Please Review My Methodology!

Hi there! I'm a grad student, which means I'm hella nerdy about documentation and process. I've read most of the beginner stuff on this form and the entirety first section of How to Brew - most of it twice - watched dozens of random YouTube videos, and will soon watch the DVD that came with my homebrew kit. Basically, I'm dead set on getting this right the first time.

I think I've got my plan/methods pretty much dialed in, but I wanted to post it here so someone can tell me if I'm being a stupid n00b about something. I figure it's also a place to post quick questions I haven't yet found completely satisfying answers for; questions will be bold and blue, like this.

First, here is the kit I bought (the version with the glass carboys) so you know what I'm working with, and this is the first beer I'm going to brew.

Now, without further adieu:

Long term brewing learning plan

1. Dry run (with water, which is actually wet, but you know what I mean)
2. Two extract brews in sequence
3. Extract brews with specialty malts, brewed "in parallel" via a pipeline
4. Partial mash brewing
5. All grain brewing (it will probably be at least a good year before I attempt this, not least of all because of equipment costs)

Process for first brew day:
Dry Run/Prep

• Rinse all equipment with warm water in order to remove dust/patina due to shipping/handling/manufacturing
• Move water back and forth from the kettle to the carboy a few times to practice aerating the wort
• Siphon the water from the primary to the secondary to the bottling bucket to the bottle to learn how to use the auto siphon effectively
• Boil about a gallon of water in a saucepan for 10 mins and then let cool, covered. This to be used for odd tasks
• Put LME bottle in a saucepan filled with warm water to lower its viscosity
• Mix StarSan with a gallon of distilled water and store it in a food-grade bucket 5 quart bucket with lid.
• Poor a little of the Star San solution into a spray bottle.

Brewing

• Fill my brew kettle with 2.5 gallons of tap water and bring to a boil
  My local water report (PDF) indicates that my water is pretty hard; ~138 ppm. I presume this is still ok for extract brewing?
• While water is coming to a boil, empty each bag of hops into clean bowls and keep the bags nearby so I can identify them
• After water has boiled, remove from heat and slowly stir in about half of the LME into what is now officially wort (yay!)
• Add the 60min hops and set timer for 30min
• Use the 30min to gather bottling bucket, yeast, and the rest of the tools needed in the kitchen inpreparation for sanitization and yeast hydration
• When timer goes off set it for 15m and spritz some hand sanitizer onto hands
  I'm making the assumption that scentless hand sanitizer is kosher. Is it? I know I can just dunk my hands in the Star San but I have sensitive skin so I want to avoid that if I can.
• Sanitize a tupperware container, tupperware lid, spoon, thermometer, and measuring cup; take the temperature of the pre-boiled water and reheat in the microwave briefly if too cold; use the measuring cup to transfer 1 cup of the pre-boiled water into the tupperware, rehydrate the yeast, and cover it
• When the timer goes off again, set it for 10m, pour the last of the hops into the wort and give the yeast a stir with the sanitized spoon (be sure to re-cover the yeast)
• Prep the immersion cooler by attaching the hose to the sink
• When the timer goes off this time, remove the wort from the boil and stir in the remaining LME; carefully dunk the container to put some wort in it, cover it, swirl, and return the mixture to the kettle (this is to get all the syrup out)
  This is how I understand the late LME addition to work - is that correct? Does being off the boil for a few minutes adversely affect the hops/beer?
• Return the kettle to the heat, insert the wort chiller and let it sit in the boil for the last few minutes in order to sanitize it, and set the timer for 5 minutes
  This is a recommendation I found somewhere on this forum; should I be concerned about getting a copper flavor to my beer by having the chiller boil in my wort?
• While the boil is finishing, spritz more sanitizer onto hands and then sanitize the bottling bucket and fill with 2 gallons cold tap water using the sanitized measuring cup
  This is the only way I can think of to measure accurately since neither the bottling bucket nor the carboy has measurement lines. Anyone have any clever ideas? Also, does the water we add here not have to be boiled? I haven't seen a single source I've looked at mention it. Is the StarSan residue already in the bucket/carboy good enough?
• When the timer goes off for the final time, remove the kettle from heat and start running cold water through the chiller
• Check the temperature every five minutes
• While the wort is cooling, bring the Star San, pre-boiled water, yeast, and bottling bucket down to the basement
• When the wort temp hits 85F, turn off the water and remove the chiller
  Given I'm about to combine this wort with cold water, I don't actually know what temp I should be aiming for. 85F is a guess - is that accurate?
• Carry the cooled wort down to the basement
• Use the funnel to pour the Star San into the carboy, gently swirl it around, then slowly poor the solution back into the container while rotating the carboy
• Dunk the strainer in the Star San
• Spritz the funnel to make double sure all of it was touched by the Star San and then use it to pour the water in the bottling bucket into the carboy - be vigorous!
• Put the strainer on top of the funnel and pour the wort into the carboy
• Set the strainer aside, soak the beer thief in the Star San, and pour some of the wort back and forth from the kettle and the carboy a few times
• Use the beer thief to take a some of the wort and put it in the test jar in order to measure the OG
• Pitch the yeast
  How do you get all of it out of the container cleanly?
• Rinse the tupperware container the yeast was in with the pre-boiled water
• Re-sanitize tupperware along with the blowoff tube
• Pour more pre-boiled water into the tupperware and attach the blow off tube
• Measure the original gravity with the hydrometer and note it
• Cleanup!

