A Beginners First Batch

[daytonlawvol]

Well, I have succumbed to Home Brewing. I had tried this before with Mr. Beer, but got a finished product that resembled the taste of an open Natural Light beer being put underneath a lamp for about 3 days. I went to the closest home brewing shop, which is 1 hour and 45 minutes away, to get my kit.

The people there recommended a start my first brew with one of the cans containing the syrup like substance. I went with Muntons Nut Brown Ale. They also gave me 3 pounds of Malt Extract which was powdery.

Here are the steps I took and the observations I made.

Sanitizing.

Boiling the pot to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Adding the syrupy substance to the water at 150 degrees, which I should add, wasn't fully boiling at that temperature. Then added the 3 pounds of powdery malt extract to the wort.

Waited until the wort was boiling, which took a good 10-15 minutes to begin, then continued to boil for 20 minutes.

Dumped the wort into the fermentation bucket. the store I went to told me to have the wort come down to at least 78 degrees...which is exactly what I got mine down to when I added the yeast.

I let the yeast sit in the wort, where it eventually fell in the wort, then stirred after about about 10 minutes of it being in the wort.

Topped the bucket, placed the airlock, filled the airlock to the fill line with water and am letting it sit in a spare bedroom. I keep my house usually at 75 degrees, but Ive lowered it to 73 and keep the fan running in the room where the batch is sitting.

Some Issues, Potential Issues
I did not take an original gravity reading, which I know was a mistake. My understanding is that taking an Original Gravity reading and a Final Gravity reading will let me know when fermentation is complete and if it did ferment correctly, correct?

When boiling the wort, there was foaming over the entire top of the wort, but not a really thick amount...is this a problem? After the wort had cooled...took about 7-8 hours, covered loosely with saran wrap, there was little foaming around the edge of the wort...problem?

I appreciate it guys and girls, I really hope I come out with something drinkable, and hope to maintain this new hobby!

 

[lilwiggum]

Welcome to homebrewing! The one thing I noticed was the amount of time it took to cool the wort. You want to minimize the time to cool the wort because this is when your wort is vulnerable to infection (among other reasons). You might want to try using an ice bath or search the forums for cooling wort.

I'm sure you will be pleased with the results. It sounds like it can't be worse than your Mr. Beer results.

 

[daytonlawvol]

I initially put the wort in an ice bath, but the temperature would only decrease about 1 degree for every 5 minutes or so. I had to go somewhere, so I put the wort in a spare bathroom for 7-8 hours that I was gone, I covered the top with saran wrap.

When I came back, the wort was still at roughly 85 degrees. I put it back in an ice bath, put a fan running towards it and it took about 45 minutes to get it down to 77 degrees.

 

[frazier]

Regarding your OG: If that was a 3.3 pound can of liquid extract (LME), and if you topped up to 5 gallons, then the LME plus the dry malt extract (DME) should give an OG of around 1.050.

Your fermentation should start within 72 hours. No need to panic if it seems to be taking its time.

You might want to look into rigging a blowoff tube and a swamp cooler.

Whatever the kit instructions say, give it three weeks in the fermenter before you bottle.

Pick up a copy of "How To Brew" by John Palmer. I'm old school, I like to hold a book in my hands, but there's an online version also if you like.

And keep coming back here to read ans ask. Enjoy!

 

[Justibone]

You can build a cheap, effective wort chiller for $25-35 dollars with parts from Lowe's or Home Depot. Just unscrew the thing on your faucet to expose the threads, take that thing to Lowe's with you and ask a salesperson in the plumbing department to help you. Run some food-grade hose to a copper coil (if you get it pre-coiled you can bend it as much as you need by hand), etc. Just look at some pictures online of wort chillers and you'll get the idea. I did it, and now I can cool my wort in under an hour. Make sure to test it for leaks before you actually use it, though.

Secondly, it's good you dropped your house temps, and the fan will help a lot, but fermentation temps in the yeast can be as much as 5 degrees more than ambient temps. You'll want to look into a swamp cooler soon, if you want to brew in summer. (Swamp coolers are easy and cheap, and you probably already have the stuff to make one laying around.)

Thirdly -- congrats! It will be beer, and I bet it will be good.

Patience is a virtue when it comes to brewing.

 

[lilwiggum]

I just noticed your location (GA). You might need to look at prechillers if you want to use a wort chiller. Take a temp reading of your tap water. If it's above 80 degrees, you probably want something in addition to a wort chiller.