first brew day Good/Bad/Not much ugly

[BFitch]

did my first brewday yesterday. i think it went pretty well. brewed a cali common exract kit. i was concerned with whether or not i was going to be able to get my temp to stay steady while steeping. thought i was going to have to be adjusting the flame on my burner the whole time, but it stayed at 160 on the dot the whole time. overall i think everything went pretty well. one thing i know i messed up was i didnt boil my wort chiller long enough. i wasnt thinking that i had to boil it for 10 minutes first. i just dunked it in, turned off the flame and let it do its thing. still optimistic about it though.

the only other negative was i dropped my hydrometer and it shattered. so ill be buying a new one of them

 

[Kingfish]

You don't have to be too anal about steeping temp. A couple degrees either way is fine. Not boiling your IC should not be too big of deal either. Assuming it was new there is not much bad stuff that lives on bare copper.

Welcome to the addiction.

 

[pentachris]

If you dropped the chiller in while the wort was boiling, I wouldn't sweat it.

As for the hydrometer - at least it didn't shatter IN THE BEER!

You've actually made it through the easy part. The hard part is waiting...

 

[drives_a_bike]

You've actually made it through the easy part. The hard part is waiting...

Very true!

With my first batch, I remember cracking my last beer with a buddy of mine and saying "Dammit this is amazing! God Dammit!" My buddy asked why I was so mad, and I had to tell him that this was the last beer and I'm now noticing that I drank all the other beers far too early.

As much as you want to start drinking them after 1 week...I'll tell you, I never do until at least 3 weeks (I might try one at 2 weeks, but only one!).

Welcome to the Addiction!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Sounds like your brew day went better than mine yesterday! I was on my 4th all grain and thought I would brew a big beer. Over 20 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch... First thing that went wrong, my mash temp was low and there wasn't room in the cooler to add any more hot water to bring the temps up, then I only got 50% efficiency when I was expecting around 70% so instead of an OG of 1.089 I had 1.065. Oh, and had my first boilover on the stove too. Even a bad day brewing is better than a good day at work though and it will still be beer!!

 

[BFitch]

You don't have to be too anal about steeping temp. A couple degrees either way is fine. Not boiling your IC should not be too big of deal either. Assuming it was new there is not much bad stuff that lives on bare copper.

Welcome to the addiction.

it wasnt a brand new IC, but i did wash it pretty well while my boil was going on. so im optimistic about it.

Very true!

With my first batch, I remember cracking my last beer with a buddy of mine and saying "Dammit this is amazing! God Dammit!" My buddy asked why I was so mad, and I had to tell him that this was the last beer and I'm now noticing that I drank all the other beers far too early.

As much as you want to start drinking them after 1 week...I'll tell you, I never do until at least 3 weeks (I might try one at 2 weeks, but only one!).

Welcome to the Addiction!

yea, thats going to be the tough part. but i just have to keep telling myself to wait. or just buy a case so i have something to take up my patience.

im already planning to start my second beer when this one goes to secondary

 

[jCOSbrew]

Congrats on the first brew. Sounds like you are doing pretty well for a new brewer:
steeping grains, using an IC, no boil over, etc.
Give the beer 3 weeks in the fermenter and you should be drinking some good homebrew next month.