First Brew Day.

[CatchinZs]

Recieved my kit as a fathers day present. My boy is only 8 months old so I think mom had more to do with this than him. Either way I'm not complaining.

Seems like I'm one of a few that took yesterday as an oppurtunity to get started.

I didn't take any pics unfortunately but talleymonsters pics do a nice job of showing you what I saw as well. to talleymonster

All in all it went well. Nothing happened that got me excited and I learned some lessons that will help me prep and brew the next batch.

Only thing I ran into was that my hot break was pretty weak. I use a glass lid and the only time I could get it to foam up was when the lid was left on it but then I couldn't stir it to get the foam to go down. It was a vicious cycle.

My fermentation began in less then 4 hours and at the 12 hour mark I was getting a bubble ever 2 seconds. I'm pretty pleased with that.
Which brings me to my only question, should I remove the air lock lid at anypoint to release the CO2 that has built up or just leave it capped for the duration of the primary fermentation?

Add another hobby to my list...this one is my wifes fault.

 

[gnets99]

Leave the cap on!! You want to leave everything alone. With it being slowly released there is a nice layer of CO2 in the fermenter helping to protect your beer from picking up bacteria and wild yeasts!! You're in the hardest part of the hobby...waiting!!

Congrats on the first brew!! Let us know how she turns out!!

 

[CatchinZs]

Will do thanks.

I forgot to mention that I nailed my OG also so I feel like it will be a pretty good first batch.
The anticipation is already killing me.

 

[malkore]

patience young Jedi. at this point, the biggest mistake you can make is trying to rush the rest of the process. assuming it wasn't contaminated by anything, its gonna be good beer.

from this point on, you don't want it to splash at all, so move the fermenter very gently when its time to rack it to secondary, or rack it to the bottling bucket.

keep everything cleaned, and sanitized if it comes into contact with the beer. I would only open the lid on the fermenter to take a gravity reading. 3 days of consistent gravity means its done fermenting, and it'd be best to rack to a secondary ferementer (carboy) and let it sit another 2 weeks.

then, bottle/keg.

 

[CatchinZs]

Transferred to secondary today...I don't think it is really necessary with this beer but I thought I would do it for practice.

After 7 days in primary my SG was about 1.012 but I could never seem to get the same reading twice with the hydrometer. Not like it was still dropping but it was all over the place.
I moved it to secondary with an air lock so it will be fine if the fermentation isn't quite done.

So far so good.

 

[CatchinZs]

One more thing. The primary lid was loose for a approx. 24 hours.
I took a gravity reading and thought I got the lid on tight but I guess I never really pushed down on it as it came of with very little effort...not the normal grunting and cursing that accompanies the removal of the lid.

It was on enough to keep stuff out but I'm sure air was able to get in and out.
All CO2 release had finished approx. two days ago, if that matters.

Think any harm was done?

 

[southern brewer]

One more thing. The primary lid was loose for a approx. 24 hours.
I took a gravity reading and thought I got the lid on tight but I guess I never really pushed down on it as it came of with very little effort...not the normal grunting and cursing that accompanies the removal of the lid.

It was on enough to keep stuff out but I'm sure air was able to get in and out.
All CO2 release had finished approx. two days ago, if that matters.

Think any harm was done?

I don't think any harm was done. once you get the sugars fermenting into alcohol, it helps to stalf off any contaminants. My brother had his airlock blow off because of a vigorous fermentation. It was unlocked for 24 hours or more. All he did was transfer to a sanitized carboy and put another clean airlock on. You should be good. just make note of it happening in any logs you keep.

 

[talleymonster]

MALKORE Mad Props for the Star Wars reference. I am to Star Wars what Tom Cruise is to Scientology.

:rockin:​

CATCHINZS Thanks for the shout out. I'm glad you had a good brew day. I just actually racked to my secondary this evening. It smells good, too! Try and get some pics next time. We love to see photos of brew days, equipment set-ups, etc!

Remeber, RDWHAHB!

Good luck with your brew!

​