Finally Brewed my First Beer (with pictures)

[apeman]

Well, after lurking on this forum for at least a year I finally brewed my first beer this past weekend. I think its safe to say that I am hooked.

My first brew was an all grain kit from hopdawgs.ca, their Garage Floor IPA. I built my own cooler mash-tun, and immersion wort chiller. Both worked great, and the 10gal blichman pot I bought worked great.

I learned a lot, and had a blast in the process, and I do have a few questions for the experienced brewers here.

Getting ready to mash-in:

I was surprised at how quickly the malt appeared to impart colour and sweetness to the water.

I used tinfoil to prevent a making a bit to the bottom during vorlafing and sparging:

Smells like beer!

Transfering the boiled and now chilled wort to the fermentor:

I think this was the biggest surprise, lots of vegetation from the pellet hops. Should I strain this out next time?

The hop veg settled down nicely to the bottom overnight. The next day it was pretty clear on top of the wort. Initially I had the carboy out in a cabinet in my shop, but it's been a bit too chilly for my liking, and if it did get hot out there I would have no way to cool it. So I moved the carboy inside the house and put it in the basement bathtub. About 24 hours later, we have action:

Today was interesting to check on it. Lots of bubbles from the starsan in the airlock! and the bathroom smells great

Here's what it looked like this afternoon, the big puff on top has settled down a bit since then, but the airlock is still popping away.

My main question is about fermentation temperature. The basement is bang on 67F which is what the recipe calls for as a ferm temp. But looking at the fermometer on the side of the carboy shows the temp getting as high as 74F. Should I fill the tub full of cold water to bring the temp down?

The recipe also calls for dry hopping with whole cascade hops after 5 days. Should I rack to a secondary carboy (which I do have) or should I just dry hop in the primary?

Thanks for looking and reading. Already chomping at the bit for my next brew day.

 

[Andrew5329]

Firstly I have to give you props for going All-Grain on your first brew

As for your temperatures:
Ale yeast should usually ferment from 60F-70F, the beer itself will usually be a few degrees warmer than the ambient temperature because of the metabolic activity of yeast, it's quite possible (perhaps probable?) that in wrapping your carboy to block the light you insulated it letting it warm itself up more than you expected.

I usually prefer a cooler temperature (low 60s ambient temperature) but 74 degrees will by no means your beer, there are a few off flavors that might show up in your beer but you'll probably end up being fine. My basement usually sits on the cooler side between 55F-60F during the winter and it doesn't hurt my beer though it will get off to a slower start. If I were you I'd just use the cooler shop, and to counteract the slow start just add an extra packet of yeast which puts you right where you need to be, it will ferment just as thoroughly, and with fewer fusel alcohols/off flavors than you'd have if it was too warm.
(for the extra $3.50 a lot of people will just add a double dose of yeast as insurance to make sure fermentation kicks off right no matter the temp)

As for straining your hops, you should be able to leave almost all of it behind with the trubb when you siphon it to either your secondary or bottling bucket. If your dry hopping a secondary is in your best interest, otherwise, unless your recipe calls for a late addition of hops or fruit your probably better off doing an extended primary (4 weeks) then bottling it directly.
(as you probably know, extended primary vs. secondary is one of the most hotly debated topics on the forum, that's just my take on it.)

Happy brewing!

 

[Fizzycist]

If you find yourself a few degrees higher than want you want you can just drape a damp towel over your carboy for the few days of your most active fermentation. Also, I'd definitely use a strainer or some whirlpooling when going from kettle to fermentor to reduce that giant initial trub.

 

[Jwood]

1. You don't need to filter out the trub before putting the wort into primary. It's up to you, some people do some people don't. At least a little bit of trub has been claimed to be beneficial to the yeast, but it's still a debatable topic.

2. As for dry hopping, it really depends on what the recipe called for. The creator might have thought that dry hopping in primary after 5 days and then following the rest of the schedule gave the perfect amount of flavor/aroma. Would i ever dry hop after 5 days? No. Especially if the directions called for going to secondary after 5 days. I personally wait until the very end of a long primary to dry hop, or if i have the time, rack off the yeast to a secondary and dry hop there. A lot of the volatile hop compounds can be lost if you dry hop too early.

3. My personal suggestions: For your next purchase, consider adequate temperature control. Keep those yeast firmly in their temperature range. Get equipment to make a yeast starter and induce proper 02 levels into the wort. The way you treat your yeast makes the BIGGEST difference in your beer. Get on top of it now and make great beer even sooner. Looks like you already are a really fast learner, so it shouldn't take but a couple of batches.


Side note: If you aren't already, remove chlorine/chloramine from water supply if it is there.

 

[apeman]

Thanks everybody. I've put some cold tap water in the tub and the temp has come down a bit already. I'll leave it like that and see how it goes.

I think the next project is a chest freezer with a thermostat for the shop

I just realized that the recipe is written from the perspective of dry hopping 5 days from bottling! Which now makes total sense. So whats a good target time range to wait before racking to the secondary? (I realize that I should go by gravity readings and not by a calendar). I was figuring on a month in a fermentor before bottling.

 

[HopSong]

I like using one of the large stainless strainers. It takes care of a ton of the break material.. not all of it.. but, sure makes a difference. They are inexpensive.. at least here. Only about $10 US for a very nice one. Found it at a local brewing supply but have seen elsewhere.