First Brew Progress

[wxduff]

Well after a long night last night, my first batch is fermenting away.

I started by reading the instructions, as well as The Complete Joy of Homebrewing: 3rd Edition (through the beginner section). Then I cleaned and sanitized everything (the kit came with an iodine based sanitizer. Next I opened my Irish Red Ale kit (Labeled as a Killians Clone).

The Ingredients Used so Far:
3.3 lbs Gold Extract
1.0 lbs Amber Dry Malt Extract
1.0 lbs Wildflower Honey (Locally Made no less)
2 oz Cascade Hops Plugs (Boiling Hops)
1 oz Fuggle Hops Plugs (Finishing Hops)
1 pack Dry Ale Yeast

Equipment:
A Large Canner for the Boil
Food Grade Bucket for Primary Fermentation
Lid and Airlock for above Bucket
Wooden Spoon (For Boiling Wort Only)
Plastic Pasta Strainer
Hydrometer

The Stuff That Has Gone Well:
The wort smelled great the entire time!
The process was pretty easy
The Airlock is bubbling so I'm making beer!
Nothing major went wrong (knock on wood)

The Stuff That Has Gone Less Then Perfect:
The pasta strainer holes are two big. To try to combat this i used coffee filter papers to try to keep the hops (which came as plugs) from joining the rest of my brew in the fermenter. It may not have been entirely successful, but got a majority of the hops out.

In the process of adding the wort to the bucket, I left some in the canner, while some was straining (about 3/4 of a gallons worth). I then forgot about it, and notice i didn't quite have 5 gallons of liquid. I proceeded to add water to reach the 5 gallon line (figuring the loss of water was due to evaporation during boiling or a miscount of measuring cups added). Then I realized my mistake. I added the wort that I had forgotten and took an OG, which was 1.03. I'm still a bit mad about this. I realized I will still get a drinkable product in the end, I just hope it's not too watered down and weak.

When trying to put my airlock into the rubber stopper (which is more like two O-Ring with rubber connecting the two, I pushed the thing through the hole in the lid. I had to sterilize a metal spoon to fish it out. My fingers (well cleaned and soaking in the iodine solution, then air dried) did touch the cooled wort. I'm praying there was no contamination.

Now my next challenge is to find bottles sometime this week. I had a case of empties before break from some Yuengling B&T, but I went and recycled them...

 

[SIXFOOTER]

Congrats on your first brew! I think your probably ok as to infection.
Couple tips:
Wet the rubber O-Ring and the air lock will go in easier, it also does not have to go all the way through, in is good enough.
Lose the wooden spoon and use either SS or plastic, less chance of contamination, wood is porous
Your target OG is only off a little bit, your beer will be fine.
Check some local bars, you may be able to get Corona bottles for free, they are clear, but keep them in the dark and your good. Best bet is to buy new 22oz bombers, my local HBS is something under $15/dozen
Your going to need a racking cane or an auto siphon to transfer off the lees.

 

[lilwiggum]

The Stuff That Has Gone Less Then Perfect:
The pasta strainer holes are two big. To try to combat this i used coffee filter papers to try to keep the hops (which came as plugs) from joining the rest of my brew in the fermenter. It may not have been entirely successful, but got a majority of the hops out.

Coongratulations on your first beer!
By the way, you'll find a lot of people don't strain the hops hops and just add everything to the fermenter. These will be left behind if you are careful when racking to your bottling bucket.

 

[dcp27]

your OG should be around 1.04, your reading was off cuz you topped off before taking it. in the future, take your readings before topping off due to the difficulty in properly mixing wort and water. you can then adjust it to the final volume: final OG = initial OG * initial volume / final volume

also, IIRC yuengling is twist off so you dont want to use those bottles anyway

 

[ongreystreet]

My OG levels jumped .02 on my first brew after the stirred the wort to mix the wort and water.

 

[wxduff]

Batch is bottled, excited for the end product. I might put one in the fridge in a week to see how things taste, but I'm planning at least 2-3 weeks of conditioning with these bad boys. Plenty of time to label and decide how much I'm giving away, and to who.

 

[wxduff]

Well, the first batch has only two bottles left. I just bottled my second batch, a steeping grains extract stout, which thanks to the lessons learned in the first batch went much better. Thanks everyone for your help. Cant wait for the stout to be ready, more waiting. I need to get a few more buckets so I can have three of these going at once, for real.