First Brew Underway - I hope

I know relax and have a home brew. I cannot explain the feeling when I opened up that pack of Hallertaus and stuck my nose in for a big, deep smell. mmm mmm mmm.
I cannot wait. Now for the waiting and wondering - did I keep everything as cleanas I could have, was my pitching temp right, etc, etc. I will not be able to relax until I see some bubbly in that airlock. for now its wrapped in a black plastic bag in the basement till I see what the temp is going to settle at and I am having a Blue Moon. I hope my hefeweizen is better than this.
Thanks for all the tips gents - I'll let you all know when and if I have successfully made beer. :cross:

Fantastic!

I also put my first brew into the fermenter today as well. (around 6:30)

Mine also a hefeweizen.. (the German Hefe kit from B3)

Keep me/us updated and I'll do the same.

i'm about to relax, not worry.. and sleep off all the brew i'd been not worrying with today..

yeah for beer!

ws

I've got my carboy in my kitchen covered with a black plastic bag with a reading of 74 degrees its starting to bubble but I was wondering if keeping it under a bag might act like an insulator? I don't want banana-bubble weizen. My basement is like 50-60 degrees a bit too cold I am thinking. suggestions?

Using WY3068 @ 74 i got extreme bannana bubble gum flavor. It shouldn't be as bad if you arent usin 3068 but I would try to lower the temp. And, yes if you wrap the fermenter it will be a bit warmer due to the heat generated by fermentation.

NEPABREWER said:

I've got my carboy in my kitchen covered with a black plastic bag with a reading of 74 degrees its starting to bubble but I was wondering if keeping it under a bag might act like an insulator? I don't want banana-bubble weizen. My basement is like 50-60 degrees a bit too cold I am thinking. suggestions?

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Now that you've got bubble, I'd move the fermenter to somewhere cooler...as mentioned leaving it at 74 is likely to yield extreme banana. Your basement seems a little cool, but IMHO 60F would be much better than 75F...you can always warm the fermenter up slightly by setting it in a water bath, or wrapping a blanket around it or something.

I have a plastic storage tup filled with water that just fits both my primary bucket and secondary carboy. I can keep the water at about 64-68 degrees F with judicious use of empty Pepsi cans filled with water and frozen. That and it gets down in the 40's and 50's here in the night so I open the patio door and turn a fan on into the closet that has my setup. I was using frozen gallon cider jugs when I just had the carboy in it, but those really take alot to freeze in my freezer; the aluminum pop cans freeze much faster.

Well heres an update worth writing about - that beautiful wheat that was bubbling is no more. I had an unexpected catastrophic carboy failure. You boys who complain about a little boil over LOL aint seen nothin I was shifting the antique 7.5+ gal. carboy and all heard was pop - blub, blub, blub and I watched 5 gallons of lovely carmel colored wort spilling onto my dusty cellar floor.
I am gald I got that first crash out of the way so I coulfd really concentrate of the oatmeal stout I made today. Good thing I had extra buckets. I will be trying that wheat again as it is the house favorite. Just need to order some more shtuff.

Oh bummer!

Sorry to hear about your crash and burn..

good luck on the stout!

ws