First post (and batch) - but reading posts for a few weeks now. Lots of great info that has been really helpful.
The quick history - got a home brewing kit for Christmas and did the first boil yesterday. It's already bubbling up (a good bubble every few seconds through the airlock) and smells great. The temperature adjusted OG was dead on when I put it into the bucket so I feel like I did alright with the boil.
There are some questions mixed in here. I'll try to call them out.
The "mistakes" I think I made:
1) Poured the trub into the fermentation bucket. I'm not worried about this after reading quite a few threads about this.
2) My airlock has bottled water without sanitizer in it. My reading indicates should have put a small amount of sanitizer into the water - I just forgot.
Q: I plan to fix this when checking the gravity or if I need to clean the airlock for any reason - should I do it ASAP?
So in the "what's next" I have to decide:
1) Do I do a secondary fermentation? My inclination is to do it if for no other reason then to justify buying a 5g carboy. I know I don't need to - I could leave it in the primary longer. No real question here - I've read a lot of threads and will make a decision.
2) Do I bottle or keg? My wife wants me to keg it all but I think I want to bottle 12 and keg the rest so that I can share some more easily (assuming it is worth sharing). Since she wants me to keg I feel like I should buy the kegging equipment while she's totally on board with it. Now the question...
I know I have several options for kegging and bottling but at the end of the day what I don't know is whether it's OK to put the roughly 3 gallons into a 5g corny keg and use CO2 to keep the pressure up while it conditions or do I need to get a smaller keg if I want to split between bottles and kegs.
Q: Is it OK to put 3g into a 5g corny keg after fermentation or do I need to either fill it all or get a smaller keg?
Now some random questions ...
Q: Can I store liquefied sanitizer?
E.g., if I make up a gallon of Beer Brite and know that I will be needing some several days in a row - can I store it or does it go bad?
Q: Do I need to sanitize my thermometer when it's not in the boil?
What I mean is - I sanitized it before the boil and then I would check the temp, set it back under the cling-wrap and then a few minutes later would use it again. Should I have been sanitizing it every time?
Q: What temperature should the grain bag steep at?
The instructions I had said to raise the temp of 1g of water to 155f and put the grains in. Then it said to let it steep for 30 minutes and "DO NOT BOIL" (caps theirs) - but it did not say what temp to steep at. I did my best to just keep it at 155 (no cooler - I did let it get to around 160). This was just a guess based on the lack of information - was it the right decision?
Lessons learned:
The quick history - got a home brewing kit for Christmas and did the first boil yesterday. It's already bubbling up (a good bubble every few seconds through the airlock) and smells great. The temperature adjusted OG was dead on when I put it into the bucket so I feel like I did alright with the boil.
There are some questions mixed in here. I'll try to call them out.
The "mistakes" I think I made:
1) Poured the trub into the fermentation bucket. I'm not worried about this after reading quite a few threads about this.
2) My airlock has bottled water without sanitizer in it. My reading indicates should have put a small amount of sanitizer into the water - I just forgot.
Q: I plan to fix this when checking the gravity or if I need to clean the airlock for any reason - should I do it ASAP?
So in the "what's next" I have to decide:
1) Do I do a secondary fermentation? My inclination is to do it if for no other reason then to justify buying a 5g carboy. I know I don't need to - I could leave it in the primary longer. No real question here - I've read a lot of threads and will make a decision.
2) Do I bottle or keg? My wife wants me to keg it all but I think I want to bottle 12 and keg the rest so that I can share some more easily (assuming it is worth sharing). Since she wants me to keg I feel like I should buy the kegging equipment while she's totally on board with it. Now the question...
I know I have several options for kegging and bottling but at the end of the day what I don't know is whether it's OK to put the roughly 3 gallons into a 5g corny keg and use CO2 to keep the pressure up while it conditions or do I need to get a smaller keg if I want to split between bottles and kegs.
Q: Is it OK to put 3g into a 5g corny keg after fermentation or do I need to either fill it all or get a smaller keg?
Now some random questions ...
Q: Can I store liquefied sanitizer?
E.g., if I make up a gallon of Beer Brite and know that I will be needing some several days in a row - can I store it or does it go bad?
Q: Do I need to sanitize my thermometer when it's not in the boil?
What I mean is - I sanitized it before the boil and then I would check the temp, set it back under the cling-wrap and then a few minutes later would use it again. Should I have been sanitizing it every time?
Q: What temperature should the grain bag steep at?
The instructions I had said to raise the temp of 1g of water to 155f and put the grains in. Then it said to let it steep for 30 minutes and "DO NOT BOIL" (caps theirs) - but it did not say what temp to steep at. I did my best to just keep it at 155 (no cooler - I did let it get to around 160). This was just a guess based on the lack of information - was it the right decision?
Lessons learned:
- Keep a notebook in the kitchen to jot down temps/times/etc while boiling.
- Get a better hydrometer tube (nice hydrometer, flimsy plastic tube).
- Keep some extra sanitizer on hand during the boil.
- If I'm going to deviate from the instructions (adding sanitizer to airlock) make a note on the instruction sheet ... I won't remember if I don't.
- You can never have too much cling wrap
- Be prepared for the boilover because it comes fast.