First batch, new brewer, 1/2/12

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Hello everyone! I just want to say a general thanks to everyone on the forums. I did a ton of reading on here before getting started with my first brew day and it answered the tons of questions I had.

I got a Northern Brewers deluxe kit with glass carboys for xmas and ordered the Extra Pale Ale extract kit from them immediately!

Here are some pics from my first brew day. I'm happy to say that the airlock is bubbling nicely 48 hours later (it started up within 4 hours of pitching).

My boil setup

Ingredients

Steeping


Wort Boil


Finished Product

Hydro of 1045 OG


Bubbles in the Airlock!

 

[nukinfuts29]

SWEET!! I love the excitement coming out of your post, nothing like the first time. Welcome to the community!

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Yep, I'm already planning for my second batch as soon as this one gets out of the primary!!!

 

[Taypo]

MORE BUCKETS!!

Congrats on the first brew, good looking setup!

 

[nukinfuts29]

you can never have to many primary's

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Quick question, since I have a 10 Gallon boil kettle, I should be able to do the full 5 gallon boils vs the 2.5 as instructed on the NB recipe correct?

 

[helibrewer]

Quick question, since I have a 10 Gallon boil kettle, I should be able to do the full 5 gallon boils vs the 2.5 as instructed on the NB recipe correct?

Absolutely and I recommend it. You will need a wort chiller though, the immersions work great IMHO.

Nice job, keep that fermentation at 68F

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Quick question, since I have a 10 Gallon boil kettle, I should be able to do the full 5 gallon boils vs the 2.5 as instructed on the NB recipe correct?

first off, congrats and welcome!

and yes, you can easily do full boils for a 5 gal batch in a ten gal kettle!

 

[nukinfuts29]

Yea in FL you are almost definitely going to need a wort chiller

 

[cooper]

Quick question, since I have a 10 Gallon boil kettle, I should be able to do the full 5 gallon boils vs the 2.5 as instructed on the NB recipe correct?

Absolutely, doing full-volume (6.5gal) boils is the way to go to help out with good hop utilization and beer color. BUT, make sure if you're doing extract and they recipe calls for steeping grains that you are steeping them using the 1.5qt/lb ratio. There will not be enough acids in the steeping grains in 6.5 gal of water to bring the PH down and you will start extracting tannins which is terrible in your beer. Once you start going all grain I recommend getting very familiar with this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/

Here you'll learn so much about getting the right water for doing all grain batches based on the style of beer you're brewing. It'll save you lots of questions when you start doing all grain batches, which you will.

 

[HopHeadGrady]

Get going on another batch... Welcome to the fray. I'm a cliff jumper and did 3 mash / xtract batches in 5 days over the holidays. I was expecting to get 1 good batch out of the 3 but so far it looks like I hit em out of the park here. Just about to bottle my ale now. Then it's time for another brew in the empty fermenter, and three weeks of staring at the bottles drooling... I figure this weekend the wife, son and I are going to take a nice drive and visit a couple craft breweries in the region. My sample packs should hold me over.. .

The colour of that beer is kinda the same as my Grady's Pitch Invasion ESB.

I use a plastic 6.5 gallon pail as my primary fermenter and only use a carboy as a secondary. Thats just me though, no right or wrong here by any stretch. Use what you like.

Good work!

Grady

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Absolutely, doing full-volume (6.5gal) boils is the way to go to help out with good hop utilization and beer color. BUT, make sure if you're doing extract and they recipe calls for steeping grains that you are steeping them using the 1.5qt/lb ratio.

Thanks for the info! If I understand you right, when I do my next extract batch and have steeping grains, I should only steep with the amount recommended by the recipe (2.5 gallons according to this batch), then after steeping fill up the boil kettle to 6.5?

 

[BamaRooster]

Welcome, and remember never have an empty ferment-er!!

 

[unionrdr]

Welcome to the 1st brew of the rest of your life! It all looks good so far. Start getting that pipeline going with another fermenter! We have two with a possible third if needed.

 

[Brewnoob1]

I try and ALWAYS have something in the primary. That way, when a keg blows, I have one waiting in the wings. Grats on the first brew and welcome to the addiction!...I mean hobby!

 

[nukinfuts29]

Welcome, and remember never have an empty ferment-er!!

I disagree. I always have 10-12 things in primary if not more, with more primary's than I can count empty. It's great because new things come up every day on here and I don't have to wait for one to clear to start a new one. I say have several batches going at once, and a spare or two ready to join.

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Damn, sounds like I need to get another primary along with my next order!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Damn, sounds like I need to get another primary along with my next order!

save on the shipping costs and just get three! buckets are cheap, or free. i'm on my way out to pick up a few from a local chinese restaurant in just a few minutes!

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

Well guys, 2 weeks in the primary and now it is over in the secondary. Tested and got it to 1.012. I also had to sample it and DAMN! it is tasty!

 

[cooper]

Thanks for the info! If I understand you right, when I do my next extract batch and have steeping grains, I should only steep with the amount recommended by the recipe (2.5 gallons according to this batch), then after steeping fill up the boil kettle to 6.5?

That's right, but I'd steep them in 1.5q/lb of grain just to be on the safe side. A lot of people will actually treat it like a mash (although they're not mashing anything) and keep it at 150F for 30 minutes and sparge with the same amount of sparge water that they used to "mash" in at 168F. It keeps you doing the same things the same ways and also gets you familiar with mashing/steeping if you want to go to a partial mash kind of step with maybe 2 or 3 lbs of pale malt so you dont have to use as much DME. Check out some partial mashing if you get a chance and you'll be glad you did. You can do it right there on the stove while steeping your grains, but if you mix it with your grains you want to do a iodine test to make sure you have full conversion.

 

[unionrdr]

Volumes of water for steeping are not the same/as critical as mashing. So 2-2.5 gallons of water for steeping is fine,but I can't see why it would matter a whole lot. And instructions we've gotten for steeping were pretty much the same as mash temps,ie-150-165F for 20 minutes. I prefer 155F for 30 minutes.

 

[BrewskiMeAdam]

My next beer is going to be the NB Chocolate Stout. It comes with a lb of speciality grains for steeping. I'll probably do 1.5-2 gallons of preboil steeping, then fill up to 6 in my kettle for the boil.

 

[cooper]

Sounds good. The only reason why it even matters is the affect that the grain to water ratio has on pH as more tannins are extracted at a higher pH level; so if you have lots of water and very little grain, you're going to get more tannin extraction because there will not be enough acid from the malts present to bring the pH level down enough to avoid extracting the harsh tannins.

 

[unionrdr]

With mashing,yes. But I was wondering out loud if it's the case with steeping?