First Brew Day

[henrybeggs]

I had my first brew day today, and it went fairly well. I followed the recipe of the American Wheat Ale kit from Northern Brewer with a couple of alternations.
Blood Orange Ale
6# Wheat LME
4 Blood Oranges
Boil
1 oz. Centennial Hops (60 min)
1 oz Cascade Hops (15 min)
1 Lemon Zested (10 min)

1. Boil 2.5 gallons of water and add the LME and bring it back up to a boil.
2. Add the Centennial Hops at 60 minutes, Cascade at 15 minutes, and finally the lemon zest at 10 minutes
3. In a separate pan I brought water up to 160 degrees and steeped the fruit of four blood oranges and the zest of two.
4. Remove the blood orange juice from the flame and allow it to cool.
5. Add two gallons of water to your fermenter and pour in the blood orange.
6. Cool the wort and pour it into the fermenter.
7. Add water to bring the mix up to 5 gallons.
8. Allow to cool to pitching temperature and pitch the yeast.

Everything went pretty smoothly, I did singe my fingers on the brew pot though . The SG came out to 1.043 which was a little lower than I expected, but I guess there are worse things. Let me know what you guys think of the recipe, I have pretty high hopes.

Thanks

 

[GoodDogShelby]

The big question is other than the fingers, did you have fun? If so, welcome to the club. Your beer sounds good.

 

[henrybeggs]

The big question is other than the fingers, did you have fun? If so, welcome to the club. Your beer sounds good.

Yeah, I guess I didn't mention that. It was a lot of fun, not to mention my house smells delicious. I had never smelled hops prior to this experience and it was amazing, not like anything I had ever smelled. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated as it all comes together. Amazingly it is already fermenting and I pitched the yeast about an hour ago.

 

[dslater]

"Singed Finger American Wheat!"

I name all my beers after brew day mishaps!

Congrats on the beer, I'll bet its tasty!

 

[henrybeggs]

"Singed Finger American Wheat!"

I name all my beers after brew day mishaps!

Congrats on the beer, I'll bet its tasty!

Haha, Bloody Thumb American Wheat. That's gonna stick.

 

[henrybeggs]

UPDATE

So I went to check on my airlock earlier and noticed that there was no activity, upon further inspection I found that my bucket was not properly sealed! It has been like 8 hours or so probably since I last checked it. Will this be a problem?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

UPDATE

So I went to check on my airlock earlier and noticed that there was no activity, upon further inspection I found that my bucket was not properly sealed! It has been like 8 hours or so probably since I last checked it. Will this be a problem?

Nope, happens all the time. The yeast activity will produce co2 and push out so nothing will get in. Congrats on your first brew and good move coming here, great source for information.

 

[Macdonald87]

Congrats, sounds like a delicious beer to be honest.

 

[Fizzycist]

Sounds fantastic! Can't wait to hear how it tastes.

 

[henrybeggs]

Me either, I wish this site had smellovision, with the citrusy smelling hops, the lemon zest, and the blood orange, it smells so delicious. I just hope the final product is up to snuff. With this insane heat we've had in Missouri it seems like just the brew.

 

[henrybeggs]

I took a peek into the fermenter today and saw that there is still a significant amount of orange pieces and bits of hop pellets floating on the surface, is this just something that will clear out eventually? Or is this remedied by careful racking.
Thanks

 

[Fizzycist]

Racking will definitely take care of that if another week or two in primary doesn't.

 

[henrybeggs]

FG: 1.015
This is an update for my purposes.

 

[35se]

How did fermentation look? Im a bit worried that a few days after putting in the primary things have slowed down alot.

Is this just normal for the NB wheat kit? Im getting 1 bubble for every 10-15 seconds. I was expecting a little more i guess.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

How did fermentation look? Im a bit worried that a few days after putting in the primary things have slowed down alot.

Is this just normal for the NB wheat kit? Im getting 1 bubble for every 10-15 seconds. I was expecting a little more i guess.

Yes, as was stated before, it's completely normal for fermentation to slow, or eve n be finished after a few days. As has also been mentioned a million times on these forums, airlock bubbles are not an accurate gauge of fermentation. Only a gravity reading can tell you what's exactly going on.

 

[35se]

Yes, as was stated before, it's completely normal for fermentation to slow, or eve n be finished after a few days. As has also been mentioned a million times on these forums, airlock bubbles are not an accurate gauge of fermentation. Only a gravity reading can tell you what's exactly going on.

Ah ok thanks. Excuse my noob posts as I tend to over react on things for the first time. I really just wanted to make sure my first brew is going good.

 

[JordanThomas]

Isn't this done by now? It's been nearly 8 weeks, no?

 

[nalidixic]

Congrats on the first beer!