Just bottled my first beer!

[DEREKsims]

Ok. Just bottled my first beer. It was a northern brewer 1 gallon extract kit. I got an Irish red ale recipe. And I modified it a bit...

So naturally I followed all the necessary sanitation protocols. No issue there.

So on to what I did. I followed the recipe to the letter. Except I visited my local brewing supply store on my brew day which I found out is about a mile away from me. It's called Black Hawk Brewing Supply. Awesome place. The owner was super cool and helpful too. Anyways...

I told her I wanted to up my alcohol slightly. So she suggested I add another 1/2 pound of malt. Which i did. Briess sparkling amber. Then I racked it in my fermentation bucket and stuck it in my closet which is dark and about 74 degrees. I checked the temp in there before hand with the thermometer from the kit. I even left it ontop of the bucket. Seemed right lol.

It fermented for 6 days every day I checked it and I saw zero activity in the airlock. So I got worried. Anyways. I chose to open it and could clearly see there had been activity but how much?. I wasted no time and resealed it cause of oxygen exposure. Read around on the interwebs.

Long story short...I added 4oz of honey I heated up to a boil in 3/4 cup of water that I added to bring my volume back to up a solid gallon. Left it set in secondary fermentation for another 6 days. Once again saw no activity. So it came time to make a decision. I chose to go ahead and bottle my beer.

Bottling went fine had a one 3/4 full bottle which I capped anyways. Lol

Before bottling I added 1oz of dextrose corn sugar to the bucket i racked it back into to get it off the yeast cake. Did a gentle swirl with my sanitized spoon and bottled it. Ok here is the fun part...

My original gravity prior to initial racking was 1.075. I was shooting for a 6 or 7ish Abv. When I took my second gravity reading before the secondary racking it was 1.020. With the conversation chart and a abv chart I found on Google it said my beer was around 7.2% Abv! Wow. Right on the money I thought. Well I am quickly realizing why my lovely soon to be wife calls me "extra AF" lol.

When I took my final gravity after everything was all said and done on bottling day it was 1.010! With the conversion charts it came out to 8.5% abv! Holy ****...

Ok. That's basically it. Anything I did wrong? Or...anything at all. Comments? Complaints? Concerns? Lol...anything is helpful for a new home brewer.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Yay you made beer! In future brews, you’ll want to keep your fermentation temps a little cooler. Check the range on the yeast you use (I know that is rarely in a small kit) fermentation creates heat, so the wort could be as much as 10 degrees warmer than air temps. My first gallon kit was an Ocktoberfest, the yeast threw a lot of clove because I didn’t keep it cool, but it was drinkable and I enjoyed it.
You can skip the secondary on most beers.
Priming sugar it usually handled differently, most brewers dissolve the sugar in boiled water with clean and sanitized utensils, the liquid is poured into the bottling bucket without a lot of splashing (avoiding oxygen). A swirling action of the tubing in the bucket mixes the beer and sugar solution Some brewers use sugar cubes (domino dots) or carbonation drops which are placed in the bottles before the beer.

 

[jack13]

Yay you made beer! In future brews, you’ll want to keep your fermentation temps a little cooler. Check the range on the yeast you use (I know that is rarely in a small kit) fermentation creates heat, so the wort could be as much as 10 degrees warmer than air temps. My first gallon kit was an Ocktoberfest, the yeast threw a lot of clove because I didn’t keep it cool, but it was drinkable and I enjoyed it.
You can skip the secondary on most beers.
Priming sugar it usually handled differently, most brewers dissolve the sugar in boiled water with clean and sanitized utensils, the liquid is poured into the bottling bucket without a lot of splashing (avoiding oxygen). A swirling action of the tubing in the bucket mixes the beer and sugar solution Some brewers use sugar cubes (domino dots) or carbonation drops which are placed in the bottles before the beer.

I second all of this, especially the "Yay you made beer!" part. I'll add that, if you aren't happy with the result, 1) the most likely culprit is the high ferm temp hoppy2 pointed out and 2) don't be discouraged; sometimes you get lucky and make great beer right away, but more often you don't.