My Brew Plan

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bacchus00

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2012
Messages
45
Reaction score
2
Location
Baltimore
Hey Everyone! Pretty excited for my first Brew Day tomorrow! Officially enter my adventure into Homebrewing! I plan on getting up early and bundling up to do a brew before the Ravens game at 1:ban: Last night and today I have been reading my two books (Palmer, Papazian) and scouring the forums to formulate a brew plan, so t
hat I get the best beer possible for my first time, and I thought it would be fun to get any tips from more experienced brewers and of course to post an update once its done.

I am going to be doing a full boil in a 15g brew pot, outside on a bayou classic propane burner.
The recipe kit I picked up is for a Brewers Best Belgian Tripel.
Ingredients are as follows:
6.6lb CBW Golden Light LME (2 containers)
3lb Briess Dried Malt Extract Pilsen Light
1lb Light Candi Sugar
8oz Maltodextrin
4oz Crushed Aromatic Malt
1.5 oz Mt Rainier Hop Pellets
1.0 oz Mt Rainier Hop Pellets
11.5g Safbrew S-33 Dry Yeast

Plan.
1. Sanitize Everything used for pre-boil/directly after boil, and primary fermenter.
2. Steep crushed grains in 1-2g of water @ 150-165 for 30 minutes
3. Add rest of water for 6.5-7g of water for boil...Bring to boil
4. Add 1/3-1/2 of DME and LME, off burner.
5. Add 1.5oz of Mt. Ranier Hops, boil for 50 minutes
6. Take off burner and add rest of LME, DME, Candi Sugar, and Maltodextrin
7. Once dissolved, bring back to boil and add 1oz packet of Mt. Rainier Hops, boil for 10 more minutes
8. Take off burner, chill to >70 degrees using Rope Tub Bath with 3-4 bags of ice, Lid off at first, half covered once i move to next step. (still haven't picked out a wort chiller)
9. While cooling sanitize everything that will be used after wort has been cooled
10. Re-hydrate yeast in 1 cup of 85-95 degree water, let sit till pitching time
11. Pour cooled wort through strainer into fermenter, aerate wort by pouring back and forth 2 or 3 times. (outside)
12. Carry to fermenting location (unused enclosed shower in basement bathroom) and take SG
13. Pitch Yeast
14. Ferment 1 week on floor, (bucket of water was between 62-64 for 3 nights, so plus fermentation hopefully 66)
15. Order Irish Red Ale Kit
16. Ferment for 1 week in swamp bucket with aquarium heater at 68.
17. Transfer to secondary glass carboy, ferment for 3 months with heater at 68 or 70. (Big beer, long fermentation as I have been told)
18. Brew irish red ale to start pipeline:rockin:


Thanks for reading! I know it was a long post.

"Good people drink good beer" --Hunter S Thompson
 
First off welcome to the forum and the hobby. I am still new to this myself but have a bit of advice to offer. First, you talk about sanitizing what you will need pre boil. There shouldnt be anything you use during the boil besided what you stir with which doesnt have to be sanitized due to the boil. Second, you talk about adding the extract at two different times. Ive never brewed this beer but i would assume you add all the extract at the same time. Third, you mentioned leaving the lid off, then half on when cooling your wort. This is a big no no. As soon as you cut off the heat you need to cover the wort to prevent contamination. And lsstly, you said you were going to aerate the wort by pouring it back and fourth. Again this opens you up for contamination. Better options are to either rock your carboy for a few minutes or use an aquarium pump with an appropriate filter and diffusor. Again im still fairly new as well and should be corrected by more experienced guys if needed. Best of luck on your brew!
 
Everything sounds fine to me general rule of thumb is to clean everything used up until flameout and sanitize everything used after. I have NEVER poured wort back and forth once cooled, the splashing of it going into the fermenter will aerate plenty. It is fine to add extract toward the end of the boil, due to extract having the habit to scorch and caramelize during a long boil. Another suggestion any veteran will tell you is to have a spray bottle of star-san available for any chance of contamination. I leave the lid on for the entire boil, just control the heat to avoid boil-over.
 
