First Batch is off!

[Pickettj]

It took 4 hours, a misunderstanding on a forum post and a six pack of worry but my first batch of beer is stored in a cool closet (shares a wall with my freezing cold attic) so the beer is fermenting at a balmy 72 degrees and falling. It's about 65 in the closet so I don't look for it to get a whole lot cooler but a positive note, 7 hours after completing the wort and poring in the yeast, I have flow through my airlock! :rockin: Now is the part where I wait for weeks...Who am I kidding, I'm brewing another batch Friday! Ha! The kit I got allows me a total of 20 gallons fermenting at once or ten gallons if I do the "secondary fermentation" which, if I understand what I have read is nothing more than transferring to another vessel to "clarify", risking contamination and not really fermenting a second time...I'm still undecided on this step but I may give it a shot on the second batch. Either way, according to iBrewmaster, I will have a primed, ready to drink batch, January 23rd! I may go ahead and hold back an extra week either in the fermenter or bottles. We will have to see if my patience can handle another seven days!

 

[tominator]

Nice job. You're hooked now lol. A tip: I too have abandoned using a secondary for ales, opting rather to cold crash before bottling and my beers come out very clear. I put my fermenter in the fridge overnight, running a hose from the drilled lid into a water jug half filled with star san, cuz the fermenter will suck air as it cools. Bottling day, I remove the fermenter from the fridge for a few hours to let it warm up a little. Anyway that's what works for me!

Cheers!

 

[estricklin]

I used to secondary a lot, but now I only do it with lager or when I have to dry hop.

Congrats on your first batch, the first time is like doing some other things in life for the first time, it's kind of scary, turns out to be really fun, and it's over way too quick.

If you upgrade your set up in ANY way, spend it on temp control.

 

[Pickettj]

I used to secondary a lot, but now I only do it with lager or when I have to dry hop.

Congrats on your first batch, the first time is like doing some other things in life for the first time, it's kind of scary, turns out to be really fun, and it's over way too quick.

If you upgrade your set up in ANY way, spend it on temp control.

I'm hoping to get a fridge for lagers in the future, before that its going to have to be a swamp cooler or a basement. The swamp cooler is probably cheaper...ha! I can't continue to use the closet I am right now. SWMBO is gonna kill me when she finds the fermenter in the baby's room!

 

[tominator]

I'm hoping to get a fridge for lagers in the future, before that its going to have to be a swamp cooler or a basement. The swamp cooler is probably cheaper...ha! I can't continue to use the closet I am right now. SWMBO is gonna kill me when she finds the fermenter in the baby's room!

some women have no sense of humor about things like that i'm in vegas, so indoor temps are between 65-70 during winter months - perfect for closet ale fermentations. i got a freezer w/temp controller as it warms up next year, just haven't had to use it yet. it was impossible to keep the temp down this past summer!