mjohnson
Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I embarked on my brewing project. A couple years ago, a friend gave me an old kit and it had been sitting in my garage. My wife got tired of looking at it unused and told me to get going already!
Prior to brewing, I sat down one night and read "How to brew" by John J. Palmer. I didn't retain it all, but it got me familiar with some of the terms and processes.
I did an inventory of the kit and determined that the enamel pot was rusted, and the fermenting bucket was never getting clean. The 5 gallon glass carboy seemed cleanable, as did the random little airlocks. I do have a 22 qt aluminum pressure canner - so I figured I'd use that (my mother-in-law gave it to me and I'd never used it, but figured it should be ok). So when I stopped by Northern Brewer, I picked up a 6.5g fermentation bucket, auto-siphon, new tubing, star-san, cleaner, and a India Pale Ale kit with some Wyeast 1275.
Went home and decided to do a first pass cleaning on everything. Carboy was loaded with cleaner and let sit over night. The aluminum pot had all this black stuff in it so I set about getting all that off. The water kept turning gray! Started to freak out and thought I might have to spring for a new kettle (more than I wanted to spend for the first batch). Did a bit of research online and...
Lesson Learned 1: That black stuff on the aluminum pots is oxidation and you kind of want it. Or better said: you can't really get rid of it. I boiled some water in the pot after a good 1.5 hours of scrubbing and it was all back.
Did a bit more research about cooling the wort and decided I'd need to buy enough ice that I might as well put the money towards a 25" immersion circulator. Even if I never brew again, I make lots of stock and could use it for that.
Lesson Learned 2: Immersion Circulators are the bomb. They work so well, I can't imagine doing this without one. Totally worth the money.
BREW TIME.
Got a bucket of sanitizer ready with all my tools. Turns out the star san turns my water cloudy. I did a bit a research after all the brewing was done and found out that this means my solution probably wasn't all that effective. Seems like lots of people have the problem and there are very few issues.
Lesson Learned 3: probably will use reverse osmosis water for sanitizing and brewing in the future.
The directions said to heat the water and steep the specialty grain for 20 minutes or until its at 170. I did that, but my water started at about 70. I took the bag out at 20 minutes. The water was at 140 or so.
QUESTION 1: would it have been better to get the water to 150 and then steep it in that temp for about 20 minutes?
I got it boiling - though not a real vigorous boil. I had read about not wanting to cover it while brewing. Here was my solution. I tied a dish towel around my lit so that condensation would not fall back into the brew and only covered the pot about half way. This seemed to be a decent compromise.
I did all the extract and hop additions without any problems. When I took it off the heat to add the extract, I did not count that time off boil towards the boil time as it took a bit to get going again. Not sure if thats right or not - but I bet its ok.
Lesson Learned 4: Next time I think I'm going to try to do some aluminum foil origami around the pot to try to increase the boil. I read a few threads and that seems to make a difference until I can spring for a propane burner and bigger pot (this stuff is evil)
Lesson learned 4: Don't forget to put the chiller in while its still boiling. This sanitizes it!.
I forgot to do this and kind of had an oh-crap moment. I had washed it thoroughly before brewing and dunked it in some sanitizer (that probably was sub-effective) before putting it in the hot wort. In retrospect, I should have soaked it in the sanitizer for 3-5 minutes instead of just dunking it. Oh well. Time will tell. The chiller worked like a charm and I had it down to 75 F in about 12 minutes.
I dumped the wort into my fermentation bucket through a paint-strainer (well washed and sanitized) lined chinois strainer onto 2.5 more gallons of purified water from the store (I used this for everything but sanitizing). That seemed to work ok, however upon reading further, I think I will try to whirlpool next time. My wort wasn't real clear - but man, it smelled good. I pulled a little wort out and checked the original gravity and it was 1.064 on the button. I ended up with 5 gallons exactly.
I put the lid on, and had a choice: a) spare bathroom - fairly consistent 70F or basement consistent 62-63F. I chose the bathroom. After checking the fermentor every half hour for 5 hours, I saw a bubble! How exciting. In the meantime, I did some reading and found that its probably better to be on the low side once the fermentation starts. So I moved my fermentor down to the basement after 7 hours. This morning, it was really going (and smelling great). So I assume things are going well.
I'm not going to ask if my sanitation is ok, cause really, at this point, I'm committed. I'll bottle and try it. Worst-case, it'll taste bad. Even if it doesn't turn out, I learned a ton and had a blast. Next month, I think I'm going to try some type of amber.
