First Batch - Light Wheat - Waiting......

I finally took the plunge in to making a homebrew. I already have a dedicated kegerator at home (to...ahem..) drink the likes of Busch Lite and its ilk. Hey the economy, ya know.

I bought the two stage kit from my local home brew shop. Broke the hydrometer just by taking everything out of the bucket and putting everything back in.

Today was a light wheat kit, extract with some steeping grains. I was talking to my wife (that's progress) and accidentally got the temp on our gas range up to 180, but for not more than a minute b/f I took the muslin bag out of the water. God it smelt good.

I then did everything as prescribed but here are some things I noticed.

After putting the grain "tea" in, the malt extract and the hop pellets I noticed that during the boil the hops made their way to the side and stuck to the boiling pot.

I then scraped every couple of minutes to keep them in the boiling stew.

Is that ok?

Also, I took the SG and it was 1.060, a bit high.

The good news, it smelt like beer, it looked like beer and when I pitched my yeast starter it was cloudy.

Anything to worry about?

I have my new friend downstairs in our storage unit and I await the bubbling goodness that is fermentation.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Shawn

DizzyPants said:

After putting the grain "tea" in, the malt extract and the hop pellets I noticed that during the boil the hops made their way to the side and stuck to the boiling pot.

I then scraped every couple of minutes to keep them in the boiling stew.

Is that ok?

Click to expand...

Yep, totally. Pretty much anything you do during the boil is going to be fine since sanitation isn't a worry at that point.

DizzyPants said:

Also, I took the SG and it was 1.060, a bit high.

Click to expand...

Is it possible that your final batch size was a little low after you added the water? The other thing that often happens is that after adding water, the mixing wasn't that great, although that has a tendency to bring the gravity out low.

I'm assuming you picked up a new hydrometer

Sounds like everything went fine.

Now the hardest part...the wait. My first batch has been in primary for 16 days...it's tough to not go in the guest bathroom and pester it.

MMW said:

Sounds like everything went fine.

Now the hardest part...the wait. My first batch has been in primary for 16 days...it's tough to not go in the guest bathroom and pester it.

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong (IMO) with popping the top off the airlock and taking the occasional whiff.

True, but 10 or 15 times a day might be a little excessive

A little press during fermentation will release the aroma without removing the airlock...

MMW said:

True, but 10 or 15 times a day might be a little excessive

A little press during fermentation will release the aroma without removing the airlock...

Click to expand...

I try to limit myself to 2 whiffs a day. Luckily I have an infant at home that keeps me pretty occupied, so I'm not constantly hovering over my primary waiting to see that joyous bubble from the airlock.

Yes, I did get a new hydrometer.

I checked my primary this morning before work and IT WAS BUBBLING LIKE CRAZY!!!!

I made alcohol, that's cool, but it is going tobe tasty alcohol that is the question.

Thanks for your support on here.

The odds are pretty good it's going to be the best beer you've ever had.

About 20 bottles in you'll starting noticing things you'll want to change with future batches -- maybe a bit more hops flavor, some more body, and better head would be nice.

And that's when you'll be hooked for good.

I checked it tonight and it looks like their was sediment in the airlock. That thing must have been active. I thought I read it was ok to take it out, clean, sanitize and place back. I hope that is correct b/c I already did it.

It is a wheat beer and I also read that placing it into a secondary won't help clearing/taste. True?

At any rate it is going in the secondary b/c I want to have my primary ready for the next batch.

Any help?