Bumping this since it fell off the first page before it even began due to being inspected.

1. Hard water should be fine, so long as it tastes good in the a glass, it'll taste good in an extract brew.
2. Not 100% clear on what needs to be kosher, isn't it just food? I wouldn't imagine Star stan has been in contact with animals.
3. Star san would be less harsh on your skin than hand sanitizer IMO, no alcohol to dry it out. I've never noticed anything with star san on my hands.
4. Putting the LME in is going to kill your boil anyway, so don't worry about it. Take it off the heat, add LME, and return.
5. You will not get a copper flavor from the wort chiller boiling so long as you properly cleaned it prior to first use.
6. Yes, the water addition into the bucket needs to be boiled. I'd do this first, let it cool down covered, then pour into the bottling bucket and seal until ready.
7. Your water in the bucket will probably be at room temp by the time you get to adding the wort. Your wort needs to be at yeast pitching temps when all is said and done. I'd stop 5 degrees above pitching temp (which should be close to what you're going to ferment at).
8. I would rehydrate the yeast in a typical 2 cup glass measuring cup. You can measure and santize and microwave it all in one package. Stir it all up just before pitching with a sanitized spoon. The pour contour on the cup will allow it all to go into the bucket. As long as it's dissolved, you're not going to ruin anything by leaving residue in the measuring cup. Just get the majority of the yeast into the fermenter.

I've only made three batches thus far, but it seems that you have a lot more leeway than you may think. This isn't quant! You might enjoy making your first batch more if you focus on enjoying yourself rather than on perfecting the process.

-For sanitizing your bottling bucket and fermentation vessels, just use your spray bottle of StarSan (I also give them a quick scrub with hot water and dish soap before sanitizing). There's really no sense in mixing up an extra 2 gallons of StarSan if you don't plan on saving it.

-Also, sanitizing 30 mins early might be a bit too early. Pre-washing is okay to get rid of dust/grime, but StarSan is only active when it is wet. I usually do this a few minutes before I'm ready to transfer my cooled wort to the fermentor or bottling bucket.

-Regarding the 85 degree temp, that is probably an okay number. As long as your pitching temp is below 80 you should be okay. Pitching in the 60-70 degree range is more ideal, depending on the type of yeast you are using. Most yeast packages have recommended temperatures on them. Also, taking temp readings every 5 minutes is pretty excessive. I usually drop in the wort chiller and stir the wort until my boil kettle feels cool to the touch, then take a temp reading and adjust as needed.

