1st Brew Q's

[bugleboy93]

Yesterday evening was my first brew day! Amber Ale, all extract , partial boil, from a recipie in "How to Brew". One boil over right at the beginning because I turned the heat off to add the DME and syrup and wanted it up to boiling so I idiotically put the lid on. Now I see why one would want to boil outside. Otherwise it went off well and is fermenting away.

Questions from my first experience:

1) With a partial boil (2 gallons for a 5 gal batch) when cooling the wort, what temp. should you cool it to? The book says pitching temp is 65 to 77F, but since I am adding it to 3 gallons of other water, how can you gauge it? I cooled mine to 80F, and poured it into two other pre-boiled gallons that were at about 60F. I topped off with water from the tap (I'm on a well, that's another Q below). After pouring the wort back and forth from the fermenter to the pot to aerate it, it was so foamy (and great smelling!) that I did not want to shove my grimy fist into the foam with my thermometer to get the temp. I put it in a room at 70F and it was fermenting this morning (eleven hours later).

2) Is well water good/bad to use? Can critters in well water cause an infection and is this common?

3) Are the prevalence of bad bugs worse outside rather than inside, in other words, where is it best to boil the wort?

That's all for now. Thanks all in advance.

Tony

 

[Yooper]

Welcome to the obsession!

Let's see, for your first question- you should cool it down to where it's cool enough to handle and if you mix it with the cool water in the fermenter, you should hit about 70 degrees. A good tip is to have a thermometer strip on the outside of your fermenter to see the temperature. They are about $5 from the brew store, or $2 if you buy an aquarium temperature strip at Walmart. Sounds like you did just fine with the temperature.

2. I have no idea about well water- do you have bacteria and protazoans in it? If you do, you have to boil. I used city tap water for a long time with no problems at all. Some people with iffy water supplies buy bottled spring water, or boil their water and then stick it in the fridge or freezer, to help cool their wort. If you boil your water, make sure to aerate your wort like you did by stirring, pouring, etc.

3. Makes no difference where you boil it- germs are germs. Since it's boiling, it's not a concern until you go to cool it. Outside, use a wort chiller and cover the pot to keep the nasties at bay. No matter where you boil, you should get it as cool as you can as soon as you can- temps between 90-140 are the danger zone for bacteria. Just like food- you wouldn't let food sit at 90 degrees outside for two hours. You need to get it cool, and pitch the yeast and get fermentation going. But WHERE that happens doesn't matter, as long as you use sensible techniques.

 

[bugleboy93]

Also, after re-reading some recipies, I realized I only used one packet of yeast! Here is the recipie:

3.3# Amber LME
4# Amber DME

1/2 oz. Cascade 60 min
1 oz Mt. Hood 30 min
1 oz Willamette 15 min

Can I add the 2nd pack of yeast now (put it in the fermenter 20 hours ago)?

Tony

 

[Yooper]

No, you're fine! You only need one package of yeast. Is it fermenting?

 

[bugleboy93]

Oh, thank you!!! It is bubbling away. I was panicking that I already wrecked my first try.

Thanks for your answers to my water Q's as well. I will make sure to boil all of my water.

I'll get some thermometers from Wal-Mart for the outside of the fermenter.

Is this a great hobby or what!

 

[desiderata]

Yesterday evening was my first brew day! Amber Ale, all extract , partial boil, from a recipie in "How to Brew". One boil over right at the beginning because I turned the heat off to add the DME and syrup and wanted it up to boiling so I idiotically put the lid on. Now I see why one would want to boil outside. Otherwise it went off well and is fermenting away.

Questions from my first experience:

1) With a partial boil (2 gallons for a 5 gal batch) when cooling the wort, what temp. should you cool it to? The book says pitching temp is 65 to 77F, but since I am adding it to 3 gallons of other water, how can you gauge it? I cooled mine to 80F, and poured it into two other pre-boiled gallons that were at about 60F. I topped off with water from the tap (I'm on a well, that's another Q below). After pouring the wort back and forth from the fermenter to the pot to aerate it, it was so foamy (and great smelling!) that I did not want to shove my grimy fist into the foam with my thermometer to get the temp. I put it in a room at 70F and it was fermenting this morning (eleven hours later).

2) Is well water good/bad to use? Can critters in well water cause an infection and is this common?

3) Are the prevalence of bad bugs worse outside rather than inside, in other words, where is it best to boil the wort?

That's all for now. Thanks all in advance.

