Ahhh! So my first batch ever is cooked and in the fermenter. Brewing was fun but took more time than I thought it would. But I learned a lot and I'm sure the next brew will go faster. Here's how I went:
Put 3 gallons of water in the kettle and on the stove to heat up.
Filled fermenter and second bucket with sanitizing solution. Really should have done the fermenter in the bathtub. I'll have to do that next time. Added all tools I might be needing to the sanitizing bucket. Airlock, spoons, measuring cups, strainer, thief, even tossed the dry yeast packet in there for a bit.
Brought the kettle to 155 and steeped my specialty grains for 30 minutes at 155-158. I do a lot of cooking on the smoker so luckily I already have some high quality digital thermometers.
Removed the grains, squeezed them out a bit and dumped them in the trash. Returned the kettle to heat and started for a boil. Boiling this much water took a while. That was one of my surprises for the day. I think it might have taken 25 minutes to get the kettle to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat and stirred in 75% of my LME. Stir stir stir like crazy while pouring it in as slow as I could. I probably should have done it a bit faster because it seemed as if it cooled off too much while removed from the heat. Took about 15 more minutes to get it back to a rolling boil.
:00 Added bittering hops in a hops bag. The bag boiled open eventually and spilled all the hops into the wort. Will have to tie it better next time.
Boiled and stirred for 45 minutes. I never had a bad issue with foaming or boilovers. I felt confident I could have gone 3.5 or even 4 gallons in my 5 gallon kettle without problems.
:45, removed from heat, Added the other 25% of my LME, rinsed jug out in the wort and returned to heat.
:57 Added the aroma hops straight to the wort
:60 Removed from heat and sat in sink full of water.
Rehydrated my yeast packed in a sanitized measuring cup and 1 cup of preboiled, 85 degree water. "Proofed" with 1 teaspoon of table sugar. It started foaming within 15 minutes. Covered loosely with foil.
Drained the water and alternated with ice in the sink until the wort had cooled down to about 80 degrees. I should have cooled it further but thought my top off water would pull it down more, but it didn't. Took about 25 minutes. I stirred occasionally with the spoon I had used to stir during the boil. Some directions I read said to use a sanitized spoon, but if this has been in the boil it should be sanitized already?
Had the SO hold the strainer while I slowly poured the wort through and into the fermenting bucket. This kitchen strainer acted like a percolator, and the wort foamed up quite a bit just from going through it. I felt it got pretty well aerated just from that.
Topped up to just over 5 gallons with my bottled water (added about 2.25 gallons). These are jugs that we refill with water at the store. They weren't sanitized jugs, but they've only had water in them. Still, I think next time I might sanitize the jugs and fill them with preboiled water ahead of time.
Took OG: 1.46 @ 80 ~~ 1.476 Looks to be spot on.
Pitched the yeast at 80 degrees and put the lid and airlock on. Stuck the stick on thermometer on the side of the bucket. Over the course of the next 24 hours I eventually cooled the fermenter down to 68 degrees.
8 hours later the bucket was bubbling away! ~75 degrees
32 hours later the bubbling has slowed way down. ~68-70 degrees
I've got it in a pan of water with a towel draped over it, a small fan on it and I'm alternating frozen water bottles in the pan of water. Aiming to keep it around 68 degrees.
The airlock smells of beer!
I'd rather not, but I think I'm going to rack to a 5 gallon carboy in a week. I need the fermenter so I can do another batch.
Do I have any glaring mistakes that I have made?
Put 3 gallons of water in the kettle and on the stove to heat up.
Filled fermenter and second bucket with sanitizing solution. Really should have done the fermenter in the bathtub. I'll have to do that next time. Added all tools I might be needing to the sanitizing bucket. Airlock, spoons, measuring cups, strainer, thief, even tossed the dry yeast packet in there for a bit.
Brought the kettle to 155 and steeped my specialty grains for 30 minutes at 155-158. I do a lot of cooking on the smoker so luckily I already have some high quality digital thermometers.
Removed the grains, squeezed them out a bit and dumped them in the trash. Returned the kettle to heat and started for a boil. Boiling this much water took a while. That was one of my surprises for the day. I think it might have taken 25 minutes to get the kettle to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat and stirred in 75% of my LME. Stir stir stir like crazy while pouring it in as slow as I could. I probably should have done it a bit faster because it seemed as if it cooled off too much while removed from the heat. Took about 15 more minutes to get it back to a rolling boil.
:00 Added bittering hops in a hops bag. The bag boiled open eventually and spilled all the hops into the wort. Will have to tie it better next time.
Boiled and stirred for 45 minutes. I never had a bad issue with foaming or boilovers. I felt confident I could have gone 3.5 or even 4 gallons in my 5 gallon kettle without problems.
:45, removed from heat, Added the other 25% of my LME, rinsed jug out in the wort and returned to heat.
:57 Added the aroma hops straight to the wort
:60 Removed from heat and sat in sink full of water.
Rehydrated my yeast packed in a sanitized measuring cup and 1 cup of preboiled, 85 degree water. "Proofed" with 1 teaspoon of table sugar. It started foaming within 15 minutes. Covered loosely with foil.
Drained the water and alternated with ice in the sink until the wort had cooled down to about 80 degrees. I should have cooled it further but thought my top off water would pull it down more, but it didn't. Took about 25 minutes. I stirred occasionally with the spoon I had used to stir during the boil. Some directions I read said to use a sanitized spoon, but if this has been in the boil it should be sanitized already?
Had the SO hold the strainer while I slowly poured the wort through and into the fermenting bucket. This kitchen strainer acted like a percolator, and the wort foamed up quite a bit just from going through it. I felt it got pretty well aerated just from that.
Topped up to just over 5 gallons with my bottled water (added about 2.25 gallons). These are jugs that we refill with water at the store. They weren't sanitized jugs, but they've only had water in them. Still, I think next time I might sanitize the jugs and fill them with preboiled water ahead of time.
Took OG: 1.46 @ 80 ~~ 1.476 Looks to be spot on.
Pitched the yeast at 80 degrees and put the lid and airlock on. Stuck the stick on thermometer on the side of the bucket. Over the course of the next 24 hours I eventually cooled the fermenter down to 68 degrees.
8 hours later the bucket was bubbling away! ~75 degrees
32 hours later the bubbling has slowed way down. ~68-70 degrees
I've got it in a pan of water with a towel draped over it, a small fan on it and I'm alternating frozen water bottles in the pan of water. Aiming to keep it around 68 degrees.
The airlock smells of beer!
I'd rather not, but I think I'm going to rack to a 5 gallon carboy in a week. I need the fermenter so I can do another batch.
Do I have any glaring mistakes that I have made?
