Brewed my first batch tonight! few pictures

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weaver

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My supplies were shipped a few days ago and I was finally able to get to brewing tonight for my first time. I think the process went well but I guess we'll see in the coming days. It took me about 5 hours from start to finish including cleanup.

Nut Brown Ale Extract Kit

Recipe Volume: 5 gal

Malts
.25 lbs English Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs Belgian Special B
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
.25 lbs Briess Special Rost
6 lbs Gold malt syrup

Hops
1 oz Fuggie

Yeast
Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast

Procedure:
Heated 3 gallons of water and poured crushed grain into the Muslin Bag. Steeped for 25 minutes and let drain while starting the boil. Brought mixture to a boil (which took a lot longer than anticipated) and then moved off burner. Stirred in malt syrup extract and brought to a boil again. Added Fuggie hops and boiled for 60 minutes. Added a tablet of Whirlfloc 10 minutes before the boil ended. Turned off heat and chilled the pot in an ice water bath in my sink. I want to say it took about 25 minutes and the temp was down to 66 degrees.

I made sure to sanitize everything with StarSan.

Here's where I believe I made a mistake. Instead of pouring 2 gallons of cold water into my fermenter, I poured the 2 gallons right into my pot with the wort. Don't ask me why, I realized what I did after the deed was done. I then poured everything into my fermenter. I was planning on pouring the 2 gallons into my fermenter and then slowly pouring my wart into the fermenter and was going to leave behind the sludge at the bottom of the kettle. Instead it got all mixed up when I poured the 2 gallons in the pot with the wart. I started aerating by sealing it and then rocking it back and forth for about 5 minutes. I then realized I still needed to add another gallon of water to bring my level to 5 gallons. Did that and aerated another 5 minutes.

I took Original Gravity reading with my Hydrometer which was about 1.042. I need to get a turkey baster or something to make it easier to get my beer in the test jar.

Rehydrated the dry yeast by pouring 4oz of water in a sanitized glass and microwaving it to about 87 degrees. Poured dry yeast in and let sit for 15 minutes. Stirred and let sit for 5 minutes. Stirred again and let sit for 5 minutes. Since my temperature in the fermenter read 64.6 degrees, I added cold water to the yeast until it read about 67 degrees and then pitched the yeast. Added 10 drops of Fermcap-S.

Fermentation
Fermenter is sitting in a closet which I have been monitoring the temperature for the last few days. It's been a consistent 68 degrees. It's only been fermenting for 3 hours so far. I guess I'll check the gravity again in 2 weeks? And then I'll probably bottle for about 3-4 weeks? The whole process is still new to me and it's going to be a learning process but I'm very excited!

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So far, so good! In my experience with extract brown ales, let it sit in primary for 3 weeks then bottle. After another two weeks it should be really good. It will hit its prime 1-4 weeks after that.

As far as your 'mistake'. I wouldn't worry about it. It should still taste like beer. :)
 
Great Job on the pictures. Looks like you run a very well organized brew. I wouldn't worry for a moment about your errors you describe. I don't view these as mistakes. Sounds to me like you nailed all the critical and less important steps. I am no expert

Cleaning and sanitation was mentioned. good

Yeast management sounds great

Good kit and good recipe from NB (I love their kits. That is where I started)

Are you monitoring/controlling fermentation temperature?
 
Great Job on the pictures. Looks like you run a very well organized brew. I wouldn't worry for a moment about your errors you describe. I don't view these as mistakes. Sounds to me like you nailed all the critical and less important steps. I am no expert

Cleaning and sanitation was mentioned. good

Yeast management sounds great

Good kit and good recipe from NB (I love their kits. That is where I started)

Are you monitoring/controlling fermentation temperature?

Thanks! With the help of the guys on this forum, especially @marcstache I was able to put together a custom kit all for under $300 after shipping.

I have a fermometer on my carboy but that's about as much as I'm going to do as monitoring/controlling. I haven't put much thought into that yet.
 
Thanks! With the help of the guys on this forum, especially @marcstache I was able to put together a custom kit all for under $300 after shipping.

I have a fermometer on my carboy but that's about as much as I'm going to do as monitoring/controlling. I haven't put much thought into that yet.

No worries. I think I may have seen the thread you were putting things together in. Nice job. wish I'd thought of that before getting my kit from a LHBS I no longer use. Found a much better one.

Congrats on your first brew. The wait will be a killer.
 
Sweet gear pic! I bought those same kits to get the free big mouth bubbler when they had that promo going. I also like how you precariously perched your fermenter on the banister!
 
Awesome! Welcome to the obsession!! Couple tips:
Be patient.
Throw your fermentor in a tub of water with an ice bottle or two to help keep temps below 70, it heats up during fermentation. You can search swamp cooler here on the forum, for more info.

Either way it will be beer, Enjoy!!!!!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Well done. I don't see why mixing your top off water right into the wort would really cause any problems. Your yeast pitching and sanitation sound spot on. Northern Brewer will earn a lot of your business this year if you're anything like me - great customer service, flat rate shipping and great values on there!
 
Fermentation temps rise 3-5 degrees depending on amount of yeast that you pitched/how big a beer it is. FYI. I prefer low to mid 60s to start fermentation and then once yeast take off it mill be mid to upper 60s. I don't like my ferm temps with ale yeast over 70 degrees. It makes a "cleaner" beer for the styles that I make.

