Long Time Lurker...First Time Brewer.

[Oakbarrel]

Hello all,

I have just completed my first five gallon extract beer brew and I've come to seek thoughts and congratulations/condolences!

I used a recipe out of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd edition called Dithyrambic Roasted Brown Ale. I sanitized everything copiously here's what I used to brew:

6.6 lb. Amber Malt Extract
225 g Roasted Barley
110 g Black Malt
42 g Northern Brewer Hopps
7 g Willamette hops (finishing)

My expected OG: 1.052-1.056
My actual OG: 1.050

Yeast: Danstar Windsor English Ale Yeast (Pitched at 72 degrees).

The batch is now sitting in a room that stays fairly consistently 67 degrees.

So...the OG is a mite lower than expected which concerns my newbie-ness a bit but otherwise it was fun. Thoughts on how it'll turn out? T'anks in advance.

 

[flars]

You will probably have a quick start to your fermentation pitching into warm wort. Having the wort in the mid 60° range for pitching Windsor yeast would be ideal.
The optimum fermentation range for the yeast is 64° to 70°F. With an ambient temperature of 67° the wort will most likely exceed 72° within 24 hours. I would recommend a swamp cooler for your fermentor. The swamp cooler could be a tub of water to absorb some of the heat from the fermentor. The fermentor in a tray of water with a wet t-shirt around it and a fan will also help cool the fermenting beer.
I do hope your first one turns out to your liking. Have patience. Wait at least a week for your first hydrometer reading and taste.

 

[Oakbarrel]

Thank you, Flars! I'll definitely put your advice to good use. I'm sure there are a hundred mistakes I'll make along the way. I guess I should have dug into the specifics of the yeast a little more which is good to know for the future. Thanks again!

 

[Oakbarrel]

Well, flars was right. I checked my brew this morning and the fermentation lock is bubbling away like a madman. I put it in a swamp cooler as suggested and wrapped it in a wet t-shirt so hopefully it'll all work out and I won't get any off flavors from me being a newb.

 

[Einherjar]

Wait at least a week for your first hydrometer reading and taste.

This is key. This is the hardest thing when you first start. You almost always need to wait longer than you think. It's the hardest thing for me still.

The yeast know what they are doing. Let them do it.

Best of luck and welcome to the addiction!

 

[Oakbarrel]

Well, It's been a week since my first attempt at brewing. I checked the gravity today and it came out at 1.011 after adjusting for temp. The recipe called for a FG of around 1.014. It tastes okay, but it has a very thin mouthfeel. I'm guessing the low gravity and such is because I screwed up and pitched my yeast too warmly? Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Einherjar]

That's 78% attenuation for the yeast, which is not all that out of the "norm" for an ale yeast. Unfortunately, Danstar doesn't indicate an attenuation % for Windsor, just that it has "moderate" attenuation, which could mean almost anything. Your FG is probably lower than expected because your OG was lower than expected. (1.050 vs 1.052-1.056).

That said, a variance of .003 is fairly minimal and in my opinion not worth worrying about.

Easy ways to increase mouthfeel are to steep more specialty grains like crystal malt, which add unfermentable sugars to the wort, or to just add the unfermentables directly as maltodextrin powder.