1st batch last night and......

[bruno24]

Well, I bought a kit and decided to attempt the 1st batch last night of an Irish Red.....I am not confident at all. 1st was looking for simple steps that anyone that can read would be able to follow directions. I was a little irritated, however I tried what I thought would work now I think I made a few mistakes that may be costly ....
1. I used well tap water to add to the cooled wert. I am guessing I should have boiled the water or bought spring water?
2. I did not mix/slosh/ aerate after pitching the liquid yeast.
3. I left the hop bags after chilling the wert and dumped them into the fermenter ....I don't think that was too big of a deal they were just in a few minutes longer than suggested.

Can someone explain why you sanitize all the equipment but nothing was mentioned about sanitizing your hands ? Should I sanitize my hands in the solution or will washing my hands with soap be sufficient?

Lastly....It is currently in the fermantation process. Waht should I look for ....The directions state that the fermantation will take a few days or up to 2 weeks. Keep the beer in the fermenter until active fermentation is done (no signs of fermenattion for 2-3 days) Waht does active fermentation look like? Waht should I see in the air lock and do I have to take the lid off the bucket to determine if fermantation is complete or is it judged by the airlock?


Thanks for any suggestions. I am hoping that I did not ruin the 1st batch or it may spoil my ideas to continue w/ this new hobbie.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Post-boil, everything that touches the beer, including your hands, should be sanitized. If you use StarSan, you can just dip them in there.

Just plan on leaving the beer in the bucket for 3-4 weeks, then use your hydrometer to make sure everything went according to plan. With a bucket, the airlock may or may not be sufficiently active to give you an indicator of fermentation activity. I'd not pay too much attention to it. The yeast know what they are doing, so leaving them alone and letting your bucket sit for a few weeks is the best way to go for beginning brewers.

With respect to your procedure:

1. Bottled drinking water or carbon-filtered tap water are ideal. But you are probably fine.
2. Plan on aerating the next time around. Without it, it'll take longer for fermentation to take off, and the beer's flavor profile will be a bit different, but you should be fine.
3. Leaving the hop bags in there until you rack to the fermentor is pretty standard practice. Not everyone does it, but many people do. No big deal. As long as you didn't leave them in the fermentor, you are all good.

 

[Revvy]

You're just stressing out for nothing...you've done nothing wrong whatsoever. You brewed this like many of us do. Something to realize is that in brewing there are many different ways to do things and rarely is there a "right" way, just a preferred way.

1. I used well tap water to add to the cooled wert. I am guessing I should have boiled the water or bought spring water?

If you are not having a boiled water advisory in your community, and you water tastes fine, it is perfectly acceptable to use it. I use unboiled tap water all the time, and have never had a bad batch from it.

2. I did not mix/slosh/ aerate after pitching the liquid yeast.

A lot of folks don't their first batch because they haven't read about it until AFTER they pitched their yeast. You used dry yeast I take it. There is actually some evidence that which dry yeast aeration is unnecessary. Either way it will be fine.

3. I left the hop bags after chilling the wert and dumped them into the fermenter ....I don't think that was too big of a deal they were just in a few minutes longer than suggested.

It really doesn't matter either way.

Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.

In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.

What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.

But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller for christmas last year I just dumped for the majority of my batches.

Everything is fine, it won't affect the beer one way or another. It will settle down anyway. And you will leave it behind when you rack to bottling or secondary.

Can someone explain why you sanitize all the equipment but nothing was mentioned about sanitizing your hands ? Should I sanitize my hands in the solution or will washing my hands with soap be sufficient?

Because we don't often stick out hands into our beer. And if we do, THEN we have the presence of mind to sanitize our hands. I keep starsan in a spray bottle of distilled water for just that situation.

Lastly....It is currently in the fermantation process. Waht should I look for ....The directions state that the fermantation will take a few days or up to 2 weeks. Keep the beer in the fermenter until active fermentation is done (no signs of fermenattion for 2-3 days) Waht does active fermentation look like? Waht should I see in the air lock and do I have to take the lid off the bucket to determine if fermantation is complete or is it judged by the airlock?

A lot of new brewers think they need to see airlock bubbling, but often that never happens.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2.

If your airlock was bubbling and stopped---It doesn't mean fermentation has stopped.

If you airlock isn't bubbling, it doesn't mean your fermentation hasn't started....

If your airlock starts bubbling, it really doesn't matter.

