First Brew; Progress Report

[PanzerOfDoom]

Well, today did my first brew. Used a Sabco kettle, AHS kit(Irish Red Ale), specialty grains were steeped, LME added, hops ect., ect. OG was 1.055 as opposed to a target of 1.052; this is my first question, is there any concern here, I corrected +.001 for a temp of about 75F?

Biggest issue was after everything went flawlessly, boil complete, wort cooled in 18 mins; opened the valve to start draining the kettle to primary, got a blob of hops and then everything stopped. Sanitized a piece of copper wire to try and clear, nothing. So I sanitized my auto-siphon and transfered via that. It cost me about 30 mins.

Self critique: use a hop bag.

The auto-siphon is the shizzle, couple of small strokes and poof, saved my butt.

Anyone have a similar expirence with a Sabco kettle with siphon tube and false bottom? Is this common or was it just one of those fun learning expirences?

All advice and/or critiqie welcome

By the way I used a starter and was at it for, oh a total of 5 hours or so, that 1 hour boil is very decieving.

Oh yea, a 6.5 gallon carboy with 5 gallons of wort in it is real heavy, as is a keg kettle with 6 gallons of liquor.

 

[david_42]

Your gravity is fine. In 5 years of brewing, I've only hit the OG twice. two or three points either way isn't a concern.

I use a bazooka filter, rather than a false bottom and it gets clogged once in a while.

I'd say you are off to a good start.

 

[Blender]

Sounds to me like you did pretty well too. That auto syphon is nice. That is the way I move the wort plus it leaves all the settlings in the pot. In 4-5 weeks you will be enjoying it. What are you doing next?

 

[PanzerOfDoom]

There was nearly no lag time from pitching to activity, 3 hours bits were floating around and krausen was starting to accumulate on surface. I used a starter.

12 hours and a good ammount of krausen on top with a bubble a sec. through airlock stuff flying around in carboy, lots of activity, temp 72

Next up is a Belgian Pale Ale.