1st Batch, many stupid 1st mistakes

[electronjunkie]

Well I brewed my 1st batch, trying to follow this recipe to make 2 gal:
3.3 lb Light LME
1.5 Dry Cups DME
1/4 lb Crystal 40L
1/2 oz Cascade hops pellets 60 min
1/2 oz Cascade hops 15 min
1/2 oz Cascade hops 0 min
American Ale yeast

The 1st stupid thing I did was try to boil with a lid on. Even though I was boiling 3 gal in a 6 gal pot I had a quick boilover, but I caught it. I don't cook much so I didn't know that leaving the lid on would cause this

Well 1st I ended up with 2.5 gallons. Thinking w/ 3 gallons, one would boil off, but only about half a gallon boiled off. So I added 3/4 more cup of DME to keep my gravity up, but obviously without a hydrometer who knows what my OG is. I also wound up boiling for about 2 hours total.

Next stupid thing I did was put the whole packet of yeast in to water that was probably around 100F b/c I forgot to let the water cool. Of course when I realized I had not let the water cool off long enough I took a temp and read 100F. I doubt this killed the yeast but I dunno.

Finally, the last dumb thing I did I poured the wort and all the sediment into the container. The dumb thing is I had not put the yeast mix in yet. So I put the yeast in and stirred with a sanitized stick.

So aside from all this we'll see if I get any yeast growing and rising to the top in a few days.

Next batch I do I wanna go ahead and try all grain. Is all grain cheaper than extract? It looks pretty easy.

The hardest part of brewing seems to be boiling the wort. The next hardest part is cooling it quickly after the boil, which I used an ice bath to do.

Now off to find an all grain Belgian Duble or Blonde recipe. The way I understand it, the yeast and fermenting temp makes a belgian more than anything else.

 

[Hopheader]

Heya Junkie--- welcome to the crew.

Yeah, you don't want to boil with a lid on for several reasons. You also want to let the 'stuff' (without getting too technical, like DMS/cream corn flavour/aroma) out as you're boiling so no lid.

For a first batch, (and perhaps you did so) you really want to follow a recipe. Tried and true. One never wants a first batch to be unsuccessful. One never wants a 100th batch to be unsuccessful, hahaha.

In all-grain brewing you actually end up calculating your 'efficiency' of your brewhouse and you can track boiloff in a certain time period (usually an hour) and your calculations start falling in line.

Nothing says you HAVE to use a hydrometer, but... you're certainly going to want one to tell you when your fermentation has stopped. And without knowing 'where it started'... well... (lots of reading here about not going by the 'bubbles' to track ferm. progress)

I'd wager that your yeast is dead. No two ways about it. I'm assuming it was a dry yeast. They really don't like 'hot'. HOWEVER--reading things online say between 90-110 "warmer than body temperature but should not feel hot". Myself, that's too hot... or your yeast will be super-stressed and not give you good results. But, who knows... they could come back.

Wort-chilling: you got it--you want to cool quickly after the boil. I've had friends simply cool their wort overnight in air temperature and still get beer in the end, but for (again,) technical reasons you want to cool it as soon as you can. But I'd offer: anything that cools it within 20 minutes to proper yeast-pitching temperature is fine.

Dumping the 'whole thing' into your fermenter, well, you likely transferred all the junk over as well and, as a result, mixed it in with your wort again. "could still end up making beer" You typically want to siphon the wort off after it is cool enough to use your siphon hosing (don't want nice hot-plastic-ness transferring over).

Then again someone might come along and refute everything I'm saying! I'm just one guy!

Typically yeast goes in last.

Now. Not to be a smart-arse, but: you made all these mistakes which you know to be dumb mistakes... a) if you knew they were dumb...why'd'ja do 'em? and b) you want to go to all-grain next batch because it looks easy?

Sure, all-grain is (wayyyy, depending where you live/access to extract with good prices) cheaper. After you've already written-off the cost of your all-grain brewing equipment and supplies!

All-grain is also gonna get you a 6+ hour brewing day just to get the wort into primary. Give-or-take.

Not trying to dissuade you by any means...just warning. For a first beer, I would have recommended an all-wort kit beer--some suppliers give anywhere from 18 to 23 L (sorry, I'm in Canada--and that's so Canadian for me to say 'sorry' first...haha) of wort. Dump your choice of yeast and go.

