Complete noob frm southern california.

[brewfan86]

So I'm new to the forum although I've lurked for a while and new to home brewing less then a batch in waiting to see the results of my first batch which is a extract with some specialty grains, nothing fancy just a kit from my local home brew shop. My interest in home brewing came from just loving craft beer and frequenting local brew pubs, gastropubs, and finally local breweries. I would run into more and more people who homebrewed and raved about it. I was a bit skeptical about me doing it because I had it in my head tht it was harder then it was but after encouraging words Frm another home brewer I talked to over some beers I decided I was going to look into it... After watching countless YouTube videos, googling on the subject, and lurking this forum, me and my cousin got some equipment at our local brew shop. The kit came with John palmers how to brew. Anxious to get to it we used his crash course section in the book to guide us through our first cook. We just bottled last week and our now waiting to see if our first try was a success. I'm going to definitely refer to this forum to learn all I can and become a savvy home brewer. I would appreciate any help or suggestion on some must read stuff on Here... Here's some pics of our batch after fermenting and bottling

 

[tre9er]

Mind if I ask a few questions?

How long did you ferment and at what temp? Which yeast came with the kit and how did you pitch it? What did you brew? What was your bottling procedure?

I'm sure you did everything right, but if there's room to improve, we're here to help! I know I learn from screwing-up, unfortunately.

 

[brewfan86]

Mind if I ask a few questions?

How long did you ferment and at what temp? Which yeast came with the kit and how did you pitch it? What did you brew? What was your bottling procedure?

I'm sure you did everything right, but if there's room to improve, we're here to help! I know I learn from screwing-up, unfortunately.

A mistake I made was I didn't document everything in detail something tht I'm definitely going to improve with my next batch, but let me answer as best I can... I fermented for 2 weeks...
Not sure of an exact temperature it was actually at my cousins house so I couldn't follow tht all tht closely, it's in his kitchen pantry somewhere we assumed would be a constant room temp but then again were just assuming.
The yeast was a pack of dry ale yeas..t ?don't remember the exact name.?

We aerated the wort by stirringly and just sprinkled ilthe yeast over the wort and stirred it in.... Definitely doing a yeast starter next time :/

We sanitized every thing carefully with an iodophor sanitizer (boiled the caps in hot water) and boiled our corn sugar in water placed it in our bottling bucket then transferred from our fermenter which has a spigot to our bottling bucket.. used our tubing and fill wand (all sanitized) filled our bottles and capped using our capper.

 

[brewfan86]

Also the style if beer was a summer ale

 

[tre9er]

Sounds like you did a pretty good job. Try to ferment lower in temp, 60s are best for most ales. Give it at LEAST two weeks, but a hydrometer and steady readings over 3 days is best.

Good job on the bottling regimen. Leave them at 70ish for 3 weeks then in fridge for 2 days to a week for best results. Hard to wait but worth it

 

[tre9er]

Also, get some starsan. Worth its weight in gold. Sanitizes on contact after just a minute or two. Safe to use without rinsing (best that way), too. Sanitation and temperature are the two biggest factors

 

[Jade_The_Raw]

Dope, I'm from Riverside. I am just starting up too. I am waiting for a refrigerator to ferment in.

 

[brewfan86]

Sounds like you did a pretty good job. Try to ferment lower in temp, 60s are best for most ales. Give it at LEAST two weeks, but a hydrometer and steady readings over 3 days is best.

Good job on the bottling regimen. Leave them at 70ish for 3 weeks then in fridge for 2 days to a week for best results. Hard to wait but worth it

3 weeks in the bottle and another in the fridge wow.. man I'm anxious to try it already I had heard 2weeks in the bottle and then just chill it you your liking... May I ask the benefit to more time?

 

[brewfan86]

Dope, I'm from Riverside. I am just starting up too. I am waiting for a refrigerator to ferment in.

Thts awesome good luck, a fridge for fernenting? Thts for lagers right?

 

[AngryHobbitBrewing]

You want to let the left over yeast carb up the bottle for one then also the 2-5 days in the fridge cooling crashes the yeast making your beer the clearest it can get. Ultimate resulting in a better taste

 

[jestmaty]

I've tasted my homebrew as quickly as 9 days in the bottle... sometimes they taste great, sometimes they taste 'green'.

With my ales, I give em' two weeks and then start popping tops. Yes, the ones I dont' get to for another week taste really awesome, so there's the argument for 3+ weeks to bottle condition....

As you continue to research, you'll see every step's timeframe all over the board... primary, secondary, bottle time... etc... there are soooooo many different opinions.

I 'used' to think that if my hydrometer agrees, I really should xsfer to 2nd after 7 days in primary. (Again, only if the hydro agrees)

Now.. I'll sometimes skip 2nd and go straight to bottles after 2-3 weeks.

Occasionally, I'll xsfer to 2nd after a week and leave the 2nd alone for 2-4 weeks..

It's all flexible as you'll discover through your continued research.

Welcome to the dark side and watch your wallet... this can get expensive quickly if you let it.

 

[jestmaty]

AngryHobbittBrewing brought up a good point. If you can, put your ready-to-drink beers in a fridge for at least a couple of days to crash the yeast resulting in clarity and a slightly better tasting beer. Again... I don't always do that, I might chill em' in an ice bath for an hour and drink my wonderful homebrew.

Sometimes if I have the patience and forethought, I'll chill in the fridge for a few days and they look/taste marginally better than if I just ice bath them for an hour, then consume...

 

[brewfan86]

I've tasted my homebrew as quickly as 9 days in the bottle... sometimes they taste great, sometimes they taste 'green'.

With my ales, I give em' two weeks and then start popping tops. Yes, the ones I dont' get to for another week taste really awesome, so there's the argument for 3+ weeks to bottle condition....

As you continue to research, you'll see every step's timeframe all over the board... primary, secondary, bottle time... etc... there are soooooo many different opinions.

I 'used' to think that if my hydrometer agrees, I really should xsfer to 2nd after 7 days in primary. (Again, only if the hydro agrees)

Now.. I'll sometimes skip 2nd and go straight to bottles after 2-3 weeks.

Occasionally, I'll xsfer to 2nd after a week and leave the 2nd alone for 2-4 weeks..

It's all flexible as you'll discover through your continued research.

Welcome to the dark side and watch your wallet... this can get expensive quickly if you let it.

Yeah I'm seeing tht theirs a bit of debate on a lot of things I guess with time I'll find why works for me. I'm just having fun learning about all this it's quickly becoming a obsession haha.. And already in my head a planing purchases to step it up for the future so I'm sure it will get pricey on me... I've decided to experiment and do my own little taste test I'll pop some open after 2 weeks and let the others sit for an extra week then another week in the fridge.. Thnx for all the info guys!

 

[tre9er]

secondary and such is more about clarity and sometimes dry-hopping. It's thought that if the hops sink down into the yeast cake in primary, less aroma is going to come out of them than if they were added to a relatively yeast-free secondary. Secondary also CAN give you a clearer beer, but a lot of people make crystal-clear beer with long primaries and long cold-crashes.

Taste-wise it depends on the beer. Simple grain bills, pales and IPA's...these are generally very good "young" but that's still about 2 weeks I'd say. Now, much of this also depends on your temperature control from pitching healthy yeast starters that are matched temp with the wort (which is in the low range for the yeast) to controlling early stages of fermentation carefully. If you can do these things the aforementioned beers are usually good at around 2 weeks...bottling time remains the same obviously though.

Bigger beers and/or more complex beers generally are best after some aging.