getting ready to brew my first batch!

[fatheroftwo09]

Getting ready to brew my first batch of beer Saturday morning. I bought a IPA English style kit. I am super excited but a bit nervous! Any pointers or words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. I will keep progress posted.

 

[JonK331]

Just stay calm. If you find yourself running around like crazy, stop for a minute, take a deep breath and regroup. And keep it clean, sanitation is #1

 

[mookie44]

I second JonK331. Sanitation is the most important thing to ensure. I also just got started. Brewed my second batch (I have useed kits on both batches) this past Sunday. Make sure you go over each step and if you have any questions, post on the forum before you get started. Process should take about 2 hours from start to fermentation in the carboy! Good Luck!!

 

[MattCA]

I third. Take your time. I defiantly rushed my first batch. But I learned from my mistakes and took those in to account on my second batch.

 

[bthorn9435]

Took me 4 hours my first time, which was lastnight.

 

[HalfPint]

I'd recommend laying out all of your equipment and ingredients (including water) before starting anything. Have your hops measured, your yeast out of the fridge, and the grain/extract next to the stove.

 

[fatheroftwo09]

when I bought my kit, the yeast was in the box. i bought it last Saturday. I did not put it in the fridge.Is is bad now? does it need to go in the fridge immediately? Do I have to buy new yeast?

 

[jeffdill]

I'm sure your yeast is fine.

The most important thing to remember for your first batch is that you should just not worry...your beer will turn out fine. Just sanitize everything, watch for boilovers (if you are using a 4 gallon pot), follow the directions and make sure the wort cools down to ~80 degrees before you add the yeast and it will be just fine.

 

[Gropo]

If you have the means (i.e. a big brew-kettle and a propane burner or powerful stove) I would highly recommend that you do a full wort boil...much better results. Start with about 6 gallons of water and you'll end up with 5.

The other big thing: Once you get your wort into the fermenter and have pitched the yeast and parked it in a 68 degree locale, resist the urge to tinker with it in ANY way....just leave it alone for a good couple weeks (except for the addition of dry hops, if your recipe calls for it). Let the yeast do their job unmolested. You'll end up with great beer.

 

[Frodo]

... and make sure the wort cools down to ~80 degrees before you add the yeast and it will be just fine.

Important Note: Cool all the way down to fermentation temp, usually much lower than 80F before pitching. Also note that fermentation produces heat, so if the air temp is say 68, the temp in the fermenter while fermentation is vigorous could be 3 to 5 or so degrees above that.

Also while sanitation is of course important, it only becomes important once the wort is cooling. Anything that touches it before/while boiling doesn't need to be sanitized, but once it's cooling make sure you sanitize anything that comes in contact with it.

 

[Frodo]

Oh yeah, the most important thing... Cheers and good luck! RDWHAHB

 

[sportscrazed2]

My first batch I thought came out decent and I was sure I screwed everything up. Just follow the directions and take your time

 

[edie]

don't panic! as mentioned lay all your stuff out along with all the things you will need to open said stuff. check your temp's often, it doesn't take long for them to go up. at about 15 or so minutes left in your boil get your ice bath ready to cool the wort.

once you're ready to bottle don't forget to add the priming sugar.

i'm not going into all the sanitization errors we made in the first 2 batches but everything turned out fine and the 2 of us and all of our friends are still living!

we're only on our 5th batch now and can't tell you how much we're enjoying the entire process. enough that we've already built the keezer so we don't have to wait as long to taste what we've brewed.

once you get the first batch done and understand some of the process a little bit more go into the sticky threads on some of the forums, read as many of those as you can. even if you think it isn't going to pertain to kits you never know what someone is going to post. have gotten and put to use a tremendous amount of information.

HAVE FUN!!!! HAVE A BEER!!!!

 

[HItransplant]

I'd recommend laying out all of your equipment and ingredients (including water) before starting anything. Have your hops measured, your yeast out of the fridge, and the grain/extract next to the stove.

+1. this is also a way to insure you didnt forget anything.

also, I agree with what everyone else is saying about taking your time.. just make sure you pick a brew day where you dont have any other plans that can make you rush.