First Brew Day

[1bottlerocket]

Today marks my first adventure in to beer making. It was a very fun experience and I definitely learned a lot today.

I followed John Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale recipe (seems to be a standard) but I used LME instead of dry. I picked up some Brew Ferm Amber LME for the wort.

I steeped 225g (about 0.5lb) of caramel malt at 65°C (about 150°F)

The recipe calls for 15g each, Cascade, Amarillo, and Nugget hops in pellet form during the boil. I also did a full boil not the partial boil he describes in his book.

I pitched 23g of Safale S-05 yeast into the wort before setting it out to ferment.

I was surprised at how well the immersion coil wort chiller was able to bring the temperature of the wort down to pitching temperature. The water in my faucet comes out at 14°C (about 56°F) so that helped a lot.

My calculations were off to get to the OG after the boil. I was shooting for 1042 but it measured 1036 with my hydrometer. I ended up adding 116g (about 4oz) of DME to the wort to bring the gravity up a bit so we will see how that works out.

Everything tasted and smelled good when it went into the fermenting bucket so I am very interested to see how this goes. I think I may try a pre-assembled kit for my next batch as opposed to buying the raw ingredients.

I will keep you posted as this progresses.

 

[bpgreen]

Did you use the same amount of LME as the recipe called for DME? If so, that's probably why your OG was short. LME has water in it, so it takes a bit more LME to be the equivalent of the DME. I don't remember the exact conversion ratio, but I think it takes something like 1.2-1.25 lbs of LME to get the same results as 1 lb of DME.

 

[1bottlerocket]

Did you use the same amount of LME as the recipe called for DME? If so, that's probably why your OG was short. LME has water in it, so it takes a bit more LME to be the equivalent of the DME. I don't remember the exact conversion ratio, but I think it takes something like 1.2-1.25 lbs of LME to get the same results as 1 lb of DME.

I accounted for the difference with the DME vs. LME what I think happened is that I calculated for more water loss due to boiling than necessary. I calculated for about a 15% loss when it was actually lower than that.

 

[Sailingeric]

Great job.. Tell us how it turns out and while you are waiting on that one, you should get another batch going

 

[1bottlerocket]

Great job.. Tell us how it turns out and while you are waiting on that one, you should get another batch going

Ha! Yeah I am already thinking of what I can do next. I would like to try my hand at making a sour with fruit flavoring. I had a Dogfish Head Sea Quench Ale that was super tasty. Something along those lines seems like a great summer beer.

Update: The wort is fermenting quite vigorously today. The yeast took hold quite fast and the airlock is bubbling away.

 

[Manufacturedevolution]

 

[flars]

Congratulations on your first brew. Now that the beer is in the fermentor do you have some form of temperature control? I like to ferment at 66°F to 68°F with US-05. Low 60°F range with this yeast can produce a noticeable off flavor in some beer styles. Letting the initial first days of fermentation temperature go over 72°F can produce off flavors also. Much higher can produce fusel alcohols.

Having the fermentor in a tub of water can help keep the fermentation temperature down if you do need to hold it down.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Ha! Yeah I am already thinking of what I can do next. I would like to try my hand at making a sour with fruit flavoring. I had a Dogfish Head Sea Quench Ale that was super tasty. Something along those lines seems like a great summer beer.

Update: The wort is fermenting quite vigorously today. The yeast took hold quite fast and the airlock is bubbling away.

Congratulations! The first batch is always kind of an eye opener. Mine sure was!

That DH Sea Quench is a great summer beer. I love that stuff. I have a Gose going right now with sea salt in it and I just put it on strawberries and rhubarb. It'll be a nice easy summer beer.

If you decide to do the fruited sour, there's tons of information here on it. Good luck.

 

[1bottlerocket]

Congratulations on your first brew. Now that the beer is in the fermentor do you have some form of temperature control? I like to ferment at 66°F to 68°F with US-05. Low 60°F range with this yeast can produce a noticeable off flavor in some beer styles. Letting the initial first days of fermentation temperature go over 72°F can produce off flavors also. Much higher can produce fusel alcohols.

Having the fermentor in a tub of water can help keep the fermentation temperature down if you do need to hold it down.

I have a cellar space that is very steady. I have been monitoring the temperature over the last month and it has never varied more than 1 degree over the course of a week so it holds well. Right now it is sitting at 20°C (about 68°F) so that is right in the optimal range for the yeast (Safale S-05), according to the package. Over the long term the plan is to get a glycol chilling system. Right now my cellar is doing well.

 

[1bottlerocket]

Congratulations! The first batch is always kind of an eye opener. Mine sure was!

That DH Sea Quench is a great summer beer. I love that stuff. I have a Gose going right now with sea salt in it and I just put it on strawberries and rhubarb. It'll be a nice easy summer beer.

If you decide to do the fruited sour, there's tons of information here on it. Good luck.

