first brew questions/concerns

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cshort4

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Hey all. My first brew I'm using a midwest oatmeal stout extract kit with specialty grains.

1. Steeping went fine (30 mins @ 150 degrees). My problems starting when I tried to get the wort boiling. I read it was better to do as much of a full boil as possible, so I started with 3 1/2 gallons of water and have another 2 in the fridge to cool the wort down. I have a ceramic stove and had a real problem getting the wort to boil. I moved the pot to touch both burners and put the lid on half way (i read somewhere to do this). What do you think. I did get the wort boiling and added the hops and set the timer for 60 minutes.

Questions: I noticed when I stirred the pot after about 10 minutes some of the extract must have stuck to the bottom. It seemed to come off. Should I be concerned about that, and also that I had the lid half way on why trying to get it boiling. The lid is off during the boil. Thanks for any help.
 
Well i think i really messed up now. I was on a good roll my sg was 1.042 right on the target range. However my big mistake was I misread the thermometer after cooling the wort and poured it into the fermentation bucket. I pitched the yeast at around 82-85 degrees. What do I do now?

Can I re-pitch tomorrow?
 
It'll be okay. Just be more careful about the temperature next time.
 
Actually the yeast should be just fine. Its best to bring the wort down to
around 70f but yeast will survive up to around 100f.
 
Hey, congrats on your 1st brew. Like the others said, your pitching temp being a bit warm is OK, just make sure your fermenting temp is down to where it should be. As far as time, could start in a few hours, may take much longer. I had one take about 60 hours to get going and one take about 5 hours.
 
i have one bubble about every minute....I have another question. I tasted the beer from my original gravity reading and it was extremely sweet? What should I expect for an oatmeal stout. Color seemed good, but maybe a little on the lighter side.
 
i have one bubble about every minute....I have another question. I tasted the beer from my original gravity reading and it was extremely sweet? What should I expect for an oatmeal stout. Color seemed good, but maybe a little on the lighter side.

Wort tastes sweet, because there are sugars in there for the yeast to ferment. It's nothing like the finished beer. It's usually sweet, and bitter.

Try to keep the fermentation temperature in the high 60s if you can. That will give you better beer.
 
No worries, I just made an oatmeal stout yesterday and the OG sample was very sweet. This is to be expected though since the OG sample is taken before you pitch the yeast so no fermentation has taken place. All that sweetness is food for the yeasties during fermentation. Happy brewing!
 
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