First Brew

[PhillieBrewer]

With my recently purchased brew kit and my passion for great beer, I decided to give my first brew a try this past sunday. Armed with a brewers best IPA kit (wanted to non-kit but brewer from local brew shop suggested to try the kit first for first time) and an extra once of cascade hops for dry hopping I took leap into what I am sure will be a life long passion. The kit came with detailed instructions but for some reason I decided to stray away from the hop schedule , but looking back should of just followed it for the first time. Anyways, here's the ingredients:
-6.6 lb LME
-1 lb golden DME
-1lb crystal 40l
-8 oz victory
Hops
-3 oz cascade
-1 oz columbus
-1 0z cascade (Dry Hop)

I pretty much followed the directions except for these 2 things.
Directions called for boil volume of 2.5gals...I used 3.5
Directions called for this hop schedule:
-60 min boil
-2 oz cascade and 1 oz columbus for 55 mins
- 1 once cascade for 5 mins
I did a 75 min boil
-2oz cascade for 75 min
- 1 oz columbus for 60 min
- 1 oz cascade for 5 min
Everything went very smoothly and bubbling started ~ 8 hrs later and ended after 2 1/2 days. My orignal gravity was 1.052 but the brew called for 1.061. Missed my OG but figured it was due to my alterations. Will this wind up being a bad decision for the final product? Any ill effects from these altercations? After about a week of the primary I also plan to transfer to secondary and dry hop for another 7-10 days. What do you guys think.

 

[platypus]

I'm new to the hobby myself, so I can't answer all the questions, but just about every experienced homebrewer on the boards has told me to leave the beer in primary for almost 2 weeks rather than 1, regardless of what the kit says.

 

[gawine]

Man, great questions. I did the HopNogg as my first brew and stuck to the instructions and it is pretty good, nice and bitter but don't have the great hop nose. I plan to dry hop my next one big time to get more hoppy nose and flavoer. thinking cascade and columbus or centennial. I thought about altering the boil but just not sure. keep us posted how yours turns out so I know what to do with mine...

 

[breadbohn]

What every experienced brewer on these boards will tell you, is to leave the wort in the primary until the specific gravity has stopped falling. Usually two days in a row a the same gravity is a good indication that the yeasties have finished their initial job, and it's time to rack. If you didn't get a hydrometer, you might consider going back to pick one up.

Anyway, welcome to a great hobby!

 

[FallsDamBrewery]

Just leave it in the primary for two weeks if you plan on using a secondary...if not...leave it for 3 weeks...make sure you bottle according to directions...and wait at least another 2-3 weeks...time is dear in this thing we call home brewed beer...and it is worth the wait!

 

[gawine]

I did primary 1 week and then 2ndary two weeks... any difference?

 

[meddin]

Everything went very smoothly and bubbling started ~ 8 hrs later and ended after 2 1/2 days. My orignal gravity was 1.052 but the brew called for 1.061. Missed my OG but figured it was due to my alterations. Will this wind up being a bad decision for the final product? Any ill effects from these altercations? After about a week of the primary I also plan to transfer to secondary and dry hop for another 7-10 days. What do you guys think.

The missed OG is a little weird since it was an all extract brew. Assume this was a 5 gallon batch, right? Did you leave a lot of trub the kettle? If that is the case you may have watered it down a bit more than you intended when you topped off. Another thought: what temp was the wort when you measured the OG? Temp matters. Its possible you had the correct OG, but your measurement was off due to the temp when you took the reading.

Regardless, I agree with others...leave it in the Promary for a couple of weeks before racking.

I'm sure it will be tatsy.

 

[PhillieBrewer]

The missed OG is a little weird since it was an all extract brew. Assume this was a 5 gallon batch, right? Did you leave a lot of trub the kettle? If that is the case you may have watered it down a bit more than you intended when you topped off. Another thought: what temp was the wort when you measured the OG? Temp matters. Its possible you had the correct OG, but your measurement was off due to the temp when you took the reading.

Yes it was a 5 gallon batch. I filtered from the kettle to the primary to get rid of most of the trub. After i filtered I had about ~3 gals of wort and topped off with 2 gals. The wort was at about 76 when I took the sample. Would the 75 min boil or the 3.5 gal boil volume have anything to do with the OG being off?