Making first brew today!! last minute questions...

Well, yesterday I bought my first brew kit (woop woop!) I am going to make a nut brown ale (it was on sale, so what the hell... nut browns are always good!) I have a few questions though...

First is cooling my wort. I don't have a wort-chiller cuz I couldn't afford one. Whats the best way? I know an ice-bath is good, so should I buy a semi-large plastic container at wal-mart and shove a bunch of ice in it and cool my wort? I plan on using bottled water... so if I keep the water in the fridge then how low do I need to cool my wort before topping off with the refrigerated bottled water?

Cooling the wort properly is the scariest part for me... (well, second to proper sanitation)

And here is a dumb question for ya...

My primary right now is a plastic bucket (unfortunately, but again my lack of funds bit me in the ass) Anyways, once I get this puppy rollin' how will I know when my yeast is active? If my air-lock is bubbling does that mean my yeasties are doin' their job?


Any last minute tips would be GREATLY appreciated


Here's to hopin' this brew turns out as good as Samuel Smiths Nut Brown!

1. I cool my pot in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink. No extra container needed.

2. Try to cool the wort to around 80F before adding water. Should definitely get it below 90F.

3. Plastic buckets work great. Even though I bought a glass carboy as an additional primary to get 2 brews going at once, the plastic is actually probably easier to use. Make sure you have a good, tight seal on the lid, have all the airlock equipment in place and be sure to put water or vodka in the airlock.

Good luck, and if you have any questions during the brew session, post up. There's always someone on!

Mr_Turtlehead said:

1. I cool my pot in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink. No extra container needed.

2. Try to cool the wort to around 80F before adding water. Should definitely get it below 90F.

3. Plastic buckets work great. Even though I bought a glass carboy as an additional primary to get 2 brews going at once, the plastic is actually probably easier to use. Make sure you have a good, tight seal on the lid, have all the airlock equipment in place and be sure to put water or vodka in the airlock.

Good luck, and if you have any questions during the brew session, post up. There's always someone on!

Click to expand...

Thank you much!

The reason I was wondering about an extra container is because my sink is rather shallow... i'll just use the sink though.


I have one other question I meant to ask. This nut brown kit came with hop pellets. Do I just let them dissolve? I have a buddy that brews and he always uses fresh hops and just puts them in a hop sock. He told me that he only uses fresh hops because the only time he used pellets they dissolved and it made his beer way too hoppy... maybe he just added too many pellets though...

Do you have a hop bag? The pellets would best be contained in a hop bag. If you add them directly to the pot they will make a bunch of sludge at the bottom of your primary. That is not so bad though for you first brew. Dont worry about being too hoppy, you would like some bitterness in that brew. What is the recipie you used?

Make sure you lid seals well on your primary.

Dont piss into the wind.

Dont propose to a girl on a bus.

More cowbell!

AHammer16 said:

More cowbell!

Click to expand...

I love it! :rockin:

AHammer16 said:

Do you have a hop bag? The pellets would best be contained in a hop bag. If you add them directly to the pot they will make a bunch of sludge at the bottom of your primary. That is not so bad though for you first brew. Dont worry about being too hoppy, you would like some bitterness in that brew. What is the recipie you used?

Make sure you lid seals well on your primary.

Dont piss into the wind.

Dont propose to a girl on a bus.

More cowbell!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! I was really considering pissing in the wind until you said somethin'

I don't have a hop bag...

The recipe is:

6 lbs Light malt extract

for the grains
1 lb crystal 40 malt
1/4 lb honey malt
1/8 lb pale chocolate malt
1/8 lb specialty roast

1 oz progress hop pellets @ boil
1/2 oz fuggle hop pellets 30 mins into boil

White Labs English Ale yeast.

