Hi there! I'm a grad student, which means I'm hella nerdy about documentation and process. I've read most of the beginner stuff on this form and the entirety first section of How to Brew - most of it twice - watched dozens of random YouTube videos, and will soon watch the DVD that came with my homebrew kit. Basically, I'm dead set on getting this right the first time.
I think I've got my plan/methods pretty much dialed in, but I wanted to post it here so someone can tell me if I'm being a stupid n00b about something. I figure it's also a place to post quick questions I haven't yet found completely satisfying answers for; questions will be bold and blue, like this.
First, here is the kit I bought (the version with the glass carboys) so you know what I'm working with, and this is the first beer I'm going to brew.
Now, without further adieu:
Long term brewing learning plan
Process for first brew day:
Dry Run/Prep
Brewing
I think I've got my plan/methods pretty much dialed in, but I wanted to post it here so someone can tell me if I'm being a stupid n00b about something. I figure it's also a place to post quick questions I haven't yet found completely satisfying answers for; questions will be bold and blue, like this.
First, here is the kit I bought (the version with the glass carboys) so you know what I'm working with, and this is the first beer I'm going to brew.
Now, without further adieu:
Long term brewing learning plan
- Dry run (with water, which is actually wet, but you know what I mean)
- Two extract brews in sequence
- Extract brews with specialty malts, brewed "in parallel" via a pipeline
- Partial mash brewing
- All grain brewing (it will probably be at least a good year before I attempt this, not least of all because of equipment costs)
Process for first brew day:
Dry Run/Prep
- Rinse all equipment with warm water in order to remove dust/patina due to shipping/handling/manufacturing
- Move water back and forth from the kettle to the carboy a few times to practice aerating the wort
- Siphon the water from the primary to the secondary to the bottling bucket to the bottle to learn how to use the auto siphon effectively
- Boil about a gallon of water in a saucepan for 10 mins and then let cool, covered. This to be used for odd tasks
- Put LME bottle in a saucepan filled with warm water to lower its viscosity
- Mix StarSan with a gallon of distilled water and store it in a food-grade bucket 5 quart bucket with lid.
- Poor a little of the Star San solution into a spray bottle.
Brewing
- Fill my brew kettle with 2.5 gallons of tap water and bring to a boil
My local water report (PDF) indicates that my water is pretty hard; ~138 ppm. I presume this is still ok for extract brewing? - While water is coming to a boil, empty each bag of hops into clean bowls and keep the bags nearby so I can identify them
- After water has boiled, remove from heat and slowly stir in about half of the LME into what is now officially wort (yay!)
- Add the 60min hops and set timer for 30min
- Use the 30min to gather bottling bucket, yeast, and the rest of the tools needed in the kitchen inpreparation for sanitization and yeast hydration
- When timer goes off set it for 15m and spritz some hand sanitizer onto hands
I'm making the assumption that scentless hand sanitizer is kosher. Is it? I know I can just dunk my hands in the Star San but I have sensitive skin so I want to avoid that if I can. - Sanitize a tupperware container, tupperware lid, spoon, thermometer, and measuring cup; take the temperature of the pre-boiled water and reheat in the microwave briefly if too cold; use the measuring cup to transfer 1 cup of the pre-boiled water into the tupperware, rehydrate the yeast, and cover it
- When the timer goes off again, set it for 10m, pour the last of the hops into the wort and give the yeast a stir with the sanitized spoon (be sure to re-cover the yeast)
- Prep the immersion cooler by attaching the hose to the sink
- When the timer goes off this time, remove the wort from the boil and stir in the remaining LME; carefully dunk the container to put some wort in it, cover it, swirl, and return the mixture to the kettle (this is to get all the syrup out)
This is how I understand the late LME addition to work - is that correct? Does being off the boil for a few minutes adversely affect the hops/beer? - Return the kettle to the heat, insert the wort chiller and let it sit in the boil for the last few minutes in order to sanitize it, and set the timer for 5 minutes
This is a recommendation I found somewhere on this forum; should I be concerned about getting a copper flavor to my beer by having the chiller boil in my wort? - While the boil is finishing, spritz more sanitizer onto hands and then sanitize the bottling bucket and fill with 2 gallons cold tap water using the sanitized measuring cup
This is the only way I can think of to measure accurately since neither the bottling bucket nor the carboy has measurement lines. Anyone have any clever ideas? Also, does the water we add here not have to be boiled? I haven't seen a single source I've looked at mention it. Is the StarSan residue already in the bucket/carboy good enough? - When the timer goes off for the final time, remove the kettle from heat and start running cold water through the chiller
- Check the temperature every five minutes
- While the wort is cooling, bring the Star San, pre-boiled water, yeast, and bottling bucket down to the basement
- When the wort temp hits 85F, turn off the water and remove the chiller
Given I'm about to combine this wort with cold water, I don't actually know what temp I should be aiming for. 85F is a guess - is that accurate? - Carry the cooled wort down to the basement
- Use the funnel to pour the Star San into the carboy, gently swirl it around, then slowly poor the solution back into the container while rotating the carboy
- Dunk the strainer in the Star San
- Spritz the funnel to make double sure all of it was touched by the Star San and then use it to pour the water in the bottling bucket into the carboy - be vigorous!
- Put the strainer on top of the funnel and pour the wort into the carboy
- Set the strainer aside, soak the beer thief in the Star San, and pour some of the wort back and forth from the kettle and the carboy a few times
- Use the beer thief to take a some of the wort and put it in the test jar in order to measure the OG
- Pitch the yeast
How do you get all of it out of the container cleanly? - Rinse the tupperware container the yeast was in with the pre-boiled water
- Re-sanitize tupperware along with the blowoff tube
- Pour more pre-boiled water into the tupperware and attach the blow off tube
- Measure the original gravity with the hydrometer and note it
- Cleanup!