First batch now in the primary

[Pasta]

I got a nice 5 gallon brew kit for Christmas and bought myself a turkey fryer yesterday. I also read Palmer's book (everything so far but the AG section) and spent a lot of time lurking here. Got my first batch going last night, and considering the amount of hiccups I had I can't imagine just winging it lol. I think if anything does me in it'll be sanitation. I don't have a process yet, I'm unsure about good sanitation practices, and I brewed in a dirty garage. I got the recipe from my LHBS.

Simtra IPA

OG: 1.067
SRM: 11.2
IBU: 96.3

8.5 lbs Breiss light LME
.75 lbs Crystal 50L
.25 lbs Cara-Pils dextrine malt
.5 lbs Wheat malt

1.5 oz Simco whole @ 60min
.75 oz Citra whole @ 15min
.75 oz Citra whole @ 5min
.5 oz Simco whole dry hop
.5 oz Citra whole dry hop

WLP007 liquid dry English ale yeast

Supposed to have 1 tsp each of gypsum and Irish moss that I deleted for my own sanity.

Once I figured out I can just wedge blocks of wood under the stupid turkey fryer button to keep it lit, I got started. Here's the list of stuff I screwed up: :smack:

1. I have no faith in my sanitation practices. It doesn't help that I was in a filthy garage haha. I tried to spray everything I was worried about with iosomethingorother, hope that stuff works quick haha.

2. I had one boilover when I first got my LME heated up. I'm hoping since it's hot there's not really any risk of anything bad resulting from it. That happened quick. Just started to see a little rolling, 10 seconds later it's on the floor. :smack: And that spray bottle didn't help at all haha.

3. I probably didn't cool it quickly enough, but I'm not too worried about that.

4. After I poured the wort back and forth 5 times it got so foamy it filled the 6.5 gallon bucket. I completely forgot I was only in at about 4 gallons. Oh well, I like strong beer.

5. I left the yeast out for a couple hours before I needed it, but without thinking brought it out to the detached garage with the other ingredients. It was probably 40-45 degrees in there, and I didn't need the yeast for almost 2 hours. And then when I pitched it I forgot to stir it around. The wort was about 70 degrees, depending on which thermometer I decide to believe.

6. Once I got the bucket in the house and popped the airlock on, it was already pushing 0500 hours and I was getting tired. I decided to add some more fresh water but didn't want to mess with the lid (new bucket, looked like it has a ring you have to pull off, didn't want to mess with it). For some reason I thought it was a good idea to spray the top of the bucket with sanitizer, pull the airlock, and pour water into the hole. Some of the water of course puddled up on the lid. I stopped doing that when I realized how much I was risking infection and only got it up to about 4.5 gallons.

I'm giving myself about 50/50 that I end up with something drinkable haha. Before I went to bed I remembered I took a sample to play with my Hydrometer. I checked it (sample was before I added more water, was based off maybe 4 gallons) and it looked like it was way up to about 1.08. Could be wrong though because the sample had a lot of foamy bubbles that were clinging to the tube. So what odds would you guys give me to end up with palatable beer?

 

[Pasta]

Wow. That's way longer than I thought it was. Sorry haha.

 

[freisste]

Easily 90/10.

You're better than you think. Prove it to yourself next brew.

 

[Pasta]

Oh yeah, and I couldn't find the ideal temperature for WLP007. I've read that most ales do best in the low 60s, but then saw a reference to WLP007 liking 70 degrees. I cooled the house down to 66 for now, would love to make it warmer if it's OK with the wort haha.

 

[Pasta]

Easily 90/10.

You're better than you think. Prove it to yourself next brew.

Haha cool, thanks. Obviously everyone wants their first batch to be good, but even if mine sucks I know for a fact I identified the areas I'm weak in and need to study. I think the thing that bugged me the most is not having a system. Once I work out a routine it'll be a lot easier to not forget stuff or make mistakes.

 

[Slow_Day]

Oh yeah, and I couldn't find the ideal temperature for WLP007. I've read that most ales do best in the low 60s, but then saw a reference to WLP007 liking 70 degrees. I cooled the house down to 66 for now, would love to make it warmer if it's OK with the wort haha.

White Labs recommends temps between 65° and 70°. I would think your 66° temp will be great.

Don't stress about infections. Even though sanitation is important, beer is much more forgiving than generally perceived. You are going to have good beer.

 

[Pasta]

Sweeeet. Thanks guys. I think I'm going to go out and buy another fermenter. Need to have a few batches in the pipeline lol. Any critiques of the recipe I posted? IPAs are my favorite, I'm debating on working out the issues I had and doing the same recipe a second time to see what difference it makes. I'm also debating on tweaking one thing to see what difference it makes. The things that surprised me about it were how dark it looks, and how high the IBUs are for only 4 oz of hops.

 

[Devilsnight]

Only thing I see is, If your OG is 1.080 and you didn't shake it up well/airate it. It may not finish well, won't get the FG/alcohol content your looking for. As far as sanitation, I don't feel you need to get too carried away. Keep everything clean and you'll be fine.

Teach me something I don't know, how does the turkey fryer work? pictures??

 

[EineProsit]

Only thing I see is, If your OG is 1.080 and you didn't shake it up well/airate it. It may not finish well, won't get the FG/alcohol content your looking for. As far as sanitation, I don't feel you need to get too carried away. Keep everything clean and you'll be fine.

Teach me something I don't know, how does the turkey fryer work? pictures??

Not true. He poured it back and forth until it was foaming. Its aerated plenty. And lots of use turkey fryers. Burner and kettle Check out my avatar. RDWHAHB..

