Couple questions after my first brew day.

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-Fusion

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Where do you store your tools, tubbing, theif, cups, spoons etc when you are brewing? I let everything sit in starsan during my brewing then grabbed it and used what I needed. Can you take a dip in starsan then let it air dry on the counter? Or is the proper way to use it wet?

Brew pot size? I have a 6gal SS pot I started off with 2 gallons of water that boiled down to around 1.75.... Should I start with more? Does it matter if I start with 4gal? I am boiling on a gas stove and will be paying close attention to it the entire boil. Second question while you are in your boil do you stir or leave it alone?
 
For sanitizing you don't want to take a sanitized tool and set it on something unsanitized and then touch your beer.

I keep my washed brewing equipment in a washed bottling bucket I no longer use.

The more water that you use in your boil the more IBU's you will extract from your hops.

Yes I stir my boil.
 
Anything on the hot side goes in a bucket of water to keep it from getting crusty. Cold side tubing etc. gets sprayed with StarSan And hung up or dropped in a clean bucket.
 
A dip in starsan is all you need. I'd suggest a spray bottle filled with starsan. Makes everything a lot easier. As for amount of water, what batch size are you doing? Extract? Full boil or partial?
I just let the boil, boil. Once it's going no need to stir.
 
Thanks for the help! Right now I'm doing 5gal brews.

1975brewer, I too use a food safe sanitized bucket to keep everything in. I have a two bucket system set up one for 5gal of starsan and one to let things rest in.

I will stir my next batch more. I made a hefeweizen and it's about the color of a nice nut brown right now..... Could that indicate anything?
 
I only stir when I feel like it. It can be therapeutic. On cold days I sit on the other side of the glass door, eat a sandwich and watch from the comfort of the house... I'm unable to stir through glass. I've not noticed any difference in the beer, except that it's farther away.
 
I have a 5 gallon SS kettle I've been using on my electric stove since I started. But I have aftermarket heating elements that can go from mash temp to boiling in 18-20 minutes. 4 gallons is about maximum I can boil, so I usually boil 3 1/2 gallons. I have jugs of spring water in the fridge a day or two before brew day to top off with. The remainder of my spring water stash is at room temp to heat for mash & sparge. I have a spray bottle of Starsan at the ready for quick sanitizing of spoons, etc during brewing. I also have a 1 gallon jug of Starsan made up & small funnels to sanitize cleaned tubing & the like on the inside. To sanitize outside of tubing, I push them down into the jug of Starsan To sanitize'em right before use. The Arizona ice tea jugs are the heaviest/strongest jugs I've found so far roe stiring mixed small batches of Starsan or PBW.
 
-Fusion said:
Thanks for the help! Right now I'm doing 5gal brews.

1975brewer, I too use a food safe sanitized bucket to keep everything in. I have a two bucket system set up one for 5gal of starsan and one to let things rest in.

I will stir my next batch more. I made a hefeweizen and it's about the color of a nice nut brown right now..... Could that indicate anything?
Click to expand...

Assuming you are doing extract, I would use the amount of water as per directions. If you don't have directions you might look at recipe kits at Northern Brewer.com. You can see the recipe and directions by clicking the additional information tab. See if they are similar to your recipe.

Starsan is no longer working if the utensil dries. I second the spray bottle.

A brown hefeweizen tells me you might have scorched the extract. Try adding only 1/3 at the beginning of the boil and add the rest after you turn off the heat. Extracts tend to darken your beer.

There is no need to stir other than to mix in the extract. Stir it well when adding the extract, once it is mixed you don't need to stir anymore.
 
Yeah, the color will be lighter when late extract additions are done. You can search the scads of info on it on here.
 
My rule of thumb for extract boils is to use as much water as I can. Although there is nothing wrong with only using 2 gallons like you did, starting with an additional gallon or two will help extract from your steeping grains and help with hop utilization.
 
Thanks for all the help! We plan om brewing an extract nut drown tomorrow and will use 1/3 of tje extract up front then the rest towards the end.
 
What is you guys opinion on wort chillers? I habe had my eye on the Silver Serpent from NorthenBrewers for a while now. SS sounds easier to maintain than a copper one.
 
I thought about the SS one myself. Tired of ice baths on a grand scale. But chilling a secondary coil to feed the primary cooler has merit.
 
I have been lucly my fridge has 2 ice makers. But its only enough for one brew unless I bag ice for a few days. That SS one looks pretty damn sharp....wifes going to kill me
 
I have a 100' SS wort chiller from NY Brew Supply. It works well, and is easy to clean. I've read that there is some benefit to having copper in your boil though. I cant remember where I read that, and cant seem to find it now. Not sure if it's even true.
 
I just bought a 50' × 3/8 triple coil from international brew supply. It was $50. Then there's the shipping. I needed to upgrade from my 25' since I'm doing full volume boils. Both of my chillers are copper. Check out the international brew. You can't make them for that.
 
Copper also transfers heat much better than SS. I did 2 coils of 20' 3/8". About $19 each. In the winter both go into the BK. In the summer one goes in a bucket of ice water as a pre-chiller.
 
IMHO if you're doing partial boils inside, I'd wait on the wort chiller until you move to full boils outside and have a larger kettle (it'll happen....). Just preboil and chill your water add the day before.

You can easily find tons of YouTube videos on making a wort chiller, but you'll probably want a bigger one when you get a bigger pot. Can always use smaller one for pre-chill though.
 
