1st brew!

[Quilter]

Last weekend I finally felt that I was ready to brew my first beer. I had studied, read the beginners forums, found a recipe, had to modify said recipe when my local supplier didn't have quite what I was looking for, by golly was i ready! Everything was sanitized, water heated, grains steeped, yeast proofed, whee, all was good! Wort cooled, yeast pitched, airlock on, temperature at 68 - nothing happening. Hmm, have patience for two days, read some more. Aha, apparently Nottingham yeast shouldn't be proofed! Ok re- hydrate a new packet, pitch, wait a few hours, hooray, apparent success! Nope, next day no bubbles. Stew, fret read some more. This morning I opened the lid expecting some dreadful infection, hmm smelled ok, took a hydrometer reading, 1.010 !!! Yay, somehow I achieved BEER!

 

[mongoose33]

You had a leak somewhere so that the CO2 was escaping without going through the airlock. Five-gallon bucket fermenter? That's pretty typical of those.

Anyway, congrats on the beer!

 

[histo320]

Congrats on the first beer. Welcome to the obsession.

 

[Quilter]

You had a leak somewhere so that the CO2 was escaping without going through the airlock. Five-gallon bucket fermenter? That's pretty typical of those.

Anyway, congrats on the beer!

Thanks, yup, figured it wasn't sealing well, but my imagination had every horror possible happening in that bucket!

 

[El Nino]

Congrats man! I can't wait to drink mine. I'm fermenting in a little big mouth bubbler that won't seal all the way (design flaw? I mean it'll close but no airtight seal), but is showing krausen at the top so I'm assuming things are going ok lol.

 

[whiskeyjack]

Congrats!

Congrats man! I can't wait to drink mine. I'm fermenting in a little big mouth bubbler that won't seal all the way (design flaw? I mean it'll close but no airtight seal), but is showing krausen at the top so I'm assuming things are going ok lol.

If you are talking about the small glass big mouth then yea i think its a design flaw. I was going to get one but read a bunch of reviews about not sealing well. If it wont seal i might as well stick with my $1 2gal bucket from walmarts bakery. It has seal issues sometimes but i can place a fat book on it and it will seal

 

[Lefou]

I use my buckets for sanitation and bottling.
The big brew bucket that came with my first kit has never been used for fermentation. I bought clear carboys instead and one of these days, with luck and some spare cash, a reliable stainless fermentor is waiting somewhere.

Now that your first brew experiment has gone well, it's time for a second one.

 

[flars]

Nice when the first one starts out good. Now comes the hardest part. Leaving the beer in the fermentor for another two weeks or so until the excess yeast and sediment drops out for clear beer to bottle.

 

[ncbrewer]

You can see if there's any kraeusen by darkening the room and setting a flashlight on the lid, shining down. The kraeusen will show up on the side of the bucket. Make sure you know the exact liquid level because sometimes you can't see the liquid/foam interface.