mickey3
Member
After months of reading, preparing, planning, the big day finally came. This past Saturday, I along with my brew partner in crime took on the task of making our first batch. Using just a simple Witbier recipe kit from Northern Brewer.
Unfortunately I think something may have gone wrong. Here was our step by step:
1) Filled our pot with 5 gallons of water. Brought it to a boil.
2) Removed pot from burner. Stirred in malted extract.
3) Returned pot to burner and brought to a slow boil. Nothing aggressive.
This leads me to my first question. When boiling, how aggressive should the boil be? Should it be a rough, tumbling boil that easily whips up foam to the top? Or a light boil that is just enough to show steady movement, but doesn't threaten any boil over?
4) Filled hops bag, inserted bag into water.
Constantly stirring.
5) At proper time, tossed in orange peel and ground up coriander seed, as well as a 2nd bag of hops.
During the entire 60 minute boil session, no foam ever threatened rising to the top.
6) After boiling for 60 minutes, we place pot into a tub full of ice water. Using a wort chiller, we were able to get the temperature down from around 185-190 to 75 in about 25-30 minutes.
I've only seen someone do this in person one time, and I recall them having quite a thick bit of foam at the top while jamming the chiller into the liquid. Other than a little bit of bubbles, we had no real foam.
7) Once at 73-75 degrees, we dump it into our 8 gallon sized plastic fermenter conical.
8) Pour in liquid yeast.
9) Seal the top.
And here is my next question. Am I right to assume that within 1-2 hours you should see some type of bubbling gas action in your air lock? After two days, we still have no action.
Do certain recipes vary in how they react one in the fermenter? Or did we screw up somewhere?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately I think something may have gone wrong. Here was our step by step:
1) Filled our pot with 5 gallons of water. Brought it to a boil.
2) Removed pot from burner. Stirred in malted extract.
3) Returned pot to burner and brought to a slow boil. Nothing aggressive.
This leads me to my first question. When boiling, how aggressive should the boil be? Should it be a rough, tumbling boil that easily whips up foam to the top? Or a light boil that is just enough to show steady movement, but doesn't threaten any boil over?
4) Filled hops bag, inserted bag into water.
Constantly stirring.
5) At proper time, tossed in orange peel and ground up coriander seed, as well as a 2nd bag of hops.
During the entire 60 minute boil session, no foam ever threatened rising to the top.
6) After boiling for 60 minutes, we place pot into a tub full of ice water. Using a wort chiller, we were able to get the temperature down from around 185-190 to 75 in about 25-30 minutes.
I've only seen someone do this in person one time, and I recall them having quite a thick bit of foam at the top while jamming the chiller into the liquid. Other than a little bit of bubbles, we had no real foam.
7) Once at 73-75 degrees, we dump it into our 8 gallon sized plastic fermenter conical.
8) Pour in liquid yeast.
9) Seal the top.
And here is my next question. Am I right to assume that within 1-2 hours you should see some type of bubbling gas action in your air lock? After two days, we still have no action.
Do certain recipes vary in how they react one in the fermenter? Or did we screw up somewhere?
Any help is greatly appreciated.