Tony

Hello, and welcome to the forum!
Looks like you are doing well so far, so no worries. You didn't kill the yeast with too hot of wort, because you said it is fermenting. I think temp under 90 and you're okay, but better to be at room temp. Just stir to aerate after topping off and taking the temp then.
Not sure about well water, but only time will tell. (don't worry)
You can easily boil the wort indoors or outdoors, it's cooling and handling the cooled wort that you need to be careful with bacteria.
don't use a lid at all. no need, unless you want to bring the water (before adding malt extract) to a boil quicker.

 

[bitteral]

Also, after re-reading some recipies, I realized I only used one packet of yeast!

I love Palmer's book, but found his on-line instructions for the Cincinnati Pale Ale, which seems to call for two packets of yeast to be confusing. At one point it sounds like he is instructing you to pitch both packets. But at another point, I understood that he is only saying that you should have two packets on hand just in case the first one doesn't work for some reason. I bought a copy of the paper book and found the instruction regarding yeast to be different but still very unclear as to how many packets he expects the reader to use in his Cincinnati Pale Ale recipe.

All said and done, one packet is plenty for the given recipe, and there is no value in pitching two. (At least that is my understanding, based on what I've since read from other sources.)

 

[desiderata]

Oh, I forgot to address that. Yes, only one package of yeast is really necessary to pitch for one batch. If the yeast is dead, and doesn't start to ferment after a few days, then you might consider repitching another package. Only then.

I had a friend of mine mention adding more yeast to the wort to give the beer a higher gravity or alcohol content. He obviously was misinformed. I corrected him.

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

1) When we did partial boils (up until 1 batch ago lol) we cooled it in an ice both till the bottom of the pot was warm enough to touch for an extended period of time without getting to hot, then we would dump that into the bottling bucket with our top off water at the same time (great aeration), this would bring it down to pitching temp.... We would open the spigot of the bottle bucket and let it splash into the bottom of the carboy (more great aeration), then would shake the carboy for more aeration. then checking the thermometer on the carboy we would pitch and shake just enough to stir...

2) Have you ever gotten sick on your well water? Also if it's not always sitting open and it's not got moss and bugs inside of it i think you'd be ok, however if at some point you get an infection (not to worry about it, some HBer's best beers are infected) you may want to stop.

3) Germs are germs. they'll be wherever you are like yooper said... Be sure to sanitize everything post boil very well...

 

[bugleboy93]

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the support you all are giving me. Thanks very much! This is a great MB! (I'll have to contribute, won't I? =))

As to the 2 packets of yeast, I was confused because I remember reading a line somewhere where Palmer says, "The second packet is there in case you spill the first one!", but as Biteral states it's right there in the Cincinnati Pale Ale recipie. You have put my mind at ease.

Our family has been drinking the well water with no filtration for 20 years and as far as I can tell theaare huvv bin no ill iffextz. (A little joke) I was a little worried that bacteria my body can deal with might still affect the beer. As desiderata says, "Time will tell."

As to cooling, I did purchase a immersion chiller which I used to good effect, but I did not want the wort too cool, like 54 F which is the temp my tap water comes out at in Spring/Summer.

Many thanks to all again. I'll post back with my progress and new questions that pop up during the next phase.

Tony

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the support you all are giving me. Thanks very much! This is a great MB! (I'll have to contribute, won't I? =))

As to the 2 packets of yeast, I was confused because I remember reading a line somewhere where Palmer says, "The second packet is there in case you spill the first one!", but as Biteral states it's right there in the Cincinnati Pale Ale recipie. You have put my mind at ease.

Our family has been drinking the well water with no filtration for 20 years and as far as I can tell theaare huvv bin no ill iffextz. (A little joke) I was a little worried that bacteria my body can deal with might still affect the beer. As desiderata says, "Time will tell."

As to cooling, I did purchase a immersion chiller which I used to good effect, but I did not want the wort too cool, like 54 F which is the temp my tap water comes out at in Spring/Summer.

Many thanks to all again. I'll post back with my progress and new questions that pop up during the next phase.

Tony

Well basically the thing with water usually is it'll get boiled at some point, except when doing partial boils. What you're doing is making an environment that will promote yeast growth, so it's possible there's bugs that will hurt the yeast of infect the beer, but until you get an illeffect i say use it to your hearts content...

Chilling the water is not to get it as cold as possible it's to get it down to pitching temperature as FAST as possible to create the Cold Break....