First successful batch!

[dlprice45]

Last night I cracked open the first bottle of my third batch of beer, an extract pale ale kit from Rebel Brewer in Nashville, TN. It had only been in bottles one week but was already pretty well carbed and tasted totally delicious. Another week or so and it will be excellent. I already have another batch fermenting, an all-Mosaic hop pale ale kit, also from Rebel, very excited.

My first two batches were drinkable but not great.

I think the key that made this so much better than my first two batches is I got a temp controller on my spare fridge, so I can now keep the yeast happy. Other beginners, look into this if you are not satisfied with your early efforts.



Rebel Pale Ale

Steeped in 2 gals 155 degree water, then "sparged" with 1 gal 155 degree water (3 gal total boil):
8oz C-40
8oz Caramunich I

6 lbs Light DME (half at beginning and other half at flameout)

.5oz Magnum Added at 60 Minutes
1.5oz Cascade Added at 15 Minutes
1.5oz Cascade Added at 0 Minutes
1oz Cascade dry hop for 5 days

US-05 rehydrated

Primary for two weeks at 65 degrees then cold-crashed 3 days
Bottle conditioned at 70 degrees

 

[unionrdr]

From the given info,you did real well throughout the recipe. But you could sparge with water of 165-168F safely to make sure you get the most out of the grains. Whether steeping or partial mash,that's what I do.
I even added 1/2 gallon of sparge water for 3.5 gallons total boil volume to account more closely with boil off. not to mention,more wort going into the fermenter. And I'm only using a 5G (20 QT) SS stock pot for a BK/MT,the same one I started kit-n-kilo with. I do PB/PM BIAB (Partial Boil/Partial Mash Brew In A Bag). As long as I keep the resulting wort stirred,3.5G in a 5G kettle works great.

 

[dlprice45]

Thanks, I'll try 3.5 gallons next time. I'm using the same 5 gallon SS pot that you are. I would love to see some of your partial mash recipes if you don't mind sharing, I would like to start doing PM batches before eventually moving to all grain.

 

[unionrdr]

Right now,I'm still tweaking my light colored "pseudo lager" ale I call hopped & confused,version two. The dark ale recipe I got from ohcrap I added a couple lil things too def needs work. I'll tell you what though,the midwest PM kit called cascade pale ale was damn good. The neat thing about midwest is that they list all the ingredients,grains & all. so I took those amounts,& started changing grains,hops,extracts,etc. But in close to the same amounts till I'd done a few PM batches. Sort of used the amounts in that one as a map or skelton to build my own recipes on.
I will list my PM recipes under "my recipes" when they get worked out properly. They really are not ready to list yet. But I have high hopes that Hopped & Confused v2 about done fermenting now will be there.
Here's an example of what can be done;
2lbs pale malt (crisp)
2lbs marris otter (crisp)
.5lb crystal 40L
.5lb carapils
3lbs Munton's plain light DME
your favorite ale yeast
Mash for one hour at 152-154F in 2G water,sparge with 1.5G.
I worked this up in BS2 for a PM version of my PA/APA/IPA base recipe. Add different hops/hop schedule & you're there! Should give the same amber/orange color of the ones in my pics.

 

[dlprice45]

Right on, thanks for the info.

One other thing to nervous beginners, I accidentally pitched the yeast at what many will say is too high a temperature, almost 80 degrees. But then I put the bucket in my fermentation fridge, which brought it down to 65 degrees in an hour or so. Anyway, I was super nervous after I realized I pitched at that temp, but everything worked out fine. No off flavors. I think it might be that US-05 is a tough little bastard and can take a little abuse.

 

[masskrug]

Great! You've just tasted the most delicious beer in the world (until your next batch).

Safale-05 is quite strong. I accidentally chilled my fermenter to 45'F once for a few days. I stirred the bucket, warmed things up and they got back to work!

 

[BigFloyd]

I think the key that made this so much better than my first two batches is I got a temp controller on my spare fridge, so I can now keep the yeast happy. Other beginners, look into this if you are not satisfied with your early efforts.

You are right on the money. All other factors being equal - temp control => happy yeast => better brew.

You've also opened up all sorts of neat and interesting possibilities to do with your fermentations. Certain ale yeasts can be successfully used down into the 50's (US-05 @ 57*F and Nottingham @ 55*F) for very clean, lager-like results. You can now do stepped-up ferments where you begin at the lowest end of the temp for that yeast, hold it there for the first week, and then slowly tweek it up to the mid-range to fully finish simply by touching a few buttons.