First Attempt......meh....

[phucketman]

Hi All

My name is Greg and I come to you from sunny South Africa, Johannesburg to be exact.

This is my first post, although I have been trolling this forum for a few months while I built up the equipment (and guts) needed to brew my first brew.

I decided to brew a kit to start with to test my process, sanitation, equipment etc, etc... I picked out a Coopers Irish Stout as it is ale weather here now, and I do like a good stout, even though this batch was more to test my setup and process than to produce quality beer.

I used this site to draw up my process and equipment sheets, purchased all the necessary equipment form my LHBS. Checked, double checked and rechecked everything.

I brewed the batch on 19 December 2011, and had more than a few...lets call them...issues. I still think the beer will be ok, just not AS good as it could have been this time around.

I used 2kg DME along with the kit and planned to boil this in 6L of water. First issue - my biggest pot (just one I had on the cupboard) held exactly 6L of water so the 2 KG DME could not be added to the pot. So thinking on my feet, I sorta boiled the water in 2 pots, and then chucked this into my (plastic bucket) fermenter along with the DME where I mixed it up. This means that I did not boil up the DME to any kind of hot break - 'mistake' 1, oh well. Note to self, buy a bigger pot. Note to other noobs, ensure your pot is big enough to hold all the water, DME, Extract, grains etc before you begin.

I then added the can of hop extract to the fermenter and mixed this all up. This is where the second issue arose. Now I had everything in the fermenter it meant that using the sink with ice was not the most effective cooling method due to the height of the bucket. Unfortunately I did not have any other way of doing it so I just bit the bullet and went with it in the sink. It took 2hrs to get the temp down to 30 degrees C. I sealed this up with a spare lid and had to leave it overnight before the temp was down to 20 so I could pitch my yeast (Safale US-05). Note to self - buy a large container that fits the bigger pot to use to cool down the wort. Note to other noobs, maybe look at having a backup plan if things don't go as planned.

then the 3rd issue - once the yeast was pitched I planned to put the bucket in a cooler box filled with water and a few ice packs, only to find that the fermenter almost did not fit in the cooler. When I bought the buckets I checked them against an in store cooler to make sure they fit well. But then I found out that the cooler I had at home was narrower than those in store, even though it was taller. oh well, better than nothing I suppose. Note to self, build a chamber, or buy a bigger cooler. Note to other noobs, don't only check that you have all the equipment available before you start, but do a 'dry run' to check that everything fits together (pot in sink for chilling, bucket in cooler for fermentation etc)

Apparently it started bubbling a few hours later and stopped after 3 or so days. I say apparently as my father is tending the beer as I do not have the space to brew at my house (well actually the SWMBO does not want me brewing there as she fears the smell....women... )

so it has now been almost 3 weeks since brewing and I have just over a week to go till bottling day (which is next weekend), and I hope the beer turns out ok.

Now I am not exactly worried or concerned about the beer, nor am I asking for reassurance that it will be ok, I am sure it will be drinkable and may not be too bad, just not As good as it could have been this time. Basically I am RDWHAHB-ing while I empty enough bottles to use for bottling(plus some extras, just incase). I just wanted to share my first experiences with everyone to see if maybe I can give another noob a few pointers about things to check before they embark on this wonderful hobby.

Form here I am going to reassess and tweak my process, buy a larger brew pot (I have found a cheap 20L pot), figure out a way to chill the pot quicker (maybe using a container similar to what many of you use as the base for a swamp cooler), and rethink my fermentation chamber. I will be putting a bitter on next. it will be another kit and DME one till i get my process down pat before moving on to more extract type recipes. the way I see it is that most of the issues I had were process and equipment related, so its no use moving onto more 'complex' methods until i have these up to scratch.

Thanks for listening, I will keep you updated with my progress and maybe the results of a taste test of the beer (although I am expecting it to be a bit bitter and maybe a bit sweeter than it should have been).

