First brew fermenting away (with pics)

[hollowdp]

So with the help of an old college roommate who has a few (okay, a lot) of brews under his belt I made my first batch this Saturday. I used an extract recipe with some specialty grains that I picked up from the LHBS to make a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone. We're also planning on taking some of the yeast we harvested from the blowoff (Wyeast 1056) to brew a 10 gallon all grain SNPA clone at his house next weekend to split. I'm very interested in going all grain so it will be nice to see how it's done as I work to build up my equipment.

The smackpack was smacked late Saturday night and left on the counter over night. I woke up to a bag that looked like it could pop at any second and started my 1L starter. The yeast was pitched at about 6PM on 11/10 into the 64 degree wort. It probably hit high krausen sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning and that's when I swapped the sanitized Erlenmeyer flask out for the bucket filled with sanitizer for the blowoff since the flask was filled. I popped the flask in the fridge with an airlock for the SNPA clone so hopefully that will be ready to go. This morning 11/14 at about 8:30 on my way out the door I checked and I'm getting a bubble out of the bucket every second or so. It smells a bit like apple juice. Is that anything to be concerned about?

I put the pics up on my newly created flickr stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20797732@N08/sets/72157603167098314/

As you can see there's a lot of proteins at the bottom and a good layer of yeast and then a lot of krausen up at the top. There are also some solids that float up and down with the bubbles being produced. Hopefully they'll settle down once the fermentation slows.

 

[Evan!]

Nothing to be concerned about. The airlock aromas vary wildly from batch to batch. My tripel smells like grain right now.

Welcome to the club! I'd suggest going partial-mash and slowly working your way up to AG. You don't even really need a huge mash tun for PM. I did my first mashes in the kettle (still do actually) and drained/sparged by pouring the grist into my pasta strainer insert that came with my cookware set. Of course, you eventually outgrow this as your grain:extract ratio gets bigger, but it's a great way to start if you don't wanna spend any more $$ yet.

 

[hollowdp]

Evan! thanks for the info. I'll have to read more on the partial mash. I'm about half way through the Papazian book now and I check the forum pretty regularly. This thread finally takes me out of lurker status.

 

[BierMuncher]

Nice job. That beer looks tasty.

Never done a DG Clone.

 

[hollowdp]

Thanks BierMuncher! Hopefully it comes out tasting as good as it looks. I'm already hooked but it would certainly help to have my first batch come out as a big hit.

 

[hollowdp]

Well I racked it over to secondary, took a gravity reading, and had my first taste last night. The beer was quite clear and the color looked like a match albeit I had no real dead guy for a side by side comparison. It was missing some hop aroma and maybe even a little bitterness but maybe that will come out with the carbonation. It was my first time drinking beer that wasn't finished but it tasted good. The gravity reading was 1.013 +.006 for temp and my target was 1.014 so I didn't miss anything there. Hopefully my starting gravity was 1.060 as I should have expected (didn't have a hydrometer yet).

 

[Joker]

Nice job it looks the like brew is coming along nicely. Congrats and welcome to the obsession.

 

[Kernsie]

Nice.

I was thinking about making a Dead Guy clone for my next batch but went with a Hefe.

good luck.

 

[z987k]

Looks good. Just something about krausen that makes my mouth water.

 

[Judd]

Sounds like a solid first brew, man. Let us know how it tastes. Bet it's delicious.

 

[Kai]

That is some hot hot beerporn. Keep us posted.

 

[hollowdp]

Well I had another session this weekend over at my buddies place. I did my first all grain batch using a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone recipe but we used some homegrown hops from Springfield, VA for flavor so we dubbed it the Springfield Nevada Pale Ale. We made a ten gallon batch and I've never been more nervous in my life than I was driving back with my 5 gallons of brew in my front seat (belted in of course). I got to mill grain, do my first mash, my first full boil, and use an immersion chiller. It was quite the learning experience and I really enjoyed it.

Here's a picture of it fermenting away next to my Rogue Dead Guy Ale in secondary. I plan to bottle the Rogue this Saturday assuming I have enough clean bottles. I'm already wishing I had kegs.