Thanks! I was never really a fan of sours up until recently now I cannot lay off them! Your Gose sounds pretty good (minus the rhubarb!) I think I may go in that direction next.

 

[flars]

I have a cellar space that is very steady. I have been monitoring the temperature over the last month and it has never varied more than 1 degree over the course of a week so it holds well. Right now it is sitting at 20°C (about 68°F) so that is right in the optimal range for the yeast (Safale S-05), according to the package. Over the long term the plan is to get a glycol chilling system. Right now my cellar is doing well.

I would put the fermentor in a tub of water if your ambient is 20°C. The water will draw off the heat produced by the yeast to hold the fermentation temperature at 20° to 21°C.

 

[1bottlerocket]

I would put the fermentor in a tub of water if your ambient is 20°C. The water will draw off the heat produced by the yeast to hold the fermentation temperature at 20° to 21°C.

Okay. Thanks for the advice. I am going to look into that. Right now space is tight so it may be a bit of a trick to work it around.

 

[ncbrewer]

A fermometer (stick-on LCD thermometer) is really helpful for monitoring wort temperature. And if you get a tub of water for the fermenter, you can add frozen water bottles as needed to cool it. Put the fermometer above the water line - it's water resistant, not water proof.

 

[1bottlerocket]

A fermometer (stick-on LCD thermometer) is really helpful for monitoring wort temperature. And if you get a tub of water for the fermenter, you can add frozen water bottles as needed to cool it. Put the fermometer above the water line - it's water resistant, not water proof.

That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing!

 

[1bottlerocket]

Update: I sampled my first bottle (a couple days early!) and it drinks smooth with some caramel flavors, which I suspect are from the grain steep I did and the grains I used. Unfortunately, I think the grains and maybe the extract I used overpowered the aroma hops I put in at flame out.

It also drinks on the thin side but that is okay for summer. Since I undershot the OG it came out to 3.6% abv and I think it could use more alcohol content. It is drinkable, for sure but not a great beer. I would like it to have a more malty, creamy mouthfeel and more hop nose. The bittering hops come through well, but just a tiny touch too bitter at the finish.

On the plus side, my handling skills have improved a lot since my cider making days and the yeast in the bottle was very minimal. Bottling day went very smoothly too. I would rate it at about a 2.75 using the Untappd scale

Right now I have an NEIPA in primary and I am getting ready to bottle on Monday. I am super excited about that brew.

 

[ncbrewer]

Congrats. Now build on what you learned.

 

[millatime]

Congrats! Your'e probably going to be hooked now

 

[1bottlerocket]

Congrats! Your'e probably going to be hooked now

Thanks, all. Yes, definitely hooked. I joined a brew club recently and I am mapping out new equipment purchases now! The plan is to look at getting a Blichmann set up next.

 

[millatime]

Thanks, all. Yes, definitely hooked. I joined a brew club recently and I am mapping out new equipment purchases now! The plan is to look at getting a Blichmann set up next.

Nice, I have a Blichman conical 7 gallon, I actually put my first all grain in it last week. It kinda scared me to use at first, but it will definitely take a few brews to "figure it out". Let me know if you need help!

 

[davidabcd]

I was surprised at how well the immersion coil wort chiller was able to bring the temperature of the wort down to pitching temperature. The water in my faucet comes out at 14°C (about 56°F) so that helped a lot.

Those wort chillers are awesome, especially after cooling some batches with ice in the sink--cost, lugging around, TIME, etc.!
Mine shines during the dead of winter when I can cool the wort super fast.
Good luck!

 

[1bottlerocket]

Congrats. Now build on what you learned.

I wanted to ask some questions about pushing the malt flavor more forward. Is that possible to do using extract?

I think one of the problems with my first beer is that there isn't enough malt flavor to balance out the hops. While the beer is reasonably drinkable my impression is that it does not have a balanced flavor profile. Is this only possible to piush the malt flavor forward going all grain?

Back to the books! I am not planning on brewing again until late September until it cools down again.

 

[ncbrewer]

I wanted to ask some questions about pushing the malt flavor more forward. Is that possible to do using extract?

I think one of the problems with my first beer is that there isn't enough malt flavor to balance out the hops. While the beer is reasonably drinkable my impression is that it does not have a balanced flavor profile. Is this only possible to piush the malt flavor forward going all grain?

Back to the books! I am not planning on brewing again until late September until it cools down again.

Adding some calcium chloride can emphasize fullness and sweetness. In a post a while back (can't remember what thread) one member talked about testing by adding a small amount to a glass of poured beer, and checking various levels for what you think is optimum. This is done by dissolving some in water, and adding a measured amount of the solution to your glass of beer. Then on your next batch of the same beer, add the amount needed to get the same ppm - during the boil IIRC. If the added calcium chloride doesn't improve the flavor, leave it as is.

And I sometimes back off significantly on the bittering hops. IMO this gives it a malt forward flavor.