Oh and thanks to all of you for a great site with wonderful info and some exciting reading. chat soon

 

[jrobidoux]

In regard to your small pot issue, you can hot break and boil your DME in a smaller amount of water (say 3 liters), then add water that you have also previously boiled to the wort when you move to fermenter. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, the easiest thing to do would be to make your 3 liters of wort, boil another 3 liters of water ahead of time seperately and let it cool, then cool your 3 liters of wort, and then when they are both at like 70 degrees F add them together in the fermenter and pitch. This will be easier since it is easier to boil and cool the two smaller amounts of water than the one large amount of water.

 

[HopSong]

Why do you need to hot break a LME/DME? It is an additional process that certainly has some benefits.. but, with the Coopers process, all you do is boil up 6 L of water.. dump it in the FV.. pour in the LME along with other fermentable sugars and stir VERY WELL. Have a pot of boiling water on the stove to rinse out the LME cans which you also pour into your FV. Top up to 23 L and sprinkle on the yeast once it reaches 20*C. That's it.

I don't know what your situation is with stores there in SA.. but, I have THIS. Just for picture purposes.. I bought mine at Wal-Mart for $5 or 6. I put my FV in it and add personal sized bottles of frozen water to it to maintain 18*C while brewing. I think I use 2 or 3 bottles a day.

Some people talk about the "stink" in brewing. I've never had stink.. just the beautiful smell of hops. Also, being as this is your summer.. you can also cover your FV with an old blanket or T-shirt to wick up water from the big blue bucket. The bucket acts as a temperature buffer between the wort/beer and ambient temperature. The T-shirt keeps light away from your lovely liquid.

I don't think you need a big 20 L pot until you start brewing with additions of grains.. and you don't even need one then if you are using an extract process and "steeping" grains.

Others may disagree.. but this works.

 

[unionrdr]

A 20L pot would be fine,since 20L equals 5.28 gallons. I use a 5 gallon (20 quart) stailess steel stock pot for a brew kettle. I boil 2.5-3 gallons of water,& use half a 3lb bag of plain DME to do hop additions. The DME only makes a small amount of hot break for some 3 minutes. But add a pound of plain wheat DME,& watch the brewcano form! Had to stir like mad for the whole 3 minutes to prevent the inevitable boil over. But plain barley based DME will cause no major problems in the boil.
Once I'm done with hop additions,I take the BK off the heat source,add the remaining DME,stir till dissolved. Then add the cooper's can(s). My 5 gallon BK will fit nicely in the kitchen sink. I fill the empty space to the top with cold tap water for a couple minutes,just to take the initial heat down a bit. Then drain the water,fill the empty space around the kettle with ice to the top,then top off that with cold water.
I use a floating thermometer in the BK to keep an eye on temps. In about 20 minutes,it'll get down to about 18-20C. You get less or no chill haze the quicker you can cool it down to pitch temp.
I then pour the chilled wort & top off water through a fine mesh strainer into the FV to strain out the grainy bits,etc & aerate all quite nicely. I get 3-5" of foam that way. Then stir roughly for 5 minute straight to aerate it more,& get the wort/top off water mixed well. Then take hydrometer sample & pitch.

 

[phucketman]

Thanks for the responses.
I do realise that I could have split the DME into 2x1kg batches and boiled this up in 2 pots, but I steered away from that as having to watch 2 pots for boilovers had me worried, and I knew that I didn’t HAVE to get a hot break from the DME for a coopers kit.

The reason for me wanting to get bigger pot is to bet my process down 100% using all the equipment I intend to use when I get onto the more complex brewing practices. My path is basically going to be: kits, kits with speciality grains, kits with speciality grains and fresh hops, full extract brewing and Biab, all grain (in time to come). I will basically do as many of each of these steps individually until I have the entire process down and have all the correct equipment. I know I don’t need a 20L pot now, but will do when I get to the extract stuff and want to do full boils, and I have found some for relatively cheap so I would rather splash out now and use it as I go, instead of buying say a 10L now just to need to buy a 20L later. Hbg, that bucket is definitely something I will look into getting, as well as a smaller version to assist in cooling the wort. I can also source those for relatively cheap here in SA. The reason for the cooler was to add a bit of insulation, but there are other ways of achieving that.

