First Beer A Success!

[amd133mhz]

I am happy to report that my first beer was a success! And I thought I would take this time to overview what I did,the good ,the bad, and improvements I intend to take next time which will be very soon.
(sorry for such a long post,Just wanted to give the first time exp. in detail so maybe another newb brewer can read and see details from a first timers POV)

First of all I would like to thank all those who posted back to my "help oh crap" threads! thank you! Your help in response to me and others has helped me immensely!

I went to Leeners(ohio) and bought a brewers best equipment kit that included bottling bucket,fermenter bucket, better bottle carboy air lock, lab thermometer,capper Easy clean cleaner/sanitizer siphon, spigot ,stick on therm. ,carboy plug/stop,hydrometer,bottling wand,big mixing spoon and i am sure a few things i am forgetting at 110$. I grabbed 3 12/22oz($15/case) bottles some more easy clean and a vial for the hydrometer (3 bucks). I Also bought a whisk(HIGHLY REC. esp for LME) and a 4 gallon stock pot(18$@target,worked GREAT Btw) and 7 gallons of spring water(1$@walmart,Tastes great)

Leeners.com is my LHBS and they are great! (not trying to spam just promote the ppl that got me set up and answered my millions of annoying questions with a smile)

I had fully intended on starting this off with a coopers irish stout kit. after some research and conversation with the fine employees of leeners,
I decided it might be more fun and worth the effort to go with a ...

Brewers Best Irish Stout kit(37$)(steeping grains dme lme prime sugars caps ect)

So not too terribly long after buying all this stuff I went home and started off on brewing beer for the very first time. Up until this point 90% of my youtubing and lurking research was about all extract kits so I was not sure of the beast i was about to tackle

I sanitized and cleaned everything like 3 x it was nuts. Paranoid I was.So paranoid that while I was about to add water I accidentally got some Germ-x hand sanitizer in the bucket!auugh..yeaa...small amount of it came off my hands while i was washing them before handling the thermometer.
I basically followed the instructions for the boil to a T. and did a few good things,and bad by mistake. I Poured the wort into my bucket after chilling out in a ice water bath in my sink in the stock pot, added a combo of room temp and cold spring water to the bucket until I reached around 70ish F. pitched dry yeast and stirred it for about 2-4 minutes. capped lid tight,attached airlock,checked for seal. good to go!

It began fermenting by next morning(mind you I did all this at like 12am) I made the mistake of placing the fermenter in a place that was way too warm (ambient temp 75) and moved it into my bath tub filled partially with cold water(bucket thermometer 65-68 ambient temp around 70f)
I added a blow off tube on day two for fear of a blow off while I was at work due to the very active bubbling. NO BLOW OFF! but my tube to bottle worked great!(I will probably just do this from now on,it was easy and more peace of mind) I fermented in bucket for about 5 days. Transferred to carboy where it sat for about 5 more days. I then prepared the priming sugar,sanitized bottles twice(once a day before and once the day of) the caps, and siphoned into bottling bucket!

I bottled and capped. I will mention that I did practice with the capper before hand to make sure I would get a good seal, I also practiced bottling. my bottling wand was not very good,only bummer in the kit. so I cut a piece of siphon hose and attached it to the spigot and practiced filling bottled with sanitizer water,and got very good at working the spigot valve

They sat for about 1 week.I put one in the fridge for 24hrs and I tried one of the 3 12oz i bottled in as "tester bottles" as to not waste a 22oz. It was FLAT. but tasted pretty good! one more week..put two in the fridge for 48hours....SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! GO GIANTS! I tried 2 more one for me and one for my cousin. IT HAD A FOAMY HEAD! IT WAS MURKY BUT NOT TERRIBLY CLOUDY! IT SMELLED GOOD! IT TASTED GOOD!:rockin:.....it does not have any signs of infection. it had a great Dark Ale,almost porter like taste. Stout? yes but not nearly as creamy as a guinness or a murphys. nitro might help there but yea no...It IS GOOD. I would classify it as drinkable,good tasting and for a first time,EXCELLENT!...more time and it I am sure it will become even better! It has a slight bittering hops flavor(like) a rich coffee-like undertone(very like) like 80% carbbed if not slightly more(time will tell) and a smoothness on the after taste that really reminds me of a less "robust" but porter.Hard to explain.when I think stout i think guiness and i wasnt expecting that,but Ill say it came out more "black ale" less "extra stout"

So I will let the remaining bottled beers (about 26 22oz)continue to sit at 68-70 ambient until maybe Feb 21st and Try ONE MORE see where its at.then start handing them out by st pattys day!erin go braugh!

I plan on waiting longer next time in primary and secondary. I am also switching to star san! Nothing wrong with easy clean. just does not go far enough for the money and I mean...i guess i would trust star san more I think. I am investing in a large water tight container for my buckets to sit into so I am not having to move a 5 gallon bucket when i need to take a shower. I am going to stop using hand sanitizer and just rinse my hands off in star san or wash them like normal before handling things! it did NOT affect the taste but it was a heart attack moment! I will continue reading this forum looking for new ideas and learning more everyday! Revvy ,u are the man btw

Thank you all so very much! I am sure I will have more questions down the road! I will try to use my green knowledge where I can! This forum is great and as soon as I can muster up some extra scratch for it, I am planning on tossing some money this way becoming full fledged!

