First brew, w/ pics. Also a few lingering questions.

Hello All,
Thought I would share my first brew. If it hadn't been for these forums I would not have made it this far. Thanks to all.

Getting ready for a full boil:



I had no idea how heavy 6 gallons was:



Getting ready to steep some grains, I don't know what I was thinking, but somehow I accidentally added the bittering hops prior to steeping the grains:




Finally the boil, now with IC put in to sterilize:



Last but not least, now in the primary fermentor:




It was a long night, took about three hours. The IC did a good job, cooled from boiling to 90 degrees in about 15 minutes, but the last 20 degrees down to 70 seemed to take another 15 to 20 minutes.

Lingering questions I have:
I don't know what I was thinking, but I added my hops prior to steeping my grains. Ideally my bittering hops, I think should have gone in when the boil started. Instead then went in at 155 degrees. I don't know what kind of an effect that will have.

I cleaned my fermentor out with star san. I dumped out the excess star san, then threw in my yeast starter, then put in the wort. Would it have been better to put the starter into the wort and not vice verse?

I am using what I have found to be a slow strain of yeast. The Wyeast Propagator 1214 smack pack. Around 12 hours later still no signs of fermentation. (I have not taken a gravity reading yet, figured I would wait until 72 hours). I assume such a slow start is normal? Could take up to three or four days, is that true?

Thanks once again everyone, I had a great time brewing.

--jake

General rule is wait 72 hours before panicking. What is the temperature where the fermenter is?
Not sure what effect the early hop addition will be so I'll let someone else tackle the one.

The Barefoot Brewer? I stopped brewing in flip flops the first time I got 180°F water on the top of my feet.

IrregularPulse said:

General rule is wait 72 hours before panicking. What is the temperature where the fermenter is?

Click to expand...

71 degrees, I think that should be just about right. , I hope.

IrregularPulse said:

The Barefoot Brewer? I stopped brewing in flip flops the first time I got 180°F water on the top of my feet.

Click to expand...

You know what is funny, is that I thought about that, and intended to put on shoes ... then somehow got carried away and just forgot. I will have to have an entry in my checklist next time for "Shoes" LOL.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I added my hops prior to steeping my grains. Ideally my bittering hops, I think should have gone in when the boil started. Instead then went in at 155 degrees. I don't know what kind of an effect that will have.

This will be equivalent to First Wort Hopping (FWH), which is not a bad thing by any means. It technically raises the IBU's of your brew, but not by much. It also adds some more aroma to your beer. Lot of people do this on purpose to get more hop aroma. Chances are, it will be a good "mistake"! If you want to find out more, just do a search here for First Wort Hopping or FWH.


I cleaned my fermentor out with star san. I dumped out the excess star san, then threw in my yeast starter, then put in the wort. Would it have been better to put the starter into the wort and not vice verse?

Either way works fine, no difference. Especially with a liquid yeast, it all just mixes together.


I am using what I have found to be a slow strain of yeast. The Wyeast Propagator 1214 smack pack. Around 12 hours later still no signs of fermentation. (I have not taken a gravity reading yet, figured I would wait until 72 hours). I assume such a slow start is normal? Could take up to three or four days, is that true?

The Wyeast Propogator pack is for making a starter, not for directly pitching into a fermenter. It WILL work, but the yeast cell count is a lot lower than the Activator pack, which is the one you want. You may experience a longer than normal lag time before that yeast takes off. Check out the link and quote from the Wyeast site:

Wyeast Laboratories : Home Enthusiasts : Brewers : Technical Information : Pitch Rates

Activator Package:
The Wyeast Activator (125 ml) smack-pack is designed to directly inoculate 5 gallons of standard ale wort (O.G. < 1.060, 65-72°F). When brewing high gravity beer (O.G. >1.060) or cold fermented lagers or ales (<65 °F)) additional yeast will be required. An Activator contains approximately 100 billion cells which will deliver slightly less than 6 million cells per milliliter to a 5 gallon batch of beer.

Propagator Pack:
The Wyeast Propagator (50 ml) should not be directly pitched into 5 gallons. This package is designed to be propagated in a starter culture before inoculating larger volumes of wort. A Propagator contains 30 billion cells. One propagator in ½ gallon starter will deliver 6 million cells per ml.

Click to expand...

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

The Wyeast Propogator pack is for making a starter, not for directly pitching into a fermenter. It WILL work, but the yeast cell count is a lot lower than the Activator pack, which is the one you want. You may experience a longer than normal lag time before that yeast takes off. Check out the link and quote from the Wyeast site:

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I did try to make a starter. I had a 1 liter starter that was around 30 hours old. I think my starter was good, at least I hope.

That is good to know about the differences in the propogater and activator. In the future I will probably go the other route. Making the starter was OK, I just don't know that I am that advanced yet. I think I may have done the proverbial "bite off more than you can chew" thing on this first brew.

I probably should have gone with a simple dry yeast pack or something.

Congrats on your first brew.

As for your questions,

I assume the water wasn't boiling when you added the hops? How long did you boil with the early hops, and how much did you add. Most likely you won't notice a difference. If anything you will have gotten all of the bittering possible out of those hops. Hops utilization doesn't increase much after 60 minutes. After that point most of the alpha acids have been extracted.






I typically pitch the yeast after I transfer to my primaries. I like to slosh and churn the beer as I transfer it, and it spashes a lot so I'd hate to splash my yeasties out of the bucket on accident. Plus every minute I delay pitching, the beer is cooling just that much more.

IXVolt said:

Congrats on your first brew.

As for your questions,

I assume the water wasn't boiling when you added the hops? How long did you boil with the early hops, and how much did you add.

Click to expand...

Water wasn't boiling, it wast at 155 for steeping grains. The hops boiled in all for 60 minutes, so I guess I wringed them for what they are worth. hahah

IXVolt said:

I typically pitch the yeast after I transfer to my primaries. I like to slosh and churn the beer as I transfer it, and it spashes a lot so I'd hate to splash my yeasties out of the bucket on accident. Plus every minute I delay pitching, the beer is cooling just that much more.

Click to expand...

That is a good idea, I will have to give that a shot next time.