Going for a Belgian all-grain second batch--that's quite a step up! But go for it if you're prepared!

Some people never get to all-grain and are just as happy and make great beers.
(shrug)

Yeast and ferm temp--yes, you're correct. That's the secret to a good Belgian.

Good luck and keep us posted on how your 'cursed' beer turns out in a month or so!

Jfriah

 

[electronjunkie]

Easy all-grain stovetop:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

Going by deathbrewer' steps it looks easy. Easier than the rest of what I've done so far but we'll see. Only equip I need is two 6 galllon pots and a nylon bag, and I already have the two pots. But what do I know I'm just a stupid noob. I haven't tried it yet but like I said it looks easy.

Also, no didn't mix in the wort grain, as that stayed in the bag I thought. The book I was reading said dump the pot into the fermenter. I don't recall reading anything about the sediment and I didn't know there would be much or what to do with it. Time to read a book is not while your holding a pot and pouring into a sanitized container.

As for why did I make stupid mistakes. Well because I'm stupid duh. We can't all be wise brewmasters!

 

[Grinder12000]

The only bad REAL bad thing I see was the yeast problem. Might be dead - maybe not - I wuld have more on hand in case nothing is happening after a day or so.

Pouring all the wort and sediment is not a big deal at all - I've done it many many times and those brews have done pretty well so that is a non-problem.

You saw the problem with the lid but that is not the only problem with lids - there is a lot of things you want to escape into the atmosphere which did not happen. Ruined? not a chance but probably not going to win any major awards LOL

My advice - make an easy 2nd batch, amber, porter, Brown, Stout. Get the process going on brews that you can mess up and have good results.

BTW - I have 55 batches under my belt and #1 and #2 were totally ruined.

 

[Greyhound]

I would brew another extract batch before going to all grain. I know others here have gone straight to all grain, and some of them were probably very successful right away, but... There is a lot to learn before you can become a proficient extract brewer and even more to learn with all grain. I'd try to get comfortable with extract brewing process before taking it to the next level.

 

[BigB]

Don't sweat the small stuff! At least you are brewing. You are way ahead of most of the population! Heck, I've been brewing a while and just started all grain. It definitely makes for a MUCH longer brew day... Funny thing is that I made a measuring stick so I could figure out how much water/wort I had. I used the wrong pot to mark it and ended up with WAY too much wort in my boil pot. I'm figuring I'll have about a 2-2.5 hour boil just to get it down to the right volume. Ohwell, we all make mistakes. EDIT: BTW I made the step to partial mash before going all grain. I strongly recommend it. I used Deathbrewer's method. By far was one of the most enjoyable and easy to follow tutorials out there. I also learned a ton about brewing from just doing it.

 

[gokorn2]

don't fill bad i still make small mistakes each time I brew.
Just yesterday i started to rack my beer into my bottling bucket, I filled my racking cane and hose with sanitizer to start the siphon. I had a small bucket to catch the sanitizer then clamp and move to bottling bucket. My wife was talking to me and i totally forgot to let the sanitizer run off first. WHOOPS hope it doesn't hurt to bad.

 

[schadelh]

Dead yeast happens, if you don't have anything happening in a day or 3 pitch another packet of yeast.

Brewpot sediment shouldn't be an issue, it will just settle into the trub, and you can rack off above of all of that crud.

I will second stepping up to deathbrewers partial mash before going all grain.

 

[Grinder12000]

BTW - you beer looks like ass!

 

[electronjunkie]

BTW - you beer looks like ass!

I thought the grain bag looked kinda funny so I took a quick picture. It looked like a nutsack, then at times like someone bending over.

I checked my container this morning and it is definitely fermenting, tons of stuff on top now.

 

[BendBrewer]

BTW - you beer looks like ass!

I was thinking Gonad Ale.

 

[SoonerDoc]

Teabag Ale?

 

[dutch-brew]

Rocky Mountain Oyster Beer?
Steep 'em 20 mins?

 

[electronjunkie]

It helps to have a big sack to brew partial mash or all grain.

 

[Hopheader]

Not touchin' the "big sack" comment.
Congrats! You're now fermenting!
And yeah, no worries about the mistakes---trust me...sh*t happens. And it still usually turns out as beer! You're on your way.

Enjoy the rest of the journey.

Wait till you get a gooooood, active kreusen happening with a warm ferment/active yeast. That's fun to watch (lots on youtube).

