First Batch Under Way!

[chrisdaman77]

Well my first ever batch is under way. Just waiting for the water to boil. Now I know I need to get the new gas stove vs this glass top haha. Not sure why the guy before me did this but he put the thermometer on the pot instead of the bucket good thing I have the external one. Oh well will have to get another one probably from a pet store!

 

[clemson51]

Good luck. Just stick to the directions and it is pretty hard to screw up. You will learn more with each batch trust me.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Oh yeah. Been to a t so far started about and hour ago sanitizing and what not. Already made a non crucial but would have been a time saver mistake. Did not put the lid on the pot to hold in the heat so could not figure why taking so long. Just realized and threw it on. Oh well water was at 150 right after initial post according to my thermometer.

 

[lewishowardm3]

Good luck on ur 1st batch

 

[chrisdaman77]

Thanks. Wow this is an awesome aroma and it is just the bittering hops.

 

[chrisdaman77]

It says add second lme then boil 15 mins. Is that 15 mins from the time I add or 15 mins from the time the roll starts?

 

[Theis]

15 minutes from when the rolling boil starts.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Thanks will change my time then.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Well all done and even cleaned up. The OG was 1.481.50but from what I am reading I am figuring that should be 1.048-1.050. The 1.4 area said start so I hope i am correct in my assumptions. Oh well guess we shall see in a few weeks.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Oh man hope I did not mess something up. When looking at the yeast package after the fact I noticed it has to re hydrate the yeast for 15 minutes...I did not do this. Am I screwed?

 

[0202]

Oh man hope I did not mess something up. When looking at the yeast package after the fact I noticed it has to re hydrate the yeast for 15 minutes...I did not do this. Am I screwed?

You're certainly not screwed. Some dry yeast recommends sprinkling directly into the cooled wort instead of re-hydrating at all. You can either wait to see if you get fermentation activity, or you can purchase another package of yeast and add it now. If you use the pack of yeast that came with a kit or can of LME, it can be old or have been exposed to heat, leading to a less that optimal fermentation. If you aren't already, I'd recommend using a pack of yeast with a production or "best by" date on it so you can be sure what you're getting is relatively what you expect it to be. That being said, keep an eye on it, you're probably fine.

In the past, I've forgotten to pitch until after airlocking and just poured the yeast (US-05) directly into the wort and everything was fine.

Quick info and instruction on hydration and proofing are below in Palmer's free book. Just use it as a guideline and read around, some yeasts explicitly say NOT to proof as they have been specially conditioned to be ready to use without proofing. Don't read into it too much, I'm just including this if you are curious for more information:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html

 

[chrisdaman77]

Thanks I will keep watch. Problem is my HBS is closed the next 2 days so if it does not start it has to wait until late Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Made it I time before they closed and before I got to work and picked up another packet(not the exact same one bust still a wheat yeast) just in case!

 

[chrisdaman77]

Well finally got the new thermometer on the bucket and here may be a prob why fermentation is slow. The temp was 79. I have it in the tub now with very cold water. It has been hot here the last couple days. Think I am going to put in the kitchen under the table where the larger A/C is located to hold the temp down. Maybe then it will start. If not in a day or so I will add the other packet of yeast I have in the fridge.

 

[YulebeHoppin]

You're still at the early stages here. I think your yeast is still going to be fine, and 79 is a little on the high side for fermentation, but you wont kill your yeast at that temperature. The beer just won't taste as "clean". It's still gonna taste good though. If you can drape a t-shirt over your fermenter into the water, it will evaporate water and cool your beer down.

Relax.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Managed to get it down to 70 in the tub of water...well water here is super cold! Now have it under the table where the big a/c is and it is about 70 in there currently. I think I may do a project tomorrow and build a cooler box where I can maintain temp better.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Ok so out of curiosity I just had to take the lid off (paranoia) and make sure things were happening. Well to my surprise there was quite a bit of foam about half way up from the 5 gal mark and the top. I am attributing the no bubbling in the airlock to no seal on the fermenter lid. Never even thought to look since I had a list that I sent with the wife to give to the LHBS. I have it on there quite tight but not the best as far as a seal i feel. Oh well I am a happy camper right now. This should be ready by the time I start harvesting the garden. Taking a little longer to sit since I want to run into a secondary after 2 weeks to eliminate most of the sediment from the primary.

