Best valentines gift ever... BEER!

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Hello, my wife bought me a 5 gallon setup from northern brewers for valentines day and an amber ale kit. Mostly followed the instructions for brewing(used less hops and ran into some boiling issues) I bottled my beer 2 weeks ago and just cracked open my first bottle. I don't know why but I was terrified it wouldn't have alcohol, co2, or the taste would be off from bacteria but it was a success. I don't have a way to test the gravity but I'd put the abv at 7 or 8% which is a bit high for an amber ale but OK with me. I've known for years I wanted to give brewing a chance but just needed the push. Looking forward to learning more about the process and sharing some quality beer with friends.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

 

[bleme]

Your kit didn't come with a hydrometer?
Which beer kit did you make?
If it used extract, those are pretty predictable and you can calculate your ABV well within TTB tolerances...

 

[Jayjay1976]

she must have done something really bad.... or maybe you were really good?

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Your kit didn't come with a hydrometer?
Which beer kit did you make?
If it used extract, those are pretty predictable and you can calculate your ABV well within TTB tolerances...

No it didn't come with a hydrometer but I've looked into one and will probably get it with my next kit. Their site lists the beer at 5% but it's definitely got more of a kick to it than that.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

she must have done something really bad.... or maybe you were really good?

Probably a little of both

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome to the group!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Thanks for the warm welcome! So I've just about finished the beer and almost every bottle turned out great! One bottle I apparently filled half way and it almost exploded. A few beers had pieces of hops in them and were cloudy and a little off. I was lucky that the beers I gave away were all of good quality and were much appreciated. I've purchased a hefeweizen kit from northern brewers and a brewing thermometer as well as a hydrometer. I just finished brewing and had to pitch the yeast at 80° because I ran out of ice and I dont have a wort chiller yet. I'm cooling the fermenting bucket on my HVAC vent right now but I'm going to use the kettle to keep the mix cool in the closet. Just need to keep it under 72°. I chose the hefeweizen as my second beer as it's one of my( and my wifes) favorite summer beers. Hopefully my second goes as well as my first. Oh yeah I had my oldest daughter(9) design a label for the 1 beer from my first batch that I'm gonna save.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Soooo I've been obsessing over the temperature of my fermenting hefeweizen a bit... I researched the nominal temperature for this batch and its between 62 and 72 with most people leaning towards 62°. I've created a makeshift cooling system by using the kettle to hold the fermenting bucket and taking out water and replacing it with cool water using the bottle filler hose. This has been labor intensive and I just found a better system. I have a cooler i use for beach trips that I've filled with water and I'm gonna rotate frozen water bottles every few hours. I should probably just leave it alone and hope for the best but I want a good hefeweizen. I might choose a better strain of yeast and beer type in the future for summer batches.

 

[bleme]

My first "temperature control" was a big plastic rope tub, half filled with water, fermentor in the middle, old black t-shirt draped over the fermentor, fan blowing on the t-shirt. You will see that referred to around here as a swamp cooler and it will drop your fermenting temp about 10 degrees (depending on relative humidity). You can supplement that by rotating frozen 2-liter bottles to the water.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Soooo I've been obsessing over the temperature of my fermenting hefeweizen a bit... I researched the nominal temperature for this batch and its between 62 and 72 with most people leaning towards 62°. I've created a makeshift cooling system by using the kettle to hold the fermenting bucket and taking out water and replacing it with cool water using the bottle filler hose. This has been labor intensive and I just found a better system. I have a cooler i use for beach trips that I've filled with water and I'm gonna rotate frozen water bottles every few hours. I should probably just leave it alone and hope for the best but I want a good hefeweizen. I might choose a better strain of yeast and beer type in the future for summer batches.

Welcome! Take a look into the Imperial A43 Loki yeast strain in the meantime. It has an incredible range of fermentation temp, up to like 100 F.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Bottling day and my hefeweizen finished with a final gravity of 1.010 (started at 1.055) around 6%. The banana notes are very strong and overall I'm happy how it tastes. I'm bottling conditioning this, but after a couple of hours bottling I'm seriously considering a keg. My wife is fermenting some "hooch" and needed an airlock so I went to the brew store and while I was there picked up a witbier kit. I'm gonna give it a week or two before another brew day.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

Welcome! Take a look into the Imperial A43 Loki yeast strain in the meantime. It has an incredible range of fermentation temp, up to like 100 F.

The range is impressive! I haven't used a liquid yeast pack yet but I'm gonna have to look into using this in the future.

 

[CalhounsCrazyAle]

I conducted a little experiment... I separated 2 bottles from the rest of the bunch and put one In the window and the other in the fridge. I did a blind taste test and the bottle in the fridge tasted the best after 3 weeks.