First brew day in the books

[lefty96]

I brewed my first batch of beer yesterday, it is a 5 gallon batch of Northern Brewer's Caribou Slobber.

In all, I think it went well. Instead of rolling the dice on my tap water, I just got 6 gallons of Ozarka spring water. I did try to do it indoors; we have an electric stove that features a burner that is too hot to really do anything with, but ultimately it wasn't enough so I moved outside to the crawfish cooker. I think the only thing that the belabored start cost me is probably a bit more water loss than if I had just started outside, which I will do from here on out. The crawfish cooker is just the way to go - especially for adjusting temps during hop adds avoiding a boil over. The first addition was quite nearly a boil over, after that the others were fine.

I chilled the wort in the sink w/ ice. I was concerned how long this would take, but swapping out the water 3 times got it down quickly so for now, I'm just going to live w/o a chiller.

I followed the instructions on the yeast packet to rehydrate it and add the the wort and yeast to a big mouth bubbler. After a few hours, I had occasional bubbles. I was a bit concerned about light and the temps dropping too low in the closet so I did wrap the bubbler in a blanket.

As of this morning it looks like satan's 5 gallon rootbeer float and the closet definitely has the aroma of working yeast so I think at least as best as I can tell now, things are going well.

I also was totally ocd on sanitizing and probably sanitized everything twice and just kept a spray bottle full handy and if I thought it might be needing it, I gave it a good misting.

I plan on racking to a 2ndary here in two weeks then bottling a week or two thereafter.

 

[mdindy]

I think you nailed it, sounds like it went way smoother than my first batch!

 

[VegasBrew1]

Yeah, sounds good. Why secondary? Unless adding something or perhaps dry hopping, it might be an antiquated notion.

 

[hottpeper13]

Had one last nite, I just did a primary for 3 weeks and kegged it,condition in keg(or bottle) for 3weeks and enjoy. It wasn't the kit but the AG recipe from their web site.

 

[lefty96]

Yeah, sounds good. Why secondary? Unless adding something or perhaps dry hopping, it might be an antiquated notion.

Honestly, cuz I figured for my first time out, I would just follow the recipe to the letter. 2 weeks primary, 1 - 2 weeks 2ndary then bottle.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Honestly, cuz I figured for my first time out, I would just follow the recipe to the letter. 2 weeks primary, 1 - 2 weeks 2ndary then bottle.

I was the exact same way for my first 5-10 batches of beer, but I'm going to provide some arguments against it here. First, you seem pretty meticulous about sanitizing (which is a good thing! better safe than sorry). Racking to secondary just presents another opportunity to accidentally miss something and risk infection. The only times I use secondary now are:

1. Light beers that I want to be very clear - getting the beer off of the yeast cake means less trub gets racked in to the bottling bucket and into the bottles. But really, giving your bottles a week or two in the fridge before drinking will settle all of that out anyway.

2. Beers with some sort of additions - fruit, oak chips, coffee, chocolate, dry hops, etc.

With a darker beer like caribou slobber, I don't think you'll see a difference in clarity if you use secondary or not. But, like I said, I racked all my beers to secondary for my first 5-10 batches (mainly to open up primary carboy for another batch - that's reason #3 that I forgot above) and never had any infections so it's totally up to you.

 

[gratefulfloyd]

I think you would be a lot safer just doing primary for 3 weeks and then putting it in to bottles. If this recipe requires dry hopping you can still do that in primary. No point in doing secondary unless it is for increased clarity, which to me does not effect the flavor or anythign besides visual appearance.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I think you would be a lot safer just doing primary for 3 weeks and then putting it in to bottles. If this recipe requires dry hopping you can still do that in primary. No point in doing secondary unless it is for increased clarity, which to me does not effect the flavor or anything besides visual appearance.

+1 on this. I leave all of my beer in primary for a minimum of 3 weeks, some have gone as far as 8. Once I made this my minimum standard I noticed a big shift in the quality of my beer. I also let the bottles condition for 3 weeks too. Try one at 1 week (chill for 24 hours first), then 2 weeks. This will help you understand the evolution of the beer and help you gauge the carbonation.

Also, invest in a thermometer strip for your fermenter. This way you will know if the temp is within the yeast's range.

Temp control is a huge factor in getting good results. The sooner you can do it consistently (freezer with temp controller or swamp cooler) the better you will be off.

Racking to the secondary also incurs the risk of oxidation of your beer.

Bottom line: you did great for a first brew and you have beer!!

 

[VegasBrew1]

Honestly, cuz I figured for my first time out, I would just follow the recipe to the letter. 2 weeks primary, 1 - 2 weeks 2ndary then bottle.

Amen to that brother. I remember those first batches. Everything off the checklist, nothing committed to memory. Soon you'll be an ole hand. Cheers.

 

[brewbama]

Congrats on the first brew. Caribou Slobber is good stuff. You'll love it!