First brew - Franziskaner clone

[Maivz]

Well, I completed my first brew day today. I hit some issues here and there but in the end I ended up with ~1.050 OG. Efficiency in beer smith said 50% .

This was a fransikaner clone I found on here earlier. I mashed around 151 then readings went upto 153. It was supposed to be 150 for 9min. 3.5g then 2 batch sparges at 2.33 gal each. All seemed to go swell to that point. Ended up with somewhere around 6.5 gal pre boil.

Brought it to a boil and dealing with that for the first time was fun but do able as I have a 10 gal stock pot. At 60 min added my first hops then at 15 I added the other 2 per the recipe. A couple min after my final hop I threw in the immersion chiller and this is where things got interesting.

I had bought a thermometer from Wally World yesterday and it seemed to be working good until while using the immersion chiller it didn't read below 150 but the pot was cool to the touch. Luckily my neighbor came over and went and grabbed his. Read about 90f. Used his thermometer to get to about 73 then went to work putting into the fermenter.

I ended up with only about 4 gallons of liquid which could have been my fault due to not having a strainer for the fine bits in the bottom and perhaps having too strong of a boil? There was about .5gal in the pot which means I boiled off around 2 gallons in an hour which seems like a lot.

After putting into the fermenter I shook the bucket for a good couple of minutes till I had a nice foam. Pitched my yeast. Shook again then put the air lock in and put it in my closet as my house is usually 70 or less.

All in all it was a good learning expierence. I will have to look into my boil off rate. Hoping it turns out good.

It will be going into a keg once it's done fermenting.

 

[Maivz]

Well I guess I could use some advice. The airlock over flowed with beer / whatever. Is it worth taking off, cleaning and replacing or just leave it as is? It's still bubbling. Here's a picture of it

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421160835.624026.jpg

 

[olotti]

Those Hefeweizen yeast strains are notorious for high activity and blowoffs. For now pull out the airlock, rinse, re sanitize and replace. Then run out to a local hardware store and buy about 2' of I think it's 5/16 clear tubing I actually use the tubing that came with my racking cane and rig a blowoff tube. To do that just pull the airlock, sanitize the tube and just stick it right in the airlock hole then run the other end of the tube into a jar, bottle, whatever u have half filled with starsan solution and prob solved. Keep it that way until u don't see any more bubbling in the jar or krausen moving through the tube then u can put the airlock back in and let it finish fermenting. Hope this helps.

 

[Maivz]

I had some tubing for my auto siphon that I just rigged this up with and put about a quart of starsan mix in a pitcher and tossed the tube in.

 

[Maivz]

Anyone have a suggestion for the spent grains?

 

[ericbw]

Were you supposed to mash for 9 minutes or 90?

 

[Maivz]

90 min. Missed the 0 lol

 

[Mojzis]

Anyone have a suggestion for the spent grains?

Spent grains can feed chickens, make compost or dog biscuits. There is a thread (maybe a few) on here about how to make the dog treats. Just use the search function.

 

[ericbw]

Anyone have a suggestion for the spent grains?

Some people put some into bread, like this one:

http://homebrewexchange.net/recipe/spent-grain-bread-recipe

It's whole grain, the same as if you bought Bob's Red Mill 7-grain or 9-grain cereal and used it in bread. Although probably sweeter because the starch has been turned into sugar.

 

[bragona71]

Anyone have a suggestion for the spent grains?

I spread about half around the front yard and watch the birds enjoy!!

 

[C-Rider]

Slightly off topic, but....
When my dad came to America in 1930 as a trained BMW machinist he could not find a job in his trade during the depression.
What he did find was a bus boy job in a German restaurant in Manhattan called The Fransikaner.
The other day I stopped off at the local Good Will store and found 4 beautiful clear beer glasses w/the Fransikaner decals for only $0.89. I grabbed them and plan to send one to each daughter w/the story of where their grandfather worked. I'll keep the other two for drinking.

 

[ericbw]

Slightly off topic, but....
When my dad came to America in 1930 as a trained BMW machinist he could not find a job in his trade during the depression.
What he did find was a bus boy job in a German restaurant in Manhattan called The Fransikaner.
The other day I stopped off at the local Good Will store and found 4 beautiful clear beer glasses w/the Fransikaner decals for only $0.89. I grabbed them and plan to send one to each daughter w/the story of where their grandfather worked. I'll keep the other two for drinking.

What a great find!

 

[IslandLizard]

Congrats with your first brew!

You should put a blow off tube on the center shaft of that 3-piece airlock. Then put the other end in a jar or milk jug with some Starsan.

1/2" ID vinyl tubing fits perfectly, get 3 feet. But... that is just the beginning. You also need to cut off/sand off/grind off that star shaped end on the bottom off that airlock shaft. If that plugs up, you'll have a huge mess, and not just on the floor.

Fermenting on or near carpet is a bad idea. Smooth, easy cleanable floor surfaces are best. Sooner of later you'll have a blow-off, leak, or worse.

How many gallons is that bucket?

Go to Google, copy and paste:
site:homebrewtalk.com blow off tube
site:homebrewtalk.com fermentation temp control
or anything else you're interested in. Prefixing with the "site:" tag gets you all the results from that particular site only. Much better than the search engine here.

Ignore every suggestion for racking to a secondary after xx days. Leave it be in the primary bucket. Do not lift the lid until ready to bottle. Read around the site for tons of good suggestions, and definitely read the stickies on each forum.

 

[Maivz]

Bah for not logging in on my computer before trying to post a response.

I appreciate the tips IslandLizard. Unfortunately the current spot is the only good place I have for fermenting until I can drop the dough for a fermentation chamber for the garage. I might go ahead and put some of the plastic drop cloth down in there that I have though to minimize the clean up if something does go bad.

I dont intend to bottle, i'll be going straight to kegs and into the fridge to force carb. I'm waiting for my lhbs to get the parts in that I need (1/4 mfl tail piece and 1/4 ffl barbed fittings and 1/4 mfl pin lock connections) so I can keep my sanke kegs and have my corny kegs in the fridge and not be too bad to go back and forth on the fittings. I'm thinking I might need to expand my air distributor too.

 

[IslandLizard]

I just read you're kegging. Same applies.

Fermentation temps are crucial to better beer. But maybe you're keeping that workout room nice and cool, which helps. Or a storage tote or large cooler with water and a frozen bottle or 2, 2 times a day.

Plastic will help to prevent a hefe-carpet. Beer smell lingers, and the sweetness attracts insects.

 

[Maivz]

Yeah the other part of my post that I lost as I wasn't logged in on my computer is I keep my house from 66-71 depending on weather outside/ time of year. Lately I've been in the 60s as it's winter in fl.

By summer time I intend on having a fermentation chamber but till then im house temp only. Still want to get 4-5 kegs and a few more fermenting buckets/car boys.