My First Batch

I brewed my first batch on Saturday. I did the AHS Double Chocolate Stout Mini Mash. All of the equipment was a gift from my great wife so the first batch was her pick. She loves Young's 2X chocolate stout so I figured this would be close.

I did a full boil and everything went smooth (not perfect though). Since I was doing a partial mash, I needed to steep the grains at 155 degrees for 45 minutes. My first problem was that I added the grains to 160 degree water and it dropped to 154, PERFECT!, but left the pot on the hot burner which then pushed the temp up to 164 degrees, not terrible and I don't expect to get much tannins or astringency but live and learn I guess. After the steeping, I sparged with 170 degree water and then topped my brew pot up to 6 gallons and went outside to the propane burner.

Mistake #2: I re-hydrated my dry yeast but without thinking, used a non-sanitized mug and tap water. Live and Learn.

I put on the heat and waited impatiently for a boil to come up. The recipe kit came with an ounce of galena hops, they smelled wonderful. I have been drinking the Avery Dugana lately and it is almost dead on for the hops aroma and flavor. I was just using them for bittering though with no aroma or flavor hops. I always thought that the Dugana used Columbus hops but I swear that these smelled closer.

I added the liquid extract and the malto-dextrin and waited even longer for the boil to come up. all in all it took about 30 mins for the boil to come from starting at 120 degrees up to the 212. I guess that isnt too bad. Once I got to the boil, I added the hops and stood watch.

Boil over never threatened but I was alert and ready, after about 20 mins of no threat at all, I started cleaning up my mess inside while my dog watched the boil for me.

With 10 minutes left, I added some yeast nutrient and then at 5 mins the cocoa powder. Finished the boil and then cooled down. I used 30 lbs of ice and some water, it was chilled down in 7 mins, way better than I expected. When it was all the way down, the water was up to 45 degrees but the ice was all gone, the wort was down to 78 degrees so I put into the fermenter through a fine mesh strainer. This areated very nicely and I pitched at 78 degrees. I took a sample for a hydrometer reading (Mistake #3, read on) and put the lid and airlock on with some star san in the airlock. I moved the fermenter to a guest room where I have closed off the heating duct to get a good fermenting temp.

After getting the fermenter squared away, the sample was cooled some more down to about 65 so I went to take the hydrometer reading. I put the hydrometer into the sample and CLUNK it hit the bottom of the sample tube. My sample wasn't big enough. I wasnt going to go reopen the fermenter so I learned something new yet again. Guess I will just have to assume that since my steeping temp was a little high that I got good enough efficiency.

Fermentation started in only 4 hours and has been sitting between 68 and 70 degrees for 2 days now with bubbles pretty active. I will pull a sample on Friday night and then again Saturday to see If I can move to the secondary. I will bottle and should be enjoying in about 5-6 weeks. Wish me luck and some patience!

Sounds good. Most of us have gone to leaving the beer in the fermenter for 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean up unwanted by-products. Then straight to the bottle/keg for carbonation.

Most of us have gone to leaving the beer in the fermenter for 4 weeks to allow the yeast to clean up unwanted by-products.

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I cannot get a straight answer on this one no matter how many threads I read. I figure when I move to secondary I can start my next batch, that much sooner. I am doing an American IPA

Excellent post and welcome. Sounds like you had a very very successful brew day. You'll learn something new each time you brew.

I had a similiar experience with my first PM, except that I lost temp faster than I expected rather than increased temp on the burner. What I do now is set my oven to 150F and once I stabilize my mash and wet all the grains I place it in the oven. I leave it in there for 30 minutes, open it up to stir it once and return it to the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

Also, for sparging I heat up 2 qts / LB of grain in a second stockpot to 170F and place my grainbag in this water for 10 minutes instead of just pouring hot water over the grains.

Depending on your yeast 70F is a little warm as an ambient temperature. Fermentation generates heat and it isn't uncommon for it to be 8-10F higher in the fermenter than the ambient temp.

My basement stays about 62-64F this time of year and during the first 2 days of fermentation my adhesive thermometer can reach up to 68-70F then drops back down after high krausen finishes. If you can place it in an area that is a little cooler you "may" have a better finished product.

Also, many many brewers are skipping the secondary vessel and leaving their beers on the yeast for 3-4 weeks to allow for the yeast to clean up their own byproducts produced during fermentation. Unless your going to be adding anything (like fruit) to the beer you may want to forgo the secondary, wait 3-4 weeks and go right to bottling.

Wishing you lots of luck and congratulations.

bce22 said:

Depending on your yeast 70F is a little warm as an ambient temperature. Fermentation generates heat and it isn't uncommon for it to be 8-10F higher in the fermenter than the ambient temp.

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The ambient temp is around 60, I have a fermometer on the outside of the bucket so the temps are the beer temp.

That is also 2 votes for leaving in the primary.

theguy10 said:

I cannot get a straight answer on this one no matter how many threads I read. I figure when I move to secondary I can start my next batch, that much sooner. I am doing an American IPA

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It's all personal preference really. There's no harm in moving it to secondary, but there's no harm in keeping it in the primary either.

If you want to move it to secondary to get another batch fermenting go for it. Good for you for being patient and realizing that an increased fermentation time will result in a more mature flavor. Just be sure to not cut the primary time short. I would at least leave it in the primary for a week and a half, preferably two weeks, before moving it to secondary and starting your new batch.

You also have to realize that you're going to need around 100 (maybe more) bottles to bottle both batches. If you stagger the bottling time and reuse your bottles you won't need as many.

If your going to move it to the secondary I would still make sure that primary fermentation is complete. A few days before you plan on racking the beer take a gravity sample. Then the next day or the day after, take another one. If the SG is unchanged you primary fermentation is probably complete and you can rack the beer. If it's dropped further, wait another day and take another sample. After it's stablized, rack to secondary.

It's always best to leave the beer on the yeast so they can complete fermentation. Asking the smaller number of yeast that get racked over with the beer to finish the job is asking alot.