car421
Well-Known Member
Well after getting a kit for Christmas I finally brewed yesterday. I did tons of reading and really did not want to make any mistakes. A buddy of mine told me that I was overthinking everything and not to worry. It was an Amber kit from True Brew. Based on readings here and advice from a couple of buddies I did not follow the instructions and went with what I pieced together.
Here is what I did, let the critiquing begin:
I first washed everything. I then added 1 gallon of water at a time to my carboy and marked the levels with a sharpie(6.5 gal glass carboy).
I did the same with my 20 qt pot (put in 3 gal and marked it on the outside). I put in 3 gallons of water and brought it up to ~170, took it off the heat, mixed in my LME. I then added my DME and mixed that in and returned to the heat. I brought it up to a boil and then would remove from the heat when it started to foam up. Once the foam quit I put my hop pellets into a bag, put them into the pot, put on the lid and set my timer for 1 hr.
While keeping a close eye on it I mixed 2 1/2 gal of water with 1/2 oz of Starsan in my bottling bucket and threw in what I could. I used my auto siphen to put some of the mixture in my carboy and then shook it up real well. I dumped it back into the bucket and then put 3 gal of water in the carboy with a 1/4 crushed up campden tablet as we have chloramaine in the waater here.
With 20 min to go I put in just under 1 tsp of Irish moss and also put in my Wort chiller. At 1 Hr I turned off the heat, brought the pot outside and got the Wort down to 95 deg in about 5 min. (It helped that the hose was filled with 40 deg water).
I did not have much loss during the boil and had about 3 gal's. I dumped 1 gal from the carboy and then siphened the Wort into the carboy and grabbed a sample for my gravity reading which was 1.042. I then sprinkled the yeast on top and waited 15 min. After 15 min I swirled the yeast into the Wort, put in my blow-off tube and carried to the closet. I stuck the other end of the blow-off tube into my bottling bucket that has the Starsan mixture.
I checked it a few times and after about 6 hrs it looked like nothing was happening. I went to bed worring if I screwed something up but this morning it has a nice froth on top and the blowoff tube is bubbling nicely into the bottling bucket. The carboy is sitting at a nice 66 deg. I plan on taking the blowoff tube out tomorrow and installing the airlock.
Now the hard part - waiting. I am going to do my best to wait 3 weeks and then bottle for 3 weeks.
I did wind up with slightly more than 5 gal's - maybe and additional quart and the inital gravity reading was 1.042. The instructions say 1.042 - 1.044 with a final reading of 1.010-1.012. and plan on waiting 1 week before taking my next reading.
Now I just need to decide what I want to make next!
Here's hoping that I didn't screw anything up
Here is what I did, let the critiquing begin:
I first washed everything. I then added 1 gallon of water at a time to my carboy and marked the levels with a sharpie(6.5 gal glass carboy).
I did the same with my 20 qt pot (put in 3 gal and marked it on the outside). I put in 3 gallons of water and brought it up to ~170, took it off the heat, mixed in my LME. I then added my DME and mixed that in and returned to the heat. I brought it up to a boil and then would remove from the heat when it started to foam up. Once the foam quit I put my hop pellets into a bag, put them into the pot, put on the lid and set my timer for 1 hr.
While keeping a close eye on it I mixed 2 1/2 gal of water with 1/2 oz of Starsan in my bottling bucket and threw in what I could. I used my auto siphen to put some of the mixture in my carboy and then shook it up real well. I dumped it back into the bucket and then put 3 gal of water in the carboy with a 1/4 crushed up campden tablet as we have chloramaine in the waater here.
With 20 min to go I put in just under 1 tsp of Irish moss and also put in my Wort chiller. At 1 Hr I turned off the heat, brought the pot outside and got the Wort down to 95 deg in about 5 min. (It helped that the hose was filled with 40 deg water).
I did not have much loss during the boil and had about 3 gal's. I dumped 1 gal from the carboy and then siphened the Wort into the carboy and grabbed a sample for my gravity reading which was 1.042. I then sprinkled the yeast on top and waited 15 min. After 15 min I swirled the yeast into the Wort, put in my blow-off tube and carried to the closet. I stuck the other end of the blow-off tube into my bottling bucket that has the Starsan mixture.
I checked it a few times and after about 6 hrs it looked like nothing was happening. I went to bed worring if I screwed something up but this morning it has a nice froth on top and the blowoff tube is bubbling nicely into the bottling bucket. The carboy is sitting at a nice 66 deg. I plan on taking the blowoff tube out tomorrow and installing the airlock.
Now the hard part - waiting. I am going to do my best to wait 3 weeks and then bottle for 3 weeks.
I did wind up with slightly more than 5 gal's - maybe and additional quart and the inital gravity reading was 1.042. The instructions say 1.042 - 1.044 with a final reading of 1.010-1.012. and plan on waiting 1 week before taking my next reading.
Now I just need to decide what I want to make next!
Here's hoping that I didn't screw anything up
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
