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First brew day tomorrow

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acarter5251

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So long as my hops arrive from MoreBeer tomorrow (they should according to the tracking information) I am planning on having my first brew day tomorrow night (brew night?). I am super excited! I've just been spending tonight getting everything ready to go and weighing out my ingredients. Hopefully everything runs smoothly tomorrow!
 
Congrats! Prepping the night before can make for a smooth brew day. I think you're off to a great start, sounds like you might be going all grain first time out of the chocks?
 
Nah not all grain although I do want to try it sometime in the near future. I'm going to be doing the blonde ale out of Brewing Classic Styles to get my feet wet.
 
Great idea, getting the basics down with an extract batch is a smart move, and I do applaud you for doing some prep work the night before. If you do get into all-grain brewing, brew day prep, can help make the brew day stress free and more fun.

Cheers! Have fun tomorrow!!
 
So long as my hops arrive from MoreBeer tomorrow (they should according to the tracking information) I am planning on having my first brew day tomorrow night (brew night?). I am super excited! I've just been spending tonight getting everything ready to go and weighing out my ingredients. Hopefully everything runs smoothly tomorrow!

Home brewing is a great hobby. I find it to be very relaxing, and the product of the hobby really can relax a fellow.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your day.

Just remember... keep it simple, and remember that it IS JUST a hobby. If it becomes work, you might want to consider punching in and going back to work.

Have fun.
 
Thanks! Yeah I can definitely see that helping. I just want to be able to line everything up tomorrow and be able to do everything without problems. If getting everything ready now (which wasn't very difficult to do) helps then I'm happy to do that.
 
Have fun on your first brew! Patience is the key! Take notes, and if you have a hydrometer or refractometer, recording the Original Gravity will help a ton when you want to adjust a recipe later!
 
Have fun on your first brew! Patience is the key! Take notes, and if you have a hydrometer or refractometer, recording the Original Gravity will help a ton when you want to adjust a recipe later!

I have a notebook ready to go. I actually work in a chemistry lab, so I'll probably end up with a lab notebook of my brewing activities haha
 
Have fun on your first brew! Patience is the key! Take notes, and if you have a hydrometer or refractometer, recording the Original Gravity will help a ton when you want to adjust a recipe later!

Definitely take good notes. There is such a long time between brewing sessions that it is easy to forget all the little things you learn the first time through, and even the 20th. And after a few brews you'll have yourself a nice little cheat sheet reference for your specific setup.
 
Enjoy the day and don't get frustrated. Just treat EVERYTHING as a learning experience as I did and you will do fine. Hell, I just did my 4th batch last night (later than I wanted to) and managed to forget to take my OG reading....I relaxed, had a home brew and cleaned up. Easy breezy...Cheers!!:mug:
 
The hops came today so I was able to do my first batch. Overall, everything went very smoothly. My OG came out about 4 points lower than expected but not too worried about it. The only thing I am concerned about is the fermentation temperature, but the temperature appears to be dropping in the cooler now. No airlock activity but it's only been 2 hours since I pitched the yeast so definitely not worried about that at the moment
 
No airlock activity but it's only been 2 hours since I pitched the yeast so definitely not worried about that at the moment

I wouldn't worry about no activity yet. My first beer took around 12 hours for the airlock to show activity. Just as long as you had healthy yeast and you aerated your wort when pitching everything should be fine.
 
Just woke up and fermentation bucket is reading 62 degrees. Much better than where it was last night... Still no airlock activity but it's only been about 9 hours so not too concerned.
 
Still no airlock activity but it's only been about 9 hours so not too concerned.

What kind of yeast did you pitch? How much? If liquid, did you do a starter? If dry, did you rehydrate or just sprinkle it in? What kind of fermenter are you using (bucket or carboy, plastic or glass)? How/how much did you aerate?
 
