Critique a noobs first brew using ingredient kt

[BeerKillLogic]

What is up beer world?

So wednesday marked my first brew day ever. I purchased a brewers best APA kit where I had to steep grains. The process went pretty smooth considering it was my first batch ever. I do have some concerns however, and I'd like to hear the impact they may have on the overall quality of beer.

My very first area of concern is I used a cheap thin stainless steel kettle for the wort and monitered the boil closely for the entire time, but when all was said and done, and the wort was emptied from the kettle, there was minor scortch ring in the shape of the electric stove burner on the bottom.

Will this give a scortched taste to the beer?

My second concern came upon filling up the fermenter. I am using a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. When I added my bottled drinking water to top of the fermenter, I based it on the origianl amount of water I used for the wort, which was 2.5 gallons. However as you know some of that evaporates, so when I filled up the fermenter I only added another 2.5 gallons of water (total of 5 gallons of water actually used) and didn't take into account the liquid that evaporated from the boil.

Will this have an impact, and should I have filled the fermenter to the 5 gallon mark, rather than actually using exactly 5 gallons of water total?

My final concern comes from fermentation and the airlock. My fermenter is sitting in a cool brewing cooler https://www.cool-brewing.com/. I have a stick on thermometer on the fermenter, and upon placing the bucket in the cooler wednesday night, the temp of the bucket was 73. After adjusting itself over night the temp finally was sitting at about 66 degrees and bubbling like a mad man.

Inside the airlock I used bottled water mixed with star san. It is one of those double chamber airlocks, and when I came home yesterday after 10 hours at work the airlock was completely empty! It had foamed and bubbled dry. So I filled it back up with the mix, and instead of filling both bubble chambers it just flows into the one side. Then upon checking this morning, once again the airlock was completely empty, so I filled it up again, and it started chuggin away immediatly. I assume by the time I get home today it again will be empty.

Why? And how do I keep the water from bubbling its way out? How are those times with no water in the airlock going to affect my beer being opened to air as it was?

Those are my concerns as of yet, and I hope this airlock thing gets itself in check soon!

Thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

It's ok that it went dry during initial fermentation,since so much co2 is being produced. I gave up on those "S" type airlocks & got the 3 piece type. And fill them with cheap,grocery store vodka. It won't foam away,& any nasties that do settle into it get alcohol poisoning & die.
I always fill up to the gallon level listed in the kit or recipe. You'll just wind up with a beer slightly higher in gravity & ABV.

 

[Trokair]

#1. Don't worry about a little scorch. You may get a more caramel taste to the beer but if you didn't actually have burnt extract stuck to the bottom you should be fine. Your beer may be a little darker too if you care about color. Make sure to stir more in the future.

#2. Always have extra top-off water ready. You want to hit 5 gallons total in the fermenter, not 5 gallons starting. I boil filtered tap water and a lot of times I end up adding an hour to my brew day because I need to boil and cool additional tap water. Do yourself a favor and overshoot by two gallons. That is what I'm going to have to start doing. Like unionrdr said, it will just up your gravity and ABV so it isn't a big deal unless you needed a certain number of bottles for something.

#3. Again unionrdr came in with the answer and I'll just confirm. During initial fermentation the airlock can go dry without a problem as the C02 will be pushing all of the bad stuff away at a good rate. Consider switching to a 3 piece airlock and cheap vodka in the future for less of a hassel. Star San foams up which is what causes it to dry out where vodka will not.

 

[sweed]

Thats why I have 6 gallons of water ready for my brew day because you're going to boil off some water. It's alright and as union said, you'll just get a higher abv beer.... which for a first beer is always a good thing, right!?

I scorch my beers with that kind of burner, they come out fine.

Get a 3 piece airlock, I bought like 5 of them to have some for when I want to make a random mead/ hard lemonade/ cider or something.

Did you take an OG reading? if so, what was it?

 

[ncbrewer]

I agree that no air got into the fermenter when the airlock went empty, but it could be possible for fruit flies to get in. If you haven't noticed any around, you're probably ok, but I'd try to keep something in the airlock.

BTW, I like the looks of the fermenter cooler.

 

[billl]

The only thing that is really "wrong" is going to be that you made a stronger, hoppier beer since you didn't dilute it down properly.

Example - you ended up with 4.5 gallons vs 5 gallons. A 5% ABV beer would be 5 x 5 / 4.5 = 5.5%. 40 IBU would go to 40 x 5 / 4.5 = 44 IBU

Since you started with a pretty "normal" beer, you've got some wiggle room (both high and low) where nobody but you will notice.

 

[J187]

You're also gonna find that you will end up with say, 5-6 fewer bottles than you had hoped. Which to me, is a tiny bit disappointing - my 50 bottles go too fast in the first place.

 

[RM-MN]

What is up beer world?

So wednesday marked my first brew day ever. I purchased a brewers best APA kit where I had to steep grains. The process went pretty smooth considering it was my first batch ever. I do have some concerns however, and I'd like to hear the impact they may have on the overall quality of beer.

My very first area of concern is I used a cheap thin stainless steel kettle for the wort and monitered the boil closely for the entire time, but when all was said and done, and the wort was emptied from the kettle, there was minor scortch ring in the shape of the electric stove burner on the bottom.

Will this give a scortched taste to the beer?

My second concern came upon filling up the fermenter. I am using a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket. When I added my bottled drinking water to top of the fermenter, I based it on the origianl amount of water I used for the wort, which was 2.5 gallons. However as you know some of that evaporates, so when I filled up the fermenter I only added another 2.5 gallons of water (total of 5 gallons of water actually used) and didn't take into account the liquid that evaporated from the boil.

Will this have an impact, and should I have filled the fermenter to the 5 gallon mark, rather than actually using exactly 5 gallons of water total?

My final concern comes from fermentation and the airlock. My fermenter is sitting in a cool brewing cooler https://www.cool-brewing.com/. I have a stick on thermometer on the fermenter, and upon placing the bucket in the cooler wednesday night, the temp of the bucket was 73. After adjusting itself over night the temp finally was sitting at about 66 degrees and bubbling like a mad man.

Inside the airlock I used bottled water mixed with star san. It is one of those double chamber airlocks, and when I came home yesterday after 10 hours at work the airlock was completely empty! It had foamed and bubbled dry. So I filled it back up with the mix, and instead of filling both bubble chambers it just flows into the one side. Then upon checking this morning, once again the airlock was completely empty, so I filled it up again, and it started chuggin away immediatly. I assume by the time I get home today it again will be empty.

Why? And how do I keep the water from bubbling its way out? How are those times with no water in the airlock going to affect my beer being opened to air as it was?

Those are my concerns as of yet, and I hope this airlock thing gets itself in check soon!

Thanks!

The ring you see probably isn't scorched, it is known as beer stone and if you get at it right away with something like Ajax cleanser and a sponge with the nylon scrubby surface you can scrub it off. After about 3 times of leaving it that ring will be nearly impossible to remove.

While many on HomeBrewTalk will put sanitizer in the airlock, I would only put in water. My water doesn't make me sick so I think it is pretty clean and I usually don't get any in the fermenter from the airlock anyway. Water will stay in the airlock for months.