Mase's First Brew Day Check-list

Hola amigos!

I know, I know. You have probably seen a few of these style posts over the years about new people and their concerns over their 1st brewday process. I'm not concerned, just excited and want to share what I'll be doing! Plus I'd feel like a total homer if I left somehing HUGE out. I'll compensate by taking a bunch of photos this weekend.

Here goes...

1. Smack my yeast pack 3 hrs before pitch time
2. Clean FV, airlock, lid, spoon, hydrometer, wine theif (my turkey baster) & thermometer
3. Steep my grains for about 30 mins on the stove top while my burner gets my full boil pot going
4. Add my "tea" to the kettle on the burner, start brewing when the boil hits

(the brewing process I'll omit, I'm pretty comfortable with the hop additions, DME and stirring, boil overs)

5. Fill FV with Star San solution, add airlock, lid, hydrometer, turkey baster, thermometer & fill up spray bottle w/ solution
6. Add wort chiller for last 15 mins of boil for sanitation
7. Flame out & start wort chiller
8. Allow wort to cool to pitching temp
9. Take everything out of FV and lay on a clean towel
10. Swirl Star San around FV to coat
11. Remove Star San and dump wort into FV
12. Aeriate the wort
13. Take sample and record SG
14. Spray yeast pack with Star San, open & pitch
15. Attach lid, fit airlock & place in my swamp cooler

For those insterested I'll be brewing a Fat Tire clone kit I got fom my LHBS. Can't wait for this weekend!

Only thing I would change is make a starter...

Brewin06111 said:

Only thing I would change is make a starter...

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Agreed.

Way to go, Mase.

Starters seem to be a pretty hot topic around here, after poking around the good ol' search application.

Even had a good presentation that included yeast capabilities (thanks again Pilgarlic!)

Only problem I have is this:

I don't have any extra DME lying around and won't be able to make it to a LHBS until Friday after work. I know some people like to let their starter go for 3 days or so, with wanting to brew Saturday or Sunday, would this be enough time to have the starter do its thing?

Making starters is one of things you can add to your process as you get more and more comfortable. Following the above instructions, you will end up with a delicious homebrew that you can (and should) be proud of. My suggestion would be to stick to what you have and not let it get too complicated too early, but that's just me!

Having said that, if you do decide to make a starter, making it Friday afternoon would be sufficient for pitching on Sunday, but probably not Saturday. Two days is about perfect for letting your starter, well, start.

Good luck!

Keep a small glass of cold/ice water near your boil kettle. If you start to get a boil over, a small dash of the cold water stops it right in its tracks.

Since you are brewing an extract kit, you do not have to take an OG. Just one less thing to do/worry about on your first brew.

Have plenty of paper towels around. My first brewday was kinda messy if I remember right.

Enjoy! Pez.

Pezman1 said:

Have plenty of paper towels around. My first brewday was kinda messy if I remember right.

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+1 to this. 2 boilovers later and an hour scrubbing off wort from the burner grates on the stove... if you don't have paper towels just pay attention the whole time lol

I did purchase another spray bottle (aside from the one I'll be keeping Stan San Solution in) just to spray on the kettle in case of a boil over. I've read numerous post on here about that subject and the SWMBO would not be too happy about the mess.

Thanks for the last minute tips guys. Doubling up on the paper towel supply!

you dont need a started unless youre brewing a big beer and many times even then you dont need one Ive go about 17 batches under my belt and never used a starter many big beers as well with OG of 1.070 and above always seemed to ferment out fine

One of the advantages of a liquid yeast is that you CAN make a starter. That allows you to clearly establish the viability and vitality of your yeast so that you can pitch with full confidence. Recall that at packaging a smack pack of Wyeast contains sufficient yeast for about a 1.055 brew, but that the yeast viability begins to decline the moment it's packaged. And the smack pack hasn't been under your careful, watchful eye continuously since the day it was packaged, so you really just don't know what conditions it's encountered. If you make a starter, all such questions go away and you are ASSURED of a pitch of sufficient, viable yeast. Mase, I ptch my starters, typically, at 18-24 hours. Make it Friday, pitch it Saturday.

Do you HAVE to? Of course not. You'll get beer whether you do or not.

