I am happy to report that my first beer was a success! And I thought I would take this time to overview what I did,the good ,the bad, and improvements I intend to take next time which will be very soon.
(sorry for such a long post,Just wanted to give the first time exp. in detail so maybe another newb brewer can read and see details from a first timers POV)
First of all I would like to thank all those who posted back to my "help oh crap" threads! thank you! Your help in response to me and others has helped me immensely!
I went to Leeners(ohio) and bought a brewers best equipment kit that included bottling bucket,fermenter bucket, better bottle carboy air lock, lab thermometer,capper Easy clean cleaner/sanitizer siphon, spigot ,stick on therm. ,carboy plug/stop,hydrometer,bottling wand,big mixing spoon and i am sure a few things i am forgetting at 110$. I grabbed 3 12/22oz($15/case) bottles some more easy clean and a vial for the hydrometer (3 bucks). I Also bought a whisk(HIGHLY REC. esp for LME) and a 4 gallon stock pot(18$@target,worked GREAT Btw) and 7 gallons of spring water(1$@walmart,Tastes great)
Leeners.com is my LHBS and they are great! (not trying to spam just promote the ppl that got me set up and answered my millions of annoying questions with a smile)
I had fully intended on starting this off with a coopers irish stout kit. after some research and conversation with the fine employees of leeners,
I decided it might be more fun and worth the effort to go with a ...
Brewers Best Irish Stout kit(37$)(steeping grains dme lme prime sugars caps ect)
So not too terribly long after buying all this stuff I went home and started off on brewing beer for the very first time. Up until this point 90% of my youtubing and lurking research was about all extract kits so I was not sure of the beast i was about to tackle
I sanitized and cleaned everything like 3 x it was nuts. Paranoid I was.So paranoid that while I was about to add water I accidentally got some Germ-x hand sanitizer in the bucket!auugh..yeaa...small amount of it came off my hands while i was washing them before handling the thermometer.
I basically followed the instructions for the boil to a T. and did a few good things,and bad by mistake. I Poured the wort into my bucket after chilling out in a ice water bath in my sink in the stock pot, added a combo of room temp and cold spring water to the bucket until I reached around 70ish F. pitched dry yeast and stirred it for about 2-4 minutes. capped lid tight,attached airlock,checked for seal. good to go!
It began fermenting by next morning(mind you I did all this at like 12am) I made the mistake of placing the fermenter in a place that was way too warm (ambient temp 75) and moved it into my bath tub filled partially with cold water(bucket thermometer 65-68 ambient temp around 70f)
I added a blow off tube on day two for fear of a blow off while I was at work due to the very active bubbling. NO BLOW OFF! but my tube to bottle worked great!(I will probably just do this from now on,it was easy and more peace of mind) I fermented in bucket for about 5 days. Transferred to carboy where it sat for about 5 more days. I then prepared the priming sugar,sanitized bottles twice(once a day before and once the day of) the caps, and siphoned into bottling bucket!
I bottled and capped. I will mention that I did practice with the capper before hand to make sure I would get a good seal, I also practiced bottling. my bottling wand was not very good,only bummer in the kit. so I cut a piece of siphon hose and attached it to the spigot and practiced filling bottled with sanitizer water,and got very good at working the spigot valve
They sat for about 1 week.I put one in the fridge for 24hrs and I tried one of the 3 12oz i bottled in as "tester bottles" as to not waste a 22oz. It was FLAT. but tasted pretty good! one more week..put two in the fridge for 48hours....SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! GO GIANTS! I tried 2 more one for me and one for my cousin. IT HAD A FOAMY HEAD! IT WAS MURKY BUT NOT TERRIBLY CLOUDY! IT SMELLED GOOD! IT TASTED GOOD!:rockin:.....it does not have any signs of infection. it had a great Dark Ale,almost porter like taste. Stout? yes but not nearly as creamy as a guinness or a murphys. nitro might help there but yea no...It IS GOOD. I would classify it as drinkable,good tasting and for a first time,EXCELLENT!...more time and it I am sure it will become even better! It has a slight bittering hops flavor(like) a rich coffee-like undertone(very like) like 80% carbbed if not slightly more(time will tell) and a smoothness on the after taste that really reminds me of a less "robust" but porter.Hard to explain.when I think stout i think guiness and i wasnt expecting that,but Ill say it came out more "black ale" less "extra stout"
So I will let the remaining bottled beers (about 26 22oz)continue to sit at 68-70 ambient until maybe Feb 21st and Try ONE MORE see where its at.then start handing them out by st pattys day!erin go braugh!
