timeasterday
Well-Known Member
Over the weekend I brewed my first batch of beer using the Caribou Slobber extract kit and also started batches of mead and cider. I had been planning on brewing the beer for a while but I took a class on mead & cider last week and decided it was easy enough to do right away.
The beer was pretty straightforward following the instructions. I started early Saturday boiling some water to put in the carboy later. Then headed out for some freshly-pressed cider and local honey. Dropped some Campden sodium in the cider and let that sit. In the afternoon I put the pre-boiled water in the carboy and took it down to the basement. The extract boil went well after seeping the grain bag for 20 minutes. I used half the extract at the beginning of the boil and half at the end. A small immersion chiller worked well to cool down the wort quickly. I took that down to the basement and mixed it into the carboy and sloshed things up a bit. My starting gravity was just a hair under 1.050, a bit lower than the target of 1.052. One issue I realized was I can't tell how much liquid is in the carboy (I need to mark it after this batch is done). So I think I was a little over on volume. By 5PM I pitched the Windsor yeast (pre hydrated) and focused on cleanup.
In the evening I couldn't resist going down to the basement every hour to check on the beer. By 9PM I started to see some activity in the airlock. I went to bed later and woke up at 3AM and couldn't sleep. Checked on my beer again and wow, the airlock and stopper were blown out and a bunch of foam was erupting from the carboy! I should have taken photos but I was in emergency mode. I cleaned and sanitized the airlock and stopper, and luckily had some 3/4" vinyl tubing that would fit over the shaft of the 3-pc airlock. That was the best I could do without a proper blowoff tube. The bubbling really dropped off during the day Sunday and by that evening I took off the tube and put the other pieces back on the airlock.
After lunch on Sunday I mixed up 3 lbs of honey with a gallon of pre-boiled water to get my mead started. A little yeast energizer, nutrients, and some 71B-1122 yeast and it was ready to go. That night I started the cider with the same yeast.
Now the wait begins. I'm going to leave the beer alone for 3 weeks and check if it's finished. Then on to bottling. In the meantime, I need to degas and feed my mead a few times. The mead & cider are not showing any sign of activity yet but they may be slower to get going. So far this has been really fun and I look forward to brewing more.
The beer was pretty straightforward following the instructions. I started early Saturday boiling some water to put in the carboy later. Then headed out for some freshly-pressed cider and local honey. Dropped some Campden sodium in the cider and let that sit. In the afternoon I put the pre-boiled water in the carboy and took it down to the basement. The extract boil went well after seeping the grain bag for 20 minutes. I used half the extract at the beginning of the boil and half at the end. A small immersion chiller worked well to cool down the wort quickly. I took that down to the basement and mixed it into the carboy and sloshed things up a bit. My starting gravity was just a hair under 1.050, a bit lower than the target of 1.052. One issue I realized was I can't tell how much liquid is in the carboy (I need to mark it after this batch is done). So I think I was a little over on volume. By 5PM I pitched the Windsor yeast (pre hydrated) and focused on cleanup.
In the evening I couldn't resist going down to the basement every hour to check on the beer. By 9PM I started to see some activity in the airlock. I went to bed later and woke up at 3AM and couldn't sleep. Checked on my beer again and wow, the airlock and stopper were blown out and a bunch of foam was erupting from the carboy! I should have taken photos but I was in emergency mode. I cleaned and sanitized the airlock and stopper, and luckily had some 3/4" vinyl tubing that would fit over the shaft of the 3-pc airlock. That was the best I could do without a proper blowoff tube. The bubbling really dropped off during the day Sunday and by that evening I took off the tube and put the other pieces back on the airlock.
After lunch on Sunday I mixed up 3 lbs of honey with a gallon of pre-boiled water to get my mead started. A little yeast energizer, nutrients, and some 71B-1122 yeast and it was ready to go. That night I started the cider with the same yeast.
Now the wait begins. I'm going to leave the beer alone for 3 weeks and check if it's finished. Then on to bottling. In the meantime, I need to degas and feed my mead a few times. The mead & cider are not showing any sign of activity yet but they may be slower to get going. So far this has been really fun and I look forward to brewing more.