Lbm said:
IMHO if you're doing partial boils inside, I'd wait on the wort chiller until you move to full boils outside and have a larger kettle (it'll happen....). Just preboil and chill your water add the day before.

You can easily find tons of YouTube videos on making a wort chiller, but you'll probably want a bigger one when you get a bigger pot. Can always use smaller one for pre-chill though.
Click to expand...

Is boiling necessary if I buy spring water?

And is there anything wrong with adding the chilled gallons of bottled water straight to my wort while its chilling To help bring the temp down?
 
I brew with spring water, & keep a couple gallons in the fridge a day or two before brew day to top off with after chilling the wort down to 75F or so. Topping off with the chilled water gets it down to 65F or so.
 
Spring water isn't sterile and free of bugs. I've seen it done and never seen anyone get infection and there are also plenty on this forum that would say the same thing. Probably fine, but I just don't do it (besides that I do full boil) because the thought of throwing out a batch of beer I spent all day brewing makes me cry.

I don't see any reason not to add your chilled water (or ice) to the bk, except for making it more difficult to move and get into fermenter.

I've more often seen fermentation bucket with cold water and ice get the hot wort poured into it and then that would be chilled in ice bath in the sink. That would be the cheap way and nothing wrong with it.

You can buy/build a chiller and then always buy/build larger one later when you upgrade equipment. The problem I've had is with chiller I bought leaking. The one I made does not, but I built it with enough overhang that if it does leak the water won't leak into my cooling wort in the boil kettle. The leaking issue would be my only issue - I've seen a lot of people re-use smaller chillers in a too-big pot by just bending the arms up and wrapping the vinyl hoses so they don't melt in the side of the pot. I'd be paranoid about that because of the leaks that I've had.
 
Well, Spring water from White House Artesian Springs is ozoned, filtered etc. Here's what they say they do to their water; http://whitehousesprings.com/OurWater.php I can't speak for the spring water @ Giant Eagle, but I've never had any problems with it due to it's carying infections. Besides Obama tightening restrictions on treatment of spring water that drove up the price a bit.
 
-Fusion said:
What tools did you use? And is there any step by step you followed?
Click to expand...

The copper comes in a coil. It is not ready to use but allows for an easy step to make the coil for your use. Find a cylinder( bucket etc) that is the diameter that will fit your boil kettle. Mine is approx 2" from the sides.
Straighten a section that will rise up the side and exit the kettle. Then start working the copper around the cylinder and work your way up. The final coil will be bent out to form the exit of the coil. Just make all bends gradual and work them into the shape you want. When I got the coil the way I wanted it and used it a couple of times I soldered the leg that comes up from the bottom to several of the coils so that it held its shape well and was less flimsy.
 
Looks like it's not very much more to just buy an already made cooler. I will take the advise of waiting until I really get going into this hobby. I'm going to stick to boiling my water early then refrigerating it for a day or two. I have the means and ability. How long do you usually boil for? 10,15, 30 minutes?
 
Honestly I have heard different numbers. I want to say I've heard it takes 20-30 minutes of boiling to boil off chlorine from tap water.

You could use a wort chiller and still do cold water additions to bring your volume up and temp down. (Always make sure not to put wort too hot into your fermenter.) Without purchasing additional equipment, you could cool your wort to a manageable temp in ice/water bath in sink and then pour it into cool water in your fermenter. When you do it this way, you'll have your cold break material in the fermenter. Some may have different opinions about it, but I use a wort chiller and still end up with most if not all of my cold break in the fermenter anyway. I used to be very careful to not get all the extra crap from the bk to the fermenter, but it's sometimes a lot of effort that I don't see a real benefit from. If I boil off too much volume and get less than 5 gallons in the fermenter then I'm pouring all that crap in there.

A friend of mine used to do a combo of ice and cold water to top off. The ice was bagged ice (not sterile) but he never got an infection.

I'm about to do a few small experimental batches (BIAB) inside and am planning on using this cooling method. I'll see how it goes.
 
Lbm said:
Honestly I have heard different numbers. I want to say I've heard it takes 20-30 minutes of boiling to boil off chlorine from tap water.

You could use a wort chiller and still do cold water additions to bring your volume up and temp down. (Always make sure not to put wort too hot into your fermenter.) Without purchasing additional equipment, you could cool your wort to a manageable temp in ice/water bath in sink and then pour it into cool water in your fermenter. When you do it this way, you'll have your cold break material in the fermenter. Some may have different opinions about it, but I use a wort chiller and still end up with most if not all of my cold break in the fermenter anyway. I used to be very careful to not get all the extra crap from the bk to the fermenter, but it's sometimes a lot of effort that I don't see a real benefit from. If I boil off too much volume and get less than 5 gallons in the fermenter then I'm pouring all that crap in there.

A friend of mine used to do a combo of ice and cold water to top off. The ice was bagged ice (not sterile) but he never got an infection.

I'm about to do a few small experimental batches (BIAB) inside and am planning on using this cooling method. I'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Great information, thanks. Let us know how your test batches go with the ice.
 
The remainder of my spring water stash is at room temp to heat for mash & sparge.
4p.jpg
 
Just racked my first beer to a corny keg after 2 weeks in primary. It went well I think I may have 4.5 gal in the keg and I have it set at 3 psi at room temp.

Does my psi sound ok for secondary?
 

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