-As far as getting all of your hydrated yeast out of its container, give it a quick rinse. I just use tap water, but if you want to be extra careful with sanitation, you can always rinse with some pre-boiled/cooled water.

You also forgot a crucial step: RDWHAHB!

Cheers

I don't bother to re-hydrate dry yeast and have brewed up to a little over 9% ABV (pitching 2 packets). I also top off with chilled bottled water (and have used tap), no infection issues. I spritz the water bottle caps with star-san just in case before opening them and dumping though.

I have a better bottle, I filled it 1 qt at a time and used a Sharpie to mark the numbered gallons and a hash mark at the half-gallon marks. I haven't done this to my bottling bucket and my fermenting bucket is factory marked. You could use a long strip of tape on the glass bottle to mark it.

Re measuring and topoff water -

If your fermenter doesn't have a line at 5 gallons, make one yourself. Just measure out 5 gallons in you prep-run, fill the carboy, and mark the line with a scratch (on the outside), marker or tape.

As far as the hand santizer goes, you can use it if you want, but it really isn't a good way to clean your hands and it doesn't sanitize better than just washing them with soap and water. The best sanitation advice is obvious - don't touch the stuff that touches your beer. ie pick up the spoon by the handle, don't touch the inside of a funnel etc. One thing that always gets me is the thermometer - the probe looks like a handle and I frequently grab it vs the thermometer body. I've started leaving it in a cup of starsan so I have to grab the top.

Also in the "duh" category - A full glass carboy is heavy and slippery. If you don't have a carrying hook or straps already, you should get one.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yeah, this is a little anal, but making detailed checklists has served me well in the past. Mostly this was an exercise in seeing how well I'd internalized all the knowledge I've been gathering since I wrote this from scratch without looking anything up. Seems like I'll do ok!

The nice thing about the "5 gallon line" is that I watched them fill and mark it in the DVD video included with the kit and it almost exactly matches one of the ribs on the carboy. So I don't even have to.

I do not have carboy straps, which is why a lot of this is designed to move the carboys as little as possible, especially when they are full/wet. Straps are on my list of things to get.

One last question: in "How to Brew" Palmer mentions that the yeast mixture should be at or below the wort temperature when you through it in, and that the wort temperature should be at or below the final fermentation temperature. Have people found this to be important? Given that you hydrate the wort with warm water, I'm not looking forward to juggling temperatures. (FYI, my basement seems to stay at a steady 72F)

Pitching at ferm temps is supposed to minimize yeast shock and keep the yeast happy. If you get it ready a bit before the brew is done, it'll be at pitching temp without needing to cool it since it's such a small quantity of liquid.

Zelbinian said:

This is a recommendation I found somewhere on this forum; should I be concerned about getting a copper flavor to my beer by having the chiller boil in my wort?

This is the only way I can think of to measure accurately since neither the bottling bucket nor the carboy has measurement lines.

How do you get all of it out of the container cleanly?

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no, the copper won't create any flavor issues - in fact, the slightly acid wort will give you a nice shiny copper chiller after each batch.

I spend some time marking at least gallon marks on all of my brewing equipment. It's well worth your time and the cost of a sharpie to do this. It'll help you accurately keep records of all kinds of things.

Just get as much yeast as possible. You're talking about billions of cells by the end of the process - so being off by a few hundred thousand at the start isn't a big deal. You're dealing with an extract brew here - so really, just relax and go for it. You have things down just fine.

After you've done a few batches you'll start to get a good feel for the whole process - your checklist is prob a good idea the first few times through.