I plan on waiting longer next time in primary and secondary. I am also switching to star san! Nothing wrong with easy clean. just does not go far enough for the money and I mean...i guess i would trust star san more I think. I am investing in a large water tight container for my buckets to sit into so I am not having to move a 5 gallon bucket when i need to take a shower. I am going to stop using hand sanitizer and just rinse my hands off in star san or wash them like normal before handling things! it did NOT affect the taste but it was a heart attack moment! I will continue reading this forum looking for new ideas and learning more everyday! Revvy ,u are the man btw
Thank you all so very much! I am sure I will have more questions down the road! I will try to use my green knowledge where I can! This forum is great and as soon as I can muster up some extra scratch for it, I am planning on tossing some money this way becoming full fledged!
Next Project! Should be a Brewers Best English Brown Ale or
Brewers Best Robust Porter(<<<strongly leaning this way) I really love the brewers best kits! They keep it simple enough to make beer where but give you that few extra steps to do like grain steeping and boiling hops. A lot of fun and kinda challenges you a bit vs just pouring a can of this,and a bag of that and adding water.Nothing wrong with it AT ALL and i promise you I fully intend on making that Coopers Irish stout one day.It is cheaper and less time consuming from what I have seen.be nice to compare quality.
Here is a "movie trailer" i made of making that beer! Enjoy! (purely for laughs btw)
Cheers!
(sorry for such a long post,Just wanted to give the first time exp. in detail so maybe another newb brewer can read and see details from a first timers POV)
First of all I would like to thank all those who posted back to my "help oh crap" threads! thank you! Your help in response to me and others has helped me immensely!
I went to Leeners(ohio) and bought a brewers best equipment kit that included bottling bucket,fermenter bucket, better bottle carboy air lock, lab thermometer,capper Easy clean cleaner/sanitizer siphon, spigot ,stick on therm. ,carboy plug/stop,hydrometer,bottling wand,big mixing spoon and i am sure a few things i am forgetting at 110$. I grabbed 3 12/22oz($15/case) bottles some more easy clean and a vial for the hydrometer (3 bucks). I Also bought a whisk(HIGHLY REC. esp for LME) and a 4 gallon stock pot(18$@target,worked GREAT Btw) and 7 gallons of spring water(1$@walmart,Tastes great)
Leeners.com is my LHBS and they are great! (not trying to spam just promote the ppl that got me set up and answered my millions of annoying questions with a smile)
I had fully intended on starting this off with a coopers irish stout kit. after some research and conversation with the fine employees of leeners,
I decided it might be more fun and worth the effort to go with a ...
Brewers Best Irish Stout kit(37$)(steeping grains dme lme prime sugars caps ect)
So not too terribly long after buying all this stuff I went home and started off on brewing beer for the very first time. Up until this point 90% of my youtubing and lurking research was about all extract kits so I was not sure of the beast i was about to tackle
I sanitized and cleaned everything like 3 x it was nuts. Paranoid I was.So paranoid that while I was about to add water I accidentally got some Germ-x hand sanitizer in the bucket!auugh..yeaa...small amount of it came off my hands while i was washing them before handling the thermometer.
