surlytheduff
Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2013
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
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Greetings,
Last night made my first attempt at brewing a beer. I've been lurking HBT/RB Homebrew/BA Homebrew/reddit homebrew forums for a while, and decided to take the plunge last month and picked up one of the MWB beginner kits. Had the gear on hand for a couple weeks and went ahead and got/built some upgrades: 50' IC, How To Brew by JP, autosiphon. Started out with the MW Autumn Amber kit.
First, my notes:
---------------
Steeped the grains in 3qt @ 155 for 30 min, then added to boil pot - probably a bit under 5 gal total volume in kettle at beginning.
Added about ⅖ LME, brought to boil. Then added hallertau, started 60 min timer.
Put IC in at 45 min, added Fuggles at ~58 min. Brought to boil, added remainder of LME. Boiled till about 1:03
Cooled to ~72 in 10 min. OG reading was 1.051. Aerated wort by pouring between buckets ~10 times. Pitched yeast (had added yeast packet to preboiled/sanitized 1 cup water at 90 deg.). Topped PF to 5g (was a bit above 4g to start). Starsan in airlock.
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Got up this morning and there wasn't any activity in airlock, was just slightly bummed. Came back from work tonight, and it was peculating at a constant rate (sidenote: I had never imagined that I'd be so transfixed by a 6 gallon bucket steadily thumping/bubbling in the corner of my basement).
So I think everything went well, but have a couple questions: OG reading seems higher than I should've got, per online gravity calculator. You think it was user error? It was my first time using hydrometer, so I wouldn't doubt that I maybe misread.
Other question relates to the steeping: 3 qts for a little less that 1lb grain - is that low? I did it in a smaller pot, figuring I'd try to speed things up on my electric stove by doing that in a smaller pot and then adding into the already heated brew kettle.
Last thing: my 6 yo daughter was pretty annoyed at me for cooking 'beer soup' and stinking up the house before she went to bed. I thought it smelled great, but she had a differing opinion.
Last night made my first attempt at brewing a beer. I've been lurking HBT/RB Homebrew/BA Homebrew/reddit homebrew forums for a while, and decided to take the plunge last month and picked up one of the MWB beginner kits. Had the gear on hand for a couple weeks and went ahead and got/built some upgrades: 50' IC, How To Brew by JP, autosiphon. Started out with the MW Autumn Amber kit.
First, my notes:
---------------
Steeped the grains in 3qt @ 155 for 30 min, then added to boil pot - probably a bit under 5 gal total volume in kettle at beginning.
Added about ⅖ LME, brought to boil. Then added hallertau, started 60 min timer.
Put IC in at 45 min, added Fuggles at ~58 min. Brought to boil, added remainder of LME. Boiled till about 1:03
Cooled to ~72 in 10 min. OG reading was 1.051. Aerated wort by pouring between buckets ~10 times. Pitched yeast (had added yeast packet to preboiled/sanitized 1 cup water at 90 deg.). Topped PF to 5g (was a bit above 4g to start). Starsan in airlock.
----------------
Got up this morning and there wasn't any activity in airlock, was just slightly bummed. Came back from work tonight, and it was peculating at a constant rate (sidenote: I had never imagined that I'd be so transfixed by a 6 gallon bucket steadily thumping/bubbling in the corner of my basement).
So I think everything went well, but have a couple questions: OG reading seems higher than I should've got, per online gravity calculator. You think it was user error? It was my first time using hydrometer, so I wouldn't doubt that I maybe misread.
Other question relates to the steeping: 3 qts for a little less that 1lb grain - is that low? I did it in a smaller pot, figuring I'd try to speed things up on my electric stove by doing that in a smaller pot and then adding into the already heated brew kettle.
Last thing: my 6 yo daughter was pretty annoyed at me for cooking 'beer soup' and stinking up the house before she went to bed. I thought it smelled great, but she had a differing opinion.
