First brew planned this week

[theseeker4]

Hello everyone,
I am brand new to brewing, and am getting ready to start my first batch this week. Just thought I would write my current plan for this batch to elicit any suggestions anyone might have.

I have an extract-based kit from Brewer's Best, their German Oktoberfest kit, which includes the following:

2 cans (6.6 lbs total) Munich LME
1 pound amber DME
pre-mixed bag of specialty grains, containing 8 oz Caramel 60L and 4 oz. Caramel 20L
1 oz. GR Tettnang bittering hops
1 oz GR Hallertau finishing hops
1 dry yeast sachet; it is lager yeast but the instructions say "will perform well at ale temperatures"
Priming sugar

I plan to follow the recipe instructions included with the kit, with a few exceptions:

First, I am not set up for lagering beer due to not having the equipment, but the clerk at the home-brewing supply store said it would turn out well using ale temperatures, as do the kit instructions, so I figured I might as well try it.

Second, the instructions say to simply sprinkle the yeast on the top of the wort once in the fermenter, but I read in Palmer's "how to brew" that you should always rehydrate dry yeast, so I plan to re-hydrate before pitching.

I have an equipment kit from Brewer's Best, which includes a 20 quart pot for the boil (a 2.5 gallon boil is recommended by the kit), a 6 gallon bucket for primary fermentation, a 5 gallon plastic carboy for secondary fermentation, and all the other odds and ends that from my reading appear to be the necessary items for what I am doing, including a hydrometer, air lock, paddle, thermometer, etc.

For sanitation, I plan to use Star San.

My local water supply is pretty soft, and has no harsh smells from chlorine/chloramine, so I plan to use my tap water as-is for this first batch (pre-boiling when indicated, of course), and will consider adjusting from there based on my results.

My questions are just a few at this point in time:

First, for what I have planned, should I transfer everything from my boil pot to my primary fermenter, or should I try to keep the solids out of the fermenter as much as I can? If I should try to keep the trub out of the fermenter, what is the easiest way to do this? I do have an auto-siphon...

Second, is there any advantage to creating a starter for the yeast, or is re-hydrating the dry yeast sufficient?

Third, what is the best timing for this type of beer? I was planning on keeping it in the primary for about two weeks, until the gravity is pretty stable, then transferring it to the secondary carboy for another couple weeks before bottling. After bottling, how long should I let the bottles carbonate and age? The instructions say 2 weeks, but I have read on here longer is better...

The temperatures where the beer will be fermenting range from the upper 50's to lower 60's, and unfortunately I don't have the resources to better control the temperature at this point in time. I also could ferment in an area with a more stable temperature of the upper 60's, but I read that with this type of yeast/recipe, the lower temperatures are better, so I am not sure which the best option for the fermentation would be.

Thanks in advance for any feedback! Excited to get started on this fascinating hobby!

 

[jethro55]

Tough questions indeed. It is complicated by the lager process. An ale yeast might be a way to simplify so that you can ferment at proper yeast temperatures (your upper 60's location). If you did that, your timing plan would be very reasonable. The lager yeasts like much colder temperatures and have a couple different temperature versus time schedules in order to work properly.

And keeping the trub out of the fermenter (within reason) is a good idea. Let the cooled wort sit for a while (15 minutes or so) before transfer and much will settle to the bottom so that the siphon will work. And making an allowance for trub loss by having a final volume of 6 gallons after boil will leave you with plenty of wort. There are other ways, but that works fairly well for me.

 

[Ski12568]

1) Easiest way is to pour it in the fermenter. I personally use the auto siphon and have on all my brews. Its up to you. I would worry about getting the process down first.

2) Starter for liquid yeast, rehydrate for dry yeast.

3)I primary till it is stable, then transfer to secondary because I want to out of habit (practice makes habit). You can just leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks then bottle, thats the safe bet while you get comfortable. As far as bottle conditioning goes, I'm not familiar with the style so I would follow the kit instructions.

 

[brewpug]

The quicker you can cool the wort, the better the solids will settle. An ice bath is usually sufficient if you don't have an IC. You can then either pour it straight into the primary and stop right before the sediment goes in, or use a mesh screen. In my experience, screens (particularly the type that sit in the funnel) easily clog and do more harm than good. From what I have read, you don't have to worry too much about particles and sediment. If it still looks bad after fermentation, cold crash. That said, I'm no expert. 1tsp of Irish moss in the last 10 mins of boil is usually a good idea too.

I've always bought gallon jugs of water. It just takes the worry out of it for me.

If I were doing this, I'd probably switch to an ale yeast and make a starter. Just get something suitable for the temp. If you do stick with the dry lager yeast, just make sure you re-hydrate it.

 

[theseeker4]

Thanks for the feedback! I bought a dry envelope of Safale US-05 at my LHBS, and will use that instead of the included lager yeast.

Will post an update after brewing, planned for Friday.

 

[theseeker4]

Brewed today. Did not have any real problems, and I believe I was pretty meticulous about my sanitation, so I am not expecting any problems there. I did end up with a bit higher OG than I expected, with my hydrometer reading 1.064 instead of the kit-predicted maximum of 1.056, but I think this was due to being a little low on the final volume, slightly below the target of 5 gallons according to the graduations on the bucket.

What is a good way to accurately measure the volume? Pouring from the pot into a graduated pitcher and then into the fermenter, 5 times, doesn't seem that efficient. I went off the fermenter bucket's graduations, which I know are not super precise, and left a little extra room to avoid blow-off, which I probably didn't need to do.

Overall I think it went well, and was a lot of fun. Now I just need to try to leave it alone as much as possible while it ferments!

 

[Ski12568]

Leaving it alone is tough. The best way to do that is start planning another brew!

 

[jethro55]

Brewed today. Did not have any real problems, and I believe I was pretty meticulous about my sanitation, so I am not expecting any problems there. I did end up with a bit higher OG than I expected, with my hydrometer reading 1.064 instead of the kit-predicted maximum of 1.056, but I think this was due to being a little low on the final volume, slightly below the target of 5 gallons according to the graduations on the bucket.

What is a good way to accurately measure the volume? Pouring from the pot into a graduated pitcher and then into the fermenter, 5 times, doesn't seem that efficient. I went off the fermenter bucket's graduations, which I know are not super precise, and left a little extra room to avoid blow-off, which I probably didn't need to do.

Overall I think it went well, and was a lot of fun. Now I just need to try to leave it alone as much as possible while it ferments!

I just use the graduations on the fermenting bucket. And when it shows lower than 5.5 gallons, I add more water (bottled) to get it there, sometimes more. It does lower the ABV a little bit by doing that but makes more bottles of beer and I like lower ABV beer anyway.

So when you go to the bottling bucket, you want to prime for the amount of beer that will be transferred. Since you are fermenting 5 gallons, you probably will end up with 4-4.5 gallons in the bottling bucket. And you might want to make a slight adjustment to the amount of priming sugar for that. If you don't adjust it will be very strongly carb'd. Nothing really wrong with that, it is a finer point of beer style. Just don't go overboard on the amount of priming sugar. If you end up with approx 4 gallons in the bottling bucket, then I would definitely make an adjustment.