First brew - solo

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tanktop

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So getting ready and doing some final cleaning. Thinking of doing a little vinegar and baking soda diluted in water to wipe down counter tops and rinse pots and bucket. Then starsan everything that will come in contact with the brew.
 
Hee,hee. Just thinking of the highschool science fair volcanoes that use vinegar and baking soda.:)
But seriously, you don't have to bother with sanitizing anything that contacts until postboil.
 
Agree with JimR.
The vinegar / baking soda process is not necessary.
I brew outside in a barn using a plastic table and a table made from saw horses and a sheet of plywood.
Focus the OCD (lol) part of your process on the post boil.

And most of all, RDWHAHB
 
RDWHAHB?????


I'm going to strangle the next guy who.... Lol, never mind....

The cleanliness was mostly for my boil pot and pail which are new, wanted to get any manufacturing residue off.

Look at the hops for this recipe...

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1427059935.788999.jpg

I should probably know this before starting but dry hopping really means adding hops at secondary without heat, right?
 
Just a tip, frosty mugs are for Banquet and Silver Bullets, not craft beer. When it's that cold, you lose a ton of flavor and aroma.
 
And I already screwed up. Supposed to add whole cascade to steeping bag of grain. Too late , already added all sugars. Turned off heat and added them in a bag. I know it will take some sugar when I pull the bag so I'm going to compensate with a pound of table sugar turned into a simple syrup with a squeeze of lemon. Local brew supply gave me the idea
 
And I already screwed up. Supposed to add whole cascade to steeping bag of grain. Too late , already added all sugars. Turned off heat and added them in a bag. I know it will take some sugar when I pull the bag so I'm going to compensate with a pound of table sugar turned into a simple syrup with a squeeze of lemon. Local brew supply gave me the idea


I am not sure what you mean by " it will take some sugar when I pull the bag"

If you already used the sugars described in the recipe it is in there. You will not lose any sugars by pulling a bag out. Whatever that means..

I would NOT add any more. That will make the beer thinner, more dry and increase the ABV. And not likely for the better.
 
Relax
Don't
Worry
Have
A
Home
Brew


LOL, awesome! I'm slightly exaggerating my stress over this.

So my bucket, thief, and everything else I need to finish is soaking in starsan.

Basically if I don't let anything get contaminated and get close to following the directions I should end up with beer?
 
Yep beer is on the way. In about a month or two. Make sure your pitch temps are right and you put the bucket some where that will be 65 degrees for the next week.
 
Don't get too hung up on soaking in Starsan. Use a spray bottle wet everything that comes into contact with the wort after chilled. It works in less than one minute. Leave it wet. If things dry out they are no longer sanitary.

IMO it is relatively difficult to infect the beer unless you do something unsanitary. More that just not having everything super soaked in Starsan. People have stuck their arms in the wort to retrieve something dropped in and not had an infected beer.
 
So a first time mother is being a little too worried about germs. Every time her infant even sneezes she rushes him to the doctor. This goes on for several visits. Finally the doctor, growing a little weary of the OCD mother pulls her aside.

"Miss" says the Dr, "there is only one way you can be sure your newborn doesn't have any germs"
"Yes" says the mother, "I'll do anything!"
The Dr replies, "you must boil the child,it's the only way to kill all the germs!".
 
i don't know why everyone's so obsessed with getting rid of all the germs and bacteria. did you know that for every single cell that has your dna inside it, there are 3 more cells that don't have your dna that make up "you?" so really you are only 25% of "you."
 
My first brew I didn't even use starsan or any sanitizer. Just a no rinse cleaner. Worked out fine.
 
Did you do a 5 gallon boil? If not have you topped off your fermenter up to 5 gallons with water? May explain the high gravity
 
Hmmm. Did you give it a good shake to aerate your wort and make sure it is all mixed up? Just throwing ideas out
 
I poured the wort into the bucket with 2 1/2 gallons water already in it from about 2 feet above quickly. I didn't give it a chance to settle so there was a bit of hops in with my measurement. I also pulled the sample from pretty deep using the wine thief. I did ad an extra pound of sugar to the recipe.

What's the worst case scenario of an OG of 1.1? I'm new, what does an OG indicate?
 
The extra pound of sugar definitely explains your high gravity. OG is original gravity. Basically is a measurement of sugar you have in your wort. You can take your original gravity and use that to determine alcohol content when the beer is done fermenting. There are calculators online to help with that.
With such a high OG, your yeast may have a hard time consuming all that sugar and converting to alcohol. Also you need to be able to pitch enough health yeast, control your fermentation temperature. If you are using liquid yeast, probably should have made a starter, with dry yeast, I would pitch a few rehydrated packages.
 