If your airlock NEVER bubbles, it doesn't mean anything is wrong or right.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

I really reccomend that you just leave the beer alone for the next week, to 10 days then take a grav reading. You don't need to hover over your beer. The yeast wants nothing more than to make beer for you. You just have to trust it. It is really hard to screw things up.

Read this about yeast and relax https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/little-over-48-hours-184027/#post2131342

Your beer is more hardy than you may believe. I want you to also read this, Revvy's Advice to new brewers.

 

[bruno24]

I am extreemley new to this and I bought my kit a few weeks ago. I finally had the time and the equipment to start my potentially new hobbie.

I made my first batch last night of an Irish Red Ale and I think I may have screwed up........

1. I used tap /well water for the cold water to mix w/ the wert.
2. I did not mix/areate the liquid yeast.
3. I did not remove the hop bag after the colling stage of the wert and I ended up dumping that into the fermantation bucket w/ the cold tap water (it should have been removed prior to dumping the wert).

Few Questions............

Will using the tap/well water negatively affect the brew?

The directions indicated that anything that comes in contact w/ the beer should be sanitized, what about sanitizing my hands w/ the solution or just use soap and water ? Does everything need to be like surgical sterile, for instance if a bead of tap water gets on something already sanitzed will that cause the batch to taste crappy?

The batch is fermentating in the bucket. The directions indicate that the fermantation takes 2 days up to 2 weeks. What physical characteristics do I look for to determine if it is fermenting and also when the fermanation process is complete? Do I need to remove the lid or is it done visually by the air lock?

Thanks for any help and yes I plan on getting a book or two prior to the next batch. Trial and Error I guess.

 

[Revvy]

Did you happen to miss the fact that you already started a thread about this, not more than an hour ago, and we already answered it? Or did you just not like our answers?

In case you missed it your thread is here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f22/1st-batch-last-night-208766/

I spent a half hour answering in detail for you.

 

[bruno24]

Sorry, I could not find the thread and I thought I deleted it prior to posting

 

[bruno24]

Revvy,
Thanks for your assistance. The web page was not found for the link Think evaluation before action.

 

[Revvy]

Revvy,
Thanks for your assistance. The web page was not found for the link Think evaluation before action.

Looks like they changed the blog locations.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/blogs/revvy/144-think-evaluation-before-action.html

 

[HexKrak]

If your kit did not come with a hydrometer don't be afraid. They're around $5 at your LHBS (local home brew store).

 

[bruno24]

Revvy,

I haven't checked to see if the batch is fermenting . Should I check today if the batch is fermenting or should I just do the gravity reading in the 7-10 days?

What do you recommend I use for taking the sample from the fermentation bucket?

Thanks again

 

[Skarekrough]

The first batch is always unnerving. I remember walking away from mine thinking I'd be tipping the bucket into the sink in no time.

To my surprise it came out great. It got bottled and didn't last very long!

After a few you get the rhythm down. It becomes nowhere near as intimidating or frantic.

Before long you actually feel like you can do it while working from and watching the kids at the same time!

 

[johnmcc]

If you have a bucket make sure the lid is on tight, I had that problem and found the lid wasn't on tight, one side wasn't completely locked in. After fixing that, I saw bubbles within 2 hrs.

 

[Revvy]

This is what I use, and it works with both buckets and carboys. I replaced the plastic one a year ago with an extra long stainless baster from a kitchen ware store and it is awesome. But the plastic one from any grocery store works fine.

And

Here's what I do....

1) With a spray bottle filled with starsan I spray the lid of my bucket, or the mouth of the carboy, including the bung. Then I spray my turkey baster inside and out with sanitize (or dunking it in a container of sanitizer).

2) Open fermenter.

3) Draw Sample

4) fill sample jar (usualy 2-3 turky baster draws

5)Spray bung or lid with sanitizer again

6) Close lid or bung

6) take reading

It is less than 30 seconds from the time the lid is removed until it is closed again.

Probably less if you have help. And unless a bird flies in your place and lets go with some poop, you should be okay.


If you trust your yeast, and don't go by airlock activity, and do like a lot of us do, pitch yeast and come back in a month to bottle, then you really don't need to open your fermenter and take a lot of readings...I take a reading on brewday, and a month later on bottling day I take another to determine ABV...that's for about 90% of my brewing.

BUT...If I am racking to a secondary, or if I have anoy doubts or concerns about my beer, then I take a hydrometer reading...or as many as it takes to tell me what I need to know.

Personally I would wait like I said. But I know you're anxious. We have a sticky here, Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs. You can wait til it's been 3 days and then take a reading or at least peak inside to see if theres any krausen forming.