Fumbling through my first brew day.

[luckybeagle]

I was so excited to do my first AG brew that I got started as soon as my evening opened up (8:30pm). Needless to say this was way too late for a first attempt and learning in the dark kind of sucks!

Here are my notes and the steps I took. I'm hoping someone can comment on where they think I went wrong.

Outside temperature: 62F
Equipment all cleaned and sanitized with Starsan

Brew: Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier clone, 6 gallon batch. Following this recipe: https://homebrewacademy.com/bavarian-weissbier-recipe/

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs 9.2 oz German Wheat Malt (60%)
• 4 lbs 6.2 oz German Pilsner Malt (40%)
• 1/2 LB Rice Hulls
• 1.25 oz Hallertauer Blanc 8.8% AA pellet hops
• Wyeast liquid Weihenstephan 3068 yeast

1. Activated smack-pack yeast and left out on counter for ~4 hrs at 70F room temp
2. Took dry grain temperature of 73F and plugged it in to my brew calculator.
3. Heated up strike water to 165F to achieve mash temp of 152F. Stirred in 1/2 Campden tablet
4. Pre-heated 10-gallon home depot cylindrical mash tun with 1 gallon boiling water for ~5 min. Dumped it.
5. Dough-in 3.7 gallons strike water at 165F. Actual mash temp = ~151F
6. 70-minute mash. Temperature reading at end of mash was ~147 on top.
7. Heated 5.7 gallons sparge water to 175F and placed in HLT
8. Opened lid of mash tun, stirred, resealed for ~5 minutes. Vorlauf approx 1.25 gallons
9. Drained first runnings into boil kettle and refilled mash tun with all 5.7 gallons of sparge water. Stirred up and let sit 10 minutes. Vorlauf then drain into boil kettle
10. Boil 60 minutes with hop addition at 60 minutes
11. Whirlpool with sanitized metal spoon to create trub cone (it worked!)
12. Drain through plate chiller via gravity. Fumbled bigtime and hit about 85F for first gallon of wort, then adjusted the valves and got draining wort down to 65-68F.
13. Temperature of full carboy ended up being 76F, so I gave it an ice bath to reach 72F. It was 1am at this time so I called it good enough, pitched my yeast, and hooked up my 1 1/4" vinyl tube to the carboy neck and stuck the other end in a mason jar of sanitizer/water.

It has now been 7 hours since I pitched the yeast and I see no activity yet. My pre-boil gravity reading was 1.024, and my post-boil was 1.040. My questions are:

Did I do anything majorly wrong?
Did I forget anything big?
Are my gravity readings an indication of poor efficiency?

Thanks a million!

 

[wmubronco]

What were your pre-boil and post-boil volumes of wort?

 

[wmubronco]

Assuming you did not make a yeast starter... what was the viability date on the yeast pack?

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Not making a starter with liquid yeast can cause a delay in activity. Overall i don't see anything glaringly wrong with your procedure.

 

[kh54s10]

1) no yeast starter.
5) you were only off one degree - you are not likely to achieve better than that.
6) 70 minutes is a strange period of time for mashing it is usually until complete by measuring, 60 minutes for 2 row recipes, or 90 minutes with Pilsner.
9) I never let mine sit after stirring, YMMV

What was the OG supposed to be?

If you got the right OG and the right volume into the fermenter I don't see anything major that you did wrong. Other than not using enough yeast.
If the OG was supposed to be higher. Look at grain crush, and volumes - did you end up with too much wort.
Pitching the yeast was a little on the warm side, but OK if you are controlling the fermentation temperature.

Look for signs of fermentation tomorrow but don't get too concerned until the next day. You did underpitch. Some will do that intentionally with a recipe like that looking for esters.

 

[luckybeagle]

Dang, thanks all for the super quick responses!

Here are answers to the questions raised so far:

• Yeast was produced July 11th 2018. LHBS had it in the fridge. I went straight from sanitized packet to carboy (no starter).
• The starting temp of the mash was 151 but it dropped 4 degrees over 70 minutes. Could be my thermometer (it was wigging out a bit, but I think my readings were accurate)
• I mashed for 70 minutes because I had some trouble dialing in my sparge temperature (the first HLT cooler I was using did not hold temp well).
• My pre Boil gravity was 1.022-1.024, and my post-boil gravity at pitching temp was 1.040.

