ARittner
Well-Known Member
Brand new to home brewing. I was about to buy the stuff I needed to get started, and my only local home brew shop owner went on vacation for a couple weeks. So, I had time to read through this forum, and also read the Complete Joy of Brewing.
Feeling prepared, and having a long list of stuff I wanted for my kit, I went in and found he was really pushing for me to just buy the True Brew kit with the two plastic buckets, and a Munton's hopped extract kit. He told me to run a few batches through that before I started getting into carboys, hops, and such. I left feeling kind of deflated, since I had this whole setup in my head, and now wasn't going to be doing it the way I imagined.
However, deciding to make the best of it, I started my first batch of Munton's American Light on Friday night (May 28th). Almost instantly, I realized the wisdom in my local shop owner's insistence on not over-complicating things. This first batch was an exercise in learning to sanitize, how to deal with big buckets of hot liquid, and generally getting the procedures down. So I'm not deflated anymore.
Anyway, per some instructions the owner gave me, I started with 5 gallons of bottled water. I did the boil with one gallon of water, and two cans (about 6.5 pounds) of extract. Boiled for 20 minutes. Put two gallons of water into the fermenter, tossed in the wort, and topped off. Stirred, and let it cool down. Around 80 degrees F, I took an OG (1.046) and pitched the dry yeast. Stirred for a minute or so, and covered. Using a 6.5 gallon bucket, so I just attached a fermentation lock. Woke up the next morning, about 6 hours later, to the lock bubbling away happily. The air above the lock smells like beer when it "burps", so I guess that's a good sign.
Going to secondary (this time, again it's an exercise in the process) in a little more than a week if the fermentation is done.
What have I learned? I immediately see the need for a wort chiller. I waited forever for the wort to come down to 80F. I was shooting more for 75, but I couldn't stay up any longer. I hadn't planned on the ice bath, so I didn't have any handy, since I had chilled the top-off water. I guess it wasn't chilled enough. Anyway, the yeast don't seem to have minded much.
My question: I noticed, as I was adding the water to the fermenter, that the gallon markings on the side of the bucket are off. I had only added two gallons, and it already said three on the side of the bucket. In the end, I put in 4.5 gallons of water, plus two cans of extract. The bucket said it was more than 5 gallons, which I can't imagine was right. So right now, I don't really know how much volume I'm working with, since I don't know the final volume of the wort. I'm inclined to think everything's going to be OK. But if I did end up a little short on volume, anything I need to watch out for as I go along?
Thanks!
Andy
Feeling prepared, and having a long list of stuff I wanted for my kit, I went in and found he was really pushing for me to just buy the True Brew kit with the two plastic buckets, and a Munton's hopped extract kit. He told me to run a few batches through that before I started getting into carboys, hops, and such. I left feeling kind of deflated, since I had this whole setup in my head, and now wasn't going to be doing it the way I imagined.
However, deciding to make the best of it, I started my first batch of Munton's American Light on Friday night (May 28th). Almost instantly, I realized the wisdom in my local shop owner's insistence on not over-complicating things. This first batch was an exercise in learning to sanitize, how to deal with big buckets of hot liquid, and generally getting the procedures down. So I'm not deflated anymore.
Anyway, per some instructions the owner gave me, I started with 5 gallons of bottled water. I did the boil with one gallon of water, and two cans (about 6.5 pounds) of extract. Boiled for 20 minutes. Put two gallons of water into the fermenter, tossed in the wort, and topped off. Stirred, and let it cool down. Around 80 degrees F, I took an OG (1.046) and pitched the dry yeast. Stirred for a minute or so, and covered. Using a 6.5 gallon bucket, so I just attached a fermentation lock. Woke up the next morning, about 6 hours later, to the lock bubbling away happily. The air above the lock smells like beer when it "burps", so I guess that's a good sign.
Going to secondary (this time, again it's an exercise in the process) in a little more than a week if the fermentation is done.
What have I learned? I immediately see the need for a wort chiller. I waited forever for the wort to come down to 80F. I was shooting more for 75, but I couldn't stay up any longer. I hadn't planned on the ice bath, so I didn't have any handy, since I had chilled the top-off water. I guess it wasn't chilled enough. Anyway, the yeast don't seem to have minded much.
My question: I noticed, as I was adding the water to the fermenter, that the gallon markings on the side of the bucket are off. I had only added two gallons, and it already said three on the side of the bucket. In the end, I put in 4.5 gallons of water, plus two cans of extract. The bucket said it was more than 5 gallons, which I can't imagine was right. So right now, I don't really know how much volume I'm working with, since I don't know the final volume of the wort. I'm inclined to think everything's going to be OK. But if I did end up a little short on volume, anything I need to watch out for as I go along?
Thanks!
Andy