Lots of Firsts this Weekend

[gunnuts]

I have been collecting stuff to make beer for a while. My wife got me a Mr. Beer and it released my inner nerd.

I built a fermentation chamber out of an old fridge and got a couple ferment containers.
I made cider and it turned out great and I have been just making myself crazy wanting to get some beer going.
I decided I was going to run what I brung and ordered a couple extract kits.
My boil kettle is about 3.5 gal... man, just barely big enough...

I'm working in my kitchen on the nice glass stove top.

I get everything clean and get my grains steeping. I pulled the sack and got my boil going.. I tell my wife about the potential for boil over. I get the pot off the heat and add my extracts.
Get my boil going and get my hot break. I lowered the temp and added my first hop addition...

You guessed it, it boiled over like a hot water rocket all over.
I even moved the pot as soon as I added them to try to prevent this mess... but this clearly wasn't good enough.

I put my pot in the sink with a lid and cleaned up the mess. I put the pot back on the stove and fired it right back up. The strange observation I have the liquid level was almost exactly the same... I swear there was a gallon of liquid on my stove. In truth it was about a cup and a half two cups.. I got the boil started back up and restarted my timer.

I got my floor all cleaned up, including behind the fridge.
About this time... my wife showed up with a 40qt tamale pot!


Nice, I got my first 5 gal batch of beer in the bucket.
I got my first boil over... and learned how not to do that.
And I got a 10 gal pot!

Nice way to spend a Sunday!

 

[kev211]

Congrats! Always a fun learning experience.

One pointer... Fermcap-S is your best friend. Couple drops of the stuff before the hot break and your boils will be a lot cleaner and your fermentation/krausen levels will be a lot less aggressive.

 

[ncbrewer]

A learning experience. With brewing, you can keep learning forever.

You might want to check the 40 qt pot on your glass stove top to make sure it can get it to a good boil.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

A learning experience. With brewing, you can keep learning forever.

You might want to check the 40 qt pot on your glass stove top to make sure it can get it to a good boil.

He's right about this. I do two gallon batches and my glass stove top works great, but is at its limit to get a strong boil with 2.75 gallons of wort.

 

[eric19312]

Congrats! Always a fun learning experience.

One pointer... Fermcap-S is your best friend. Couple drops of the stuff before the hot break and your boils will be a lot cleaner and your fermentation/krausen levels will be a lot less aggressive.

+1 I do a rolling boil with 14 gallons in a 15.5 gallon kettle with aid of these magic drops

 

[Transamguy77]

Well in a few batches you can upgrade to a cheap propane burner and a wort chiller. Congrats on your weekend of firsts!! There will be many more for a few more batches.

 

[gunnuts]

I already have lots of propane burners. Your correct... my stove wont boil this if I was to run a full boil.

I have a two burner set I use to parkerize steel and two I cook on on my outside kitchen. Going to break it out and see what it can do next weekend I think.

I did it inside because everything was so small and I didn't want crap to blow into my wort. I have a pesky bottle brush tree and the flowers are EVERYWHERE! I think next time I'm going to setup under a tent with a couple walls to keep the flower out.

Thank you all for the tips... this is fun.
Checked at lunch and fermentation is cranking. I have a nice thick foam on top.

I have a boil over out of the way and my Mr Beer batch already tasted like poo so thats done too.

Time to clean bottles.
Lots o bottles.

 

[gunnuts]

This batch went into secondary this weekend.

It started in my bottling bucket... or I would not have moved this one.

I ended up buying a 7 gal fermonster so going forward I can go without a secondary.

My current SG is 1.008 and I got a little more CO2 action once I moved it.
It was a real suprise to see how much is settling out of this beer.

 

[kev211]

This batch went into secondary this weekend.

It started in my bottling bucket... or I would not have moved this one.

I ended up buying a 7 gal fermonster so going forward I can go without a secondary.

My current SG is 1.008 and I got a little more CO2 action once I moved it.
It was a real suprise to see how much is settling out of this beer.

I red the first line and thought... Nooooooo! No secondary! Ha!

But then I kept reading.

The bubbling/co2 action is probably because you roused up some yeast and they are eating up a few more residual sugars. That being said... At 1.008 sounds like things are going well and you're almost there. Congrats!!

 

[gunnuts]

This poor beer is back down to 60-62 degrees.
I started up a carabu slobber and it is soo warm I had to crank down the temp control to 58.

 

[spiff2268]

There's something to be said about electric stoves with the classic coil heating elements. I usually do my boil outside on a propane burner, but if it's windy or raining I do it in the kitchen. It takes awhile, but my stove will eventually get 6-6.5 gallons of wort to a good boil.

 

[gunnuts]

My limit seems to be about 4 gal with the pot I have.
I have to spin the pot to keep the boil rolling nice.


I have to bit the bullet and get another gas bottle filled and break these burners out!

 

[gunnuts]

I bottled this beer last Thursday.
I learned another lesson.... clean a few extra bottles.
I ran about 3 bombers short

I asked my wife to take some pics... I have yet to get them uploaded from the text message she sent them to me with.

Beer tastes good... nice n malty w/ a bitter hoppy finish... no weird flavors or issues...

Good thing too... now my fermentation fridge is getting too cold.

 

[gunnuts]

 

[jsharp4684]

Something else you can use to prevent a boil over is a spray bottle with starsan in it. You can spray the foam and knock it right down. It won't hurt anything either.

 

[gunnuts]

Tried a couple of these last night....

I am pretty happy with it and am looking forward to making another batch when it warms up a little.