Unionrdr that is basically the process I am looking to use going forward when I get off the plain old kit and kilo stuff. I want to build all the correct building blocks leading up to all grain as early as possible. That includes full boils, hot break etc, even at the kit and kilo stage. I would basically do more than is necessary now in these early, easy stages, than later on when I have a lot of things going on. I basically looked at all grain, extract and BIAB processes that I found on this site and reverse engineered them to the kit process I have, so that each step in my path is not a completely new process with new equipment. If I have to use the absolute basic coopers process with this brew, then the first time I wanted to add grains or boil hops I would have to alter my process quite a bit, and it is this that I am trying to avoid.

Overall the process went well except for 1 or 2 small teething problems which are easy to solve by getting slightly better equipment, keeping the end goal in sight.

I also did a hydrometer and taste test yesterday (3 weeks in FV) in preparation for this coming weekends bottling. SG was 1060 (according to my father the caretaker) and yesterday I was getting a reading of about 1016. Will check again on Tuesday and Thursday to make sure it is ready for bottling. Oh and it tasted awesome!!!!!! Slightly more bitter than I was expecting, but sort of a Guinness export sort of flavour. I am definitely hooked on this hobby now, especially since it is MUCH better than when I tried this 8 years ago. That was a disaster and something I will post in the future. Lets just say I am surprised I did not kill anyone!!
Thanks again for a great site.

 

[BOBrob]

Welcome to HBT and enjoy the hobby. Sounds like you are on the right path and with the most important ingredient..... Patients. Cheers&Enjoy

 

[jgln]

So what are the physical challenges have you come upon as a goat trying to brew beer?


......Meeeehhh

 

[unionrdr]

The hot break I got with regular plain DME in the boil was no more than about .5" around the edges of the boil. I just liked waiting & stiring for the 3 minutes it lasted before adding hops. Sometimes adding hops can make the foam rise more. But I add the other half of the DME,& the cooper's can at flame out. This keeps the hop profile of the cooper's can intact. It also gives lighter color,& cleaner flavors. Also,hop additions in this type of recipe are no more than the last 20-25 minutes for flavor mostly. I've not seen much aroma from them. Dry hopping does that job better for me.
But it seems you're on the right track in getting the steps of a good process down. So keep moving forward & enjoy!

 

[Hang Glider]

Welcome to HBT and enjoy the hobby. Sounds like you are on the right path and with the most important ingredient..... Patients. Cheers&Enjoy

although I don't think they (the patients) prefer to be ingredients!
ha ha, thanks for the laugh!
("patience" maybe?)

 

[unionrdr]

Hooo,I'm no doctors,but I knows when I'm loosing me patshinks! cuck cuck cuck cuck....Just had to say it. Serously,though,time & patience are a brewer's greatest assets.

 

[BOBrob]

hey... I'm a two digit typing type person! The dang C's are suppose to be on the top row; I DIY the board myself.

 

[phucketman]

So last night was bottling night after 5 weeks and 2 days in the primary (only). Things went surprisingly well. It did take a bit longer than I had expected, but went very smoothly. Cleaned and sanitised everything, boiled up the priming sugar (dextrose) chilled, added to bottling bucket, transferred beer, rinsed already cleaned and scrubbed bottles, sanitised bottles, filled, capped, boxed and stored. Thanks to all those who have put bottling stickies and other pockets of info on this site. These really did prove to be a massive help.

Ended up with 54x 330ml bottles and 1x 660ml bottle although I had more than enough bottles (emptying them was LOTS of fun!). Gravity readings were 1.060 down to 1.016 so about 5.6% abv. Tasted the sample I used to take the final reading and it was so smooooooth. Tasted it 2 weeks back and it was good then, but now there was a big difference. Basic recipe was 1 can Coopers Irish Stout, 2kg DME, Safale US 05 yeast. Used about 110g dextrose to prime. Now comes the 4 week wait to have my first sample. I plan to have a sample bottle at 4, 6 and 8 weeks (if this is at all possible), and then to enjoy the rest.
Now I have to start planning my next batch to build up the pipeline.

Can’t wait to start drinking the beer!

 

[Hang Glider]

Excellent! you're on a good path to great beer!