First batch last night!

[GreenGoatee]

Happy New Year homebrewers! I just joined the community after reading the forums for a few weeks, and would like to thank you all for the knowledge and advice I've come across. It's great to have such a wonderful resource at our fingertips!

So for Christmas I received the Essential Starter kit from Northern Brewer, and started my first batch, an Irish Red, last night.

All in all it went pretty well though not perfectly. I think my next equipment purchase will be a good propane burner, as I could not achieve a strong rolling boil on the stove top. Since I used an extract kit I'm hoping this will not be a huge problem. The other mistake we made was not shaking the bucket prior to pitching the yeast. I did however rock the bucket immediately after, so I hope that will not negatively affect the finished product. When I woke up this morning the airlock is happily bubbling away, so that is a good sign. Already looking forward to my next brew day!

Cheers!

 

[Kirkwooder]

Congratulations, you made beer!

A big burner would be advised and the aeration of your wort is important to the reproduction of your yeast and the start of fermentation, but it sounds as though your beer is fermenting well, as the airlock is bubbling away. You should be fine.

Welcome to the obsession!

 

[GreenGoatee]

Thanks Kirkwooder,
Yeah I anticipate having some kinks to work out with the first few batches. Trying to prioritize my additional equipment needs based on how things go on brew day and throughout the fermentation process.

 

[Panthro63]

Hey man - my first batch of Brown Ale from the Northern Brewer Essential kit just turned 8 days today!

I had a similar issue with the boiling - but I pushed through and waited a good 30-45 minutes until our stove-top got a good boil going. Very annoying.

Also curious to see how well the aeration worked. I rocked it back n' forth for about 2 minutes - probably shoulda done more.

Also had awesome bubbling for about 2-3 days - then it calmed way down. So I'm going to peek when it turns 2 weeks.

As a fellow noob, I'd recommend getting yourself a hydrometer to measure gravity (not included in the kit) - it reassured me that I must've done something right, as my levels were in the right zone. And now I'll know when it's really ready and the ABV when it's done.

Good luck to you and your bucket of brew!

 

[AkTom]

Hi, for areation you can pour your wort into your bottling bucket ( after its cooled ) sitting on the counter. then let it drain into a funnel in your carboy sitting on the floor. That should do for now for areation purposes. Have fun.

 

[unionrdr]

For this batch, the up & down swirling motion of fermentation will mix it up & ferment out. I pour my chilled wort through a fine mesh strainer to get the gunk out & aerate it as well. Less gunk equals less trub & more beer later, come bottling day.

 

[GreenGoatee]

Thanks for the advice guys, it's great to see so many brewers willing to help out us noobs!

Panthro63, let me know how that Brown Ale turns out for you. I also experienced the crazy fermentation Saturday € Sunday, and when I got home from work Monday evening the bubbling had significantly slowed down.

Btw, I did pick up a hydrometer, so I can be sure of when fermentation is finished. Still researching for a propane burner.

 

[Kirkwooder]

Be patient, have a homebrew or what ever you have, and give it at least 3 weeks before you even check. Let it not only finish but give the yeast some time to clean up any off flavors that may be there.

Have you been controlling the fermentation temperature?

 

[wildactbrewer]

The more people we have brewing beer in this world...the more beer we have in this world! This makes me happy.

Rock on brother, sounds like you are well on your way! Boiling isn't AS important with extract batches but I would recommend a burner at some point. If you are really careful, you can do what I do and insulate your kettle by wrapping it with either an old towel or some non-flammable insulating material.

The only tweak I would make to your process would be to shake the hell out of your carboy for a few minutes to aerate the wort. But, it sounds like it's fermenting just fine. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[GreenGoatee]

Yeah, it's been holding at 68-70 the whole time, which is in range (though toward the high end) for the yeast I used. Wyeast 1272.

 

[unionrdr]

It's so darn cold here today that my ESB is holding at 65-66F. So we're both good there.

 

[Kirkwooder]

Yeah, it's been holding at 68-70 the whole time, which is in range (though toward the high end) for the yeast I used. Wyeast 1272.

You should be alright, but keep in mind that temp. is a very important thing in brewing good beer. On your next batch try and get it down to the middle of the yeasts range or lower.

Search "swamp cooler".

