Completed first brew, what do I look for?

I brewed my first batch of beer last night. I believe it's a replication of "Fat Tire Ale". The kit I received is called "Flat Tire".

The brew is wrapping up its first full day of fermentation, in a glass carboy. This morning there was a 1.5" thick layer of foam on the top, which I assume was a byproduct of the yeast at work.

This evening the foam has died down a bit, the liquid doesn't seem to be churning as strongly as it was this morning.

It seems the temperature it getting a bit high, the sticker on the side readys 78 degrees. It's winter here so the house doesn't get terribly warm, I was first concerned about it getting too cold, I have since moved it away from the heat vent.

My question is, what is normal / abnormal to see in the brew over the next week?

Another question, when brewing, it says to remove from heat 45 minutes into the boil, stir in LME, add hops, then boil the remaining 15 minutes. When does this time start? Does it start when I turn the heat back on or when it actually reaching boiling temperature? I waited until it hit boiling before resuming my timer.

Last question, I was required to add the remaining water at the very end to bring the level up to a total 5 gallons. I simply added this to the carboy after the wort was already added. Can I instead add this straight into the wort, helping the cooling process after the boil?

As to the temperature. Get the temperature of the wort down into the low to mid sixties asap. Search swamp coolers. I use a Sterilite storage box with about 6 inches of water in it. I use quart bottles, frozen, to control the temps. I swap a bottle once in 12 hours. In the summer it is more often.

Second answer: Take the kettle off the heat. Stop the timing. Add the extract. Restart the timer. Though, If it doesn't take too long it really doesn't matter.

Last answer: Adding cool water will help to cool the wort. I usually cooled to about 80 degrees and topped off then further cooled to mid sixties and pitched.

First, welcome to home brewing!

To answer your first question, I'd say over the next few days you will see the foam, krausen, on top go away to almost nothing. Also, your beer will start to clear up over time as the yeast and other particles settle out in the beer. I would leave it where it is for 2-3 weeks and let it really clear up nicely and let the yeast finish doing their work.

For your second question, I would have done exactly what you did, and after you added the LME, once you get it boiling again, start counting down. You cannot really hurt it by boiling a little longer than it says, what you did is just fine.

For your last question, yes, you can add the cold water directly to the wort, it will help you reduce the amount of time it takes to get the wort to pitching temperature. I used to take a gallon jug of water, put it in the fridge before I started brewing, and then added it to the wort.

I'm new to brewing as well so hopefully what I have to say is accurate... If anyone can correct me or add to it I would appreciate it.

You should take your carboy away from the heater, it's good to have a warmer temp to help kick the yeast off (70-75), but after a day or so if you can keep it in a cooler area (60-70) this will promote a healthy yeast environment.

Do you have a bung and airlock on top of your carboy?

Provided you have an airlock on top you'll see a lot of bubbling coming from the yeast producing CO2, it will be rapid bubbling for the first few days and then slowly taper off. I would leave it in the primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks and then bottle, and leave it in the bottles for another 2-3 weeks before drinking.

You were correct, waiting until it returned to a boil before you started the 15 minute clock was the correct thing to do.

Cooling the wort quickly is important, and it's faster to cool the 2-3 gallons of wort than it is to cool 5 gallons or wort. Even if you add cold water to the wort right when it's done boiling it still won't be 70-80 degrees, you'll still have to cool 5 gallons of wort. If you can cool the 2-3 gallons of wort down to 100 degrees and then add a couple of chilled gallons of water you can get it in the range a little quicker. This is what I did for my first batch, and it worked okay, but I went out and bought a wort chiller so I didn't have to do that again. If you really enjoy home brewing I highly recommend picking up a wort chiller, it's amazing how quickly you can cool it down! And then you can just add room temp water and not have to worry about chilling bottled water.

Thanks everyone for the clear and well-thought out responses to my questions. They were all very helpful.

