New Brewer! A few noob questions on filtering and temperature.

Hi guys! Been lurking around the forums for a few days. I bought a homebrewing quest on Sunday at an outdoor flea market (they have a website at http://brooklynbrewshop.com/) and I just did my brew and setting up my fermentation yesterday night. It started bubbling through the blow-tube in the sanitizer this morning so I think I did everything right, but I have a few questions for next time maybe.

1) When I was filtering the wort into the fermenter I had initially read that you can use a coffee filter (to strain out the hops/stray mash). This was going really slow though, and I eventually stopped and used a coarser strainer. I was wondering what kind of device people normally use for this.

2) So the kit I have is to make 1 gallon of beer, and when I started boiling the brew I had 1.2 gallons in there, but when I finally filtered the wort and put it in the fermenter, it was only maybe 70% full. Was I boiling the wort too hot and evaporating more than I thought?

Anyway, I was totally convinced I had done everything wrong, but this morning there were bubbles, so I think it's all good right? I guess I'll see in 4-5 weeks!

Umm, I'm sure I have a billion more questions but I can't think of anything right now. This forum is awesome though, I look forward to finding out new ideas when I get to my next batch!

Congrats on the first brew & welcome!

1) you may want to look into hop bags, they eliminate the filter step at transfer
2) sounds about right, you'll lose to evaporation (probably more so since a 1 gallon boil will have more surface area to volume) and you'll lose to hop absorbtion

Cheers!

You really don't have to strain anything out of the wort. It will settle in the fermenter and do no harm. If you really wanted to, a kitchen strainer is coarse enough.

I looked at the link, and that looks like an interesting kit setup they offer for a tiny brewing operation at 1 gal. With space as a premium, not a bad idea I guess. You could also upgrade to a 3 or 5 gal system down the road.
If you ever step to the typical 5 gal system, you will find the cost per batch isn't much different than what you are paying now.

Yeah I mean, they cater to New York apartment dwellers like myself, and it was actually pretty simple to do. It makes about 12 bottles at a time, so it's just for hobbyists who want to mess around. If it goes great, maybe I'll upgrade down the line.