I brewed the AHS Cream Ale last night. Baby #2 is coming Friday so I got the first batch in just in time. I'm anxious to do a pale ale or IPA...hopefully I can find the time soon. So it was an enjoyable process. After doing a batch, I think a lot of what I'm reading will start connect quicker/make more sense, and I can start tweaking the process.
Observations:
* I did a full boil on a turkey fryer - it sure can take a long time to get to a boil. I better get an extra propane tank. I'm not sure how much of the tank I killed, but it must have been a lot.
* I like wearing flip flops but I'll need to be more careful. After stirring the wort a couple times the boiling popped and ended up on my foot. Lesson learned.
* It's easy to get wrapped up in what you're doing and forget to look for simple solutions. I used an IC to cool the wort down most of the way, but used a sub pump and ice water to finish cooling near the end. The water was exiting the IC hose at a trickle though after hooking up the pump - after spending a few minutes tinkering with the pump, trying to make sure the ice wasn't clogging the pump, getting annoyed I didn't buy the higher powered pump, etc. I noticed the problem - a kink in the hose.
Things I forgot/Where I messed up:
* I forgot to submerge the IC in the boiling wort near the end. I realized this after I shut off the flame. I hit the IC with the Star San solution from the spray bottle (spray bottle is a great idea by the way - thanks HBT)....I hope this is okay.
* I forgot to stir the wort as the instructions said to do after pouring into the fermentation bucket.
* OG was supposed to be at 1.052 and I was at 1.06. How "off" is that. Is that a big miss, medium miss? I'm not certain where this came from. The volume was about right, ending with just over 5 gallons (recipe called for 5.25). I suspect the bittering hops adjustment was part of the miss. Instructions were for a partial boil, I adjusted 25% down for the full boil as was suggested, but I basically eye-balled it as I didn't have a scale. Could not having stirred the wort after it was in the fermentation bucket have caused me to grab a sample that wasn't representative of the whole?
Well, thanks everyone on HBT who has answered my questions (or someone elses as I've read a lot of threads over the past couple months). Reading about everyone's process, approach, tips, etc. made getting started very easy.
Observations:
* I did a full boil on a turkey fryer - it sure can take a long time to get to a boil. I better get an extra propane tank. I'm not sure how much of the tank I killed, but it must have been a lot.
* I like wearing flip flops but I'll need to be more careful. After stirring the wort a couple times the boiling popped and ended up on my foot. Lesson learned.
* It's easy to get wrapped up in what you're doing and forget to look for simple solutions. I used an IC to cool the wort down most of the way, but used a sub pump and ice water to finish cooling near the end. The water was exiting the IC hose at a trickle though after hooking up the pump - after spending a few minutes tinkering with the pump, trying to make sure the ice wasn't clogging the pump, getting annoyed I didn't buy the higher powered pump, etc. I noticed the problem - a kink in the hose.
Things I forgot/Where I messed up:
* I forgot to submerge the IC in the boiling wort near the end. I realized this after I shut off the flame. I hit the IC with the Star San solution from the spray bottle (spray bottle is a great idea by the way - thanks HBT)....I hope this is okay.
* I forgot to stir the wort as the instructions said to do after pouring into the fermentation bucket.
* OG was supposed to be at 1.052 and I was at 1.06. How "off" is that. Is that a big miss, medium miss? I'm not certain where this came from. The volume was about right, ending with just over 5 gallons (recipe called for 5.25). I suspect the bittering hops adjustment was part of the miss. Instructions were for a partial boil, I adjusted 25% down for the full boil as was suggested, but I basically eye-balled it as I didn't have a scale. Could not having stirred the wort after it was in the fermentation bucket have caused me to grab a sample that wasn't representative of the whole?
Well, thanks everyone on HBT who has answered my questions (or someone elses as I've read a lot of threads over the past couple months). Reading about everyone's process, approach, tips, etc. made getting started very easy.