Well, just finished my first brew day.

[mikeh80]

And it went pretty well, I think. I made the Midwest Porter extract kit. Only had a couple things go wrong. First, forgot to pull the ring off the jug of LME and it fell in. :smack: Made me glad I was about to boil the whole works for an hour. The other thing was, it took quite awhile to get things down to pitching temp. Need to get/build a wort chiller before I brew again.

Other than that, things went really well. The first hot break got me a bit nervous, but I just watched my temp control and it passed. Ditto with the first hop addition. I stirred the hell out of it when I put the LME in, after hearing all the stories about it scorching and all. When I got the wort into the bucket, though, the only thing on the bottom was hop residue, so I'm glad for that.

Now just have to wait and hope I didn't %$@# something up.

 

[DocScott]

Congrats! the waiting is the hardest part. Start planning your next batch or get to work on that wort chiller. I just made another one last weekend for about $30 - super easy!

 

[mgortel]

Awesome! SOunds like things went very smooth....nothing detrimental there.

Cooling wort quicker would definately be on my to-do-list.....get that immersion cooler built....very easy to make!!!!

Again...congrats.....just remember to be patient with letting beer ferment out totally.....dont rush things.

 

[mikeh80]

Just sitting here basking in the lovely malt smell that now fills my apartment and started hearing "burps" from the airlock already. :rockin: Definitely didn't expect it to start that quickly.

 

[ayupbrewing]

I brewed my first ever batch this weekend, it took 12 hours to take off but oh boy when it did it did it with style.....happy brewing.....

 

[Ostomo517]

Congrats on what sounds like a pretty successful brew day! While that wonderful beer ferments definately look into any improvements, im by no means a pro yet but have filled my inbetween brew time with reading and learning more and more, learning where to tweek procedures and equiptment. Every little bit makes the enjoyment of the final beer that much better.

 

[mikeh80]

It was still a little warm for my liking an hour or so after pitching, (72) so I moved it into the garage for a couple hours last night before bringing it back to the spot I planned to put the bucket in. Could actually hear it starting to take off sometime around 2 a.m. Checked it a little bit ago and it's sitting at 66 and bubbling away like mad.

 

[mgortel]

66F is a nice temperature....definately keep it below 70F....

Love the sound of the air lock burping......lets you know.....IT'S ALIVE!!!!

 

[LandoLincoln]

Congratulations on your first batch!

After proper sanitation practices, fermentation temp control is most critical. Chilling the wort down fast is below those two things. Work on getting your fermentation temps regulated before you worry about chilling after the boil. Swamp coolers are pretty cheap and easy. Do a Google search for "son of fermentation chiller." That's a pretty cheap and easy idea as well.

 

[mikeh80]

Sometime overnight, things slowed to a crawl. Guess the yeast wore themselves out with the crazy fermentation they were doing yesterday. lol Sniffed the airlock this morning. Yesterday all I smelled was fuggles. Today it smells like beer. :rockin:

 

[GeorgiaTiger]

Congrats on your first batch! We have a date in common as I did my first NON Mr. Beer brew day yesterday as well (and only my 2nd brew day, period). Its fun aint it?

 

[99tiger]

As far as cooling the wort goes, I can't connect an immersion chiller (damn fancy kitchen) to my faucet but I've have had success using 4 bags of ice and as much water as I can fit in my sink with my pot and the ice. With that method, I've achieved 65-70 degrees in less than 40 minutes. I did my first one with 2 bags of ice...75 minutes.

 

[Unibrow]

As far as cooling the wort goes, I can't connect an immersion chiller (damn fancy kitchen) to my faucet but I've have had success using 4 bags of ice and as much water as I can fit in my sink with my pot and the ice. With that method, I've achieved 65-70 degrees in less than 40 minutes. I did my first one with 2 bags of ice...75 minutes.

If there's no adapter for your sink faucet, there may be another faucet somewhere in your house to try...I even used my immersion chiller outside 1 time with no ill effects. Just make sure no foreign objects get into the cooling wort.

 

[mikeh80]

Got hit with the 1.020 curse on this one. I think it's because I added too much top off water to the fermenter. C'est la vie, I suppose. Didn't let it discourage me, though, and bottled it up tonight. Guess I'll just end up with a more-sessionable-than-average porter. Even warm and flat, the hydrometer sample tasted pretty decent, so I think with some bottle conditioning my first brew will turn out ok.