Just brewed by first batch.

[Side_fx]

Hello, I have been lurking on here for awhile now seeing if I think home brewing is possible for me.

I just got the Brewers Best beginner kit for my birthday from my wife and yesterday I just brewed my first batch American Pale Ale. I have a great brew store down the street from me that helped me pick the kit.

On brew day I did mess some things up however.

- I used about a 1/2 gal of ice to help cool the wort down (i saw that on midwest supplies), I now have read that using ice within the wort is a no-no.
- I must of gotten a misreading from my thermometer because I thought it was 75 degrees F going into the fermentor when it really was around 87 degrees. This might have caused my OG to be off I got around 1.040 it should have been around 1.050.

I then just added the yeast and cooled it off quickly. I got it down below 70 within an hour.

Currently its in my basement at around 64 F on the floor. It has not been 24 hours yet but should I start seeing gas coming out the airlock tonight? or do you think I might have messed this batch up?

Also the helpful guy at the brew store talked me out of the deluxe kit because he said I can get the basic +auto siphon and a better bottle carboy for less. I got the auto siphon and I'm thinking about later this week getting the better bottle to use as a secondary. For my next batch of wort I'm thinking about getting a turkey frier because my wife all day yesterday complained about the smells, looks like my brewing will be in the garage...

 

[CBMbrewer]

Welcome to the forum and the hobby.

Throwing ice directly into the wort to cool it down is definitely not something to do. The ice is not sterile so there is a good chance there is bacteria and other microbes in it. Next time stick you boil kettle in the sink, bathtub or Large basin of some kind and fill that with water and ice. Once you are done boiling the wort everything that comes in contact with it should be sanitized.
Always be sure that your wort is below 70 before pitching the yeast so you don't thermally shock or kill it.
Fermentation can take up to 72 hours to take off. If you don't see co2 escaping through the airlock by then, re post for more advice.
Until then, relax and let it do its thing.

 

[StoneHands]

The only thing about the ice is that it has the potential to carry bacteria. Most likely the container you had your ice in was not sanitized before creating the ice. I think the threat on this is minimal though.
Your gravities were probably correct, the wort was probably not mixed 100% when you took the reading. If you hit your volumes correctly, you hit your gravity correctly (this is assuming they gave you the correct ingredients according to the recipe).
I wouldn't bother with a secondary, unless your dry-hopping or adding fruit later (even then, probably wouldn't do it). Just rack out of your primary when it's complete into your sanitized bottling bucket and bottle with priming sugar.
Next time get your wort to fermentation temperatures before pitching the yeast.
Brewing outside is the way to go!

 

[dozer5454]

First off, congrats in starting a very fun and very forgiving hobby. I mention the forgiving part as plenty of us have made various "mistakes" and still produced very good beer. To go directly to your question, my first 4 batches I made I used ice and they still came out fine. Not the best beer I ever made but my friends still enjoyed drinking free beer. Some how it always tastes better to your friends when its free.
As to the air lock part. Do not rely on that as an end all to be all. give your beer time. there are many people who leave their beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks and then just bottle. This gives the yeast time to not only ferment but to clean up after it self. If you are not adding anything to your beer (IE: dry hops, fruit, orange peel, spices) there is no need to transfer.
The use of a turkey fryer is a good one to keep the wife happy. Mine booted me out of the house shortly after the 5th batch. She loved how clean I kept the kitchen due to my OCD nature but the smell was getting to her. With the pot I would say get as big a pot as you can afford. Many people go into this hobby thinking they will only brew X size batches of beer. Then they make something they (and others) really love and they want to step up to a Y size batch. Having the extra pot space is better than having to buy a new pot. Hope this helps.
When you do bottle your beer you will be tempted to taste it within a week. I say go for it. It will be green and won't be totally carbed. Then taste it at 2 weeks then 3 weeks. You will see how your beer has changed and how the flavors have blended. It will also show you how patience is a large part of this hobby.

 

[vnzjunk]

Its pretty hard to really mess up a batch of beer. Relax and enjoy the process. Any mistakes you have made you can avoid on your next batch. We all learn from any miscues (again, most of which probably will not matter to the final product). One thing that has helped me out greatly is making notes in a spiral notebook on each batch that I brew. Ingredients, measures.......what I did rite and what I may have done not quite rite. It is nice to have to refer back to down the road (trust me you will and you won't remember it all just in your head). As you brew more and more the various batches start running together in your memory so a written account and brew log are invaluable to refer back to.
If you do not have a chiller of some sort, iced water is a good substitute for cooling down the batch. Just remember to have an idea of how much you are adding and use that amount in your calculations. When I was using this method almost in each batch I did some calcs using my cold well water vs a fixed amount of boiling water. How much cold tap water does it take to cool down X amount of boiling water to 70F or whatever yeast pitching temp you desire. Keep adding amounts and taking readings till the temp is where u want it. Within reason you can scale this process down say cups vs gallons and then just scale it up. If temp of tapwater varies with season then you have to remember this if this is your cooling method of choice like mine was. Refrigerator water or ice water should be the same just about all the time I would think. At any rate you get the idea. Same process could be used using iced water which most likely would use less ice water to cool down the batch. You would want your wort/added water at pitching temp before rather than after pitching the yeast. but if you have already pitched the yeast cool it the best you can (fermenter in ice or iced water bath) and then watch for 24-48 hours and see if you get any airlock activity in the fermenter. Gravity readings are temperature sensitive so you either have to take temp readings and apply correction factor or have a scale with the correction factor applied....or a refractometer which self corrects.
When first getting a batch of Ale under way I like to have it at room temp, maybe 68-74F to get things going well. If your instructions or yeast dictate a different range then use that. The temp of a fermenting wort will be higher than the ambient temp because of the chemical activity by several degrees. So you may want to keep that in mind.
Don't worry too much.........give it a chance to work itself and you most likely will find that everything is in the ballpark anyway.

