. I leave it at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes stirring the whole time and thinking about how this is going to be the best beer EVER!!!. I fill up a ziplock bag with ice and soak it in my sanitizing solution thinking this can help the cool off. I also fill the bathtub with as cold of water as comes out of our faucet and after 20 minutes of boiling I put the ziplock bag with ice in the pot and put the pot in the tub.
After I put the 2 gallons of boiled water in my fermenter I got to thinking. Damn.. I wonder how heavy this is. I have to pick this thing up, pack it down 4 stairs then walk out to my shed and heft the whole thing up into my chest freezer for the fermentation stage. So I pick it up and I think... Yeah... I better leave well enough alone and add the AFTER I put the primary in the freezer.
So I pack the carboy out to the shed and heft it up into the freezer (fermentation chamber). About this time my wort was to the point where I was ready to cool. I put the pot in the bathtub and put the ziplock bag with the ice in it. I got it chilled down to 70 degrees in about 40 minutes. Then I packed the pot out to the shed where the fermenter was and just dumped it right into the carboy though the nifty funnel that I bought at the LHBS. Once I saw that it was settled, I pulled a sample using a turkey baster to check the SG. 1.052 sounds good to me. The temp on the thermometer on the carboy showed 76 degrees. So I grabbed the pint liquor bottle that I started my yeast in, gave it a good shake and pitched it on in there.... That was about 2 PM this afternoon.
Then I cleaned up my mess because I don't want my wife to get mad at me... EVER... and took a nap. About 6 PM I went out and looked at it and this is what it looked like after I stired it up a bit. No airlock action yet, but you can see it's getting ready.
Now it's 10 PM and we definitly have some action going on!
Damn this is fun!!!
Cloudy, warm, not so strong beer! I am pretty stoked! So stoked that i might buy a carboy (so i can actually watch whats going on, as opposed to the bucket i have now) and make another batch. I am out of town for two weeks on the 14th of January so i figure that if i can get another batch bottled by then, i will have a nice treat waiting for me when i get home.
