First Brew day done!

[JHamm]

Started last night around 7:30 with a Brewer's Best IPA kit.

First issue was keeping the water between 150 and 170 for steeping the grains. I think it went over 170 for a minute or two but I just turned off the heat and it kept fairly steady at 162 - 166 for 20 minutes (total steeping time of 25 minutes). Brought it up to a boil after removing the grain bag and added:

1.0 lb. Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)
6.6 lb. Munton's Light Extract Malt (8-12 SRM)

Then added at 55 minutes left:

1.0 oz Cascade Hops (7.50%)
1.0 oz Columbus (14.20%)

With 15 minutes left added:

1.0 oz Cascade (7.50%)

With 5 minutes left added:

1.0 oz Cascade aroma Hops (7.50%)

Had no problem with boil overs. I initially was going to add 6 gallons to boil but stopped at 5 because the water level was getting really close to the top and boil overs were a concern. Had a good gentle boil the whole time though.

With 15 minutes left I added the immersion chiller to sanitize. At 60 minutes proceeded to cut off the flame and start the chiller. Overall it took about 15 minutes to get from boil to 60 degrees (I checked the temp about 4 times).

Poured the wort through a fine colander into the fermention bucket and had to add a half gallon of water to bring it to 5 gallons.

Carried the fermenter into the basement (ambient temp was 61 degrees). Took a sample using a wine thief and took a hydrometer reading of 1.060. Measured original gravity from beersmith gave me 1.058, though and the kit recipe gave an OG range of 1.061 - 1.065. I guess the 1.060 is good.

Put the 3 piece airlock on with sanitzer solution in it. put the lid on and done.

Beersmith gave me an IBU of 80 for the above recipe. Not sure how right that is or what I may have done to offset it because the original recipe range was 45 - 49. I adjusted the late addition hops to lower the IBU to even get to 80.

 

[shunt1317]

Now the waiting begins........

 

[JHamm]

Now the waiting begins........

No no, now the second batch begins

 

[shunt1317]

No no, now the second batch begins

Even better....!

 

[jdc2]

Beersmith gave me an IBU of 80 for the above recipe. Not sure how right that is or what I may have done to offset it because the original recipe range was 45 - 49. I adjusted the late addition hops to lower the IBU to even get to 80.

Recipator gives 92 IBU for that recipe with a 5.5 gallon boil
evaporating to 5 gallons. If you started with a 2.5 gallon
boil it's only 52 IBU. That's an awful lot of hops for a 5
gallon boil, did you actually boil that much?
Jim

 

[JHamm]

Recipator gives 92 IBU for that recipe with a 5.5 gallon boil
evaporating to 5 gallons. If you started with a 2.5 gallon
boil it's only 52 IBU. That's an awful lot of hops for a 5
gallon boil, did you actually boil that much?
Jim

Yeah, that's what came with the kit. The kit instructions called for a 2.5 gallon boil but to add the total 3 oz at the beginning. I took 1 oz of the Cascade at moved it to 15 minutes left per another poster's recommendation but did boil the other 2 oz at 55 minutes.

Also, you were right. i checked my beersmith calculation and the IBU was 91.2. I guess I'll just have a bitter beer. One of my favorites is the 90 Minute IPA from Dogfish (not comparing my first brew to anything by Dogfish)

 

[JHamm]

Not bubbling furiously or anything, but there's activity albeit slow. Put my ear up to the fermenter but didn't hear anything happening.

 

[SporkD2]

thats a tricky part for a lot of people. Sometimes you'll have beers go crazy, sometimes they just slowly ferment without disturbing anyone lol

 

[JHamm]

thats a tricky part for a lot of people. Sometimes you'll have beers go crazy, sometimes they just slowly ferment without disturbing anyone lol

LOL yeah. I'm really not sure which I would prefer. Either way if it ends up good beer I'm happy

 

[jdc2]

Yeah, that's what came with the kit. The kit instructions called for a 2.5 gallon boil but to add the total 3 oz at the beginning. I took 1 oz of the Cascade at moved it to 15 minutes left per another poster's recommendation but did boil the other 2 oz at 55 minutes.

Also, you were right. i checked my beersmith calculation and the IBU was 91.2. I guess I'll just have a bitter beer. One of my favorites is the 90 Minute IPA from Dogfish (not comparing my first brew to anything by Dogfish)

But if you boiled 2.5 gallons, it will be 52 ibu's. That's what I was
wondering. You get less out of the hops with a concentrated boil.
Jim

 

[JHamm]

But if you boiled 2.5 gallons, it will be 52 ibu's. That's what I was
wondering. You get less out of the hops with a concentrated boil.
Jim

OK I understand. I wanted to do a full boil though to utilize the hops more. I could have lowered the amount of hops to bring down the ibu more. I do like a hoppy beer though

 

[JHamm]

I have a stick on thermometer on the fermenter. It has 3 numbers with different colors. they are 61-59-57. I guess the 59 is the temp of the liquid?? Does this seem low?? I put the sticker on about 3 hours ago.

 

[KevinW]

Oooh, that may be a little low for an ale! Most ales ferment good in the upper 60's to low 70's, exception maybe being Kolsch yeasts! Hope all turns out good, whether you've got 52 or 90 IBU's it still sounds yummy to me!

 

[JHamm]

Well, it's been 3.5 weeks now so I thought I'd take a hydrometer test to make sure I'm done before bottling this weekend. Overall, tasted great!!

OG was 1.060
FG was 1.014

calculated the ABV at around 6.1%

Seems a little cloudy overall. took some pictures of the fermenter and the sample in the glass:

 

[JiveTurkey]

The beer will clear somewhat in the bottles as it sits in the fridge and yeast and other stuff settles.

You can also use Irish Moss (from seaweed) or Whirfloc (Irish Moss plus carageenan) in the boil. There are other post-fermentation finings that I'd never use: gelatin and isinglass (made from animal parts--I'm vegetarian) and Polyclar (I couldn't bring myself to put plastic in my beer).

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/12/30/fining-agents-improving-beer-clarity/