It smells so good!

[SticksBrewer]

I boiled my 2nd beer last night. A lot less of the second guessing. It was a Sierra Nevada Clone extract kit from Midwest. I decided to upgrade the yeast a little and went with the US-05. I pitched at 62F and just sprinkled it on top and gave it a mix up after 30 min.

Was gone all day today, but after I got home this evening, I had to go and check on my second baby. Already bubbling, this was around 20 hours later. Not too aggressive yet...

Anyway, what was amazing - I gave that airlock a good ol' sniff and WOW!

Gotta love that smell! Smelled like a nice hoppie BEER! :rockin:

Was a much better smell than what had been coming from the Amber Ale I made on my first batch 5 days ago.

Inspired me to make another batch tonight. Pulled the Irish Red Ale kit I have on the shelf and I am in the middle of the boil right now.

I am a noob, but after tonight I will already have 3 batches in less than a week all staged up in a primary pail.

 

[lumpher]

congrats on the successful boils, and welcome. i made a porter for my x-thousandth brew today, and was still giddy when i saw it start bubbling...

 

[1Mainebrew]

DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE KIT TO BOTTLE OR TRANSFER AFTER A WEEK! Leave them in the primary for a month, you will thank me later.

 

[jbsg02]

I just made an all grain Sierra Nevada clone and it's really good, almost identical to Sierra Nevada but mine's just a little more hoppy. What hops came in the kit?

 

[codyjp]

...
I am a noob, but after tonight I will already have 3 batches in less than a week all staged up in a primary pail.

I feel better now. I had 4 done in the first couple weeks. I still haven't tried anything!

 

[SticksBrewer]

DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE KIT TO BOTTLE OR TRANSFER AFTER A WEEK! Leave them in the primary for a month, you will thank me later.

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking I would give it at least 2 or 3 weeks. I have waited this long to make my own homebrew. So shouldn't be too bad waiting a a little longer.

 

[SticksBrewer]

I just made an all grain Sierra Nevada clone and it's really good, almost identical to Sierra Nevada but mine's just a little more hoppy. What hops came in the kit?

The kit came with 2 oz Perle for flavoring and 2 oz Cascade for aroma. I added the Perle at beginning of the boil to a large nylon hops bag. Then added the Cascade at 2 minutes before it was done. I left the hops in the wort until I had it down around 65F.

I start with 3 gallons water and do partial boil in 5 gallon stockpot for now. I just got a 10 gallon pot this week in the mail but need to dust off the turkey fryer to use that one (it's in the garage somewhere). The 3 gallon boil appears to be the maximum my electric stove will handle.

So not sure how that affects the hops utilization... but I have no available brain cells this week to worry about that yet.

BTW - I just took another snort off the airlock again when I put the Red Ale away to do it's thing. Can't get over that beautiful smell.

 

[emjay]

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking I would give it at least 2 or 3 weeks. I have waited this long to make my own homebrew. So shouldn't be too bad waiting a a little longer.

I also find about 4 weeks to be ideal for a style like this, and most other basic styles.

Hefeweizens tend to be best bottled ASAP though, strong beers often aren't really drinkable for at least several months, and sour beers require quite a long time. To give the most extreme example, I brewed a lambic a month and a half ago - I won't even be touching it for another 34.5 months

 

[1Mainebrew]

You're welcome. This point wouldn't be promoted so much if it wasn't true. Take it from the many brewers on this site who have learned through experience that more time in the primary is standard practice because less time in primary=inferior beer. I will not leave a beer in primary less than 4 weeks now. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I feel obligated to pass it on to others so that they can learn the joys of making great beer right out of the gate.

 

[Chap]

You're welcome. This point wouldn't be promoted so much if it wasn't true. Take it from the many brewers on this site who have learned through experience that more time in the primary is standard practice because less time in primary=inferior beer. I will not leave a beer in primary less than 4 weeks now. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I feel obligated to pass it on to others so that they can learn the joys of making great beer right out of the gate.

+1 and so true!

 

[beergolf]

You're welcome. This point wouldn't be promoted so much if it wasn't true. Take it from the many brewers on this site who have learned through experience that more time in the primary is standard practice because less time in primary=inferior beer. I will not leave a beer in primary less than 4 weeks now. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I feel obligated to pass it on to others so that they can learn the joys of making great beer right out of the gate.

+2. It is very difficult to do when you are first starting out. The best thing to do is get a good pipeline going and it becomes much easier.

The op is doing the right thing by brewing a lot. I brewed 4 batches before I even tasted my first one, and I even rushed that one a little. You can really taste the difference if you do have patience and let them sit.

Now I just let them sit in the primary for a minimum of 3-4 weeks. I have several going now that will probably go for much longer because they are higher gravity Belgians and also I finally depleted my supply of bottles.

 

[SticksBrewer]

This is very reassuring. So depending on time to bottle condition, I could be looking at 6 weeks minimum before I should even try the brews? And likely longer is my guess... So maybe some late summer homebrews will finally be pouring.

I am paying for it now as I only got about 2.5 hours sleep... we have a 2 year old that wakes up every morning between 5-6am, no matter what. So I was asking for trouble. But I made sure to clean everything up last night, definitely nice to wake up to clean, and now dry, equipment that just needed to be put away.

So far I have a total of 5 primary fermenting buckets and 1 5 gal glass carboy. As seeing my pipeline is just starting, I will try to get another 2 batches going this week.

Got a 3 kits new from Midwest (discounts from various groupons that included recipe kit). The other 2 just came with other equipment I acquired off craigslist (carboy, bottle tree, wort chiller, 5 gal pot, etc) . Never thought I would need 5 primaries! Perhaps I will have more. Good thing I have enough bottles for just over 10 batches. That's right, that is over 50 gallons! Majority are 22 oz pry offs, 16 & 32 oz. swing tops with the rest being 12 oz. My obsession started long before I even brewed a batch. Of course a lot of those also came as part of the equipment I got on craigslist. (Can you tell I like craigslist?)

Seeing that I do have a 5 gal carboy, I may move one to a secondary after 2 weeks just to see what it does... and will also free up a primary. Any suggestions what might do best with secondary? The amber, red or sierra pale ale? Next I will brew a stout, maybe that should go in there?

Thanks!

 

[SticksBrewer]

First off, thanks for the advice so far. I have an update on things. My first batch (Amber Ale) has been sitting in the primary for almost 2 weeks. Batches 2 & 3 (Sierra clone and Red Ale) are in primary for just under a week.

I have been very strong and I haven't even peeked in any of them. Figured they are better off just being left to do their thing.

But I want the option to brew another two batches this weekend. But I only have 1 more primary bucket not being used and a carboy.

For the most part I just plan to skip secondary and leave everything in a primary for 4 weeks before bottling. But since I do have the one 5 gal carboy, I am thinking what the heck, let's see how it works for me.

So, thinking I will move my Amber Ale to a secondary this weekend and leave it for another 2 weeks before bottling. This would free me up to have 2 primary buckets available.

Any advice?