When I get home from work this evening I will move the carboy into the basement where it should stay about 10 degrees colder, at least. I have a finished and non-finished part so I should have a few options temperature wise.

I do have a wort chiller, which seemed to work OK. My stock pot is so large that half of the coils were not submerged. It still took about 20 minutes to cool it down all the way. Next time I will add chilled water and I bet I can cut that time in half.

My carboy does have a air seal on it, that bubbles, the bubbles is beginning to die down.

Fermentation wise, the directions on the beer said ferment 1 week, bottle and wait another 2-3 weeks. There seems to be a large variation in fermentation time in the carboy verses the bottle. Which is correct and is it somewhat up to user preference?

Leave in the primary until the FG is steady over three days - use hydrometer readings for that. A lot of people leave the beer for 3 wks before they bottle, then in the bottle for 3 wks. I usually go at least 2 weeks - but for smaller FG beers will bottle once I have a steady FG.

Try some of the recommendations and see what you like the best, that's the beauty of the hobby.

Thanks. I have a hydrometer that came with my kit but the piece of paper the indicates specific gravity is not all the way at the top, it looks like it sticking too far down into the wider part. Is this one defective?

I might also try using a conductivity meter and convert to SG, I use this on my saltwater aquarium to measure salinity.

what is the overall temp in your house? I'm guessing it isn't lower than 64 degrees. Depending on your yeast, you should be fine with whatever your household temp is. Ie, don't put it in front of the heater vent. Get the fermentation too high, and you'll get off flavors from the yeast.

Re: timing with the LME addition, what you did is fine. You can always go longer on a boil, it's not like it's "boil for an hour or your beer is ruined". the more you boil it, the stronger your initial OG will be.

Make sure when you mix it with the water addition, that you really get this sucker as shook up as you can. You'll need to get it as thoroughly mixed as possible in order to get an accurate gravity reading. As has been pointed out, it's the FG readings that will determine when your fermentation is done, not "about a week" or "the bubbles have stopped in the airlock". But your FG reading doesn't do you any good without a reliable OG reading.

We keep the heat set at 62 when we're at work then it turns on the 72 for a few hours in the evening. The basement is a steady 60 degrees or so. So the temp upstairs varies throughout the day.

I have a hugely oversize pot, so mixing it up really well is not a problem, it's almost impossible to splash anything out. I made sure to stir and slosh it up really well before dumping into the carboy.

Do I have to do the same thing to get an accurate reading out of the carboy? Aside from dumping it sideways what's the best way to get the liquid out to test it?

The paper in your hydrometer is probably where it needs to be. A quick way to check if it is in the right spot is to test fresh water, if it shows that fresh water is 1.000 then it's good to go.

with that info (house temp), I'd find a good closet, one that can be easily cleaned in the event of a mishap (think blown airlock), and set it up in there. You should be fine. The temp will normalize.

re: your heating bill, you might find you spend less if you don't have a 10 degree swing. I do the same thing as you, but it only swings by 4 degrees. Less work on the furnace to maintain the temp = less gas used. I just tell my wife to throw on a sweatshirt!

unionrdr said:

More precisely,the hydrometer should read 1.000 @ 60F. You should've put the FV in a place where the internal temp would be 62-68F to start with. since it got to 78F,you'll have to give it a week after a stable FG is reached to give it time to clean up off flavors & settle out more.
Then carb/condition in the bottles 4-5 weeks will get ride of most if not all off flavors & make a better tasting product. Then at least one week fridge time to settle any chill haze,& compact the trub tighter on the bottom of the bottles. They'll be clear,with better head & carbonation in the glass.

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What product do you recommend for removing the sample from the carboy to test the FG? Do I use the tube the hydrometer came in to test the sample?

I will definitely follow your instructions for the rest of the process.

That makes sense, I'll have to look for an auto-siphon or wine thief.

So, I brewed Saturday night and the wort has already stopped bubbling for the most part. On Sunday it was going like crazy, looks like there was a strong water pump inside, is it normal for it to have died down so quickly?