Well I have been a member here for about a year now but I just got to brewing my first batch. Everything seemed to go well I guess. After reading a lot on the forums I decided a full 5 gallon boil was the way to go instead of a partial boil, so I used my friends turkey fryer, which was plenty big enough for the 5 gallons, I am just a little scared because I had it turned all the way up and I was never able to get a really good boil. The whole time it just looked like it was on the verge of a boil, like any second it would start boiling, and it was a constant temperature of around 200F. I decided to go ahead and go forward with the brewing process once I saw that it wouldn't get above 200F. Will this effect me at all now quite getting to a full boil? Everything seemed to go very smoothly. The smell of it sure did seem like it was going to be a damn good tasting beer. I got it down to around 70F decently fast after a nice ice bath and then put it in the primary fermenter and pitched the yeast. It's now sitting in a nice dark area and I would like to think that it's doing great, but the fact that it never got to a "real" boil of 212F kinda scares me. Do you think it will end up working out fine or have I already screwed up my first batch?
Just brewed my first batch
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devaspawn
Well-Known Member
Congrats on taking up the obsession!
You will probably have beer at the end of it. Your hop utilization won't be what you expected though.
Not sure what the deal is with not being able to boiling though. Could be a number of things. If you had it up too high and the flames had left the burner then maybe it was burning hot enough cause the propane was coming out faster than it could be consumed. I know that it would produce a dirty flame. If there is a knob on their for controlling airflow you may want to fiddle with it til you have blue flame with SLIGHT yellow tips. That flame needs to be "connected" to the burner though.
You could have altitude problems or too small a burner for what you are doing. I doubt it's the latter though. I believe oil has a higher boil temp than wort and if it's a turkey fryer I gotta imagine the burner is big enough for brewing use. My guess would be technique.
I am sure others will chime with some help.
You will probably have beer at the end of it. Your hop utilization won't be what you expected though.
Not sure what the deal is with not being able to boiling though. Could be a number of things. If you had it up too high and the flames had left the burner then maybe it was burning hot enough cause the propane was coming out faster than it could be consumed. I know that it would produce a dirty flame. If there is a knob on their for controlling airflow you may want to fiddle with it til you have blue flame with SLIGHT yellow tips. That flame needs to be "connected" to the burner though.
You could have altitude problems or too small a burner for what you are doing. I doubt it's the latter though. I believe oil has a higher boil temp than wort and if it's a turkey fryer I gotta imagine the burner is big enough for brewing use. My guess would be technique.
I am sure others will chime with some help.
Congrats on your first brew-ha-ha! It feels good doesn't it? Now the worst part is waiting for it to ferment without getting paranoid. Start picking out what your next beer is going to be 
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