first brew, ehh, not so bad!

[pilot210]

Brewed my first beer today, a nice dark porter from a kit I bought at the LHBS. Looks like beer, tastes like flat, non-alcoholic beer, smells like beer. I guess I did OK. Lessons and questions:

Lessons:
1. Verify that your grain bag can hold all of your grains! Mine didn't, so I ended up using two of them.
2. Verify that your grain bag does not have holes in them before trying to fill them up. One of mine did, and I spilled some grains...not much thankfully.
3. Snow and cold temperatures cool things quickly!
4. Take detailed notes as you go along...I did, but am still trying to figure out what I missed.

Questions:
1. Due to a lack of planning on my part, I didn't make a yeast starter. I don't suspect this will do any harm, but will cause fermentation to take longer to get going, no? I've got the primary in a room that's set to 68 degrees.
2. Aside from racking the beer to the primary, I didn't aerate my beer very well. Would it be worth shaking it up a bit now, or otherwise aerating the beer? It's been in the carboy for seven hours now.
3. My basement averages from 58 - 65 degrees over the course of a day...how long should I wait before I take the carboy downstairs? I want to make sure the yeast is happy and multiplying, but can't keep the carboy upstairs for more than a week or so. Optimum temperature for the yeast (Irish Ale/White Labs) is 65-68 degrees.

That's it for now. It's time to look at my carboy for the 1753rd time...

 

[BigB]

Hi and welcome aboard!

1. Don't worry about the yeast starter, and yes it may just cause a little lag time to get going.
2. You could shake it a bit, but IMO I wouldn't bother. The yeast will still do thier job. My first couple batches I didn't aerate at all and the beers turned out fine.
3. If you have to move it to the basement, it won't be the end of the world. Personally I would wait the entire week if possible. When you do move it to the basement try to put it in the warmest part and put a towel or two around it to retain any heat that the yeast may still be producing.
When you bottle, if you plan on leaving the bottles to condition in the basement, plan on giving them extra time to carb up.

 

[Yooper]

I'd move it to the basement either right away, or as soon as signs of fermentation begin. Remember that the temperature that you're monitoring is the temperature of the fermenting beer, not the room temperature. Often fermentation causes the temperature inside the fermenter to rise several degrees. You can put it closer to the furnace, and put something under the fermenter to keep it off of the floor, and you might have the perfect temperature there.