Pezman1 said:

Since you are brewing an extract kit, you do not have to take an OG. Just one less thing to do/worry about on your first brew.



Enjoy! Pez.

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I couldn't disagree more... You should always take a hydrometer reading regardless of the brew method...

Pilgarlic said:

One of the advantages of a liquid yeast is that you CAN make a starter. That allows you to clearly establish the viability and vitality of your yeast so that you can pitch with full confidence. Recall that at packaging a smack pack of Wyeast contains sufficient yeast for about a 1.055 brew, but that the yeast viability begins to decline the moment it's packaged. And the smack pack hasn't been under your careful, watchful eye continuously since the day it was packaged, so you really just don't know what conditions it's encountered. If you make a starter, all such questions go away and you are ASSURED of a pitch of sufficient, viable yeast. Mase, I ptch my starters, typically, at 18-24 hours. Make it Friday, pitch it Saturday.

Do you HAVE to? Of course not. You'll get beer whether you do or not.

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Very good points. Do you happen to decant the starter or do you pour in the whole thing? I mean even if you pour in the whole thing I'm not sure it would affect wort volume much, but is taht a possibility?

Brewin06111 said:

I couldn't disagree more... You should always take a hydrometer reading regardless of the brew method...

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Nope, no reason at all in an extract kit. Many reasons for this too:

It is very hard to get partial boil wort and top off water to mix perfectly, leading to some strange OGs. This has been discussed many times on this board. In other words, your OG may not be exact.

Your OG has already been calculated for the kit. There are no variables like all grain mash efficiency. If you use all the ingredients in the kit and top off the fermentor to the correct amount - 5 gallons- you have no choice but to be in range of the kit OG.

Taking an OG is yet one more opportunity to introduce nasties that could cause an infection.

So, if your OG may or may not be accurate, and you are off a bit from the kit, what are you going to do? add more extract or water to get a OG that may or may not be correct?

Kits are supposed to be easy, and the OG is already figured for you. Why make it more difficult???

Pez.

Mase said:

Very good points. Do you happen to decant the starter or do you pour in the whole thing? I mean even if you pour in the whole thing I'm not sure it would affect wort volume much, but is taht a possibility?

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I make small ( 1 liter) starters and pitch the whole thing. Others decant, especially in big starters, but it doesn't matter really matter in the small ones. Fill up your fermentor almost to the 5 gal mark, pitch, then finish using top off water to the mark.
Pez.

I'll actually be doing a full boil on the kit. I'd like to get into the practice of reading a hydrometer so I'll probably be taking one to compare what I have done and what the kit says. If I'm waaaay off it'd be for a reason and I'd like to know why.

After I aerate I need to open the pail lid back up to pitch the yeast and with a properly sanitized baster, could risk of infection really be that great?

Pezman1 said:

I make small ( 1 liter) starters and pitch the whole thing. Others decant, especially in big starters, but it doesn't matter really matter in the small ones. Fill up your fermentor almost to the 5 gal mark, pitch, then finish using top off water to the mark.
Pez.

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So by one liter you literally mean one liter of fluid with the yeast? That would be the reason for a 2 liter container, correct?

Mase said:

So by one liter you literally mean one liter of fluid with the yeast? That would be the reason for a 2 liter container, correct?

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Actually, I use a 1 liter Erlenmyer flask and a total liquid volume of 700-800 mls. There is plenty enough headspace for any foam. Pez.

Mase said:

I'll actually be doing a full boil on the kit. I'd like to get into the practice of reading a hydrometer so I'll probably be taking one to compare what I have done and what the kit says. If I'm waaaay off it'd be for a reason and I'd like to know why.

After I aerate I need to open the pail lid back up to pitch the yeast and with a properly sanitized baster, could risk of infection really be that great?

Click to expand...

That's the nice thing about extract kits. If you use all the ingredients (no spilling) and end up with a total of five gallons, there is absolutely no way you can be way off the OG. I was trying to find a way to make your brewday easier, but sure, take an OG if you want.


Cheers! Pez.

EDIT - The chance of infection is greatest when the wort is still wort, and not beer, as alcohol makes it hard for most nasties to grow. No, the chance of infection is not great all all assuming proper technique and cleanliness, but it is greater than if you didn't do it in the first place

Re-EDIT. By the way, I'm an extract kit brewer, and haven't taken an OG in over two years. No worries.