First batch is more for getting used to actually brewing. I only have 2 batches bottled and I found that temp control was where I had the most problems. My first batch was an english brown with specialty grains and my steeping temp got a little high. at first. It turned out great! 2nd batch was a Wit-bier that I think I can call a partial mash (correct me if I'm wrong guys) that I had to steep grains at 154 for 45 minutes for conversion. Again I had temp control issues since I had to brew this batch outside since SWMBO didn't like the smell. Again it turned out great. Also both batches fermented on the warm side as my basement stays at about about 72f. I'm going to wait till this f&*#A@^ heat wave is over and use a swamp cooler for my next batch.

Yeah, my basement runs on the warm side, too, but within range. I'm officially starting the boil right now - wish me luck!

Zelbinian said:

Yeah, my basement runs on the warm side, too, but within range. I'm officially starting the boil right now - wish me luck!

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Good Luck and welcome to the hobby/obsession/addiction

Zelbinian said:

Yeah, my basement runs on the warm side, too, but within range. I'm officially starting the boil right now - wish me luck!

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Good luck, man. From what you described in your OP, it sounds like you will have few issues. Have fun with it!

Good luck!

That took a lot longer than I'd planned on, but I got to listen to a bunch of Radiolab while working so that's never a bad thing.

No major mistakes, but a few small issues did crop up. I know, I know - wait and wait (and wait some more) and my beer will turn out fine. Still, for the benefit of all the other n00bs, here's what happened:

• There was a lot more LME remaining in the bottle afterward than I wanted (about 1/4"). This is probably why the measured OG (1.038) is farther off from the specified OG (1.043) than I would like. I even did the extremely hazardous dunk-the-bottle-in-the-boiling-wort thing but... not enough I guess. I think in the future I'll cut the bottle open between pours to make it easier to get the hot water in and swirl it around.
• I hydrated my yeast at what I hoped would be ~20-30 minutes before pitching. It was actually more like an hour. On the plus side, that gave it time to cool down to the wort temperature. But still, lesson learned: hydrate just as cooling starts.
• Putting the chiller in the wort ~5 minutes before the boil finished (for sanitizing) was recommended all over the place, but apparently I didn't buy the best quality chiller. Things must have expanded/warped a bit because the intake portion leaked, letting little trickles of ordinary tap water into my beer. I had tested it previously and there weren't any leaks. The boil and steam had already sanitized the hell out of it, but I kept spritzing some Star San solution on the leaky bit every so often just to make doubly sure it wasn't contaminating my batch. I'll have to figure a way to fix it before the next batch.
• Things were a little on the warm side when I brought it down to the basement. Due to the leak I couldn't force water through the chiller as fast as I would've liked, plus it was about inches shorter than the water level, which made for a top layer that just refused to cool down. As a result, when I pitched the yeast it was closer to 80F than 70F - still under, but just barely. In addition to fixing the leak on my chiller, I'll probably start adding cleaned and sterlized soda bottles filled with ice directly to the wort.
• Definitely need to get carboy straps. I added water into the carboy in two stages, which probably resulted in fine aeration, but my plan to pour back and forth between the pot and carboy went awry when I found it was impossible to tilt the full carboy far enough over to pour liquid out without dropping it.

Anyway, attached is the result of my labors! Hopefully it starts fermenting soon!

I'd put the bucket for the blow-off tube on the floor, not above the fermenter. (If the fermenter cools, it'll suck up the icky blow-off tube water into the fermenter).

Where's the IC leaking? Do you have a clamp?

Remember that during active/primary fermentation, the temperature in the carboy could be up to 10 degrees higher than ambient air temperature. You might want to consider the swamp cooler method if you are experiencing slightly higher basement temperatures.

Yooper said:

I'd put the bucket for the blow-off tube on the floor, not above the fermenter. (If the fermenter cools, it'll suck up the icky blow-off tube water into the fermenter).

Where's the IC leaking? Do you have a clamp?

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The bucket is filled with Star San solution, so I'm not too worried about it. I tried to put the bucket on the floor, but the hose is too curly to stay that way.

