New Brewer - First Batch

[Leggoma]

I just finished up my first batch of beer (American Amber) made from a recipe kit put together by one of the local brewing supply shops. I was lucky enough to catch the owners of that same local brewing supply shop brewing a batch (AG) of beer right there in the store's parking lot, along with two guys brewing their first batch right there. I got to see it from start to finish. So, I'm not super stressed about doing anything wrong. However, I do have a few questions.

1. Should I have used spring or filtered water instead of water from the tap? The water quality here is fine and there are no strange or metallic tastes from my tap water, but I was still debating whether to buy water (a concept I find silly anyways).

2. I took care to stay very sanitary, particularly since I was out in my small, dirty backyard on a small concrete pad (definitely taking it to the garage next batch). However, when I was cooling the wort, a few drops of water would dribble into the pot from where the wort chiller connected to the input/output tubes when I shifted the chiller into a different position. It wasn't a significant amount, but is it something that I should worry about with this batch? The chilled wort went directly into the fermenter that was drained, but not rinsed of the sanitization solution. Is the leftover residue from the sanitization solution enough to take care of the bacteria that could have potentially been introduced from a a few drops of unsanitized water?

 

[chickypad]

Are you doing extract? If so, and your water tastes good out of the tap it should be fine. All grain brewing typically requires more attention to water chemistry.

I too have had the leaky wort chiller issue and have never had an infection. You did use a no-rinse sanitzer like star san or something, right?

welcome to the obession

 

[djfriesen]

Welcome, Leggoma!

Fellow Treasure Valley brewer here. What LHBS did you go to? I've been wanting to find a brewday like this.

As to water, you should be fine. My main concern would be chlorine, but that can be fixed. Even if it's not ideal, it's not gonna ruin your batches, and you'll do better to dial in sanitation and fermentation temp control over water chemistry early on.

Cheers!

 

[Leggoma]

Are you doing extract? If so, and your water tastes good out of the tap it should be fine. All grain brewing typically requires more attention to water chemistry.

I too have had the leaky wort chiller issue and have never had an infection. You did use a no-rinse sanitzer like star san or something, right?

welcome to the obession

Thanks. I have been wanting to do this for about 4 years, but finally just did it.

Yes, my kit came with a malt extract and the sanitizer was Star San. I did have a smaller yield than expected though. I had the standard 5 gallon kit, and even did put in an extra half gallon of water to compensate for boil-off. I think I boiled it a little too hard though. The instructions said the initial gravity should be 1.057, and I measured 1.064. How will these issues affect my finished product?

 

[Leggoma]

Welcome, Leggoma!

Fellow Treasure Valley brewer here. What LHBS did you go to? I've been wanting to find a brewday like this.

As to water, you should be fine. My main concern would be chlorine, but that can be fixed. Even if it's not ideal, it's not gonna ruin your batches, and you'll do better to dial in sanitation and fermentation temp control over water chemistry early on.

Cheers!

Thank you. I went to HomeBrewStuff.com off of Chinden and Maple Grove, but got my wort chiller from Brewer's Haven on Vista today, since HomeBrewStuff.com isn't open on Sundays.

 

[Daybis]

Congrats on your first brew!

1.) I believe if your water is good enough to drink, it's good enough to brew with.

2.) I think everyone has had the leaky wort chiller issue at some point or another. I once had a friend who leaked about a gallon of water to his brew. It turned out just fine. I have hoses that connect to my copper coil. I use hose clamps to keep the hoses attached. I always keep a screw driver within reach when I'm running water through my coil, just to be prepared if a leak starts.

Again, congrats on your first brew!

 

[Leggoma]

Congrats on your first brew!

1.) I believe if your water is good enough to drink, it's good enough to brew with.

2.) I think everyone has had the leaky wort chiller issue at some point or another. I once had a friend who leaked about a gallon of water to his brew. It turned out just fine. I have hoses that connect to my copper coil. I use hose clamps to keep the hoses attached. I always keep a screw driver within reach when I'm running water through my coil, just to be prepared if a leak starts.

Again, congrats on your first brew!

Thank you as well. This forum has been very welcoming so far. The clamps on the hoses are just crimped, and not adjustable. They are on really tight, and the small amount of drippage happened after I cranked up the pressure to my garden hose thinking that the faster flow would chill my wort faster. I'll end up replacing the hose clamps, but will also not crank up the water pressure next time as well.

 

[bigvincevitale]

U should be fine with tapp water i got about 12 batches under me now with no problem welcome aboard

 

[djfriesen]

I drove by HomeBrewStuff Friday, but was on my way out of town, so I didn't get a chance to stop in. I really want to pick up an IC there, as they seem to have really good prices on their copper. I helps that I think I have a connection there as far as getting a possible discount.

On a side note, if you hear of anything homebrew-related going on locally, would you consider heading over to the ID brewers group thread and posting there? There hasn't been very much traffic lately, but I'd like to see if that can't change. Seems I've run in to quite a few SW ID brewers here lately. Spud Suds

 

[chickypad]

I had the standard 5 gallon kit, and even did put in an extra half gallon of water to compensate for boil-off. I think I boiled it a little too hard though. The instructions said the initial gravity should be 1.057, and I measured 1.064. How will these issues affect my finished product?

This could be a mixing issue giving an inaccurate reading if you topped off. If you mean you just boiled more and ended up with less volume no big deal. The beer may be a little bigger than the recipe started with but I would RDWHAHB! (or since you don't have any yet, have a microbrew!)

 

[Leggoma]

This could be a mixing issue giving an inaccurate reading if you topped off. If you mean you just boiled more and ended up with less volume no big deal. The beer may be a little bigger than the recipe started with but I would RDWHAHB! (or since you don't have any yet, have a microbrew!)

I didn't top off. One of the guys at the brew store recommended against it once you were done boiling. Any thoughts on topping off?

 

[chickypad]

If you can do a full boil without topping off it will probably improve your beer. Just adjust next time for the evaporation and start with more water. If you can't boil that much, and thus are way under volume at the end, you're probably better topping off with water to create more what the recipe was aiming for. As I said, though, if this one is already fermenting I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[djfriesen]

It'll take you a while to nail your numbers down, such as evaporation and mash temps. Keep track of how much you lost on the last boil, and account for it on the next one. You can top off at any point in the boil, so even the last 15 minutes, you can add more water if you need to. IMO, the specific gravity is more important than the slight difference in hop utilization that you'd see.