I basically followed the instructions for the boil to a T. and did a few good things,and bad by mistake. I Poured the wort into my bucket after chilling out in a ice water bath in my sink in the stock pot, added a combo of room temp and cold spring water to the bucket until I reached around 70ish F. pitched dry yeast and stirred it for about 2-4 minutes. capped lid tight,attached airlock,checked for seal. good to go!
It began fermenting by next morning(mind you I did all this at like 12am) I made the mistake of placing the fermenter in a place that was way too warm (ambient temp 75) and moved it into my bath tub filled partially with cold water(bucket thermometer 65-68 ambient temp around 70f)
I added a blow off tube on day two for fear of a blow off while I was at work due to the very active bubbling. NO BLOW OFF! but my tube to bottle worked great!(I will probably just do this from now on,it was easy and more peace of mind) I fermented in bucket for about 5 days. Transferred to carboy where it sat for about 5 more days. I then prepared the priming sugar,sanitized bottles twice(once a day before and once the day of) the caps, and siphoned into bottling bucket!
I bottled and capped. I will mention that I did practice with the capper before hand to make sure I would get a good seal, I also practiced bottling. my bottling wand was not very good,only bummer in the kit. so I cut a piece of siphon hose and attached it to the spigot and practiced filling bottled with sanitizer water,and got very good at working the spigot valve
They sat for about 1 week.I put one in the fridge for 24hrs and I tried one of the 3 12oz i bottled in as "tester bottles" as to not waste a 22oz. It was FLAT. but tasted pretty good! one more week..put two in the fridge for 48hours....SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! GO GIANTS! I tried 2 more one for me and one for my cousin. IT HAD A FOAMY HEAD! IT WAS MURKY BUT NOT TERRIBLY CLOUDY! IT SMELLED GOOD! IT TASTED GOOD!:rockin:.....it does not have any signs of infection. it had a great Dark Ale,almost porter like taste. Stout? yes but not nearly as creamy as a guinness or a murphys. nitro might help there but yea no...It IS GOOD. I would classify it as drinkable,good tasting and for a first time,EXCELLENT!...more time and it I am sure it will become even better! It has a slight bittering hops flavor(like) a rich coffee-like undertone(very like) like 80% carbbed if not slightly more(time will tell) and a smoothness on the after taste that really reminds me of a less "robust" but porter.Hard to explain.when I think stout i think guiness and i wasnt expecting that,but Ill say it came out more "black ale" less "extra stout"
So I will let the remaining bottled beers (about 26 22oz)continue to sit at 68-70 ambient until maybe Feb 21st and Try ONE MORE see where its at.then start handing them out by st pattys day!erin go braugh!
I plan on waiting longer next time in primary and secondary. I am also switching to star san! Nothing wrong with easy clean. just does not go far enough for the money and I mean...i guess i would trust star san more I think. I am investing in a large water tight container for my buckets to sit into so I am not having to move a 5 gallon bucket when i need to take a shower. I am going to stop using hand sanitizer and just rinse my hands off in star san or wash them like normal before handling things! it did NOT affect the taste but it was a heart attack moment! I will continue reading this forum looking for new ideas and learning more everyday! Revvy ,u are the man btw
Thank you all so very much! I am sure I will have more questions down the road! I will try to use my green knowledge where I can! This forum is great and as soon as I can muster up some extra scratch for it, I am planning on tossing some money this way becoming full fledged!
Next Project! Should be a Brewers Best English Brown Ale or
Brewers Best Robust Porter(<<<strongly leaning this way) I really love the brewers best kits! They keep it simple enough to make beer where but give you that few extra steps to do like grain steeping and boiling hops. A lot of fun and kinda challenges you a bit vs just pouring a can of this,and a bag of that and adding water.Nothing wrong with it AT ALL and i promise you I fully intend on making that Coopers Irish stout one day.It is cheaper and less time consuming from what I have seen.be nice to compare quality.
Here is a "movie trailer" i made of making that beer! Enjoy! (purely for laughs btw)
Cheers!
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