Great site here. I learned a bunch! I gotta stay out of the DIY section though. You people with keggles and electronic controls and pumps and MLT's and HLT's and other acronyms as well (seriously, you brewers need a glossary)
Cheers
matt
Prior to brewing, I sat down one night and read "How to brew" by John J. Palmer. I didn't retain it all, but it got me familiar with some of the terms and processes.
I did an inventory of the kit and determined that the enamel pot was rusted, and the fermenting bucket was never getting clean. The 5 gallon glass carboy seemed cleanable, as did the random little airlocks. I do have a 22 qt aluminum pressure canner - so I figured I'd use that (my mother-in-law gave it to me and I'd never used it, but figured it should be ok). So when I stopped by Northern Brewer, I picked up a 6.5g fermentation bucket, auto-siphon, new tubing, star-san, cleaner, and a India Pale Ale kit with some Wyeast 1275.
Went home and decided to do a first pass cleaning on everything. Carboy was loaded with cleaner and let sit over night. The aluminum pot had all this black stuff in it so I set about getting all that off. The water kept turning gray! Started to freak out and thought I might have to spring for a new kettle (more than I wanted to spend for the first batch). Did a bit of research online and...
Lesson Learned 1: That black stuff on the aluminum pots is oxidation and you kind of want it. Or better said: you can't really get rid of it. I boiled some water in the pot after a good 1.5 hours of scrubbing and it was all back.
Did a bit more research about cooling the wort and decided I'd need to buy enough ice that I might as well put the money towards a 25" immersion circulator. Even if I never brew again, I make lots of stock and could use it for that.
Lesson Learned 2: Immersion Circulators are the bomb. They work so well, I can't imagine doing this without one. Totally worth the money.
BREW TIME.
Got a bucket of sanitizer ready with all my tools. Turns out the star san turns my water cloudy. I did a bit a research after all the brewing was done and found out that this means my solution probably wasn't all that effective. Seems like lots of people have the problem and there are very few issues.
Lesson Learned 3: probably will use reverse osmosis water for sanitizing and brewing in the future.
The directions said to heat the water and steep the specialty grain for 20 minutes or until its at 170. I did that, but my water started at about 70. I took the bag out at 20 minutes. The water was at 140 or so.
QUESTION 1: would it have been better to get the water to 150 and then steep it in that temp for about 20 minutes?
I got it boiling - though not a real vigorous boil. I had read about not wanting to cover it while brewing. Here was my solution. I tied a dish towel around my lit so that condensation would not fall back into the brew and only covered the pot about half way. This seemed to be a decent compromise.
I did all the extract and hop additions without any problems. When I took it off the heat to add the extract, I did not count that time off boil towards the boil time as it took a bit to get going again. Not sure if thats right or not - but I bet its ok.
Lesson Learned 4: Next time I think I'm going to try to do some aluminum foil origami around the pot to try to increase the boil. I read a few threads and that seems to make a difference until I can spring for a propane burner and bigger pot (this stuff is evil)
Lesson learned 4: Don't forget to put the chiller in while its still boiling. This sanitizes it!.
I forgot to do this and kind of had an oh-crap moment. I had washed it thoroughly before brewing and dunked it in some sanitizer (that probably was sub-effective) before putting it in the hot wort. In retrospect, I should have soaked it in the sanitizer for 3-5 minutes instead of just dunking it. Oh well. Time will tell. The chiller worked like a charm and I had it down to 75 F in about 12 minutes.
I dumped the wort into my fermentation bucket through a paint-strainer (well washed and sanitized) lined chinois strainer onto 2.5 more gallons of purified water from the store (I used this for everything but sanitizing). That seemed to work ok, however upon reading further, I think I will try to whirlpool next time. My wort wasn't real clear - but man, it smelled good. I pulled a little wort out and checked the original gravity and it was 1.064 on the button. I ended up with 5 gallons exactly.
I put the lid on, and had a choice: a) spare bathroom - fairly consistent 70F or basement consistent 62-63F. I chose the bathroom. After checking the fermentor every half hour for 5 hours, I saw a bubble! How exciting. In the meantime, I did some reading and found that its probably better to be on the low side once the fermentation starts. So I moved my fermentor down to the basement after 7 hours. This morning, it was really going (and smelling great). So I assume things are going well.
I'm not going to ask if my sanitation is ok, cause really, at this point, I'm committed. I'll bottle and try it. Worst-case, it'll taste bad. Even if it doesn't turn out, I learned a ton and had a blast. Next month, I think I'm going to try some type of amber.
Great site here. I learned a bunch! I gotta stay out of the DIY section though. You people with keggles and electronic controls and pumps and MLT's and HLT's and other acronyms as well (seriously, you brewers need a glossary)
Cheers
matt
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