Good Luck and welcome to the hobby

 

[unionrdr]

I use an ice bath to chill my wort down. I put the brew kettle in the sink,fill to the brim with ice,then top that off with water. Mo ice,mo betta. I like to chill down to 70-75F before pouring that & the chilled top off water through a dual layer fine mesh strainer on top of the plastic fermenter. Pouring in a circular motion makes the liquid come out the strainer like rain,aerating the wort. Besides straining out the gunk. Then I stir roughly with my plastic paddle for 5 minutes to mix the top off water & wort well. This'll give a more accurate OG reading with the hydrometer.
I use local spring water I get at the source for 10c per gallon,25c for a 2.5G container. Regardless,I chill 3G in the fridge (or garage in winter) to top off with. This'll get the mixture down to around 64-65F if it's done right,a good average temp for most ale yeasts.
I also use cheap grocery store vodka in my airlocks. Any nasties that get in it die of alcohol poisoning. So if a suck back occures,nothing bad gets i the fermenter with it that's alive.

 

[vnzjunk]

The only thing about the ice is that it has the potential to carry bacteria. Most likely the container you had your ice in was not sanitized before creating the ice. I think the threat on this is minimal though.
Your gravities were probably correct, the wort was probably not mixed 100% when you took the reading. If you hit your volumes correctly, you hit your gravity correctly (this is assuming they gave you the correct ingredients according to the recipe).
I wouldn't bother with a secondary, unless your dry-hopping or adding fruit later (even then, probably wouldn't do it). Just rack out of your primary when it's complete into your sanitized bottling bucket and bottle with priming sugar.
Next time get your wort to fermentation temperatures before pitching the yeast.
Brewing outside is the way to go!

I used to worry about this from my own personal well water but it has not been an issue for me. Your mileage could vary on this one according to your own source of water. I suppose what someone could do is pre boil their water and then chill or near freeze it. I have not had to do this. If the water is from the store in bottles I would think that it is already sanitized enough but then again, just a guess.

 

[Side_fx]

I had my brew kettle in a ice bath too, I was just trying to cool it down faster.

Thermal shock the yeast?

The dry yeast that came in my kit said on the back of the packet to get a 4 oz pot of water at 87-90 degree F to activate the yeast before putting in the fermenter. The Brewers best instructions just said to sprinkle it on the top and mix. Which one should I follow? I figured with my wort at 87 just sprinkling on the top should activate it.

 

[dozer5454]

Some hydrate and some sprinkle. Both have reported great results. There is a huge thread on rehydrating dry yeast if you want to look it up.

 

[Side_fx]

Ok thanks,

Also I have 70+ red hook bottles I have been saving I just rinsed and removed the labels. To clean before bottleing should I just run them on the rinse and headed dry cycle of the dishwasher? That is what we do for caning.

 

[unionrdr]

I prefer to soak bottles in PBW to clean & remove labels. A dobie & a bottle brush to clean gunk off. Then a good rinse & onto bottle tree to dry before storage. On bottling day,I have a vinator on top of my bottle tree half filled with starsan to sanitize bottles. Then onto the tree till it's full & bottle away.
It holds 45 bottles,so I know I need only a few more for a 5 gallon batch. 15-18 more bottles for a 6 gallon batch. A 5G batch being 48-52,6G batch 62-67 12oz bottles.

 

[punkrockdave]

Congrats on the new hobby. Just like the other guys said, no need to really worry about your first couple of batches, in time you will work the bugs out. I agree with the guys about the ice and if you want to cool down the wort faster I recommend an immersion chiller and if that does not chill it fast enough then this is something I do, I place 4 frozen PET bottles (sanitized of course) in the wort when it reaches about 150 or so. Not sure if the extreme heat does anything to the plastic bottles. That combined with the chiller I can reach about 70 degrees in less than 20 minutes. As for the turkey frier I would not go that route. I had one and the pot was not big enough for a full volume 5 gallon mash. It is good for BIAB sessions however. My real complaint about these is the flame, it is more of a wind sock and less a steady burner. My propane would last for only about 5 batches. I went and got the Bayou Classic burner, it ran me about 80 bucks, but I have made over 8 batches with it and have used a bit over half a propaine tank (20LBS). Hope any of this info helps you.