I used Safale S-05 dry yeast. I just sprinkled it in but if anything i pitched a little more than the mrmalty calculator suggested. I am using a plastic bucket as my fermenter. As far as aeration goes, I poured from my kettle to the bucket fairly violently, then once it was in the bucket I shook it for about 30 seconds to a minute.
 
I used Safale S-05 dry yeast. I just sprinkled it in but if anything i pitched a little more than the mrmalty calculator suggested.

It's a bit of a controversial subject, but conventional research indicates that sprinkling dry yeast directly into wort can reduce cell viability by up to 50%. It will still work, but ideally, you should account for this drop in viability when calculating how much yeast to pitch, or rehydrate the yeast in plain water according to the manufacturer's recommendations. So it's probable that you actually underpitched a little bit, which would explain a longer lag time (and 9 hours is NOT a "long" lag time, by the way. If you had any kind of krausen showing in less than 12 hours, I would consider that "fast").

I am using a plastic bucket as my fermenter.

That should be fine, just resist the temptation to crack the lid every day and peek at your beer.

As far as aeration goes, I poured from my kettle to the bucket fairly violently, then once it was in the bucket I shook it for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Again, that should be fine. Sounds like everything's going as it should - just be patient! :)
 
Yeah I'm not super concerned. It takes however long it takes to start. I've got time
 
Just got home and the cooler did a good job for today (held at 61 for 10 hours with no changing of ice packs). Still no airlock activity though
 
My fermenter dipped down to 59 after switching out an ice pack. I've opened the cooler to allow my fermenter to warm up slightly. It appears that my airlock is bubbling but very slow. It's also moving in a very jerky way.
 
The airlock is going a little quicker now. Looks like fermentation is picking up! Temperature is currently at 65 so the cooler is still working pretty well to keep it in range. I'm so excited now haha!
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1394727960.551036.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1394727970.684365.jpg
 
I like the pics! Looks like documentation will be no problem with you! Have you stuck your nose down to the airlock? ..............Good, eh?

I had my very first batch fermenting in our laundry room. While my wife is totally supportive of my hobby (she bought me all my first equipment as a Christmas present!), for personal reasons, she's not a beer-drinker and is particularly turned off by the smell of beer. After going in and out of the brewing... er, I mean, laundry room on the first day of perking, she finally said, "Can you please move your beer? It's starting to smell!" It was about the greatest compliment --- and confirmation I was on the right track --- I could have ever received!

Even with a couple of tactical errors along the way, the beer turned out fantastic!

And so will yours! Cheers!
 
I like the pics! Looks like documentation will be no problem with you! Have you stuck your nose down to the airlock? ..............Good, eh?

I had my very first batch fermenting in our laundry room. While my wife is totally supportive of my hobby (she bought me all my first equipment as a Christmas present!), for personal reasons, she's not a beer-drinker and is particularly turned off by the smell of beer. After going in and out of the brewing... er, I mean, laundry room on the first day of perking, she finally said, "Can you please move your beer? It's starting to smell!" It was about the greatest compliment --- and confirmation I was on the right track --- I could have ever received!

Even with a couple of tactical errors along the way, the beer turned out fantastic!

And so will yours! Cheers!

It does smell really good. I can't wait to give it a try in a few weeks or so.
 
It appears that my fermentation is slowing down as the airlock has stopped bubbling. I plan to leave the beer in primary for about 3 weeks to allow it to clear up and clean up. Then I plan to bottle. How important is maintaining a lower temperature at this point in time? If I let it get a little bit warmer now do I have to worry about fruity esters forming? I'd like to open up space in my cooler for my next batch soon if possible.
 
How important is maintaining a lower temperature at this point in time?

Temperature is most important during the first few days. You brewed this on Tuesday, right? You're probably largely out of the woods at this point. After 5-7 days, you can safely let it rise to ambient temperature, even if that ends up being in the 70's. In fact, allowing it to warm up a little bit toward the end of fermentation can contribute to improved attenuation and encourage the yeast to clean up a little more.
 

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