I'm hooked

[smokenjoke]

My first batch is bottle conditioned and ready to drink so I tasted the first one last night. It's a red ale. I didn't expect much. One, because it was my first attempt and two, I had some some mishaps with the chiller during the cooling off period (brand new damn thing that leaked). Anyway, I finally cooled it with an ice bath, got it in the bucket, placed it in the basement and later learned I should have set it in ice water and covered with a t-shirt during fermentation. My basement was never cooler than 73F so I was truly expecting some nasty tasting swill.
What a freaking surprise! It tastes very close to my favorite amber ale at a local micro brewery. I do have some chill haze but I can live with that.
I know no one really gives a ****e but I had to tell someone since my wife don't give a crap either.
After reading many many topics on this site (what a great source of info) I have since converted a small fridge with a temp controller to keep things cooler. I have an American wheat fermenting now. I hope it turns out as well.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Seb]

I love success stories. I hope your next batch is gonna just as good!

 

[Grumpybumpy]

very cool man, congrats! A test bottle from my first batch (APA) just went in the fridge 5 minutes ago to try tomorrow night. Can't wait! I have two other batches rolling in their primaries still (IPA, and porter), so I guess you can say I was hooked even before trying my first creation! So much for learning from my mistakes

 

[Taypo]

We sampled a bottle of our first brew last night as well (Coopers Lager that came with our kit) and surprisingly enough, its not bad after only a week in bottle - I know its still green, but we wanted a baseline for future reference. We made a few mistakes with it (Cooled wort too slow, pitched hot, fermented warm for first few days) so it really does show that its a pretty forgiving process. Definitely hooked.

 

[Shizog4]

I've learned cooling quickly is always recommended, but not a big deal if it takes a while. Reason being warmer temps are easier for bacteria growth, so as long as you take proper sanitary precautions it's all good. All my batches are different, some take 15-20 min some are stubborn and takes hours but still come out good......it's fun and delicious lol

 

[unionrdr]

Cooling quickly isn't just to shorten exposer time. It's all a matter of the quicker you get the temp down,the better the protein rest will be. You get less chill haze that way. And if you leave the bottles in the fridge longer,the chill haze settles out. Patience.

 

[Taypo]

Cooling quickly isn't just to shorten exposer time. It's all a matter of the quicker you get the temp down,the better the protein rest will be. You get less chill haze that way. And if you leave the bottles in the fridge longer,the chill haze settles out. Patience.

Ours is definitely cloudier than expected after 3 weeks in primary, but I'm not rushing to judgement after only a week in bottles, either. If it clears, I'm happy. If not, I'm still pretty happy with it as a first run.

I relate it to cooking - our first batch of BBQ was pretty horrible, but years later, we're doing stuff that I prefer to most of the commercial restaurants. Practice, practice, practice!

 

[unionrdr]

Ours is definitely cloudier than expected after 3 weeks in primary, but I'm not rushing to judgement after only a week in bottles, either. If it clears, I'm happy. If not, I'm still pretty happy with it as a first run.

I relate it to cooking - our first batch of BBQ was pretty horrible, but years later, we're doing stuff that I prefer to most of the commercial restaurants. Practice, practice, practice!

Wow,cool. My dad started teaching me pit bbq at 8 or 9. Now I'm just cookin up something good to drink with it. Pit bbq'd turkey is good. Anyway,I use the cooper's ale yeast in starters,or re-hydrate with a tsp or 2 of dextrose. Works faster & more vigorously. Then let it sit 3-5 days after a stable FG is reached to clean up & settle out more. Then 3-4 weeks in the bottle,5-6 days in the fridge. Crystal clear,with tight trub that allows most of the ale to be poured off.
So yeah,study,experience,practice,& patience.

 

[Gduck]

I love hearing about when people's first batch goes well. It really hooks you that way and it sort of becomes an inescapable addiction. My first couple batches went really well, but then I decided to try and get, shall we say, creative without first having a good fundamental understanding of the whole brewing process. Made one beer that I could have used to strip the paint from the side of the house. Still those failures didn't discourage me, in fact they kind of hooked me a bit more and really forced me to get a better understanding of the processes and ingredients.

Anyway.. Sorry for rambling. Awesome job and hopefully your success will be followed by a long string of many more!

 

[beergolf]

Welcome to the addiction. Feels good to make your own brew.

Hang around here and read all you can. When I started I spent so much time reading threads that my wife called it my beer porn. There is a ton of good info on brewing here.

As you learn you will make fewer mistakes, develop better tecnique, and of course make some really good beer.

Enjoy your first brew. Get a couple more fermenters and brew enough to get a good pipeline going so you don't feel the need to rush you brews.

cheers.

 

[Taypo]

Made one beer that I could have used to strip the paint from the side of the house.

I grew up in your neck of the woods, G - Syracuse area. Maybe things have changed, but growing up, all we drank was the stuff that we used to strip paint with. Kept us warm in the winter

 

[smokenjoke]

Welcome to the addiction. Feels good to make your own brew.
Get a couple more fermenters and brew enough to get a good pipeline going so you don't feel the need to rush you brews.

cheers.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[morbothegreat]

Me too!
I recently completed my first batch of extract beer. A nut brown ale from NB. I let it sit in the primary fermenter for an extra 2 weeks and waited long and hard for it to sit in bottles for 2 solid weeks.
I think it came out great. I'm really glad too, because I know I made several mistakes along the way. So it really surprised me that the beer is actually drinkable and taste good too. A couple of big ones i found, instead of steeping the grains, i boiled them. I didn't filter the beer pouring from the boil pot into the fermenter. Then, when I went from the fermenter into the bottling bucket, i did some filtering to get some chunks of the hops out, so that splashed the beer around a bit. Still, it came out really great.
Now i'm ready to go for the second batch!
And a big thanks to this site and all the folks who are so helpful and offering advice, it really helps to know what others have gone through.