almost ready to brew.. one Q though

I bought all my equipment and am currently working up the courage to risk 40 bucks on my first brew. As I am thinking about the process I am wondering how one transfers the wort to the primary fermenter (glass carboy) and when? Do you use a strainer and funnel and just dump it in or do you use a siphon? Do you cool it in the boiling pot before you transfer it or does it go straight into the primary fermenter hot?

DON'T POUR IT IN GLASS HOT, It will explode!!!

canuckmug said:

I bought all my equipment and am currently working up the courage to risk 40 bucks on my first brew. As I am thinking about the process I am wondering how one transfers the wort to the primary fermenter (glass carboy) and when? Do you use a strainer and funnel and just dump it in or do you use a siphon? Do you cool it in the boiling pot before you transfer it or does it go straight into the primary fermenter hot?

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Now that that is clear, use a funnel to transfer the wort, after it is boiled and cooled. Then mix your top off water. If you strain it or not it is up to you. what ever you don't strain will drop out into trub. I don't strain anymore unless I have a huge amount of hops.
Good luck on the first brew!! What are you brewing?

Are you talking about a prehopped can kit? Just mix it in the pot with your 2 liters of boiled water. Going into glass I would first submerge the pot in cold water to chill it. If it's too hot going into the carboy you risk it breaking due to thermal shock. Then top off your carboy. Now if you added hops there are some brewers here that know how to tackle that.

or you could just pour two gallons of cool water in your carboy before adding the wort, then top off at five. you can then stick the carboy in a bathtub with cool water to quicken the cooling, or just leave it over night before pitching the yeast. be sure to keep it airlocked of course.

i stopped straining out my hops a long time ago and have never regretted it. Leaving the hops in the carboy makes minimal difference once the temperature drops from boiling and it's so much less of a hassle. Otherwise you'll find yourself endlessly scraping away the dissolved hops that clog whatever filter your using.

and the higher up you pour your wort from the more oxygen gets in for the yeasties.

As already posted, you really want to cool your hot wort down before putting in in the carboy. I like to cool the wort down to 70 degrees. I put the boiling pot in a sink and fill the sink with ice and water. I also use an immersion chiller but the ice and water in the sink will be fine. I also like to put about 3 gallons of water into my bottling bucket the night before so it will be room temperature on brew day. This way when I put the wort into the carboy and add water I am immediately ready to pitch the yeast without waiting.

It really doesn't make a big difference on how you get the wort into your carboy. I siphon from the boil pot through a strainer but you can pour it in if you want.

Good luck on your brew.

if you don't mind hazy beer let it cool over night. there are proteins that need to be "shocked" out of suspension by rapid cooling to prevent chill haze. i recommend saving up and buying a wort chiller.

You bought all your equipment and $40 is a risk? That was the one cost I wasn't worried about. hehe

As transfering goes, make sure to get an auto siphon. they're invaluable!

When I did extract/partial boils, I would:
1. Fill sink 1/2 full of water during the last 10 minutes of the boil.
2. At the end of the boil, move the brew pot to the sink
3. Top up the sink with ice
4. Stir gently to encourage heat transfer, and keep adding ice as needed until it was down to 80F
5. Add 1 gallon cold spring water to sanitized fermenter
6. Pour wort in vigorously to aerate
7. Top off with cold spring water to 5 gallons (at this point, I'd added about 2 gallons of refrigerated water to 3 gallons of 80F water, so the overall temp was usually just over 60F)
8. Aerate, pitch yeast, add airlock, and let the yeast get to work!

PanzerBanana said:

I've invented the phrase "hot lager" for lagers made at ale temperatures. Feel free to use it just give me credit!

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That's what a Steam Beer is! The weren't all Anchor Steam clones originally.

Wikipedia notes:

Steam beer may be defined as a highly effervescent beer made by brewing lager yeasts at ale fermentation temperatures. It has two distinct but related meanings:
Historic steam beer produced in California from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s;
Modern California common beer, the official name for the beer family which includes Anchor Steam beer.
Historic steam beer, associated with San Francisco and the U.S. West Coast, was brewed with lager yeast without the use of refrigeration.

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wow everyone thanks for the response. That seems simple enough. There seems to be like 4 steps. Boil, ferment, prime and bottle, but a million do's and don'ts along the way any one of which if forgotten will ruin your beer. My wife isn't that excited about me spending the money on all of the equipment. If I ruin a batch, especially my first one, it will be weeks before I hear the end of it.

canuckmug said:

My wife isn't that excited about me spending the money on all of the equipment. If I ruin a batch, especially my first one, it will be weeks before I hear the end of it.

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This is a concern of mine as well.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Please read Section 1. It will answer all your basic brewing questions and have you brewing in no time.

canuckmug said:

a million do's and don'ts along the way any one of which if forgotten will ruin your beer

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That's how it will feel for your first batch. However, you'll soon figure out that as long as you just pay attention to what you're doing, you'll find it difficult to "ruin" your beer. Not to mention that you shouldn't be stressing yourself out. As long as you follow the steps and keep your equipment clean, the beer will take care of itself.

Yep what, Polish said. Keep everything clean and even if you "screw up" you'll have drinkable beer, maybe even a happy accident. I'm drinking mine now! hehe

And once you get past the initial tools, your supply costs will go down. And you'll soon be brewing more beer for less than what you would spend on 6-packs.

Ahhh... the first batch freakout... Drink a beer, follow your instructions, and enjoy it! As long as you don't boil your yeast or pee in your primary after you sanitize it, all will be well! Actually, peeing in the primary might give you a Coors clone... wait, Canadian... uhh... a Labatt's clone. Welcome aboard!