DEREKsims
Member
- Joined
- May 30, 2019
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 5
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.
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.