1st batch boiled!

[motobrewer]

1st batch is in the fermenter! Special thanks to chuggs for answering my questions.

Northern Brewer's British Bitter kit:

0.5lb Simpson CaraMalt
3.15lb Gold LME
1lb Golden Light DME
7/8oz Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
1oz Kent Goldings (1 minute)
Wyeast 1098 Activator

Brew Notes:

Removed Wyeast from fridge, smacked it. Left on counter. Sanitized 6 gallon carboy with star-san. Made star-san solution in a bucket and immersed siphon hose, blow-off hose, and hydrometer.

Filled kettle with 5.5 gallons bottled water. Added grain at 140F, started 30 min timer. Temp rose to 150 quickly, then crept to 155 by end of steeping. Removed grain bag, let drain, and discarded. Increased heat to boil.

Removed kettle from heat, added malt extracts. Man, LME is hard to get out of the bottle. Definately didn't get all LME out. Brought back to boil, started 60 minute timer. Added 7/8oz Kent Goldings. Why 7/8? NB's instructions said if doing a full volume boil, reduce bittering hops by 15-25%. original hop amount was 1oz. Kept it at a slow rolling boil. Stirred slowly every 3-4 minutes.

At 15 min left, added immersion chiller, stainless racking cane, and 1 tsp irish moss. At one minute left, added 1oz Kent Goldings.

Flameout, turned on cooling water. No leaks! Very surprised by my home-made chiller. Cooled to 75F in less that 20 minutes. ~50F ambient helped as well. damn wisconsin....

Realized LHBS sold me a complete kit, with two carboys, hydrometer, bottling bucket, the works....except a hydrometer tube. Couldn't find anything to substitute. Oh well, no OG reading. Siphoned to carboy, letting it splash as much as possible. Left most of sediment behind in brew kettle. Added about 3/4 gallon water to top-off. Splashed wort in carboy for about 30 seconds, then pitched yeast. affixed blow-off hose and ran it downstairs.

20 hours later, 1-inch thick krausen with a satisfying "blurp" every 3 seconds. Basement has ambient of 66F, carboy thermometer says 63-64F.

So, we'll see. Will be running to HBS to pick up hydrometer tube, so I can figure out when fermentation is complete. Will be transferring to secondary for a week or two, then bottling. Overall, I'm pretty happy with what went down. A few questions, tho:

Should I have left the sediment behind in the kettle, or just dumped everything in?

7/8oz vs 1oz bittering - really a big deal, or not so much?

What would be the correct volume C02 to prime to for this style?

Thanks everyone!

 

[cvstrat]

Leave the sediment behind as best you can. Don't really need it in the carboy but it doesn't hurt even if you rack the entire mess.

Bittering additions account for the biggest chunk of your IBUs. I'd try to be as spot on as you can. 1/8th oz isn't going to make or break your beer this time though.

British ales are 1.5-2 volumes. Low is good.

 

[CaptYesterday]

Sediment really won't hurt the final product despite the doom and gloom that some people preach. You could get some off flavors and would most likely have cloudy beer, but in my experience you are just as likely to get hot side aeration.

Truth be told, for my first 10 batches or so I wound up pitching everything in the pot into the fermentor and they all turned out fine.

 

[motobrewer]

I'd try to be as spot on as you can. 1/8th oz isn't going to make or break your beer this time though.

Well, I reduced the amount of bittering because the Northern Brewer kit told me to. It said if I was doing a full volume boil to reduce by 15-25%.

Thanks for the info! I heard somewhere that low is good.