Newbie Brewer (brewbie?) from Chico, CA

[rainingbullets]

Greetings all. Brewing my own beer is something I've been wanting to try for quite some time now, but never had the time or money. Luckily for me, I stumbled on a near-complete brewing kit on Craigslist. Only thing the guy wasn't including was bottles, ingredients, and cook-ware. Anyway, I got a SWEET deal for the whole kit. Here's a list of what I got:

6 gallon glass carboy
~6 gallon brewing/bottling bucket (looks like plastic paint bucket)
bottling wand
~3/8" tubing
bottler capper...thing
~55 bottle caps
1lb corn sugar
2lb "D.M.E" (not sure what it's for)
2 brewing books
2 air-locks
3-scale hydrometer
thermometer (Fahrenheit scale)
stick-on thermometer
bottle of Iodophor sanitizer

So...for the next day or so, I spent some time reading though the books, searching the web, learning everything I could about the brewing process. I've never done anything like this before, so I figured I'd start simple: extract brewing.

Lucky for me, the local brew shop here in Chico is right down the street from where I live. The lady that owns and runs it is VERY knowledgeable and helpful. (The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is also here in town, maybe I could go there?)

Anyway, so for my first batch, this is what I decided to start with:
(Taken from "Brewing Made Easy" by Joe and Dennis Fisher)

"Two Pints off the Port Bow Porter"

Initial Gravity: 1.044-1.052
Final Gravity: 1.014-1.019

Ingredients:

4 pounds Telford's Porter Kit
3 pounds Northwest Gold Extract Syrup
1 ounce Willamette hop plugs
1 packet Whitbread Ale Yeast
1/2 cup corn sugar for priming

Here's the steps I took to prepare the wort:
(again, from "Brewing Made Easy")

1.Bring 1.5 gallons cold water to boil. Remove from heat, add extracts, and return to boil. Boil for 60 minutes
2.Add Willamette flavoring hops and boil 5 minutes
3.Strain hot wort in fermenter containing 1.5 gallons cold water. Rinse hops with 1/2 gallons boiled water. Top off up to 5 gallons
4.pitch yeast when cool
5.Ferment at ale temperatures (65-70 F). Bottle when fermentation ceases (7-10 days), using corn sugar for priming. It should be ready to drink in 2 weeks.


So....I followed the recipe best I could. Everything looked fine. Sanitized the best I could using the Iodophor. The part that really got me was chilling the wort so I could pitch the yeast. I ended up throwing the fermenter into the bathtub with cold water. It still took several hours to reach room temperature!

(note for next time: use frozen 2-liter bottles to chill wort)

Anyway, when the temp was prime, I pitched the yeast and threw the thing in my closet for a little over a week. The temp dropped below 65 F for a few days (cold weather here in Chico), but I dont think that hurt it. After 10 days, the final gravity turned out to be 1.020, NOT within recipe specification. Close enough?

To collect bottles (needed about 50), me and a few friends spent the weekend before slaying away a few 12 packs. I know I can get bottles for cheap from the brewery, but drinking and saving the bottles is so much more fun. haha

So, after removing the labels and cleaning the bottles, I was ready to go.

Here's what I did for priming:
(from "Brewing Made Easy")

1/2 cup corn sugar added to 2 cups boiling water (to ensure saturation). Priming solution was then cooled to room temperature and added to fermented beer.

After it was all capped off and good to go, I was the proud parent of 49 bottles

So then, all the bottles sat in my closet for another 2 weeks.

After that period, I cracked one open, (with that familiar "ksss"), poured some into the 3-scale hydrometer, and the rest into a glass. The final reading was STILL 1.020 w/ an apparent alcohol content of about 3%.

Overall, the Porter looks, smells, and tastes great. When compared to Sierra Nevada's Porter, mine doesn't have the same chocolate-malt body, but it still stacks up okay.

My biggest concern is how "heavy" my brew seems to be. I drank 2 of them the other night and couldn't drink another sip after that! I was just too full. Didn't feel that familiar "buzz" that I feel with the same amount of Sierra Nevada Porter.

Still....my first batch is good and I am proud...even if I can't drink that much.

I'm already thinking about my next batch. Looking at a Pale Ale out of the same book, using a similar extract process. Any ideas, suggestions? (sorry for the long novel)

 

[Parker36]

Welcome aboard. Glad you started doing some research on your own and you have a general idea of what all this entails. Best beginner guide is How to Brew - By John Palmer - Introduction. Get reading (and brewing!)

 

[Yooper]

It looks pretty good to me! A couple of pointers, though- next time, chill the wort (while still in the brewpot) in an ice/water bath in your sink. It's easy to chill 1.5 gallons of wort to under 80 degrees that way. When it's under 80 degrees, add it (straining is fine, if you want to, through a sanitized strainer, but not necessary) to the fermenter and add the cool water to bring you to five gallons. Much quicker and easier than trying to cool 5 gallons of wort!

