I must have my head examined!

[DRonco]

Brand new to the hobby and loving it. I had some good success with my first batch which was a standard amber ale. Turned out a bit hoppy, in a good way. Just more than I expected. I think it might have been my fault in not filtering out all the pellet hops before the primary.

Once I had that batch in the bottle, I eagerly thought about my next. I chose a Belgian Dubbel, which is currently in primary till the end of the month.

Needless to say, I can't wait till I bottle the Belgian so I can make a stout or some other type in that style. I'm sure I'll be posting in the recipe forum for suggestions later.

#imhooked

 

[Hammy71]

Congrats! I wouldn't sweat the hops getting into your primary. They don't really add or detract from the brew.

 

[Captain Damage]

You can try putting your hops in a paint strainer bag to easily remove them after the boil. Personally, I never do, and I know there are many others who don;t either. I don't even separate out any of the trub. Everything goes into the fermenter. Most likely your beer came out as recipe/kit creator intended, but different from what you expected. Of course there will always be some variation - that's just what you get when you're dealing with natural processes on a small scale (then you get into "clone" recipes and kits which are usually not clones at all, but rather somewhat similar to the beer they're designed to emulate). But hey, you made good beer! You've taken your first steps into a larger world!

 

[unionrdr]

I don't think the hop bits will hurt anything in primary. I did something a bit different on my lates brew myself. Since I had a 2 minute addition with this OM kit,I left all 3 hop sacks in the BK for a 15 minute steep. Then into the ice bath as well. So far (day 5 of ferment),it has a nice smell,& the flavor is already quite good. Can't wait for the finished product to make a final decision on how it smells & tastes when leaving the sacks in while chilling.

 

[DRonco]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

 

[ThePonchoKid]

I let the pellets go in to primary. I don't like bagging my hops. How can you guarantee consistency when you're squeezing or straining a bag of late addition hops? There might be a good answer to that, but I'm enjoying it and starting to play around with how I do my additions. My last brew I think I added 2.5oz of a 9.7 aa% hop in the last minute, kept under 40ibu overall, and I think it's goign to be my best tasting most aromatic brew yet

 

[unionrdr]

Straining just leaves less trub in the end. But all the pressious juice gets through. No problems.

 

[ThePonchoKid]

Straining just leaves less trub in the end. But all the pressious juice gets through. No problems.

yes, however my strain/hop bag may be more tightly or loosely threaded than yours. i might squeeze it out. you might let it drip. i might squeeze it out extremely hard, you might give it a pinch. im not to big on those variables with my late additions

 

[unionrdr]

I pour everything through a large,fine mesh strainer. I put the hop sacks in there & use my paddle for a light squeeze. Helps a little,just don't squeeze too hard.

 

[DRonco]

For my Belgian Dubbel I chose whole hops. I'm interested to see if there's much difference in the brew. Definetly less worry, just fished them out with my stainer.

 

[ThePonchoKid]

I can't wait to try whole hops one day. Preferably ones that I've grown. Hope it turns out well. Don't forget to caress and massage the racking vessels with loving intent and warmth!

 

[DRonco]

Don't forget to caress and massage the racking vessels with loving intent and warmth!

Uh......i think I'm in the wrong forum!

 

[ThePonchoKid]

Uh......i think I'm in the wrong forum!

Haha

Have you seen the microscopic images of water?



Might seem kooky, but also might be the stuff of what got us here in the first place

"The voice inside you becomes the voice of now" Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

 

[DRonco]

Haha

Have you seen the microscopic images of water?

Video Link:

Wow! I really have no comment for that.....that was.....something.

 

[BxBrewer]

My kit started out with a 5gal glass carboy and bottling bucket. I added a 6gal plastic bucket fermenter. Having two fermenters is nice. While one is finishing I can get the other started. I use a fermintation chamber btw.

Also some are going to mention a 5gal glass carboy is a secondary. But it works for my smaller OG beers just fine.
Congrats and welcome to the addiction.

 

[DRonco]

I have a second 5 gal carboy, but I'm worried about the krausen during primary. I've read about blow off tubes but hadn't tried it yet. Maybe on the next.