First brew in progress, waiting on lower temp.

[tbel]

Well I've got my first one under way. An extract kit.
I was cooling on the deck with water in a storage tub and added snow. I thought I had the temp down to about a hundred and brought it in and poured it into the fermenter. I figured when I added the rest of the water per directions, it would cool enough to pitch the yeast. Well apparently I must have had the temp probe in a cool spot because even after topping up to 5 gal. it's reading 110 F. I guess there's no hurry but wonder how long it'll take to cool enough. Other than that everything has gone well so far.
My wife was around the whole time and never complained about the smell or mess once.

 

[nickharbour]

You can speed up the cool-down with a wort chiller. It looks badass and is great for the impatient brewer and actually improves your chances of making great beer because the cool-down is a vulnerable time for your beer.

 

[tbel]

No wort chiller (yet). shhhhh.. I'll just be patient. Got the bucket sitting in ice water in the sink.

 

[krumb]

No wort chiller (yet). shhhhh.. I'll just be patient. Got the bucket sitting in ice water in the sink.

heh.

i ended up making one last week...got to use it Saturday. it is awesome.

brew #1 = 40 mins to cool

brew #2 (with chiller) = 12 mins

 

[flabyboy]

welcome tbel. helps to stir the wort a little while cooling so you get a more accurate reading. plus its not as cold out today as it was Saturday. I usually keep a gallon or 2 of water out in my garage or fridge and use that in the fermenter to bring it down more. Don't pitch until you get it down to 65 degrees

glad to hear the Mrs handled it well. let the addiction begin

 

[wolverinebrewer]

You didn't say how you were cooling your water but in you're neck of the woods you've got an infinite supply of the cheapest coolant....SNOW.
Keep adding snow to the sink as it melts and your water will stay in the 30's. The wort should chill in no time.
When you can, get or make a chiller. It was one of the best $48 I've spent in this hobby. I get my wort down to 65 in about 10 min using well water.

 

[tbel]

Well it turns out the thermometer I was using was JUNK! Just bought it and it showed the right temp up to boiling. But afterward every time I tested the wort it showed over 100. When I put the stick on "fermometer" on, it was plenty cool. I did wait to pitch the yeast until around 68. It may have been even a little lower but with those things precise is not an option.
All in all it was a good brew day.

 

[flabyboy]

Well it turns out the thermometer I was using was JUNK! Just bought it and it showed the right temp up to boiling. But afterward every time I tested the wort it showed over 100. When I put the stick on "fermometer" on, it was plenty cool. I did wait to pitch the yeast until around 68. It may have been even a little lower but with those things precise is not an option.
All in all it was a good brew day.

Nice. Can't wait to try it

 

[tbel]

So I kept the primary upstairs for the first 28.5 hrs. Got home from work on Monday and it was bubbling away nicely. The temp was at about 74° F, so i thought I'd better get it in a cooler part of the house. Where I had originaly planned to put it was in a corner of the utility room, but i found recently that it fluctuates to much. So, I put it in the opposite corner of the basement. This A.M. when I checked it the temp was down to 64 F. The Optimum temp for the Wyeast I used is 65°-77° F, but the Instuctions for the kit further on says "The optimum fermentation temperature for this beer is 70-85° F". The thermometor I had on the floor next to the primary read 58.8° F. I was afraid the primary temp would drop even more so I moved it again. Now sitting in a room temp of about 62°-64° F, so hopefully I'm done moving it around.
My thoughts are I should be shooting for the temp. of the yeast and as long as it keeps fermenting I'm better off with the lower temps.
Any thoughts on this.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, generally I shoot for the lower end of the yeast strains optimum fermenting temperature. Sometimes you use a specialty strain that does better warmer, but overall, I tend to ferment my ales at 60-65 degrees.

 

[tbel]

My son was giving my wife a hard time yesterday because she had got a box of yarn via UPS. He says "Dad's not going to be happy". I told them both, I don't care how much yarn she orders. It just helps me feel less guilty that I'm already looking to order what I need for my next batch.

 

[Dasbootjoe]

Sorry to butt in on your thread....60-65 is the fermentation temp or the room temp?

Thanks new homebrewer

 

[Yooper]

Sorry to butt in on your thread....60-65 is the fermentation temp or the room temp?

Thanks new homebrewer

me? It's always the fermentation/beer temperature when I talk about temperatures and temperature control.

I found that pacman yeast ferments incredibly well at 60 degrees, as does nottingham. Super-clean almost lager-like characters at 60 degrees. Sometimes I use S04 at 63-65 and I find that it produces very little esters and clears the beer very well- and I like that in some of my IPAs. I like s05 at 63-65.

 

[tbel]

Sorry to butt in on your thread....60-65 is the fermentation temp or the room temp?

Thanks new homebrewer

By all means "butt" away. I figure the more questions asked the more i learn.

 

[Dasbootjoe]

Thanks Yooper!

The first IPA I did had a fruity taste to it and it was cloudy. I fermented at around 70F with Nottingham.

I have learned a lot since then from this site and I'm hoping my next beer turns out better...

 

[tbel]

Now 2 weeks and a day since the boil. I checked the gravity and it's at 1.008@ 63°. My OG was approx. 1.0415 @ 68°, corrects to 1.041. Tasted more hoppy than I expected from reading description from the kit, but I had suspicions of this based on the amount of hops that went in. I wonder if the lower fermentation temps is contributing to the taste.
I'm anxious to bottle but will wait just a little longer. Probably do it this weekend or on Monday.

 

[tbel]

Don't know if anyone cares or is still following this thread but I'll complete the story anyway. Finally got around to bottling today. Everything went well. Got 56 bottles. The only thing I need to change is my bottling cane. I bought a Wine making equipment kit because they were out of beer kits. The cane that came with it is rather large. When I was bottling it left a lot of head space. Probably won't make a difference but I would like to get a little more in the bottles. I figure a smaller diameter cane will leave just enough.
I also washed my yeast. Wyeast 3711. That went well also. Hope I did it right. Instead of pouring from the larger jar in to the smaller ones. I used a turkey baster to suck it up from the top layer. That seemed to work well. Has anyone else tried that? I been tryng to find time to start a second batch. If nothing gets in the way I'll be doing my NB Farmhouse Biere de Table on Friday.

 

[flabyboy]

Nice. I thinks your hops will fade a little bit with some time. Did you enjoy the bottling process? We'll have to exchange a six pack soon. Going to bottle the Patersbier this weekend