First beer is in the fermentor! After action report.

[popsicleian]

I've been reading a ton about brewing on this site and elsewhere, and borrowed a bunch of equipment from an in-law, and did my first ever batch last night--an all grain BIAB, one gallon batch. My 8 month old son took two monster naps yesterday, which allowed me to do the whole thing without a lot of interruptions. I made a bunch of mistakes along the way, but I'm hoping it will still turn out ok--let me know what you folks think.

I basically used a recipe and process from the Beer Craft book. I was going for a brown ale, but I'm not sure if that's what I'll end up with. I tweaked the malts a bit based on what was in stock at my LHBS, my ignorance about malt equivalencies, and a couple of math errors. Here's the recipe I ended up with:

2lb 4oz Crisp Maris Otter
4oz Fawcett Pale Chocolate
4oz English Medium Crystal
1.28oz Chocolate Malt
1.28oz Flaked Wheat

10g Horizon (60 min)
5g Cascade (20 min)
5g Amarillo (1 min)

WLP001--half a tube

I used a Brita filter for all the water that went into it, but I'm wondering if I should have used campden tablets. I may try that next time.

I mashed for 60 min--goal was 153 degrees, and I was mostly near that. I was using a double boiler setup with an electric burner and controller, but due to user error the temp shot up to 168 at one point. It was only that high really briefly, then I managed to reduce the temp back down to the target. Temp never got below 151. I'd say it was within a degree of my target temp for about 50 of the minutes.

I sparged in a separate pot to get enough liquid for two full gallons in the boil. Boil seemed fine, but in retrospect it was probably not vigorous enough because I ended up with extra wort and my OG was WAY off (target was 1.065, mine was 1.045--measured via refractometer). I was worried about boil-over, but I think it would have been fine on higher heat to get more evaporation/concentration.

I borrowed a wort chiller, but realized my sink didn't have the proper connections, so I brought the pot (with sanitized lid) outside and stuck it in a pile of snow for a bit to shed some of the initial temp. I Realized I had forgotten to get a whirlpool going before I started cooling, so I did it once the pot was back inside (with a sanitized metal spoon). Not sure if it made a difference at that point.

It got a little cooler than I had intended, and I ended up pitching the yeast at about 60 degrees. Didn't measure the yeast temp, but had it out at room temp for a while before pitching. I used half a tube of the liquid yeast. Due to trying to get dinner going for guests, the remainder of the yeast tube sat out on the counter for about an hour before I put it back in the fridge. Is it still safe to use the remainder of the tube since it had been exposed for so long? I just folded the top over and sealed it with a binder clip (not sanitized, not sure if that matters) before I put it back in the fridge.

The wort was really, really dark--It doesn't look like a brown ale at all, more like a porter or stout. I tasted the wort that didn't make it into the fermenter, and it tasted decent. Given how far off target I was on the OG, maybe I'll end up with a session porter or something? Looking at pictures of other people's one gallon carboys, I should have filled it more--I think I left too much head space.

The fermentation was well underway by the time I woke up this morning, and it looks like it's progressing beautifully so far. I have it in a warmer part of my basement, but it's still pretty cold down there. So far, the fermentation temperature has been in the 62-65 range--maybe a little on the low side, but hopefully not too bad.

The whole process was a little nerve wracking, but very fun! I'm tempted to do another batch soon, but part of me also thinks I should wait to see how batch 1 turned out so I have a better idea of what I need to change going forward. My neighborhood homebrew club has their monthly meeting on Thursday, so I think I'm going to check that out.

Thanks for all the great advice along the way, and cheers!

 

[Azbrewboy77]

Sounds like one of my brew days ,ha come to think of it ,like most of my brew days

 

[beerinthebloodco]

You made beer! That's the important part. As long as it's enjoyable, it's worth it.

 

[Sailingeric]

It will look darker in the fermenter but even if it comes out dark it week be fine. Beer wants to be made.

 

[flyfishnevada]

Yeah, looks like you've made beer

BTW, I just buy those 2.5 gallon containers of filtered water from the grocery store, you know, the ones with the built in spigot. I'm on a well and I don't trust the water not to have a few bugs in it. Drinkable but maybe not the kind of stuff you want to leave in a bucket for three weeks.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Awesome work! Great notes, they will make your next batch way easier.

To your questions,

Bottled water isn't a huge cost in this batch size, and it reduces variables. Calcium chloride and gypsum are cheap, read the water primer thread and you'll see that a small add can make a big improvement in your brew.

Mash temp will be a wildcard. Probably fine, but you might end with a high final gravity.

Getting your sparge right on a small batch is Crazy Hard. Consider skipping the sparge and just increasing your initial mash volume. Much easier to be consistent, and you don't lose much efficiency.

Checking volume closely will help fine tune boil rate. Make some marks on a measuring stick. Better to get the right volume going into the boil or your hops utilization gets off.

Snow chill is a time honored tradition, great work. Whirlpool is important if you don't have much room in your fermenter (less space filled with trub). If you aren't short on space, skip it.

Yeast will probably be fine for a few weeks, smell it before you use it. If you wouldn't drink it, don't put it in your beer. Careful going down the yeast cell count rabbit hole... If it ferments well for you then the pitch rate was right.

A little dark is common, I have just started planning for it myself. Beer still tastes good when it's dark



Brew as often as you can, it gets easier every time and eventually you will have a batch turn out exactly like you expect.

 

[Azbrewboy77]

It will look darker in the fermenter but even if it comes out dark it week be fine. Beer wants to be made.

" beer wants to be made " I'm putting that on a t shirt

 

[popsicleian]

Seems to be doing pretty well so far--this pic is from about 48 hours after pitching. I'm glad I used a blow-off tube--there has been a lot of krausen moving up through the tube.

 

[Redlantern]

yup - you made beer

 

[ZmannR2]

My IPA's looked way darker the first few days of fermentation than the finished product.

 

[popsicleian]

So I finally got around to bottling this last night, in addition to a nearly identical beer that I made the following weekend. My plan was to try to make the same beer (but with brown malt substituted for the pale chocolate, since that was an accident in the first place) and try to eliminate some of the errors in the process. It didn't quite work out that way. I had the same problems with mash temperature ramping up, and ended up underestimating boil-off, so I had to top off in the fermenter. My OG was much higher, though--I think about 1.056.

Before bottling I took FG readings with a refractometer. I got 1.024 for the first batch, and 1.040(!) for the second batch. I can only assume that the rise in mash temp led to a whole lot of unfermentable sugars, or maybe I'm doing something wrong with the refractometer. The first batch was actually quite delicious--I guess I'll call that one a dark mild. The second batch didn't taste awful, but it was really sweet and the hops were much more pronounced. I'm hoping the bottle conditioning will clean it up a bit, but it may end up tasting like a bit of a mess.

I'm a little disappointed that both turned out so incredibly low in alcohol--I'm not sure I've ever even tried a beer below 3% ABV. I think I at least know what some of my process issues are, so hopefully the next batch will go more according to plan.

 

[McKnuckle]

Are you measuring FG with a refractometer? That doesn't work without a corrective calculation, because of the alcohol in the fermented beer. So if that's the case, your readings are incorrect on the tail end of things (too high).