Secondly, next time do NOT bottle after 7-10 days. Wait until the hydrometer says the beer is done, and then wait some more. Try to bottle about 3-4 weeks after brewday, assuming the beer finished fermenting in a week or so. The beer will be better, you'll reach FG, your beer will be clearer and a bit conditioned, and you'll have less sediment in the bottles.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

What they said ... and 3 weeks in the bottles.

Also, are you compensating for temp when you take your hydromter reading?

You might want to download a demo of beersmith or something and take a look at recipes that don't use kits. these will also tell you how much sugar by weight to use for a certain amount of carbonation.

BTW.. welcome to the sport..er hobby..er.. OK, hell.. ADDICTION...

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[rainingbullets]

It looks pretty good to me! A couple of pointers, though- next time, chill the wort (while still in the brewpot) in an ice/water bath in your sink. It's easy to chill 1.5 gallons of wort to under 80 degrees that way. When it's under 80 degrees, add it (straining is fine, if you want to, through a sanitized strainer, but not necessary) to the fermenter and add the cool water to bring you to five gallons. Much quicker and easier than trying to cool 5 gallons of wort!

Secondly, next time do NOT bottle after 7-10 days. Wait until the hydrometer says the beer is done, and then wait some more. Try to bottle about 3-4 weeks after brewday, assuming the beer finished fermenting in a week or so. The beer will be better, you'll reach FG, your beer will be clearer and a bit conditioned, and you'll have less sediment in the bottles.

YES! That's what I was thinking. Cooling down the entire five gallons took forever! What I have now is two frozen 2-liter bottles full of frozen water. I figure I can throw the 1.5 gallons of wort into the sink in addition to placing the frozen (sanitized) 2-liters into the brew pot for some really fast cooling.

Also, I will certainly give John Palmer's book a look through. Hopefully I can pick up some more insight on extract brewing.

I figured only 10 days after brewing was a bit too soon. Especially because the specific gravity wasn't within specification.

Here's my idea for my next batch:
(again, from "Brewing Made Easy")

Pale Horse Pale Ale

Initial Gravity: 1.044-1.055
Final Gravity: 1.014-1.018

3.3 pounds Black Rock East India Pale Ale kit
3.3 pounds Northwest Gold Malt extract syrup
1/2 ounce East Kent Gold hop plugs
1/2 ounce Fuggles hop plug for aroma
1 packet Whitbread ale yeast
2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Welcome! Good to see another Chicoan on the board! I highly recommend attending the Chico Home Brew Club meetings. There are a lot of very experienced brewers who attend, and it is a very friendly group. There is always a fantastic variety of homebrew to sample, and some interesting subject matter. This Thursday we're meeting above the gift shop at Sierra Nevada @ 6pm and will be discussing BJCP judging, tasting, and the certification process.

I think your problem with attenuation was with the fermenting temperature. 65F is fine for early fermentation, since the activity of the yeast generates their own heat. Since we had a bit of a cold snap, I wouldn't be surprised if some of your yeast went dormant and stopped fermenting the wort, leaving some sugars behind. Near the end you should raise the temperature up to between 68-74F. Turning the heat up inside the house for a few days works fine. This increased temperature will help the yeast "finish out", and fully attenuate. Alternately, you can let your beer ferment for 3-4 weeks and it will eventually reach it's final gravity. At lower temperatures the whole fermenation process just takes longer.

For chilling, I highly recommend an Immersion Chiller. You can either build one on your own if you are into DIY, or purchase one. I think Dawn at the Homebrew Shop has a couple on the shelf that are perfect for 5 gallon batches. This will enable you to chill your batch in a matter of minutes rather than hours.

 

[rainingbullets]

Welcome! Good to see another Chicoan on the board! I highly recommend attending the Chico Home Brew Club meetings. There are a lot of very experienced brewers who attend, and it is a very friendly group. There is always a fantastic variety of homebrew to sample, and some interesting subject matter. This Thursday we're meeting above the gift shop at Sierra Nevada @ 6pm and will be discussing BJCP judging, tasting, and the certification process.

I think your problem with attenuation was with the fermenting temperature. 65F is fine for early fermentation, since the activity of the yeast generates their own heat. Since we had a bit of a cold snap, I wouldn't be surprised if some of your yeast went dormant and stopped fermenting the wort, leaving some sugars behind. Near the end you should raise the temperature up to between 68-74F. Turning the heat up inside the house for a few days works fine. This increased temperature will help the yeast "finish out", and fully attenuate. Alternately, you can let your beer ferment for 3-4 weeks and it will eventually reach it's final gravity. At lower temperatures the whole fermenation process just takes longer.

For chilling, I highly recommend an Immersion Chiller. You can either build one on your own if you are into DIY, or purchase one. I think Dawn at the Homebrew Shop has a couple on the shelf that are perfect for 5 gallon batches. This will enable you to chill your batch in a matter of minutes rather than hours.

