Completed my first all-grain brew this weekend with success.....I think

I have completed my first all grain brew which I decided to brew https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/

Which looked like a great recipe by EdWort. I think I did some things ok but wasn't quite sure on others. First of all I couldn't get my hands on 2 of the grains, so I used a little oatmeal instead of the flaked barley.

I hit my mash temperature right on and help the same temp for the whole 60 minutes. I was kinda scared when I started to hear the crackling of the cooler when I put in the strike water.

I don't have any volume markers on my cook pots so I did some measuring before and made little pen marks on the outside to use.

I then sparged with 2.5G for the first batch and 2.0G for the second and came out perfectly to the 7.5G to boil.

I did a preboil gravity check and not sure if it was correct. It was only 1.041.

The next part is where I am glad I went out and bought a new stock pot to boil with because I would not have been able to do the boil with a turkey fryer with all the foam that came up at the beginning of the boil. next time I need to watch more carefully. Other than that the boil when great, I love dropping those hops in and the smell.

I then dropped the wort temp down to about 78 in about 10 minutes, not as quickly as I was able to get the mini-mash batches down, but only worked with about 2.5G of wort in those batches.

I prepped the yeast and moved the carboy to the back room, there was still a lot of foam in the carboy from dumping it in, but the yeast was ready and I pitched it and sealed it up.

The temp was still high, 74 I think so I put on a wet t-shirt and that seemed to get it down to 72 at least, time went on and I decided to add water to plastic container I had it in and ICE. That got it down to 70. We are having some warm weather here and topped out at 88 outside, the room was at 65, but the beer was keeping itself warm.

The bubbles started about 4 hours in and are still going crazy now, almost 2 days later and about 3 bubbles a second.

This beer should turn out great, thanks for everyones help!!!

I had a OG reading of 1.078 too and hit 85% brewhouse efficiency too. Can't wait to taste it.

Also, I was a little too focused more almost all of the 5 hours this took, I forgot to take any pictures, sorry, next time, or when I keg this

So everything seems like it is moving a long fine. I am just wondering if the fermentation has gone a little too quick.

I pitched my yeast on Saturday about 3:30PM and the bubbles started about 4 hours later and as I mentioned in the first post, it has been hard to keep the temp on the side of the carboy under 70 for the first 36 hours. It is sitting at about 68 right now. The room temp has gone between 59 and 67 while the carboy has stayed in the 67-70 range.

My main question is that the bubble have really slowed down, maybe like a bubble every 3 seconds or so. Where between 18 and 36 hours it was like 3 per second.

I am am just wondering if the fermentation happened too quick or what are the good and bad about fermenting too quickly or if this is too quickly? I was at about 64 hours in this morning with the 1 bubble every 3 seconds and the fermentation on its way out.

you're all good

now, step away from the airlock. No, really. The airlock is fun to watch, and a sign that active fermentation is happening; but don't rely on it for anything other than that.

This is a big beer, and fermentation can go fast and furious; but, the yeasties aren't done doing there thing yet - give it at least 3 weeks in the primary before you even think about bottling.

My advice? Grab some more grain and get another batch going!

AZ_IPA said:

you're all good

now, step away from the airlock. No, really. The airlock is fun to watch, and a sign that active fermentation is happening; but don't rely on it for anything other than that.

This is a big beer, and fermentation can go fast and furious; but, the yeasties aren't done doing there thing yet - give it at least 3 weeks in the primary before you even think about bottling.

My advice? Grab some more grain and get another batch going!

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Wow, I can see this turning into an expensive hobby, not that I mind that. I guess no one really gets into AG brewing to save money on beer, unless you could fall into a bunch of free equipment or make like 4 batches a month.

Anyways, I currently only have 1 carboy, 1 keg, and 1 bucket I could ferment with. Those numbers will have to increase especially if I want to do lagers for next summer. Ahh.... brewing, at least this is cheaper than my photography habit.

You betcha. I could buy one high end lens for what I spent on a mash tun, pot, burner, six fermenters, kegerator, and kegs. Not to mention, my friends never got drunk on my camera.

Congrats on the first AG batch. It sounds like you really did your homework and it paid off!

Remember that you share way more than you can drink once your friends find out you make beer (That is if it turns out good).

WBC said:

Remember that you share way more than you can drink once your friends find out you make beer (That is if it turns out good).

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That is why you make friends with only people that like lagers and I can make things such as Robust Porters Just kidding, who would want to drink 5 gallons of one beer anyways, oh wait, maybe I would.

Nice work! I agree on the airlock... first time tends to be focused on if fermentation is happening and when you should bottle.. I know I spent hours pining over the fact that I couldn't see active fermentation through my blow-off tube... turns out the yeast were well on their way to fermenting me an excellent beer... patience most definitely pays off in brewing.

:cheers:

treesmcgee said:

Nice work! I agree on the airlock... first time tends to be focused on if fermentation is happening and when you should bottle.. I know I spent hours pining over the fact that I couldn't see active fermentation through my blow-off tube... turns out the yeast were well on their way to fermenting me an excellent beer... patience most definitely pays off in brewing.

:cheers:

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Thanks, I am working on the patience , I have done the mini-mash recipes before and have fermented, but man this one went way faster than any of the previous, just wanted to make sure things were ok.

My tentative plan is to leave it in the primary for 2 weeks and then do a 1 week secondary with some coffee grounds since I wasn't able to use the black roasted barley this recipe called for and would have given a coffee hint to it.

I have never done the Gravity checks before this batch as I have never owned a hydrometer before, so I have always just waited until there are no bubbles coming up from watching like 3 minutes. Is this a good method or should I really check the gravity for 3 plus days to watch for no movement on the gravity?

I pulled this beer out of the primary last night (23 days in primary) and it has a Gravity of 1.021, I was really hoping for a lower number, but I think it may have more work to do. I placed in in a keg and growler w/ coffee.

The growler is still fermenting it seems as I loosen the lid and a little hiss is heard. I am planing to do this once a day to not build u a lot of pressure to avoid the horror stories I have heard on here.

I am using the keg to condition and ferment if there is any left to do, but there is no gas to release off the release valve. I am wondering if either the keg isn't closed up tight enough or the beer is done fermenting. What do you think? I need a coupler for my CO2 to connect 2 regulators and cannot hook up the gas to bleed out any headspace in the keg.

Next time, don't transfer if you think you FG is too high. You can kill your chance of completing fermentation by leaving most of your yeast behind in the primary. Just give it a swirl and put it in a slightly warmer place to get your fermentation going again. As for now, you should stick an airlock on that growler, so you don't have to keep opening it up. Check your LHBS to see if they have a stopper that will work. They probably do.

vapor2020 said:

Next time, don't transfer if you think you FG is too high. You can kill your chance of completing fermentation by leaving most of your yeast behind in the primary. Just give it a swirl and put it in a slightly warmer place to get your fermentation going again. As for now, you should stick an airlock on that growler, so you don't have to keep opening it up. Check your LHBS to see if they have a stopper that will work. They probably do.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, I really wanted to stick my new beer in that primary, it is a 6.5 gallon and I wanted the extra head room, but I will definately just give it a swirl next time.

I also popped on a airlock to the growler just in case it wants to let off any more gas.