You made no mistakes in your process in my opinion. Best of luck and welcome to a very cost neutral hobby!!! (there is no need to go out and spend the big bucks on great beer as you can make it AND there is no need to go out and spend 1K or more on equipment, but that's easy for me to say cause I don't have a lot of extra cash!)
 
+1 on the swamp cooler suggestion.

I ignored it and always just sat it in the coolest corner of my house which wasn't that cool. I finally looked up the swamp cooler and it was a no-brainer to put together and with little to no upkeep, it held temps at a much more reasonable range.

-1 on the pictures of it sitting on the banister. It made me nervous just looking at those.

Nice job buddy! :mug:
 
Fermentation temps rise 3-5 degrees depending on amount of yeast that you pitched/how big a beer it is. FYI. I prefer low to mid 60s to start fermentation and then once yeast take off it mill be mid to upper 60s. I don't like my ferm temps with ale yeast over 70 degrees. It makes a "cleaner" beer for the styles that I make.

You made no mistakes in your process in my opinion. Best of luck and welcome to a very cost neutral hobby!!! (there is no need to go out and spend the big bucks on great beer as you can make it AND there is no need to go out and spend 1K or more on equipment, but that's easy for me to say cause I don't have a lot of extra cash!)

I think I just need to keep brewing and experimenting to fully understand what I like and don't like. I'm sure a lot of it's personal preference.

Yeah, I decided to get into home brewing because I found myself trying a lot of random custom beer at a local discount beer store. I'm sure it'll be a lot cheaper too (or at least that's how I justified it to my wife :ban: ... And as far as the equipment, I didn't want to spend $50 on a kit and then realize I needed to buy everything all over again. I'm so glad I posted on this forum because I'm sure I saved a lot of money and I'm learning as I go. Plus, now all I need to do is customize my process to what I like/"need".



+1 on the swamp cooler suggestion.

I ignored it and always just sat it in the coolest corner of my house which wasn't that cool. I finally looked up the swamp cooler and it was a no-brainer to put together and with little to no upkeep, it held temps at a much more reasonable range.

-1 on the pictures of it sitting on the banister. It made me nervous just looking at those.

Nice job buddy!

I'll have to look into the swamp cooler for my next batch. And yeah, setting all my hard work on the banister probably wasn't the best idea :smack:
 
Wow - you did an awesome job on your 1st brew and also great job documenting your brewing processes. I record all of my brew days in an old lab notebook. Check back and let us know how it turns out. :)

Cheers :mug:
 
Looks like you've got a good process. The only thing I would do differently in the future is to boil your water that you use to rehydrate your yeast and cool to 87* instead of warming to 87*f. Probably won't have any issues but that is the only area that I see that could become a real problem. Welcome to the obsession.
 
Fermentation started today! It could have started earlier but I'm going to say it started 16 hours after I pitched the yeast. I thought it typically starts after 48 hours.

Here's a video:

 
Fermentation started today! It could have started earlier but I'm going to say it started 16 hours after I pitched the yeast. I thought it typically starts after 48 hours.

Here's a video:


There are a lot of variables that can affect the lag time. Freshness of yeast, amount of oxygen in your wort, pitch temps just to name a few. I've had batches show air lock activity and krausen in 3 hours using a yeast bed from a previous batch.

Don't worry about it too much. Think of it as a race between your yeast and whatever bacteria got through your sanitation. As long as the yeast win you are go to go.

Managing the yeast is a science unto itself. There is nothing wrong with keeping it simple with dehydrated yeast. Especially when you are just getting started. But liquid yeast and starters will improve your beers. The forums have tons of great stuff on managing your yeast.
 
There are a lot of variables that can affect the lag time. Freshness of yeast, amount of oxygen in your wort, pitch temps just to name a few. I've had batches show air lock activity and krausen in 3 hours using a yeast bed from a previous batch.

Don't worry about it too much. Think of it as a race between your yeast and whatever bacteria got through your sanitation. As long as the yeast win you are go to go.

Managing the yeast is a science unto itself. There is nothing wrong with keeping it simple with dehydrated yeast. Especially when you are just getting started. But liquid yeast and starters will improve your beers. The forums have tons of great stuff on managing your yeast.

Is there any difference in fermentation starting in 5 hours compared to 45 hours? Is it better if fermentation starts later in the process? Earlier? Does it even matter?
 
Is there any difference in fermentation starting in 5 hours compared to 45 hours? Is it better if fermentation starts later in the process? Earlier? Does it even matter?

Sorry for the delayed reply. A quick starting and vigorous celebration reduces the risk of infection and will produce less of flavors. There is nothing wrong with dry yeast. In fact it's easier for a beginner because it's really hard to screw it up. But liquid yeast and a starter will up your game. Bottom line healthy, active yeast make better beer.

Again no rush. Work on your process and ease into it at your own pace. Part of the reason this obsession is so cool is your are always learning and making better beer.

Try making 2 beers in a row that use the same yeast. On the second batch cool it to pitching temp and poor it right over the yeast cake from the first batch. You will see a much more active fermentation. Hell do the same bet twice in a row, most times the batch on the yeast cake will be better.
 
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