My first brew: A pictoral thread.

[dfc]

My brewing pot.

I'm going to buy a propane burner because it was hard for me to get a rolling boil on the glass top stove.

The wife took a couple of shots of my dry malt extract. Here's just one.

My grains...

When the grains first went into the pot.

After they had steeped for a while.

After the malt had been added before it started to boil.

After hops were added.

My wort cooling down. (Next time I'm going to throw two frozen gallons of filtered water into the fermenter and then pour the hot wort on top to cool it down quicker)

Preparing my yeast.

 

[neovox]

Cheers!

 

[icedub]

Great shots! Have you ever considered setting up a photo blog to post and share brewing photos?

 

[wyzazz]

Congrats on your first brew!

One suggestion, if you're going to use an Ice Bath to chill then put the pot directly in to the ice and chill it down to 80-90F, then dump it in to the fermenter. After that you can add your pre-boiled and cooled top off water in whatever form you want. That should get you pretty close to pitching temps.

 

[dfc]

Great shots! Have you ever considered setting up a photo blog to post and share brewing photos?

No sir, I have not. I'm not big on blogging. I'm glad you appreciate the shots though.

 

[dfc]

Congrats on your first brew!

One suggestion, if you're going to use an Ice Bath to chill then put the pot directly in to the ice and chill it down to 80-90F, then dump it in to the fermenter. After that you can add your pre-boiled and cooled top off water in whatever form you want. That should get you pretty close to pitching temps.

Thanks. I have already pre-boiled and frozen two gallons of water for my next batch. I'll cool down the wort a little bit and then pour it directly on top of the two frozen gallons. Apparently a lot of people have done this and they all say it works fine.

 

[meadroid]

You can pour your wort onto 2 gallons worth of ice if you really want to speed up the cooling.

 

[Hang Glider]

You can pour your wort onto 2 gallons worth of ice if you really want to speed up the cooling.

They say commercial ice is bad (nasties) - but I did it this way many years, until I began full-boils and got a chiller.

just treat it cleanly...sanitize the ice bag, etc.

 

[dfc]

Just had my first brew today. I've definitely had better beers, but this one is pretty good. Here are a couple of pics.

 

[pwndabear]

seriously man, good photos there. and i love the beer arrangement you have behind your glass

 

[PassionBeer]

Congrats, dfc!

So instead of dunking the pot or bucket of wort into ice water, you can put cold water in the primary fermenter and then pour the boiling hot wort in?....

 

[maxamuus]

Funny thing is i have the same stove you do. I bought a turkey fryer and the difference is night and day. Its money well spent.

 

[pwndabear]

So instead of dunking the pot or bucket of wort into ice water, you can put cold water in the primary fermenter and then pour the boiling hot wort in?....

Yup. What i usually do is chill the heck out of the water i will need to bring my brew to full volume. I put my primary in an icebath, put the chilled water in the primary, and then pour the hot wort right on top of the chilled water in an icebath. As soon as i fix my immersion chiller, i'll be taking that step as well. I want my water to get to ~70 as soon as possible (waiting for it to cool is like pulling teeth for me).

 

[PassionBeer]

Yup. What i usually do is chill the heck out of the water i will need to bring my brew to full volume. I put my primary in an icebath, put the chilled water in the primary, and then pour the hot wort right on top of the chilled water in an icebath. As soon as i fix my immersion chiller, i'll be taking that step as well. I want my water to get to ~70 as soon as possible (waiting for it to cool is like pulling teeth for me).

Ha, good information!

Yea, it is quite a pain - mine normally takes around 20 minutes or so to get down to the right temperature, but if this practice is okay, I'm going to start doing that. Thanks!

 

[kingmatt]

Just had my first brew today. I've definitely had better beers, but this one is pretty good. Here are a couple of pics.

Thats a pretty quick turn around if you brewed on 7/22 and are cracking your first bottle today. How long did you ferment before bottling? Depending on the beer, I usually primary for 3 weeks (2 in primary, 1 in secondary when dry hopping/adding fruit) then bottle condition for a minimum of 3 weeks before trying it. You may not be getting the flavor you want because it is still 'green'

 

[Diver165]

Its possible. But cutting it real close. I ususally do the 2 week primary, 3 - 4 weeks in the bottle

 

[natural320]

You may not be getting the flavor you want because it is still 'green'

+1

the one you crack next Friday will result in a: "hmmm. I actually made a tasty beer. go me!" :rockin:

 

[dfc]

seriously man, good photos there. and i love the beer arrangement you have behind your glass

Thank you. I thoroughly enjoy good beer.

 

[dfc]

Congrats, dfc!

So instead of dunking the pot or bucket of wort into ice water, you can put cold water in the primary fermenter and then pour the boiling hot wort in?....

Yeah, I use filtered water that I freeze. I'm still refining my process, but I put about 1 1/2 gallons of filtered frozen water into my bottling bucket, pour the wort in and once it's cool I transfer to my fermenter via spigot in order to aerate the wort before pitching yeast. I of course am doing partial boils so the ice makes up the remainder of my batch once it melts. I get down to pitching temps in about 10 minutes.

 

[dfc]

Thats a pretty quick turn around if you brewed on 7/22 and are cracking your first bottle today. How long did you ferment before bottling? Depending on the beer, I usually primary for 3 weeks (2 in primary, 1 in secondary when dry hopping/adding fruit) then bottle condition for a minimum of 3 weeks before trying it. You may not be getting the flavor you want because it is still 'green'

I fermented in primary for 3 weeks then bottled. It's been bottle conditioning for 16 days now.

 

[dfc]

Funny thing is i have the same stove you do. I bought a turkey fryer and the difference is night and day. Its money well spent.

Oh I definitely use a propane burner.