1st brew

[tim1970]

I am doing my first brew tonight. I am doing a German alt ale recipe. (I know I probably should have started with something simpler)

Anyway after steeping the grains, and bringing back to a boil then adding 6 lbs of extract, the wort is just doing a gentle boil. There is no sign of even wanting to boil over. Very little foam on top. Is this normal? I am boiling with about 3 gallons of water.


Thanks

Tim

 

[BarleyWater]

Sorry you didn't get any replies sooner. So, how did the rest of the boil go, anything happen when you added the hops (if you didn't use pre hopped extract)? You don't really need it to happen with extract, already happened when they were making it, but you usually do get a bit of a hot break. I wouldn't worry about it as long as everything else went smoothly.

 

[Orfy]

Yes it's normal. Most people struggle with a vigorous boil on a stove top.

Good luck with the brew.

 

[tim1970]

The brew seemed to go well. The brew supply shop told me that I didn't need a hop sock so I had trouble getting the wort into the fermenter without all the additional stuff. Next time I think I wil use a sock.

One other question...

Is the smell while boiling anything close to what the finished product will be like? When I was steeping the grains, it had a nice smell, but as I started boiling it was a pretty bad smell filling up the house.

 

[AleHole]

You will learn to like that smell. However SWMBO probably won't

 

[newguy]

I love the smell of a good wort cooking! yeah and like Orfy said most struggle with stove top boils. Invest in an outside burner and you and SWMBO will thank you for it.