Looks like I won't pour back and forth but will just pour once into the fermenter, I don't have a aquarium pump to aerate the wort otherwise though.
With covering the lid while boiling/cooling...I thought DMS could collect/condensate while cooling and drip back into the wort, if the lid is completely covered?
 
Bithead said:
Yep, lids need to be off during the boil.

+1. Instead of pouring the wort back and forth, pour through a screen to get the hops out (this will do decent aeration) and then whisk it with a kitchen whisk for a minute or two. Works well for me. Make sure to sanitize first of course.

And good call on the two extract additions. You need a little for the whole boil to get hops utilization (so I have heard) but you want to add most of it late to avoid the cooked extract taste as well as excessive Maillard reactions (darkening of the wort, although you may not care in a stout).
 
Two more things:

Try to hold the fermentation temp at the low end of the recommended range, at least early in fermentation.

Pitch the yeast within 10 degrees of wort temp to avoid shocking the yeast.
 
Welcome to the obsession! Good job on the late extract additions. Clean everything, sanitize everything used after boil. The wire whisk suggestions sounds great will have to try that myself.
But most of all RDWHAHB or a good craft beer for now.
 
You have good info on the above posts, I see you are using DME and LME I found that when I had both types of ME adding the DME for the whole boil and all of the LME at the end I had better color and taste (less of that extract twang) doing it this way.

Another thing I found helpful is a checklist, if you go to Brewersfriend.com they have a pretty detailed checklist for extract and AG, it's a nice way to keep a self check until you get a routine down so you don't forget (or feel like you forgot) something. Oh and take notes, as detailed as you can, that website has those sheets too. Good luck tomorrow.
 
Alright, definitely will keep the fermentation lower earlier, I have heard that big belgian beers do well with a higher fermentation later in the process.

The two extract additions is something I definitely learned about snooping around here, and it Palmers book as well. What i also come to understand is with full boils it is better to add most of it later since you will not be topping off with water.

Thanks for the whisk idea, I will definitely use that.
 
Pretty successful day so far!
Added 1/3 of LME and DME at beginning
Brought to boil and added hops, boiled for 45 and added the rest of the fermentables. Boiled for 5 added hops and boiled again for 5.
Appears that I had a pretty high boil off but won't know till I put it in fermenting bucket. It's in an ice bath right now, stirring every 5 min or so. It's down to 93 after 20 min according to the digital fish tank thermo I bought. But seems to be stalling. I see why IC's are so handy between all the water/ice mess. I went through 4 bags of ice and having 2 more picked up for me. Almost to transition stage. The hops smelled really good while boiling. Wort smells alright right now, but nothing I would want to drink out of the brew pot. Ha. Yeast is rehydrating right now. Hopefully it will cool down here to around 70 soon!

One difficulty was definitely seeing the wort boil with all the wind, so much steam to see through. Definitely had 2 times where foam got 2-3 inches from top of 15g kettle. Might have had the heat a little high. Hopefully it doesn't have too bad effects on the beer.

Over and out.
 
After it cools and you take your hydrometer reading taste the sample. It's good to learn how/what the flavors form through fermentation.
 
Took the hydrometer sample and letting it settle for a taste. Looks like I ended up with 6g instead of 5. Definitely miscalculated the boil off. But I guess I'll just do a blowoff tube on my bucket fermenter.

SG reading was 1.081 OG was suppose to be 1.083-1.086. So close enough
 
Are u sanitizing what your stirring with each time? I always leave the lid on during cooling to prevent contamination and to let the trub settle to the bottom.
 
I was leaving the stir utensil in the wort and covering with lid so that it was slightly open. At this point I am just hoping the blow off setup works with the extra .5 to 1g in the fermenter and it will turn out a good beer. Might be a little cold right now but we will see. At some point in the next few weeks i will heat it up closer to 70 which i think what the belgian tripel works.
 
Back
Top