First brew - comedy of errors

[buzd]

As the title says, I'm new to this, but I got a kit for my birthday, as I wanted to give brewing a shot. I planned and read, and bought extra stuff, and finally had a day set aside to do my first brew (an extract APA which is my preferred style to drink).

Well nothing went to plan. In the morning, I went to activate my yeast. I took it out of the fridge, gave it a good smack and set it on the counter. 10 minutes later, I came back to yeast all over the counter. I guess I smacked it a little two hard (I suspect it may have already been activated). No worries - off to the LHBS for a replacement.

Then I started steeping the specialty grains. The recipe (which wasn't totally clear) said 20-20 minutes at 152. Another recipe said raise it to 150-170 with the grains in the bag. I figured I would be clever and use my Anova circulator to hold exactly 152. That worked well until I realized when I pulled the grains, I had burned a hole in the bag. Oh well, very little grain went into the wort. I just tossed the bag and lesson learned.

Then I started the boil. The recipe called for (light) extract and 60 and flameout, and Cascade hops, 1oz at 60, 0.5oz at 15, and 1oz at 0. Well, I got confused and put the second can of extract in at 30 minutes. I'm not sure what that will do (maltier? darker, since the sugar cooked longer?). Then I figured what am I going to do with 1/2oz of hops (also, yay, hops!) so I put the full oz of Cascade in the boil at 15 minutes, too.

And to compound things since I was delayed, the guy came to cut our grass while I was doing the boil. So I think a few grass clipping may have got into the pot (I fished out a couple, and it really wasn't noticeable.) So I think I'm going to call this (if it works) St Augustine Pale Ale.

I went to take the OG reading, and realized that my hydrometer arrived broken, so I also have no idea what I have here.

So other than that, and a brief boil over (nobody mentioned that you can have a second hot break when you add more extract ), things went reasonably well. I was able to chill the wort down to about 64 degress between my wort chiller and a few sacks of ice. I have it wrapped in a t-shirt for evaporative cooling. It's still a little below recommended temp, but better too low than too high, right? But it's now been almost 24 hours, and I'm itching to see some activity. I've read that this wait isn't uncommon, so I'm trying to be patient, but it's difficult.

I'm hopeful, though. I will update this thread when (if?) good things happen. Thanks for reading.

 

[EcuPirate07]

The old saying "sh--, stuff happens" Everyone sometimes has ruff days. I actually had one yesterday myself. I had the wort being brought to a boil and was getting everything sanitized and looked up to see my dip tube and false bottom looking back at me. Thank god I have industrial gloves so I drained some wort and add them to the keggle. Then as I'm putting the wort into the fermentation chamber I look on top of the chamber and there lies my Irish moss addition that never made it into the boil

 

[JonM]

As far as brewday errors go, that's not so bad. You're on your way, Grasshopper!

 

[Northbank]

Those are not errors, those are lessons learned

Sounds like your beer will be ok though ....

 

[brewpool]

That's not too bad of a first brew day. As for your questions:

Ideally you'd add the second can of extract at flame out to reduce darkening but it won't make much difference.

The extra 0.5 oz of hops at 15 minutes will contribute some extra IBU as well as some extra flavor and a bit of aroma. I wouldn't sweat it.

I ferment at 65 degrees. You're right that it's better to pitch at a lower temp than higher in general. You'll be good here too.

My first couple extracts took 24-36 hours to see airlock activity. Give it time.

Congrats on the first brew day!

 

[JonM]

Those are not errors, those are lessons learned

This. Well said.

 

[kh54s10]

That is one reason that I don't really like the Wyeast smack packs.
Adding the second half of the extract early might make it a bit darker. Nothing to worry about here.
Adding the 1 ounce of hops will add to the bitterness. Probably not a drastic difference.
The grains that came out of the hole in the bag, if not too many should not cause any problems.
Grass will add extra flavor.
If you used all the ingredients and ended up with the proper volume, your OG will be what the recipe said.

Your delay in seeing fermentation is largely due to the fact that you should have made a starter when using liquid yeast.

I would say that your errors were relatively minor and you should have a good beer in a month or so.

 

[flars]

I decided to simplify things after my first solo extract brew. I took the main steps associated with the boil out of the recipe text to make it easier to track each step. It is scribbling but I thought it never would be seen by anyone other than me.

Homebrewing definitely is a continuing education course.

View attachment RecipeCover - Copy.bmp

 

[freisste]

...If you used all the ingredients and ended up with the proper volume, your OG will be what the recipe said.

...

I would say that your errors were relatively minor and you should have a good beer in a month or so.

Agreed with the first part, except there was a boil over, so a small amount of the sugar was lost. Likely a couple OG points.

Definitely agree with the second part.

 

[buzd]

Thanks for the insight y'all. I'm not too afraid that I mucked up the batch, but I was trying to follow the recipe to establish a baseline for establishing flavors. Oh well - I'm looking forward to trying it anyway. I'll nail the recipe next time and still be able to compare.

 

[buzd]

I see bubbles!!

 

[edb]

I dont agree with the extract at flame out, thats not enough time to get rid of any off flavors that the extract can produce. 30 mins was fine, flavor profile is not effected by the time of the extract just the color, the longer its in the darker your beer can be. IMO that was better thing to do.

As far as yeast, you like Pale Ales just use US05 dry yeast, half the price and less drama. Its a solid of a yeast for a APA / IPA, no need to hydrate just chuck it in dry if you want.

The one thing you will learn in this is that making beer is very forgiving. The boil side will take care of any infections as long and as long as your following good sanitary standards you'll always end up with something drinkable.

 

[DirtyPirate]

Sounds like your learning valuable lessons early on. We have all had good and terrible brew days. I always keep a couple packs of dry ale yeast around. There are brewing checklist out there that help you visualize the steps and check them off as you go. A good brewing timer app helps keep your additions organized as well. Be careful if you enjoy to many homebrews on brew day things can get interesting real quick.

 

[buzd]

So, update: after one week in the bottle (had to test it) and only chilled for 48 hours. It's not great, but certainly drinkable.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1467139602.044492.jpg

 

[PADave]

Cool, you made beer! I think I learn something with every batch I brew, always trying to tweak my process. For your first time those are minor mishaps. Now get some more going!

 

[buzd]

Cool, you made beer! I think I learn something with every batch I brew, always trying to tweak my process. For your first time those are minor mishaps. Now get some more going!

Already have a cream ale in the fermenter. My friend, who is a more experienced brewer, came over to help me bottle, and we just said, what the heck, let's just fire up another batch.