Today was my first ever home brew. I bought an extract kit from Northern Brewer. It was the Chinook IPA and I am very anxious to give it a try. The process went better than I expected but I ran into a few road bumps along the way and I am looking for ways to improve my next batch in a couple weeks.
1) First off, we had used an aluminum turkey fryer as our boil pot and it seemed to work well for me, however, my stove top (which I chose instead of the included fryer because of frigid weather) had difficulty reaching boiling point. I plan on taking on the cold weather next batch. The boil was a smooth roll, but nothing rigorous. Easy fix to this problem.
2) Everything went good during the boil. No boil overs or any other issues other than the long waits to reach a boil. However, I did have a problem chilling the wort at the end of the boil. We had decided to take advantage of the cold weather and use one of the 4 foot snowbanks in the driveway (suggestion from Palmer's online home brew guide). The problem was that after 20 minutes of sitting in the snowbank the temperature had only dropped to 140-150 degrees. I immediately filled an ice bath and dropped the wort down to ~78 degress in about 15 minutes. I wish I would have done this immediately.
3) My target gravity was 1.050 and we reached about 1.048, slightly less due to adding a little more water than needed I believe. (It's sitting just over 5 gallons right now) I immediately sealed up the fermentor and walked away only to find that the airlock had popped off a couple minutes later? I replaced it, making sure it was secure, and it hasn't had a problem since. I used a sanitized solution for the water in the airlock and some of it did manage to drip into the bucket. I really hope this won't be an issue.
4) I had used dry yeast with this batch instead of Wyeast. I feel the urge to try Wyeast on my next batch but this seemed to work well for me. I did hydrate the yeast before pitching with a cup of cooled, boiled water and a tablespoon of sugar and the yeast started working within minutes. I am not sure how necessary this step was, but I figured it can't hurt.
5) Currently, the batch is in a wine fridge maintaining the temperature at ~67 degrees. I live in a run down college house with heating/insulation issues so its common for our house's temperature to fluctuate 5-6 degrees quite often. There really is little to no control.
Please feel free to comment or give suggestions. I'm hoping for a great tasting beer, but I'll be happy if it comes out fermented and drinkable (it would be a success for me).
1) First off, we had used an aluminum turkey fryer as our boil pot and it seemed to work well for me, however, my stove top (which I chose instead of the included fryer because of frigid weather) had difficulty reaching boiling point. I plan on taking on the cold weather next batch. The boil was a smooth roll, but nothing rigorous. Easy fix to this problem.
2) Everything went good during the boil. No boil overs or any other issues other than the long waits to reach a boil. However, I did have a problem chilling the wort at the end of the boil. We had decided to take advantage of the cold weather and use one of the 4 foot snowbanks in the driveway (suggestion from Palmer's online home brew guide). The problem was that after 20 minutes of sitting in the snowbank the temperature had only dropped to 140-150 degrees. I immediately filled an ice bath and dropped the wort down to ~78 degress in about 15 minutes. I wish I would have done this immediately.
3) My target gravity was 1.050 and we reached about 1.048, slightly less due to adding a little more water than needed I believe. (It's sitting just over 5 gallons right now) I immediately sealed up the fermentor and walked away only to find that the airlock had popped off a couple minutes later? I replaced it, making sure it was secure, and it hasn't had a problem since. I used a sanitized solution for the water in the airlock and some of it did manage to drip into the bucket. I really hope this won't be an issue.
4) I had used dry yeast with this batch instead of Wyeast. I feel the urge to try Wyeast on my next batch but this seemed to work well for me. I did hydrate the yeast before pitching with a cup of cooled, boiled water and a tablespoon of sugar and the yeast started working within minutes. I am not sure how necessary this step was, but I figured it can't hurt.
5) Currently, the batch is in a wine fridge maintaining the temperature at ~67 degrees. I live in a run down college house with heating/insulation issues so its common for our house's temperature to fluctuate 5-6 degrees quite often. There really is little to no control.
Please feel free to comment or give suggestions. I'm hoping for a great tasting beer, but I'll be happy if it comes out fermented and drinkable (it would be a success for me).