The IC leaked right where the hose met the cooler on the intake portion. There's already a clamp there, and I don't have another, but I guess I'll have to make yet another run to the hardware store. Seriously, I think they know my name already.

Zelbinian said:

The bucket is filled with Star San solution, so I'm not too worried about it. I tried to put the bucket on the floor, but the hose is too curly to stay that way.

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Tie a weight to the hose or at least find something shorter to set the bucket on.
I would also recommend a swamp cooler as mentioned by others.

Zelbinian said:

The bucket is filled with Star San solution, so I'm not too worried about it. I tried to put the bucket on the floor, but the hose is too curly to stay that way.

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Get a zip tie and strap the hose to the bail on the blow-off bucket.

Thanks for the advice, guys. Tonight's purchases: zipties, a clear plastic tub, and an aquarium pump. Then I'm just gonna fill some 20 oz soda bottles with water, freeze 'em, and dump 'em in. Should work well enough for now.

Things are going better! I checked at 8pm (roughly 22 hours after pitching) and there was a decent amount of krauesen and lots of bubbling. The fermometer read about 75F so I put the first part of my swamp cooler together. Right now, as you can see, it's just a tub of water and a wet t-shirt (which brought the temp down to 74F in about 30 min). I'll get a pump and a fan if I have to, but some ice bottles are the next step.

Great Thread and Great Job.

For the leaky wort chiller - I have wrapped a clean dish towel & solved this issue.

Your sanitation is excellent, don't worry so much about every thing up to the last 10 min of boil (which will kill the problems). Sanitation is critical from the cooled wort to the active fermentation stage. I have a box of medical gloves for this phase.

Why are you asking about the kosher sanitizer thing? If an item has Pareve on it, it is kosher and acceptable for Passover. If there's a "u" circled by an "O" it is kosher. If KO is on the label, it's kosher. If KLBD is on the label, it's kosher. Just because a cleaner is kosher, doesn't mean it's better for sensitive digits. It means that the stuff isn't made with chametz or things prohibited. If the stuff is free of those things, it is suitable for Passover. If something has chametz, it still can be kosher. However, it can't be used during Passover. There's a whole lot more to the fundamentals of kashrut....Good job on your brew...

Hah, I didn't mean 'kosher' literally. I was asking if it was ok to use hand sanitizer on my self while touching brewing equipment. And don't congratulate me yet! Moving to secondary is going to be the hard part...

I'm also a n00b but I don't think you will find racking your beer to be difficult. If you have an auto-siphon it is quite easy.

Alrighty, the beer has successfully racked to the secondary. I'm afraid I may have oxiginated the beer a bit more than was strictly necessary, but overall I'm happy with how it. Here's another list of mostly-no-big-deal things I screwed up written to both new brewers and my future self:

• Don't use 5/8" tubing on your racking cane/auto-siphon. The 3/8" doesn't seem like it fits over the cane, but it does and it makes for an airtight fit.
• Air will get into your beer during the last few seconds of the siphon. I'm not sure how to correct for this, so in the future I'm gonna just learn to expect and deal with it.
• The three-piece wine thiefs are worthless. The vast majority of the equipment that came with the Norther Brewer deluxe kit is high quality, but they totally skimped on the beer thief. It's too short to be useful for a 6 gallon carboy, never mind a 6.5 and it splashes every time you raise it out of your beer. Ugh. The $7-$9 for the Fermtech one is way worth it, especially since it lets you safely return the beer back to the primary (assuming you've also sanitized your hydrometer).
• Pre-mark the beer level on your sample jar/thief. Spend half an hour at the kitchen sink figuring out what's the minimum amount of water you can put in the vessel to make the thief float and mark it with a Sharpie. The upside is that you'll make the extraction process *really* quick. The downside to this is that you'll have to...
• Wait to make the hydrometer reading until the foam subsides. Don't guess or you've done this all for nothing.