 

[0202]

Don't trust the airlock to tell if it has started. If you have Krausen, fermentation is under way!

Also don't trust the airlock to tell you it is done. I usually take an SG reading about a week out, and then 3 days after that. Almost every time, the SG has stabilized at or around my anticipated final gravity. If the gravity isn't dropping, your primary fermentation is likely complete. I don't usually need to take more than two samples to tell it has finished. 2 weeks should allow it to clear, just be careful when racking.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Thanks I had a feeling the airlock might not be doing what it is intended to do since the lid is not gasketed. I have a spigot at the bottom of the bucket and plan to run it through my funnel which has a screen. I had thought of doing a second filter through something like cheese cloth. Not sure what kind of results I will get by filtering it out that much.

 

[0202]

I wouldn't personally worry with a filter (they clog and need to be sterilized, etc). Allowing it to sit 3-4 weeks in primary is time enough to have the yeast fall out of suspension and tightly compact at the bottom. I've definitely gotten some wonderfully clear beer by just letting it sit in primary for 3-4 weeks with no filtering. I'm not sure I'd use the spigot at the bottom either, as I imagine it would stir up a good deal of trub when emptying. Spigots are hard to clean, I'd probably avoid fermenting in a bucket that had one and just use an auto siphon to rack from the top of the bucket, leaving all the trub at the bottom as undisturbed as possible. The only bucket with a spigot I have is a bottling bucket.

But I never fermented in a bucket so I'm not talking from experience on the last part!

 

[chrisdaman77]

I agree with you on the not using one with a spigot but this was all I had access to atm besides a glass carboy which was is going to be used as the secondary. I know it is not required with this specific brew but it is an optional step I would like to do simply to allow any sediment to settle and be able to see it happening. I know I could have accomplished this simply by using the carboy initially but that would have required a long carry back to room from the kitchen and simply I don't want to drop that bad boy. Soon enough I won't have to worry about that...hopefully.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Out of curiosity since I am going to be taking a gravity reading within the next couple days and the fermenter has a spigot can I just crack it open enough to fill the tube or should I siphon some out. The valve is only going to be cracked a bit since I am only letting out a little bit and shouldn't disturb the sediment at the bottom.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Just wanted to give a small update. Just racked to the secondary. As soon as I opened the lid I stuck my nose close to the bucket and wow I got slapped. Anyway took a reading and it is at 1.010 for abv of 4.9 which is higher than expected (max was supposed to be 4.75). The color was, to me, just right in the test tube, a little darker in the carboy but still smelled good.

 

[darin_e]

you're probably fine. it might take a little longer to start. the only time i have had trouble with yeast is when i pitched it with wort too hot. then i just added more and it turned out fine.

 

[chrisdaman77]

Planning on bottling this Saturday. Kind of wish I had not racked to secondary since the more I read on here suggests if you rack to secondary 6 gal there is going to be a lot of head space that should be topped with CO2. Will have been 9 days in secondary. I will not be doing it again since from what I have read it is a thing of the past. Oh well live and learn.

Chris

 

[darin_e]

Planning on bottling this Saturday. Kind of wish I had not racked to secondary since the more I read on here suggests if you rack to secondary 6 gal there is going to be a lot of head space that should be topped with CO2. Will have been 9 days in secondary. I will not be doing it again since from what I have read it is a thing of the past. Oh well live and learn.

Chris

Go by the taste. If the tradeoff is between no secondary and too much headroom in secondary, I would go with the latter. I have gotten funny tastes before from leaving beer on the lees too long. Just see what happens -- I bet it will be fine.

 

[OldWorld]

Just let the yeast compact on it's own. Racking over is not really necessary. You will rack it again when you transfer to the bottle bucket. Let the yeast really settle to the bottom. Off flavors can develop from leaving the beer on the yeast too long. However the small volume of beer we use as home brewers does not put as much stress on the yeast as large professional fermenting tanks.

Let it sit...Fermented wort tastes like watery malt juice...but once it bottle conditions there will be magic. It's gonna be an okay beer.