I did not check my pre and post-boil volumes of wort. But my calculator said it should be 7.5 gallons pre-boil, which seems accurate (my boil kettle is not etched). It does seem like I have less than 6 gallons in my carboy though. I did divert a pint or so from the chiller for temperature check and gravity reading.

Does that change any thoughts on my process?

Thanks again,

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Everything you did will produce fermentable wort. Nothing you did prevented that from happening. Just give it more time. If you dont see activity in another day try pitching a fresh packet of yeast.

You'll probably see a hundred different responses about what you should have done. Worry about all those other details once you have your feet under you and are feeling more comfortable with your brewing process. You are a begginer brewer K.I.S.S. and you will produce beer. Some people have been brewing for a long time and forget what being new at this is like. Maybe even me

Your biggest concern should be cleaning and sanitizing. Nothing will ruin a beer more than that IMO

 

[luckybeagle]

Everything you did will produce fermentable wort. Nothing you did prevented that from happening. Just give it more time. If you dont see activity in another day try pitching a fresh packet of yeast.

Awesome. Thanks for this. I'll hang tight and see what the next 24 hours brings by way of yeast activity.

I have an inkbird controller but nothing to hook it to, so it'll be subjected to the conditions of my daughter's closet, LOL --its the most stable temperature spot in the house around 68F +/- 1F. Nanners are ok for a first run.

I'm sure I'm my own harshest critic. Though I was fumbling and feeling inept, I'm sure the processes got done OK. I probably went a little overboard with starsan since my biggest fear has been contamination. Everything got soaked in a strong solution - beer paddle, high-temp hosing (followed by 20 gallons of star san solution cycled through it), etc etc.

Fun hobby. Can't wait to brew another and have it go a little more smoothly.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

68 is good. Just keep in mind that once the yeast starts kicking they can raise the temp of the wort well over 70 and not in the range you want.

Most are their own worst critic

More is not better with Starsan it's worse. It can leave to much residue and lead to off flavors. Use the dosage listed on the bottle and you'll be fine. Starsan can also just be sprayed on with a bottle and be just as effective. Contact time is maybe a minute or two but more is better in this case.

 

[myndflyte]

I mean as others said, seems about a good a first AG attempt as it could have been. But damn man, you started at 8:30, what time did you finally finish?

 

[luckybeagle]

I mean as others said, seems about a good a first AG attempt as it could have been. But damn man, you started at 8:30, what time did you finally finish?

Thanks dude. I think I made it to bed around 1:00am... didn't make enough time to do a good cleaning so I've definitely got my work cut out for me now.

Good news though--the carboy has a thick layer of krausen this morning and is bubbling away. So glad I used a 1 1/4" blow off tube (with the other end in starsan solution). I'm sure an airlock would've clogged and made a huge mess by now.

 

[petemoss]

It sounds like you pretty well did everything correctly. The only thing that jumps out at me, and I may have missed it in the text, is that I didn't see any mention of aeration/oxygenation of the wort prior to pitching the yeast.

 

[luckybeagle]

It sounds like you pretty well did everything correctly. The only thing that jumps out at me, and I may have missed it in the text, is that I didn't see any mention of aeration/oxygenation of the wort prior to pitching the yeast.

Thanks! I didn’t use an oxygen tank but I did make a pretty big deal of the cooled wort as I drained it in from the plate chiller. Lots of churning once it was in the 70’s. Here’s 36 hrs after pitch

 

[petemoss]

Oh yeah. Looking good.

 

[ThePaleAleIndian]

Looking good man. You are well on your way. Congratulations on making your first batch of AG wort! I think you pretty well covered everything. 4F difference over beginning to end of your mash probably won't make a perceptible difference in the finished beer. Starting a hef yeast at 72F vs. in the low 60s does make a difference, but both will make good beer, it's just personal preference of whether you like more banana or more clove in your hef. To me that's the beauty of homebrewing, to be able to dial that kind of stuff in!