 

[CrazyP]

Brewers tend to be perfectionists (I count myself as one), as these forums can attest, so a lot of things that seem like major mistakes end up not being a big deal. Beer is pretty resilient, otherwise it wouldn't have been brewed for millenia. Hence the slogan RDWHAHB!

I have three batches under my belt now. My first brew I overshot the temperature for steeping grains by 20 degrees and I poured a small amount of the cooled wort over the unsanitized handles of my brewpot. I also underpitched the yeast--at too cool of a temperature--and overheated the fermentor for a couple of days. But the result: a Schneider-Weisse Hefeweizen clone, came out better than I ever thought possible. Even my German friend who doesn't hold back on criticism thought it was good.

I still made some mistakes in the second and third batches but since the first batch came out so well I didn't stress about them at all. The second batch came out great and the third batch is happily fermenting away. I've added making a yeast starter and improved fermentation temp control to my repertoire. I'm probably going to give a couple mini-mash recipes a try before going all-grain.

 

[Bmorebrew]

I'd like to pitch in my two cents.

Act as if you were running a science experiment. Brewday is a great day, a happy day, rehearse in your mind exactly everything you are going to do. Every step. Think of the little things that might go wrong. Prepare for them. This preparedness really helps. Why? Because you want to take your time - do it properly, plus you are extending your fun.
Document things. Have a notebook with your ingredients (including lot #s if you want), list your equipment, etc. Write down times, temps, SGs, anything at all that you measure. Write down the procedure that you used, similar to what you did in the post, but as observations.

Let the experiment run its course. Think its ruined? Who cares, you spent the time to make it, see what turns out. You never know, it might turn out great - and one day you might try again but do it differently and get different results. Maybe you liked the deviated recipe for some reason - you'll be able to reproduce it since you have everything documented.

Anyone else document to such a degree?

 

[fatmoose]

I'd like to pitch in my two cents.

Act as if you were running a science experiment. Brewday is a great day, a happy day, rehearse in your mind exactly everything you are going to do. Every step. Think of the little things that might go wrong. Prepare for them. This preparedness really helps. Why? Because you want to take your time - do it properly, plus you are extending your fun.
Document things. Have a notebook with your ingredients (including lot #s if you want), list your equipment, etc. Write down times, temps, SGs, anything at all that you measure. Write down the procedure that you used, similar to what you did in the post, but as observations.

Let the experiment run its course. Think its ruined? Who cares, you spent the time to make it, see what turns out. You never know, it might turn out great - and one day you might try again but do it differently and get different results. Maybe you liked the deviated recipe for some reason - you'll be able to reproduce it since you have everything documented.

Anyone else document to such a degree?

I've only got one batch brewed so far but yeah, I documented it like that. In addition to info on times and temperatures I typed out a lot of just "stream of consciousness" type stuff, my impressions of the sights, sounds and smells of my brew day. In my job I do a lot of trial and error type troubleshooting and it never fails that if I fail to explicitly document something I'll forget what I did to get to a certain point. I'm hoping to develop a bit of a library of my brewing experiences over time so that I can get my technique down and really generate some kick arse beer.

 

[electronjunkie]

This batch turned out fine, just a little extra junk in the bottom but it tastes like a Sierra Nevada so how can I complain?

I did try it about a week after bottling it and it had a sweet and worty taste to it. It has now been 3 weeks or so since bottling and it tastes awesome.

 

[brewkrew]

Congrats on your beer! I'm still waiting for fermentation to finish. Since it was my first brew I did not document like I planned. I more so just hovered over my brew pot, because I was both awed and worried something bad would happen... Boil over. Everything went well though, and I plan on keeping a journal like log of everything I do with my beer.

 

[KevinW]

This batch turned out fine, just a little extra junk in the bottom but it tastes like a Sierra Nevada so how can I complain?

I did try it about a week after bottling it and it had a sweet and worty taste to it. It has now been 3 weeks or so since bottling and it tastes awesome.

Nice pic!

I am happy for you that your batch turned out good. I have read here many times that it is actually kind of hard to ruin a beer, when you make small errors anyway!

Now that you know what NOT to do, you should be making even better beer!

I cannot help myself, how about "Carpe Scrotii" for your beers name?

Keep on brewing!

 

[SwampassJ]

Haven't read thread yet but....

It looks like your grain sack is some dudes junk.