buzd
Well-Known Member
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.
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.