Decided to start my first brew today. Sanitized everything, plus filled a spray bottle with star san and boiled 3-4 gallons of water with a campden tablet (also pre bolied another 4 gallons for top off water with another campden tablet), then added 3 lbs of pale LME and a package (1 oz, I believe) of US Brewer's Gold pellets. 55 min later, I added the other 4 lbs of pale LME, a whirlfloc tablet, and 1 oz of lemongrass, boiling for another 5 minutes.
Cooled the hot wort with an immersion chiller (forgot to submerge it during the boil so I sprayed the heck out of it with star san, and I had already scrubbed it clean with everything else before the boil). Got it down to around 80F then aerated by pouring back and forth between the fermentation bucket and the bottling bucket. Once I ran out of room (about 6 pours) for additional foam in the buckets, I took a gravity sample, which came out to 1.046 (recipe OG was 1.040, although it called for 5 lbs pale LME and 1 lb of corn syrup, not sure if that matters) and pitched 2 vials of WLP-029 and set the fermenter into my freezer temp controlled to 68F and I am sure the airlock will start bubbling away in the next couple of days or so (didn't have any tubing of appropriate diameter to rig a blowoff tube up). I guess I will check for completed fermentation in around 10 days or so, recipe says 1.011 so I hope I hit around there
update: after 18ish hours (about when I woke up) the airlock was bubbling merrily away...starsan foam all over the lid. I will keep an eye to make sure the starsan in the airlock doesn't all become bubbles on the fermenter lid and top off if necessary. Been bubbing all day, constant trickle of bubbles with random pauses almost lasting one second. Tried to discern a pattern, but I think I will end up going nuts if I try to find a pattern in that XD
Cooled the hot wort with an immersion chiller (forgot to submerge it during the boil so I sprayed the heck out of it with star san, and I had already scrubbed it clean with everything else before the boil). Got it down to around 80F then aerated by pouring back and forth between the fermentation bucket and the bottling bucket. Once I ran out of room (about 6 pours) for additional foam in the buckets, I took a gravity sample, which came out to 1.046 (recipe OG was 1.040, although it called for 5 lbs pale LME and 1 lb of corn syrup, not sure if that matters) and pitched 2 vials of WLP-029 and set the fermenter into my freezer temp controlled to 68F and I am sure the airlock will start bubbling away in the next couple of days or so (didn't have any tubing of appropriate diameter to rig a blowoff tube up). I guess I will check for completed fermentation in around 10 days or so, recipe says 1.011 so I hope I hit around there
update: after 18ish hours (about when I woke up) the airlock was bubbling merrily away...starsan foam all over the lid. I will keep an eye to make sure the starsan in the airlock doesn't all become bubbles on the fermenter lid and top off if necessary. Been bubbing all day, constant trickle of bubbles with random pauses almost lasting one second. Tried to discern a pattern, but I think I will end up going nuts if I try to find a pattern in that XD
