First beer in the fermenter!

[BlackBearForge]

Well, after a more strenuous first brew day than I expected I have a pale ale in the carboy sitting in an Igloo "Cube" fermentation cooler at about 70 degrees at the moment. It was John Palmer's "Lady Liberty" pale ale recipe with the bittering hop swapped out for Chinook instead.

First question however: WHY THE HECK DOESN'T ANY OF THE LITERATURE WARN FIRST TIMERS NOT TO TRY PUTTING WET SLIPPERY AIR LOCK STOPPERS INTO A WET CARBOY OPENING??? LOL Yes, of course, it slipped right on through and is now sitting in the bottom of the fermenter. Fortunately the kit I bought came with another stopper for the secondary. Had me in a tizzy for a bit however until I discovered it happens all the time. lol

The only other mishap, besides it all taking much longer than anticipated, was I dumped two metal strainers and a metal whisk into my bottling bucket full of Star San solution and forgot about them for over an hour. They reacted poorly with the solution and came out covered with a gray oxidation. My assumption is they are now unusuable. My assumption too is that the bucket should still be ok and not irreparably contaminated with metal (I did washed and rinse it out.) Cheers everyone!

 

[BriarwoodBrewer]

Sounds like a great day. The beer will turn out better than you could have expected!

 

[barnyard]

Good luck with your beer and I would not use aluminum that is oxidized. I put a meat grinder in the dish washer one time and that was a $200 mess up.

 

[TomSD]

Woho you'll be hooked once you taste the results. As for the little accidents... that is half the fun.

On that note how did your stopper fall into your fermentor? There is no way my stopper could fit through the neck of my carboy.

 

[pwndabear]

When the time comes, maybe this video will help you get the stopper out of your carboy:

 

[TomSD]

When the time comes, maybe this video will help you get the stopper out of your carboy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDr9B5ebuRo

Nice!

 

[BlackBearForge]

Thanks for the vid! That method of getting the stopper out was commonly refered to last night when I was freaking out and checking out what to do online. When that type of stopper is wet with Star San and the glass of the carboy is also wet it will just pop back out the opening every time you put it in until you really jam it in and then it will just slip right on through!

I also have fermentation signs this morning! (I was also half afraid I had let my re-hydrated yeast sit too long before pitching them.)

 

[TomSD]

I've had trouble with slippage but never shot the thing into the carboy. Now that I'm thinking about it though I'll probably end up doing it next time I brew... thanks.

 

[Richabt]

Sounds like you had a normal first brew day. Glad you got your first going.
Congrats!!

I guess you heard about our little set back with the robust porter. We managed to save over 3 gallons and it seems to be doing fine.