First brew happening this weekend.

[formula2fast]

On Sunday I plan to have my first brew session. I am brewing a Brooklyn Brew Shop Chocolate Maple Porter. I am super excited about it. I am doing a kit first just to get down the process. I am sure it will be a tad more difficult to mess up a kit like that, so I figured it was a safe start. I have been reading a ton of books and this site front to back trying to get as much info as possible.

Thanks for all the tips so far. I will post results and then you guys can critique it for me.

Any last minute suggestions or ideas to make it an even better experience than it will be on its own?

 

[earwig]

Don't drink too much during your first few brew sessions

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

On Sunday I plan to have my first brew session. I am brewing a Brooklyn Brew Shop Chocolate Maple Porter. I am super excited about it. I am doing a kit first just to get down the process. I am sure it will be a tad more difficult to mess up a kit like that, so I figured it was a safe start. I have been reading a ton of books and this site front to back trying to get as much info as possible.

Thanks for all the tips so far. I will post results and then you guys can critique it for me.

Any last minute suggestions or ideas to make it an even better experience than it will be on its own?

Cheers and welcome to the obsession!

 

[Hopper450]

^^^^^ This.

 

[brewer_sam]

Cheers and hope you have a lot of fun with the brew process!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Keep your temps under 70 and limit adjuncts like sugar and sanitize like crazy. Most of all, enjoy it! Try to wait 3 weeks after bottling to try, but it doesn't hurt to try 1 per week to gauge how beer ages and you will understand why time to carb and condition pays off. Most of all, welcome to the obsession!

 

[formula2fast]

So everything went great today. I loved every second of it and I already have a lot of fermentation going. My temps are at 63*F and have good activity out of my blow off tube. Couldn't check gravity because I did a 1 gallon kit and my hydrometer is for a 5 gallon fermenting bucket and hit the bottom before it could submerge enough to float. My next brew will be with my 5 gallon stuff, so I will be able to keep better track of fermentation.

I was planning on letting fermentation go a bit longer because I can't check FG and then letting it carb up in the bottles for 4 weeks before drinking. I am excited, but don't want to rush anything especially since I could not accurately measure some things because of the small kit I used.

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

 

[earwig]

you can put a sample in the tube for a gravity reading. Most people don't check gravity directly in the fermenter

 

[formula2fast]

What tube are you refering to? The tube that the hydrometer comes in? I am very new to this so any clarification would be great.

I thought that you put the hydrometer in the fermentation bucket/carboy and leave it in there the entire time and just look at it to read the gravity. How is everyone else doing this?

 

[homebrewdad]

A thief is a great investment - sanitize it, dip it in the carboy, drop your hydrometer in the thief. It is a very small sample, but gives a nice reading.

Some use a sanitized turkey baster to pull a sample.

Hydrometer in the fermenter will be tough to read, what with krausen and such.

Good luck!

 

[formula2fast]

Just looked the thief up and looks like a sound way to spend $8. I have it on my shopping list.

My next brew is going to be a 5 gallon brew using my brewers best 5 gallon equipment kit. While I have a few experts giving pointers, I do have a few other procedure questions.

1. It came with two 6.5 gallon buckets (one with a spigot), and a 5 gallon carboy. I am assuming that the one with the spigot is for fermentation (so I can rack from the bucket to the carboy without having to use the siphon and leaving most of the sediment behind), and the second bucket is for sanitizing. After fermentation I transfer to the carboy for conditioning, correct? I would then use the siphon from the carboy to bottle. It seems that way makes the most sense to me, but I don't want to make anymore rookie mistakes if possible. Am I correct, or is there a different/better way to do it?

2. Is it possible to leave it in fermentation or condition stage for too long before moving to the next step, or is that something that once it is complete I have to move to the next stage right away?

I really appreciate all the responses and knowledge.

Thanks again!

 

[zapbryann]

Just looked the thief up and looks like a sound way to spend $8. I have it on my shopping list.

My next brew is going to be a 5 gallon brew using my brewers best 5 gallon equipment kit. While I have a few experts giving pointers, I do have a few other procedure questions.

1. It came with two 6.5 gallon buckets (one with a spigot), and a 5 gallon carboy. I am assuming that the one with the spigot is for fermentation (so I can rack from the bucket to the carboy without having to use the siphon and leaving most of the sediment behind), and the second bucket is for sanitizing. After fermentation I transfer to the carboy for conditioning, correct? I would then use the siphon from the carboy to bottle. It seems that way makes the most sense to me, but I don't want to make anymore rookie mistakes if possible. Am I correct, or is there a different/better way to do it?

2. Is it possible to leave it in fermentation or condition stage for too long before moving to the next step, or is that something that once it is complete I have to move to the next stage right away?

I really appreciate all the responses and knowledge.

Thanks again!

the bucket with the spigot is your bottling bucket. the other bucket is your primary, while the 5 gal carboy is your secondary(should you choose to use it)

 

[formula2fast]

I do plan to use the secondary, but I am not yet sure when to move from the primary to the secondary and how long to leave it in the secondary before bottling.

Could you use the spigot bucket for primary, then transfer to carboy via the spigot, and then back to the spigot bucket to bottle? Or is it not a good idea to leave wort in the spigot bucket for a long period of time?

 

[Transamguy77]

I do plan to use the secondary, but I am not yet sure when to move from the primary to the secondary and how long to leave it in the secondary before bottling.

Could you use the spigot bucket for primary, then transfer to carboy via the spigot, and then back to the spigot bucket to bottle? Or is it not a good idea to leave wort in the spigot bucket for a long period of time?

You can use whatever bucket you want for primary, I personally don't secondary but if I were going to (maybe to add fruit) I would let it in primary for 2 weeks then rack and let it sit for 2 more weeks.

I'm from the primary only camp (not trying to start that debate) and I leave all my beers in primary for at least 3 to 4 weeks and after that time the cake is pretty packed and the beer is quite clear.

 

[formula2fast]

In the next coming brews, I will try both ways and see what works for me. I know there is a big debate about to secondary or not to secondary. thanks for the suggestions though.

 

[signpost]

I'm pretty new to brewing as well (2nd batch actively fermenting), but it seems like the trub could easily clog the spigot if you use that bucket as your primary.

Because of a suggestion from a more experienced homebrewer, I used two packs of yeast for my first batch (due to it being relatively high gravity, and me not wanting to jump right into making a yeast starter). Maybe that is why I ended up with so much trub in that batch. A single pack of yeast might not create as much trub and therefor might not be as likely to clog the spigot.

Either way, using the siphon to transfer from primary to either secondary or bottling was pretty darn easy. Also, using the spigot bucket for bottling was super easy. Well, except for the fact that I didn't tighten the spigot enough and had a leak. That made for a high speed first bottling experience.

 

[formula2fast]

Thats true, I never thought of it getting clogged up, but the spigot is a couple inches off the bottom, so I would assume the trub would sink to the bottom and not get up to the spigot. I think I will just use it for bottling.