LOL, I noticed i was at about 4 1/2 gallons. I added water to get to just over 5 gallons, figured doing it now was better than later. I'm going to leave it alone and see if my airlock is doing anything in the next day or two. If so I'm going to just let it go. I think from here on out leaving it alone is the best option.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to dry hop in secondary as that's what the directions call for. Should I use a bag or just pitch it in?
 
Yes it is. I think I botched it a couple different ways but I'm sure it will still be a great double IPA. We'll I have to go to sleep before my wife beats me silly.
 
That's a tough one for a first solo, but it sounds like you did just fine. As far as dry hopping hoes, you'll get different views. Try it with a bag and then try it without and see what you like.
The great thing about home brewing is that we can tailor it to what suits us best.
 
The extra pound of sugar definitely explains your high gravity. OG is original gravity. Basically is a measurement of sugar you have in your wort. You can take your original gravity and use that to determine alcohol content when the beer is done fermenting. There are calculators online to help with that.
With such a high OG, your yeast may have a hard time consuming all that sugar and converting to alcohol. Also you need to be able to pitch enough health yeast, control your fermentation temperature. If you are using liquid yeast, probably should have made a starter, with dry yeast, I would pitch a few rehydrated packages.

what's weird is that according to those instructions, an extra pound of sugar shouldn't be raising it to 1.100 from 1.070. BUT i typed the recipe from the top into beersmith, and without him adding an extra pound of sugar, just following the recipe that already has the 1 pound of corn sugar, it should've been 1.084 OG! how could the recipe be so far off? another reason i don't like kits. in order for that recipe to be 1.072 it would need to be 5.8 gallons.

then if you throw in another pound of sugar on top of that, you end up with about 1.093 OG! add onto that the likelihood of not mixing the water and wort really, really well, and that explains your reading of 1.1 (really probably even higher. with all that foam it's hard to see exactly where it is).

what type of yeast did the kit come with? with a 1.093 OG you need about 2 packets of dry yeast (depending on how old the packets are). make sure you really have control over the fermentation temps, you don't want this one getting warm on you. about 60-63F ambient temps is what i would suggest. if you can use a swamp cooler type of method, even better, and then you could go for about 65F in the cooler.

as far as the dry hopping, there are many opinions on here about it. with your beer being so big, if you don't have any brews coming up anytime soon, you could leave it in primary for like 4 weeks, then dry hop, then bottle. if you do plan on brewing something soon, rack it to secondary after like 2 weeks in primary. then let it sit in there for 2 weeks, then dry hop, then bottle. with either method, i would just throw the hops in there without a bag. let them sit for 5-7 days.
 
Yea I just throw my hops in the primary without a bag. As far as beersmith, I find it isn't as accurate when using extract. That's just me though.
 
It's sitting at 68 and I used 1 #5 packet of yeast. The Pliney kit was missing the yeast so I grabbed the packet from the kit that came with my equipment.

FYI pretty much everything I have gotten from Morebeer has been a catastrophe
 
By #5 do you mean us-05? How many days since you pitched the yeast? If it's only one day I would pitch another pack.

If beersmith isn't accurate with extract it has to do with the setup probably. I've always hit exact numbers when using extract with beersmith.
 
Not to make this anymore confusing, but...

1) I'd highly recommend adding another packet of yeast. That's a very high OG for one packet to conquer.

2) I dry hop by just adding the hops to the fermenter and letting them sit for 7 days (I try to time it so I add them a week before my bottling date). FWIW.

Keep us updated on how this goes!
 
Here are some additional thoughts now that I have reread all the posts.

If you like your beer cold, then put it in the fridge for a while before you drink it. Those that have posted about frosty mugs are ABSOLUTELY right.
Putting a homebrewed craft beer in a frosty glass is possibly a crime.

Big beer manufacturers want you to believe it because that is the only way that their beer tastes good at all. Super cold to hide the tasteless fizzy urine.

I think that your OG is nowhere near as high as your hydrometer is reading.
Looks to me like it is stuck to the side of the cylinder and possibly being suspended by bubbles.
Wait until the bubbles settle and spin the hydrometer so that it is not touching the sides and no bubbles on it. You will get a more accurate reading.
I realize that it is pointless now that fermentation has begun to get an accurate OG, but at the very least you can learn how to get an accurate reading.

That is all I have for now.:D
 
Maybe I should look at my setup on beer smith since I have only used it for 2 brews.

Just to defend morebeer I love them. Living in sacramento they ship super fast and have very competitive prices. Also if you look at there website, it clearly says there kits don't include yeast or grain bags. Just saying.

One last question, is all extract the same as far as what gravity you will get from them? I thought different company's have different extract.
 
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