 

[Pasta]

Yeah, that's the one thing I'm actually confident that I did right. That stuff had plenty of air in it haha. I was more worried that I forgot to stir the yeast in, I just dumped it in and the foam could have stopped a lot of it. I finally noticed it just starting to bubble a little out of the airlock before I left for work today, about 33 hours after pitching. I was going to ask if I should pop the top and stir it up but now that it's actually doing something should I just leave it alone? I also realized my home HVAC thermostat is off. Apparently it was only 64 degrees at the bucket until I turned it up a bit before leaving. Maybe that'll help it out.

 

[Slow_Day]

You don't need to stir in the yeast. Just pour it on top, close the lid, let it ride. The yeast will find their way.

 

[Pasta]

You don't need to stir in the yeast. Just pour it on top, close the lid, let it ride. The yeast will find their way.

Good to know, thanks. It's still bubbling away. Slowly, but surely. One other thing is I noticed the recipe didn't predict a final gravity. Is there any way to predict that from the ingredients? I know to wait for the gravity to be the same for a few days, but at what point can I call it done and not failed fermentation when it stops?

 

[freisste]

Check the attenuation of the yeast. That's how much it reduces the OG. Sometimes it is affected by high amounts of unfermentable sugars, but it will be a pretty close approximation, especially for your recipe (you don't have too much crystal and you didn't add anything like lactose or maltodextrine.

Basically, 75% attenuation is normal, so a yeast with that value would reduce gravity from say 1.080 to 1.020 or from 1.060 to 1.015.

For your recipe, I would guess (not having looked at your yeast attenuation) you will go from 1.067 to 1.017 or so. However, this is an extract recipe and they very frequently stop at 1.020. If you get to 1.020-1.022 and it doesn't move, I wouldn't worry much. But I wouldn't be surprised if it got to 1.015.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pasta]

Check the attenuation of the yeast. That's how much it reduces the OG. Sometimes it is affected by high amounts of unfermentable sugars, but it will be a pretty close approximation, especially for your recipe (you don't have too much crystal and you didn't add anything like lactose or maltodextrine.

Basically, 75% attenuation is normal, so a yeast with that value would reduce gravity from say 1.080 to 1.020 or from 1.060 to 1.015.

For your recipe, I would guess (not having looked at your yeast attenuation) you will go from 1.067 to 1.017 or so. However, this is an extract recipe and they very frequently stop at 1.020. If you get to 1.020-1.022 and it doesn't move, I wouldn't worry much. But I wouldn't be surprised if it got to 1.015.

Hope that helps.

It does, thanks. I also have a few of those beer calculator Android apps, that gives me something to go on to play with numbers too.

 

[freisste]

Most calculators I've used are pretty good. They will (usually) take into account unfermentables like maltodextrine or lactose.

Always keep in mind though that yeast are living creatures and they don't have to follow any rules. They are somewhat predictable, but not 100% so.

 

[Pasta]

Just an update and quick follow up question. I just checked my gravity and it's sitting right at 1.025. Keeping in mind I accidentally started out a little concentrated and the OG was at about 1.081, and that I accidentally pitched the yeast when it was a lot colder than the wort (was in the garage, yeast at about 45 wort at 70). I didn't have time to check it the last few days, so I guess it's possible it's still slowly dropping (although it's been 15 days and no recent airlock activity). The question is should I go ahead and move to secondary for dry hop or pitch more yeast to try and get it below 1.020? I've been reading that a big extract beer like this won't drop very low, but they gave 1.025 as about the threshold of needing to pitch again.

 

[BigSumpin]

Did you get your LME from Larry's ?

 

[Pasta]

No, beer essentials in Lakewood.

 

[Upthewazzu]

1.025 is too high, IMO. I've never had one end up that high, but I think it would be best to repitch with a packet of S-05 or something like that. What is the current temp of the wort? It might have gotten too cold and put the yeasties to bed.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

Before you add another packet of yeast into the beer, check the gravity for three days straight. If it continues to plummet...leave it. It's not abnormal to keep a beer in primary for up to 2 weeks+. Don't get too in a hurry to add more yeast when you might not have to. IF it has not dropped in gravity during those three days, add the yeast dry to the fermenter. There will be plenty of good foodies for the yeast to snack on. You should be able to get the gravity down in the 1.015 area. Possibly lower too.

 

[Upthewazzu]

Before you add another packet of yeast into the beer, check the gravity for three days straight. If it continues to plummet...leave it. It's not abnormal to keep a beer in primary for up to 2 weeks+. Don't get too in a hurry to add more yeast when you might not have to. IF it has not dropped in gravity during those three days, add the yeast dry to the fermenter. There will be plenty of good foodies for the yeast to snack on. You should be able to get the gravity down in the 1.015 area. Possibly lower too.

He brewed on 1/8, which was two weeks ago. It should definitely be below 1.025 by now.

 

[Pasta]

Ok, I'll hold off and check it for the next couple days. I've been avoiding checking it because I'm already way below 5 gallons lol. The room the wort is in is 66 to 67 degrees, haven't checked the wort directly since I don't trust my thermometers yet anyway. If I do need to repitch, are there special considerations on what yeast to pick or is it just a matter of getting something cheap and/or easy because most of the fermentation is done? Just thinking in case they're out of S-05 and future reference.

 

[freisste]

Get something alcohol tolerant like champagne yeast (it is also very low on flavor). The issue is that any yeast can go into WORT...sugary water. Not any yeast can get dropped into BEER...sugary water with a bunch of alcohol. That is a significantly harsher environment.

My two cents.