That's so funny, I went by the brew shop this morning and spoke to Dawn about my new recipe idea. I forgot to ask about the local clubs!

Is there any cost to attend? I think I will definately check that out on Thursday.

So, anyway, for my Pale Ale I think I will use the full 4 pounds of each type of extract I have. (little more than the 3.3 the recipe calls for) This will equal a total of 8 pounds of extract for my 5 gallon batch. Too much?

Also, I'm going to use the carboy this time for fermentation. (that way I can see it) Then, I will transfer it to the bottling bucket. (leaving sludge and whatever else behind)

More updates soon to come. Thanks for the advice all!

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

The club meetings are free for visitors, but if you're going to become a member it's $24 for the year. This covers club-hosted competitions, logo tasting glasses, and costs for NCHF.

As for your recipe, I'm not sure about those kits as I've never used them. The only extract batches I've done were with "light malt extract", "dark malt extract", and "Alexander's Pale Malt Extract". I did about 4 batches before I switched to all grain brewing. If I put in 8# of malt extract for a 5 gallon batch into BeerSmith (great program, btw), I get this:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.6%

But, if it were me I would add some more hops in there and change the yeast. Here's a simple yet delicious pale ale recipe that Dawn gave me with my first kit:

7# Alexander's Pale Malt Extract
1# Crystal 60L Steeping Grains (soak in 155F water for 30 minutes and drain)
1 oz Cascade Hops (bittering - 60m)
1/2 oz Cascade Hops (flavor - 30m)
1/2 oz Cascade Hops (aroma - 5m)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Liquid Yeast
ABV: 5.1%

 

[caspio]

Welcome to HBT! I used to be right down the street from the Chico brew shop as well. You'll find lots of good info and prices that aren't too terrible. But for sure you'll want to check out the homebrew club meetings. Lucky you, there's one this thursday! If nothing else, it's an excuse to go drink beer. That being said, there's some talented brewers there, and quite a few BJCP judges, so people who bring their brew can get some good feedback.

 

[rainingbullets]

The club meetings are free for visitors, but if you're going to become a member it's $24 for the year. This covers club-hosted competitions, logo tasting glasses, and costs for NCHF.

As for your recipe, I'm not sure about those kits as I've never used them. The only extract batches I've done were with "light malt extract", "dark malt extract", and "Alexander's Pale Malt Extract". I did about 4 batches before I switched to all grain brewing. If I put in 8# of malt extract for a 5 gallon batch into BeerSmith (great program, btw), I get this:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.6%

But, if it were me I would add some more hops in there and change the yeast. Here's a simple yet delicious pale ale recipe that Dawn gave me with my first kit:

7# Alexander's Pale Malt Extract
1# Crystal 60L Steeping Grains (soak in 155F water for 30 minutes and drain)
1 oz Cascade Hops (bittering - 60m)
1/2 oz Cascade Hops (flavor - 30m)
1/2 oz Cascade Hops (aroma - 5m)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Liquid Yeast
ABV: 5.1%

That sounds like a solid recipe. Maybe I can work a little bit of that into this next batch

I went and downloaded the BeerSmith program. I think with some practice it could be an invaluable tool. I couldn't quite figure out how you got those results. I'll have to look into it a bit more.

Here's a lit of what I got from Dawn the other day:

4# Alexander's Pale Pale Extract
4# Cooper's India Pale Ale Extract
1oz U.K. First Gold hop pellets
11g Windsor Brewer's yeast (there is also a little of of yeast that came with the Cooper's kit)


The recipe I was looking at calls for 1/2oz of the hops for flavor and the other 1/2oz for aroma.

I was thinking about adding a little more hops for bittering at the beginning of the boil.

My other concern is whether of not I'm going to need a blow-off tube with my carboy for this setup. I have a 6 gallon carboy for this five gallon batch. Safe?

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Yeah, you'll probably be ok. But just to be safe, have one handy and check in on it frequently the day after brewing. If you're going to be away, definitely just put the blowoff tube on. You going to come to the brew club meeting tomorrow night? I usually hit the pub for a pint before the club meeting, so come on down and I'll buy you one too!

 

[rainingbullets]

Yeah, you'll probably be ok. But just to be safe, have one handy and check in on it frequently the day after brewing. If you're going to be away, definitely just put the blowoff tube on. You going to come to the brew club meeting tomorrow night? I usually hit the pub for a pint before the club meeting, so come on down and I'll buy you one too!

Okay, that's what I thought. Better safe than sorry!

I got a buddy of mine who just got into brewing to go with me to the meeting. I probably won't be there till around 7 or so.

I'm also wondering if I should bring some of my brew. haha It is my first batch...

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

If you want bring brew, it needs to be registered with the cellar master before the meeting begins. We've been having so many brews, we take the first 12 that come in. Otherwise, we have way too much beer and not enough time. Look forward to seeing you, I'll be the guy with glasses and a bigfoot sweatshirt! Cheers!