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[hehnbrew]

Sounds like a great first all grain run. When I looked at the carboy you could see the yeast is loving it's environment. I have also had late night and early morning brew days. Now that your all grain you will fine tune your process more times than you will remember. It is more labor intensive than extracts but it gives you so many more options in my opinion. I made an old english ale one time and used salts 3hivh made a great brew. I used to use spring water from the grocery store, then I went to an actual live running spring in our community to get my water all with good tasting beer. As I visit breweries all across the country I have seen spring water from an on site well, city water without touching it, city water filtered through a pool filter that uses just charcoal for the filter medium. The main thing I focus on now is using my city water but filtering it for chlorine/chloramides and other dissolved solids. It makes the beer still taste good and I also use the white drink safe water hose to ensure no vinyl aftertaste. Welcome to the all grain world.

 

[rmyurick]

I don't think you're supposed to put boiling water (212F) in that type of cooler. Probably cools pretty quickly, though. Not really necessary to sanitize mash vessel. Clean & rinse well.

 

[jarhammad]

Same thing happened with me with one of my first AG batches, but mine took over a week to take off, no joke. Once it did take off, I wish I had put a blow off tube, because I changed the airlock multiple times that first day. Beer, to me, was pretty good.

I appreciate the wisdom of the people on this forum.

 

[luckybeagle]

I don't think you're supposed to put boiling water (212F) in that type of cooler. Probably cools pretty quickly, though. Not really necessary to sanitize mash vessel. Clean & rinse well.

I hear ya. I did it as a preheat per BEERNBBQBYLARRY’s recommendation (he has a good YouTube channel with tutorials on AG brewing), though it might just be best to put strike water temp water in there instead of boiling for this purpose, and hold it for a few minutes to warm it up (less stress on the plastic). I don’t think I would’ve hit my mash temp with my strike temp water if I didn’t preheat it.

 

[luckybeagle]

Quick update. I'm just at about day 7 of fermentation.
OG: 1.042 (missed it by 10 points!)
current gravity as of day 5: 1.014

I'm hoping it drops a bit more to get closer to 5% ABV, but my efficiency problem/dilution problem might relegate this to a very light HW. :-\

When I pulled the day 5 gravity sample, I tasted it and it was actually quite good, except it was a little more bitter than the clone I was attempting--likely due to using higher AA hops on accident. Smelled good, though.

Today it smells like sulphur. It is also bubbling in my mason jar of starsan (blowoff tube) once every 10 seconds or so. Do I wait until the sulphur smell dissipates before bottling, or just for the bubbling to cease, and rely on bottle conditioning to temper the eggy smell? I haven't tasted it since this smell showed up.

Any info would be fantastic--I wasn't able to find these exact answers in my search (could be user error, though). Thoughts?

 

[luckybeagle]

The sulphur smell has died down mostly and I plan to check gravity once more today. I'm at day 9 of fermenting..

I have kind of a dumb question: Can I carefully rack to a sanitized 5 gallon igloo cooler with vinyl tube + bottle filler wand and use that a bottling bucket? It has brass fittings but I logically can't see how or why that would be any different than racking to a dedicated plastic bottling bucket?

 

[TennBrewer]

Congrats on your AG brew, fun isn't it. As to your bottling question (not dumb!), I only see two functions for a "bottling bucket", holding the beer to facilitate bottling with the filler wand, and mixing the priming sugar solution evenly into the beer. If you have a cooler for this, fine. Just remember that the bottling bucket must be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized prior to filling bottles. I assume the inside of the cooler is clean and smooth with no stains or scratches which could harbor bacteria and infect your beer. Always clean with a soft cloth, do not use scrubbing pads or abrasive material as this will leave scratches. If you're not sure about the condition of your cooler, visit your LHBS and pick up a bottling bucket if they have them. You can also make your own from a new food grade bucket available at most home improvement stores like Home Depot, and a plastic spigot. Cut a 1" hole near the bottom of the bucket and install the spigot. I use kegs mostly but every once in awhile I prefer to use bottles. I have a Big Mouth Bubbler fermenter with a spigot that I use for a bottling bucket, serves two purposes that way.