bdwells
New Member
My first brew is in the fermentor. I got the Midwest Supplies Groupon deal with the Irish Stout ingredient kit.
This past Sunday (3/25) I had time to brew so I began my adventures in homebrewing. I lightly crushed the steeping grains that came with the kit using a small mortar and pestle, I was just making a mess when attempting to use a rolling pin. I was able to brew outside using a turkey fryer burner. My brewpot was large enough for a 4 gallon boil with room to avoid a boilover. I used store bought drinking water. I followed the instructions supplied for the boil and hop additions.
I used a immersion chiller to cool down the wort from boiling to 70F in less than 15 minutes. I siphoned off the wort to my fermentation bucket to leave as much debris behind as possible. The wort was topped off to 5 gallons and then aerated several times by pouring back and forth with the bottling and fermenting buckets. At this point I took a hydrometer reading. My original gravity (at 70F) was around 1.040, the instructions list the starting gravity range as 1.042-1.046. I assume some of this difference is due to taking the reading post aeration as well as the slight temperature correction.
I decided not to use the dry yeast supplied with the kit so I pitched a Wyeast Smack Pack of 1084 Irish Ale yeast. It is happily bubbling away in the fermentor now with an ambient room temperature of 70F. My plan is to leave it in the primary fermentor for 4 weeks and then bottle. What's the best way to check the specific gravity of the beer without removing the buckets lid? I am thinking of siphoning with a small piece of sanitized tubing.
Any suggestions of a good representative Irish Stout to do a side-by-side comparison other than the first that comes to mind, Guiness?
I think the best thing to keep me from messing with my first batch is to research and brew another batch in the next few weeks.
This past Sunday (3/25) I had time to brew so I began my adventures in homebrewing. I lightly crushed the steeping grains that came with the kit using a small mortar and pestle, I was just making a mess when attempting to use a rolling pin. I was able to brew outside using a turkey fryer burner. My brewpot was large enough for a 4 gallon boil with room to avoid a boilover. I used store bought drinking water. I followed the instructions supplied for the boil and hop additions.
I used a immersion chiller to cool down the wort from boiling to 70F in less than 15 minutes. I siphoned off the wort to my fermentation bucket to leave as much debris behind as possible. The wort was topped off to 5 gallons and then aerated several times by pouring back and forth with the bottling and fermenting buckets. At this point I took a hydrometer reading. My original gravity (at 70F) was around 1.040, the instructions list the starting gravity range as 1.042-1.046. I assume some of this difference is due to taking the reading post aeration as well as the slight temperature correction.
I decided not to use the dry yeast supplied with the kit so I pitched a Wyeast Smack Pack of 1084 Irish Ale yeast. It is happily bubbling away in the fermentor now with an ambient room temperature of 70F. My plan is to leave it in the primary fermentor for 4 weeks and then bottle. What's the best way to check the specific gravity of the beer without removing the buckets lid? I am thinking of siphoning with a small piece of sanitized tubing.
Any suggestions of a good representative Irish Stout to do a side-by-side comparison other than the first that comes to mind, Guiness?
I think the best thing to keep me from messing with my first batch is to research and brew another batch in the next few weeks.