Next Project! Should be a Brewers Best English Brown Ale or
Brewers Best Robust Porter(<<<strongly leaning this way) I really love the brewers best kits! They keep it simple enough to make beer where but give you that few extra steps to do like grain steeping and boiling hops. A lot of fun and kinda challenges you a bit vs just pouring a can of this,and a bag of that and adding water.Nothing wrong with it AT ALL and i promise you I fully intend on making that Coopers Irish stout one day.It is cheaper and less time consuming from what I have seen.be nice to compare quality.

Here is a "movie trailer" i made of making that beer! Enjoy! (purely for laughs btw)




Cheers!

 

[McGlothan]

I just bottled my first batch and I was every bit to the T and careful as you were. Ill be more relaxed on the second batch. I was worried about the capping thing too. What size batch did you start with and how many ounces did you bottle? I got 42 12oz bottles. So, 504oz total. I only bottled 3.93 gallons out of a five gallon batch due to equipment problems. Thats a lot of beer! Next batch, I WILL bottle around 5 gallons. Its all about making good beer and getting more efficient. Cheers and congrats!

 

[amd133mhz]

Ha yea i forgot a few things, I did 5 gallons exactly and took about 2 cups out during hydro tests during fermentation and prolly lost a little in the trub. i got about 25 22oz bottles and 3 12 oz bottles so 586oz/ 4.5 gallons in bottles. Thanks! Good luck to you man! Its crazy how i want to go buy like 300 bottles and 5 buckets now ha. tis expensive cleared a healthy overhead though. I am planning on buying a few odds and ends like star san and 12 more 22 oz bottles. thinking of doing a rubbermaid 18 gallon tote to keep the bucket in so I can better control the ambient temp of the bucket. my bathroom seems to be the only place around here that stays at like 65-70 ambient. the rest of the place either cooks for 85 when its 30 outside or fluctuates alot ie kitchen LR ect. I cant control the heat where i live heh

 

[McGlothan]

The large tote is KEY. I sanitize in it too. Its good for storing bottles in case of explosion. I am buying another carboy next payday. I want 2 going at all times. Your investment pays off quickly. I will get a 6 gallon primary, and use the 5 gallon for secondary and dry hopping. There are a few other things I feel I need to make the second batch go more smoothly. My house will become a giant beer lab.....

 

[amd133mhz]

Ha thats great! Yea i was thinking the same thing about bottles too! these totes are pretty cheap and I have used them for work alot and they last after abuse. I use milk crates now for bottles but kinda hard if i need to cool them down for some reason. I never thought about the sanitize usage! great idea! I had a hell of a time trying to figure out the most efficient way to sanitize in and around my not so huge sink! woot ha great stuff srsly.

 

[McGlothan]

5 gallons of water fills it up about a quarter. fits all your equipment perfectly. It becomes a large cleaning trough. I ran into trouble both times I siphoned the beer. The siphon would stop, I would pump the auto siphon to restart about 10-15 times per transfer. It would stir up the yeast bed and I was afraid to siphon it up, so I left the bottom bit of beer and yeast in the carboy TWICE. I bet I lost 8 beers.

 

[amd133mhz]

ohh that sucks man. I stacked about 3 milk crates upside down on top of each other and put the carboy on top of them and set the bottling bucket on a tool box below it about 4 feet and that worked out pretty good. My biggest challenge has been trying to remove a small amount of beer from the carboy without using a siphon. I was thinking a Long hose and just kinda doing a dip in, and holding my thumb on one end and pull some out like a straw. i used to siphon to grab some out for hydro readings and it always took more than i really needed or wanted

 

[McGlothan]

Get a wine thief. Its about $10.00 and is made for that purpose. The one I bought is clear and I can put the hydrometer in it. Saves a step as well. Google it!

 

[amd133mhz]

Nice! thanks!

 

[amd133mhz]

A quick pic of my Irish Stout from Brewers Best kit at week 3 after 4 days in the fridge. Delicious!

 

[BamaRooster]

looks delicious!!

 

[Jayhem]

Good to see someone so excited to get into this hobby! I share your enthusiasm. I also started brewing with Brewers Best Kits. My most recent kit was their Milk Stout. Wow it is good! If you like Guiness it tastes very similar only slightly sweeter and slighter more creamy. Awesome!

One thing of note about the Brewer's Best Kits. They all say to transfer to secondary after 5-7 days. This is really not enough time for primary fermentation to finish, especially on the heavier and darker beers. Leave the beer in the primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks and then either bottle or transfer to secondary for another week if you wish. Also the milk stout took every bit of 4 weeks just to carbonate and will probably taste better after another 3-4 weeks of conditioning.

Cheers!