Mase said:

I'll actually be doing a full boil on the kit. I'd like to get into the practice of reading a hydrometer so I'll probably be taking one to compare what I have done and what the kit says. If I'm waaaay off it'd be for a reason and I'd like to know why.

After I aerate I need to open the pail lid back up to pitch the yeast and with a properly sanitized baster, could risk of infection really be that great?

Click to expand...

No, risk of infection at that time is not high at all. Go ahead and take a hydrometer reading, it won't hurt anything. If you're doing a full boil, just know that it will take a few times to get your boil-off rate down on your system, if you end up boiling off less than you thought, you'll have slightly more than 5 gallons and will have a lower than expected OG - vice versa for boiling off more than you thought you would.

For starters, I just buy one of those 1.8L plastic juice bottles, pour out the juice into a pitcher or something, and use that. I usually make 1 - 1.5L starters and just pitch the whole thing in after about 24-36 hours. If you're just pitching the whole thing, go ahead and use the DME that came with your kit - you only need 1 gram of DME for every 10 milliliters of water in your starter. So if you make a 1L starter, you'll need to boil up 100 grams of DME for about 15 minutes or so in just a bit over 1L of water, cool it, pitch your swelled up smack pack, and then just swirl the container you have it in every time you walk by it for the next day or so.

Pezman1 said:

I make small ( 1 liter) starters and pitch the whole thing. Others decant, especially in big starters, but it doesn't matter really matter in the small ones. Fill up your fermentor almost to the 5 gal mark, pitch, then finish using top off water to the mark.
Pez.

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I do this, too, unless it's a big beer.

TTB-J said:

No, risk of infection at that time is not high at all. Go ahead and take a hydrometer reading, it won't hurt anything. If you're doing a full boil, just know that it will take a few times to get your boil-off rate down on your system, if you end up boiling off less than you thought, you'll have slightly more than 5 gallons and will have a lower than expected OG - vice versa for boiling off more than you thought you would.

For starters, I just buy one of those 1.8L plastic juice bottles, pour out the juice into a pitcher or something, and use that. I usually make 1 - 1.5L starters and just pitch the whole thing in after about 24-36 hours. If you're just pitching the whole thing, go ahead and use the DME that came with your kit - you only need 1 gram of DME for every 10 milliliters of water in your starter. So if you make a 1L starter, you'll need to boil up 100 grams of DME for about 15 minutes or so in just a bit over 1L of water, cool it, pitch your swelled up smack pack, and then just swirl the container you have it in every time you walk by it for the next day or so.

Click to expand...

This sounds like it could work for me I'm a pinch (no starter container or access to DME).

My 2 questions are if I use my DME from my kit, will not putting the whole amount in my boil affect the wort in any way?

And would you recommend just putting sanitized tim foil over the top of the juice jug instead of using the cap?

Yes, aluminum foil. That will allow gas exchange without microbes settling in. As to the volume of your starter wort affecting your beer, if you're doing a 1 liter starter don't worry about it. Most will say that if your starter doesn't exceed about 5% of your volume you're fine.

Mase said:

This sounds like it could work for me I'm a pinch (no starter container or access to DME).

My 2 questions are if I use my DME from my kit, will not putting the whole amount in my boil affect the wort in any way?

And would you recommend just putting sanitized tim foil over the top of the juice jug instead of using the cap?

Click to expand...

Yup, sanitized aluminum foil is what I use - works like a charm.

As to using the DME from the kit, it won't really affect your wort in any significant way (next time you order something, just order up an extra 1 lb bag of light DME, it will last for at least a few batches). If it's a 1L starter, you're talking about 100 grams of DME out of your boil, which will make a very small difference in your gravity, maybe a point or so. However, since it's small enough that you can just pitch the whole thing in, you'll actually be getting most of the gravity back, so it's possible that it would actually have no measurable effect (outside of sending it off to a lab for analysis!). But, the plus side is that your yeast has multiplied, you'll be pitching the proper amount to inoculate your batch, and you'll more likely have a cleaner, faster fermentation.

Have you checked out Mr. Malty's pitching rate calculator? It's an essential stop for me on every batch.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Good luck!