First batch coming along nicely....a few ??? though

Well brewed my first batch last Friday. I went ahead and decided to use the recipe that came with my kit. It was a Light Ale.

6lbs Ultralight LME
1/2 lb unknown Malt
1/2 oz Cascade 4% during boil
1 oz Cascade 4% last minute

OG came out to 1.040. It took 6 hours for any signs of life to happen. But it has been bubbling away for the past 3 days at about once every second and a half.

Now Q&A time....

1. I have two 6.5 gallon Carboys. I would like to build up a nice cache of homebrews as quick as I can. I have all the goodies on order for a nice wheat next. I would like to transfer the Light Ale I currently have in the primary to the other carboy this weekend, and then get started on the wheat shortly after. Since I only have two carboys at the moment, would I be able to only do a primary on the wheat and go straight to bottles instead of a secondary?

2. The 1/2 lb of unknown Malt I used for the Ale was pulled right before it reached 170 degrees. However quite a bit of the husks and what not seemed to come through the mesh bags and stayed throughout the boil. The 170 degree rule doesn't apply to the stuff the came through the bag does it? The yeast are seeming to have a great time with all that stuff now though.

Thanks in advance...

You may get some harsh tannin flavor if you boiled a significant amount of grain material. How much are we talking about?

If you have 2 carboys (one for primary and one for secondary), rather than go straight to primary, I'd probably time your brew sessions as follows:

Day one: Brew light ale
Day seven: rack light ale to secondary
Day 14: brew wheat
Day 21: bottle light ale, clean carboy, rack wheat to secondary

The schedule is approximate: I often rack to secondary sooner than a week, etc...

Brewing and bottleing are the time-consuming steps: racking only takes a few minutes.

1) If you're gonna go from primary straight to bottles, a wheat is a good one to do it with. Just give it a least 2 weeks in the primary.

2) Not prob with the small amount of stuff that came through your bag...it should have all dropped out with the hot break.

El Pistolero said:

1) If you're gonna go from primary straight to bottles, a wheat is a good one to do it with. Just give it a least 2 weeks in the primary.

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That's what I was thinking. Thanks

As for the stuff that fell through the bag. Well at first it didnt look like all that much, and alot was left on the side of the kettle. Now it's basically going up and down from the krausen to the bottom while the yeast have their way with it. I don't smell any banana or clove smells. More of a sweet, cidery, hoppy smell if that makes any sense.

JimmyBeam said:

I don't smell any banana or clove smells. More of a sweet, cidery, hoppy smell if that makes any sense.

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What type of yeast did you use? It's purely up to the strain of yeast that results in the unique smell of a hefeweizen. Some American wheats use a cleaner yeast which doesn't result in those smells.

All that stuff churning around in there is as likely clumps of yeast as anything else. You could have got some tannins from the grain residue, but IMHO there wouldn't have been enough to really have much of an effect. You're brew should be just fine.

Baron von BeeGee said:

What type of yeast did you use? It's purely up to the strain of yeast that results in the unique smell of a hefeweizen. Some American wheats use a cleaner yeast which doesn't result in those smells.

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It was a small package labeled brewers yeast for the light Ale I did. For the Wheat I plan on doing, I got White Labs liquid hefe.

How will I know if too much Malt stayed in the boil? Will I have to wait until its finished? Sorry I know, I know...relax have a homebrew....but I don't have any yet

JimmyBeam said:

Sorry I know, I know...relax have a homebrew....but I don't have any yet

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Then have a store bought brew...the relax is the important part.

Gotcha...I got a bit confused. If you're going to pitch a different yeast for the wheat beer don't rack it on to the yeast cake from the light ale. Otherwise the yeast from the light ale will 'have it's way' (as you put it!) with the hefe yeast and you won't get those flavors.

El Pistolero said:

Then have a store bought brew...the relax is the important part.

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Its in the beer gods' hands I guess. I actually found myself staring into my carboy for long periods of time over the weekend. It really is neat to watch your jug of wort come alive.

Ok guys. thanks once again. Time to go "relax"