 

[bradford0113]

Congratulations from a fellow NE Ohio home brewer on your first batch! You are fortunate being from the Akron/Canton area to have a great home brew shop close by - The Grape and Granary. You'll have to check it out if you haven't already. I drive an hour out there from Warren to get my ingredients and supplies.

 

[GreenGoatee]

Congratulations from a fellow NE Ohio home brewer on your first batch! You are fortunate being from the Akron/Canton area to have a great home brew shop close by - The Grape and Granary. You'll have to check it out if you haven't already. I drive an hour out there from Warren to get my ingredients and supplies.

Yes, Grape and Granary is an awesome shop! I've been in there a couple times and they are very helpful. Looking through their catalog there are a few recipe kits I can't wait to try.

 

[trefilov22]

Thanks for the advice guys, it's great to see so many brewers willing to help out us noobs!

Panthro63, let me know how that Brown Ale turns out for you. I also experienced the crazy fermentation Saturday € Sunday, and when I got home from work Monday evening the bubbling had significantly slowed down.

Btw, I did pick up a hydrometer, so I can be sure of when fermentation is finished. Still researching for a propane burner.

Beware of those propane burners with the timers, they can be a real PITA!

 

[aprichman]

For aeration I just use a cheap "wine degasser" that I bought at my local homebrew store. It's a soft plastic hook that attaches to a drill. I simply use my cordless drill to agitate the wort for 1-2 minutes like crazy in my carboy. Sure, it's not going to beat a pure oxygen setup but for almost every style of beer injecting pure oxygen is not really necessary.

The cost of the wine degasser was around $6 at my LHBS and has served me well.

 

[scoobyd63]

I too love the Grape and Granary! Funny story, they are actually one of my clients. My company supports the POS software they use.

 

[UglyDude]

I have 2 good burners, one is a Louisiana some sorta something and the other is an old turkey fryer. they both work great and it sure does help with getting a couple gallons going quicker!

have fun with it!

 

[Psylocide]

I do the big "no-no" for aeration.

I put a solid bung in it, pick up the full carboy (glass) and get to shaking. It's a little unwieldy, but it gets the job done for now.

Some would say I'm putting myself at risk for a serious maiming, but I did make a little DIY plastic thingy for my drill that I'll use for aerating next time.

 

[GreenGoatee]

First fermentation was a sucess, 22 days in the bucket and read hydrometwr thus morning at right around 1.010, and smells great! Now as long as we don't screw up the bottling process this beer should be very enjoyable.

 

[Kirkwooder]

:rockin::rockin: You made Beer! Congrats!

 

[GreenGoatee]

So all in all I'm pleased with the first attempt. The beer has a good malty taste and a nice mildly bitter finish. However it is very cloudy/hazey. Not sure if this is due to the lack of a real strong boil? Or perhaps the ice bath took too long to cool the wort down? I went out and picked up an immersion chiller and some Whirl floc for the next batch. Any other suggestions to avoid this in the future?

 

[Kirkwooder]

Cold crash!

 

[RealDarkKnight]

Transferring to a secondary as well as cold crashing before bottling will really help clear it up

 

[aprichman]

So all in all I'm pleased with the first attempt. The beer has a good malty taste and a nice mildly bitter finish. However it is very cloudy/hazey. Not sure if this is due to the lack of a real strong boil? Or perhaps the ice bath took too long to cool the wort down? I went out and picked up an immersion chiller and some Whirl floc for the next batch. Any other suggestions to avoid this in the future?

My bottles will get chill haze for the first week or two in the fridge but after that they clear out. I think the main ways to avoid chill haze is hitting your beer with a strong fining agent like gelatin or running it through a filtration system.

 

[unionrdr]

Irish moss & Whirlfloc are intended to remove access proteins to help clear the beer later. As does chilling the beer down to pitch temp in 20 minutes or less they say. A well-flocculating yeast helps too. Any chill haze for me will form & settle out in the fridge in no more than five days on average. Some have cleared in 2 days, some only a little in two weeks.

 

[VegasBrew1]

I have found a wine degasser works well for me. I add the tiniest amount of olive oil, then whip it good. When I repitch slurry, I hit it again. Really gets my fermentation going well. Congrats on your first batch. 1 down, thousands to go! Cheers.