First beer is in the fermenter!

[Dabba]

Munich Dunkel!

It went pretty smoothly. Made a mess of the kitchen but maintained the steeping temp pretty well and nothing major went wrong. However, I order my supplies from northern brewer and measuring some of the grains and hops out on my kitchen scale.. it seems like they shorted me on the amounts of stuff. 16oz bags of grain were closer to 12 and I ordered 2oz of hops because I needed 1.3 and 0.5 oz for the 60 and 20 minute additions respectively and ended up with 0.3 on the 20 minute addition.. I hope that doesnt alter the flavor too much.

Also, my brewing pot does not have graduated marks on it and I intended to use my 6.5G carboy for fermenting. So I had to pour the wort into one of my buckets, get it to 5 gallons and then transferred from the bucket to the carboy. I guess that sufficiently aerated it!

Its sitting on 52 degrees right now in a water bath which ill try to maintain for a week or two!

Hopefully I'll have the amber ale that came with the kit cooking within a week or two

 

[flars]

Hope your Dunkelweizen turns out well. Was this all grain or a partial mash. Not normal to be shorted from Northern Brewer. Have you calibrated your kitchen scale? When weights are off for my orders it is always too much.

Don't trust those factory markings on buckets and the plastic carboys. They are often wrong. I mark my fermentor volumes by pouring measured amounts of water into them and then marking the level with Gorilla tape.

Give your beer time in the fermentor and have fun brewing.

 

[ncbrewer]

Congrats. Here's hoping it turns out well.

 

[Dabba]

Hope your Dunkelweizen turns out well. Was this all grain or a partial mash. Not normal to be shorted from Northern Brewer. Have you calibrated your kitchen scale? When weights are off for my orders it is always too much.

Don't trust those factory markings on buckets and the plastic carboys. They are often wrong. I mark my fermentor volumes by pouring measured amounts of water into them and then marking the level with Gorilla tape.

Give your beer time in the fermentor and have fun brewing.

Partial. I had three bags of grains steeping and used 8lbs of LME.

That's a good idea, when I throw this batch into the secondary I'll mark this one using your method. My kitchen scale finally died this morning (Good thing it was working last night) so I'm going to invest in something a little better tonight when I go shopping.

And thanks ncbrewer!

 

[HomeBrewersBazaar]

Congrats! It looks good, you will have to keep us posted on how it turned out

 

[Dabba]

So the water keeps draining in the laundry sink slowly, and I can only check it before and after class which is about a 12 hour day. The water level during that time goes from about the same level as the wort in the carboy down to 1/4 way up, ambient water temp at the end of the day is 56F and when I fill it back up with the ice filled gallons of water, it goes to 48-50F.

Am I okay with this slow change in temperature throughout the day. Yeast temp range is 48-56F. Its bubbling happily though and looks great so far!

 

[daphatgrant]

Congrats!

 

[Incubus2112]

Welcome to the club and don't carry your carboy by the handle

 

[Brownalemikie]

Dabba, maybe try a swamp cooler to keep it cool for those 12 hour periods. An old t-shirt works great.....put the neck hole right over the top of carboy and drape it in the water.

 

[Dabba]

Dabba, maybe try a swamp cooler to keep it cool for those 12 hour periods. An old t-shirt works great.....put the neck hole right over the top of carboy and drape it in the water.

Thanks, I'll do that and use some towels too. Hopefully the capillary action keeps them wet!

My basement sits at 60F ambient air temp. How long should I keep it in the water bath? The entire two weeks?

 

[ncbrewer]

The temperature range for the yeast doesn't mean let it fluctuate within the range. It's best to keep the temp reasonably constant during any particular day. I've read don't let it vary more than 4 degrees F during a day.

After active fermentation is over (I normally figure 4 - 5 days) it's good to let the temperature rise several degrees to finish out and get the last few gravity points.

 

[Dabba]

The temperature range for the yeast doesn't mean let it fluctuate within the range. It's best to keep the temp reasonably constant during any particular day. I've read don't let it vary more than 4 degrees F during a day.

After active fermentation is over (I normally figure 4 - 5 days) it's good to let the temperature rise several degrees to finish out and get the last few gravity points.

Ill do the swamp cooler tonight to try to keep the temps more consistent!

 

[Dabba]

I think I solved the water draining issue, but now I have another question..

When I transfer this to my secondary, is there a certain way to siphon? I imagine you want to leave the trub and yeast behind but.. dont you need some yeast for carbonation too later?

 

[ncbrewer]

I haven't used a secondary in many years. Lots of brewers don't think it's beneficial, and for sure it's an opportunity for contamination and oxidation. I'd say especially for the first batch, skip the secondary. As far as yeast, there's plenty still in suspension even if it looks clear.

 

[Dabba]

I'm doing it to clean it up a bit and free up my primary for another batch. Just wondering what the procedure is. I'm pretty good at sanitation and being clean.

 

[flars]

I'm doing it to clean it up a bit and free up my primary for another batch. Just wondering what the procedure is. I'm pretty good at sanitation and being clean.

Preventing more oxidation than will occur with any transfer requires no splashing and filling the secondary up to, or into, the carboy neck to reduce the amount of surface exposed to the air. An air lock does not keep air out. Molecules will seek equilibrium with the atmosphere through an air lock.

Consider purchasing a second fermentor to let your beer clear in the primary and then going to bottles.

 

[Dabba]

Preventing more oxidation than will occur with any transfer requires no splashing and filling the secondary up to, or into, the carboy neck to reduce the amount of surface exposed to the air. An air lock does not keep air out. Molecules will seek equilibrium with the atmosphere through an air lock.

Consider purchasing a second fermentor to let your beer clear in the primary and then going to bottles.

Already have a 5G carboy for the job. I know about the no splashing, do I need to worry about leaving yeast behind for bottling later on?

 

[flars]

Already have a 5G carboy for the job. I know about the no splashing, do I need to worry about leaving yeast behind for bottling later on?

There will be more than enough yeast cells remaining in suspension to carbonate in the bottle after the time in secondary.

 

[Dabba]

There will be more than enough yeast cells remaining in suspension to carbonate in the bottle after the time in secondary.

Awesome. One more question. Is there any length of time I need to worry about the yeast cells dying from lack of nutrients in secondary?