my first brew over the weekend

[ttk420]

First time brewer here. Thought I would post just to put it out there. I brewed an Irish stout. I put a bunch of time and research into getting prepared and went as far enough to get a wine thief because of my new fear of getting the brew infected. I washed everything with oxyclean Saturday night in preparation but waited till Sunday to sanitize. I made a batch of Star San in the primary bucket and shut the lid tight and gave it a good shake for awhile. I then transfered the Star San into a seperate 5 gal bucket and put all my gear into there, thermometer, wine thief, stirrer, etc. I then proceeded to pour 2 gallons of spring water into my pot and added my grain bag. Minor note, I managed to pour the grains by accident into the sink, DOH! Was not to concerned as I knew there was going to be some serious boiling in the near future. I got the pot up to 160 and held it for 10 minutes. I then pulled the grain bad out and placed in into a strainer over the pot and dumped 2 cups of sterilized water onto the grain bag and let it drip. I then dumped the grains into the garbage and added another gallon and a half of spring water. I got it up to a rolling boil and took it off the burner. I then added my malt extract and got it boiling again only to add the hops. 60 minutes and 2 small boil overs, DOH, I put the pot in the sink for the ice bath. I soon realized that I did not have enough ice so I tried a multitude of things to try and lower the temperature but after reading into the degrees of how the brew could get infected, I transfered it into the primary bucket, got my wine thief full for a hydrometer reading and vigorously stirred the brew before adding the yeast. I snapped the lid on good and tight and filled the airlock with Star San and put it in my dining room. I noticed activity before I went to bed but it was vigorously going at it today and since I will be gone all day, I popped the lid to get just a little more venting, and put a weight on top. So, there you have it. My first brew. So, next Sunday transfer from primary to secondary and then some more waiting before it goes into the corny.
On a separate note, I caught the home brewing bug when my wife got me a Mr. Brew kit. I did that with great success and since my new brew kit came with a corny, I transfered that into my corny and force carb'd it. I am glad I did that because I was able to learn how to clean, sanitize, and take apart the corny. I had a slight issue with a leak but I did some troubleshooting and I think I learned a couple of things about seating the lid.
Well, thanks for taking the time to read this!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rivenin]

awesome! feels great to have your first brew done eh? congrats! now the bug will continue untill you take over your house with brewing equipment haha.
forthe boil overs, keep a spray bottle of fresh water handy and spritz as it gets toward the top as you turn down the heat (little more complicated if you're stove top brewing on an electric burner for controlling the heat)
as infections can take place during the cool off, i wouldn't be too concerned with cooling down ultra fast. be more concerned with the buckets and stuff where it will be sitting for weeks at a time.

 

[dos_perros]

Congrats on the first brew, sounds like you had a few hiccups but you dealt with them and proceeded. It will get easier and less hectic the more you do it, so get another recipe and get to brewing!!

 

[Captain Damage]

Sounds like you're off to a good start!

I would recommend that you don't rack to 2ndary next Sunday. Most of us are finding that leaving the beer in primary for 2-4 weeks (split the difference and call it 3 weeks) yields much improved beer. If you feel a need to rack it before bottling to reduce the yeast that makes it into the bottles, you can do that 2-3 days before you bottle.

 

[rjwhite41]

If you decide to rack to a secondary make sure the beer is done fermenting first. I would just leave it in the primary for 4 weeks. Congrats on your first!

 

[ttk420]

Thanks for some sound advice. I was just following the instructions for the transfer from the primary to the secondary but if I don't need to transfer, I can just leave it in there till it is done in 3-4 weeks. Sounds good to me because I could brew another batch for the glass carboy I have doing nothing. I am thinking I will close the lid tight in the next day or two then if I am going to leave it in the bucket till it is done. It is going straight into a corny.
I had a hell of a time finding spray bottles for the brewing but when I did, I only got one for the sanitizer. I should have got two so I could spray the wort to keep it from boiling over. I did read into the anti-foam(?) tablets but I read that is not guaranteed. I did loving having a spray bottle with sanitizer in it because I sprayed everything and anything I could with it. I was constantly spraying the primary bucket and lid if I got bored. it seemed as though as soon as I got complacent with the boiling, that is when it would get away from me. A watched pot does not boil over I guess.

 

[rjwhite41]

If that carboy is a 5 gallon then it will be too small for a primary ferment. You could use a blow off tube I suppose but if I were you I would look into getting more primaries.