First brew in the bucket...

[Suited_Up]

First brew is in the fermenter. It's a Midwest Boundary Waters Wheat with about 1lb of honey put in after flame off.

Now I get to sit and bite my nails until I see some bubbles. I did use a smack pack, but forgot to activate a day before. I did it 3 hours before like it says on the pack. It did start to expand, so I think it'll be ok, but I'm still a bit nervous, probably for no reason.

Outside of that, 1st brew day went pretty smooth. Probably because I've been reading the forums for a month or two, freaking out about getting everything right. To be honest, it was much easier in practice than it was reading about it all. All the timing and sanitation and things freak you out, but when you actually do it, you have plenty of time for everything and it's not as fast paced as it can sound before the fact.

Still contemplating maybe putting a little fruit in and doing a secondary. SWMBO would prefer some fruitiness, but I haven't decided on a flavor, or if I'm going to do it yet. I might rack to a secondary anyway, just to figure out how though, if not to clear up some of the bits.

 

[Suited_Up]

Oh, question though....

My wort level wasn't deep enough to get a hydrometer reading from the pot, so I aerated between the bucket and pot a couple times, then tried to get it while it was in the bucket... but there were a ton of bubbles. I tried to clear some bubbles away and see where it was, but not sure on the accuracy. It's supposed to be somewhere between 1.040 and .044, but it looked like it was sitting about .050

I did add about 1lb of honey, so I figure it might vary a little, but I've not done it before, and wasn't sure how much that effects it. The temp was around 70-73 somewhere I believe. They said it's meant to read at 60.

Another factor, I boiled about 4g, and topped off about 1. I tried to stir it, but who knows how well it got mixed in before I tried the reading.

Thoughts on it being around .050? Seem close?

 

[BigRock947]

Congrats on your first beer...not sure how many I've brewed but I still get nervous until its starts to bubble.

 

[Suited_Up]

The bubbling was going when I looked over this morning. Not bad, less than 18 hours probably.

 

[Shaneoco1981]

Your OG gravity seems right to me. We would have to see exactly what you used to know for sure. If you added honey to the recipe, it is going to raise your OG. It seems right like I said, but I would need to know for sure what u used and how much of each to know for sure if your OG was right. Congrats on your first brew day. 18 hours for bubbling to appear is about average for me. So as so many people here like to say, RDWHAHB.

 

[superjunior]

next time you take a hydro reading pull a sample out of the fermenter with a sanitized turkey baster or wine thief and put in a test jar. much easier and you'll get a more accurate reading.

congrats on your first brew!

 

[Suited_Up]

Your OG gravity seems right to me. We would have to see exactly what you used to know for sure. If you added honey to the recipe, it is going to raise your OG. It seems right like I said, but I would need to know for sure what u used and how much of each to know for sure if your OG was right. Congrats on your first brew day. 18 hours for bubbling to appear is about average for me. So as so many people here like to say, RDWHAHB.

Extract: 6lb Wheat LME

Steeping: 1/2lb Caravienne and 1/2lb Carapils

1oz Sterling Hops
1oz Palisade Aroma hops

1lb Honey (A little under since I didn't flush out the jar)

 

[Suited_Up]

next time you take a hydro reading pull a sample out of the fermenter with a sanitized turkey baster or wine thief and put in a test jar. much easier and you'll get a more accurate reading.

congrats on your first brew!

Yeah, gonna check the LHBS today for a wine thief.

 

[Shaneoco1981]

You look right on to me... I plugged your recipe into beer smith and it estimated your OG to be 1.051. With not completely rinsing everything out perfectly, you are right on. Congrats again!

 

[brewit2it]

This is just my opinion and not all will agree, but I wouldn't have added the honey and definitely wouldn't add the fruit. If this was your first beer you should stick to the recipe so you have a baseline to judge how your mods changed it. New brewers are obscessed with adding honey to their beer for some reason. From personal experience pretty much all it does is raise the EtOH and dry out the beer. You might get a faint floral taste but it will probably be undetectable, so you might as well have added 3/4 LB table sugar. If you want to see the effect of honey in wheat beer just check out all the great German Honey Wheat Beers...opps, there aren't any

If you are really set on adding some fruit flavor you would be better off using fruit extract since you can control the concentration without adding even more simple sugar to your beer, or risking infection/off flavors, and you can add it at bottling so only make as many fruit flavored bottles as you want.

 

[beergolf]

Congrats on your first brew. Since it was extract, most likely your OG is right on.

Now the hardest part is learning the hardest part of brewing. patience, patience, patience.

Go buy another fermenter and get another brew going so you can start building your pipeline. I did 4 batches before I even tasted my first one.

I have not bought any beer except to try something new in a long time. It is great having beers that you made on hand that tastes as good or better than most you can buy.