Mr_Turtlehead said:

1. I cool my pot in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink. No extra container needed.

2. Try to cool the wort to around 80F before adding water. Should definitely get it below 90F.

3. Plastic buckets work great. Even though I bought a glass carboy as an additional primary to get 2 brews going at once, the plastic is actually probably easier to use. Make sure you have a good, tight seal on the lid, have all the airlock equipment in place and be sure to put water or vodka in the airlock.

Good luck, and if you have any questions during the brew session, post up. There's always someone on!

Click to expand...

I don't get this. Let's say you have 2 gal of wort. If you cool 2 gal of wort to 80F and add it to 3 gal of cold water, wouldn't that make your wart a lot colder then 80F? Maybe even colder then the desired temp of say 70F? Also, once you have your 5 gal cooled to the desired temperature, then you shake it up and add the yeast?

Generally I have about 3 gals of wort. I use the whirlpool method to move sediment to the middle and depending on how long it sets there, may cool even more. By the time I'm adding 2 gals water (which is kept in my basement around 62F) to the carboy and the wort and pitching yeast, the 5 gals is usually between 70-75F. Has never failed me yet.

mworkman said:

I don't get this. Let's say you have 2 gal of wort. If you cool 2 gal of wort to 80F and add it to 3 gal of cold water, wouldn't that make your wart a lot colder then 80F? Maybe even colder then the desired temp of say 70F? Also, once you have your 5 gal cooled to the desired temperature, then you shake it up and add the yeast?

Click to expand...

That can happen. I've had topping off water in the freezer, and cooled the wort too low with it. My mistake was that I didn't realize an ice bath in the sink would cool the boiled wort down as quickly as it did.

It just takes a little practice to get it right. Next time I'm going to have some water in the fridge and a couple more gallons at room temperature. Then I can use whatever I need to get it right.

Yes, you want your batch cooled before doing any aerating. Some people pour it back and forth between buckets a few time. Some people shake the crap out of it in one bucket. Others use an oxygen stone (like in an aquarium) and pump oxygen (or filtered air) right into the cooled water for a couple of minutes...

When you have it in the ice bath stir it around some as this will help cool it faster. It takes 2 ice baths for my pot which is about 4 gallons to get it at 90° or so. I use a sanitized wire whip to aerate the wort when it is in the plastic fermenter. It works pretty well. I siphon off the kettle to avoid the majority of the hops that settle to the bottom. Happy brewing.

Ice bath in the kitchen sink is fine, just dont forget that you probably will be topping off so dont get it all the way down to the temp you want, but if ya do just warm up your topping off water a bit to compensate.

My kitchen sink will overflow from one side to the other so what I do is to build a little "dam" with a clean rag or towel (leaveing a gap for water to run out on one end) then put the ketel in the sink and fill the sink with cold water. I leave the water run very slowely and then add the ice. The reason I leave the water run is to flush out the warmer water and try to keep colder water in the sink moving. This may not work for you depending how warm your water is this time of year. My tap water is like 47f this time of year and jumps up to a chilly 56f in the summer, but then again it's sucked out of the bottom of Lake Michigan from like 5 miles out.

I can usually cool down 3.5 - 4 gallons in what seems like 20 minutes, I never really timed it.

MrEcted1 said:

I don't have a hop bag...

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Use a knee-high nylon stocking. Some might argue that the hop utilization is reduced, but to me it's not noticeable.

As far as an immersion chiller is concerned make one don't spend money buying one they are very weasy to make. You can get 20' of 3/8 copper tubing at HD or Lowes for about $20 and the additional fittings are really cheap. You just need something about the size of a paint can to twist your tubing around to make your coils and some other fittings. Just make sure you test everything out before you actually use it to cool your beer if you decide to make one.



Homebrew Saves Your Soul.

I havent used a Hop bag for Pellets I just pour the wort through a fine screen on my funnel, it clogs alot but using a "spoon type" strainer to clear it also aerates the wort in the funnel right before it goes splashing down. Then shake the crap out of it for few min.. let it settle and pitch. ... so far this has worked well for me.