First brew

[ScottT]

Well my first attempt at home brewing is going well but not without some learning experiences.

I was targeting Scottish ale, actually an export Scottish ale hoping to have it ready by October the 22nd. (I'm getting married that day)

After looking at a bunch of recipes, I decided to develop my own. I used the Recipator Spreadsheet and backed that up with my own excel spreadsheet developed using formulas from here: http://byo.com/spreadsheet/

My formula looked like this:

1 Can John Bull Light LME
1.5 lb. Laaglander Light DME
4 oz Demura Sugar

1 lb. Simpsons Medium Crystal (50-60L)
.75 lb. Simpsons Dark Crystal (70-80L)
3 oz Dingemans Special B (115L)

1/2 oz plug East Kent Goldings at 60 minutes remaining
1/2 oz plug East Kent Goldings at 30 minutes remaining

1 tsp Irish Moss at 10 minutes remaining
1 tablet White Labs Servomyces 10 minutes remaining

White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish Ale yeast from 650ml starter.

I Steeped the specialty grains in a grain bag for 30 minutes at 155 degrees and sparged grain bag by placing in a colander and slowly pouring 170 degree water over the back of a large spoon over the grain.

I added water to my Kettle (converted beer keg) for a measured 6 gallons of liquid. Added my other fermentables and put it on to boil. I expected to loose 1 gallon of liquid due to evaporation.

As soon as she started to boil, I set a timer for 90 minutes. At 60 minutes, I added 1 hop plug, and at 30 minutes I added the second hop plug. At 10 minutes, I added the Irish moss and servomyces.

Turned the fire off at 0 minutes and put in my wort chiller directly from the water hose. Cooled her down to 100 degrees (about 10 minutes) then started running the water through a prechiller coil in a bed of ice and brine at a very slow rate of flow.

I had a bucket of sanitizer close by to keep things like my siphon starter, siphon tube and thermometer in when not in use. Near the end of my chill, I grabbed my thermometer and tried to shake the sanitizer off of it and it flies out of my hand and breaks as it hit the brick patio floor. GRRRRRRR! I go inside and grab a "baby dial" meat thermometer and use that for the rest of my temp checks. And put a fermentometer on the carboy.

This brought the wort down to 80 degrees. I siphoned into a sanitized 6 gal carboy and Oh my God! I don't have 5 gallons.

Checked the SG and got 1.060. I was supposed to have 1.044. Well, I capped the carboy off with sanitized foil and went to boiling and chilling water to dilute my wort concentrate.

Well, I diluted back to a SG of 1.050 for a solid Scottish export Ale wort.

I pitched my yeast starter that was in full rolling fermentation and started trying to cool the carboy down to my target fermentation temps. I oxygenated with pure oxygen for 10 seconds every 20 minutes for the first hour. After 8 hours, I was down to 68 degrees and it was in full fermentation with about 1/2 inch of Krausen on top and my blow off tube bubbling away.

At 24 hours, it was at 60 degrees and still bubbling away.

This morning, I pulled the blow off tube and installed an airlock. She's pushing a stream of constant bubbles and my carboy temp is at 62 degrees.

I'd say that all is going well.

What I learned is that I need to install a sight tube on my keg with it calibrated for 5 gallons. Until that happens, I'm going to start pre boiling about 3 gallons of water and keep them refrigerated, ready to adjust my SG when needed.

I'm going today to buy 2 new thermometers and another hydrometer. Must always keep a spare.

I just hope that with the higher than expected gravity, I won't have to age it too long. I plan to rack it to a secondary as soon as the primary slows down to 1 bubble a minute (anticipated 5-7 days). When fermentation stops (anticipated 10 days), I will place the carboy in a refrigerator for a couple of weeks before bottling. I'll prime for 1.5 volumes of CO2 and give it a couple of weeks in the bottle at 70 degrees.

I hope it works out like planned.

 

[El Pistolero]

First off, congratulations on your upcoming nuptuals...I assume since you mentioned it that we're all invited?

Secondly, congratulations on your first brew...I assume since you mentioned it that we're all invited?

Thirdly, dang them's some sophisticated notes for your first brew...you a university perfessor or sumthin?

One thing I'm a little curious about...why the slow decrease to fermentation temp...why not just start at 62?

 

[ScottT]

My thinking was that my yeast starter was at 75-78 degree room temperature, and I didn't want to shock the yeast and I wanted to get a lot of propigation in those first few hours. More yeast to try and finish the primary faster in the cool fermentation temps.

Oh and if you want to come, just introduce yourself. I'm getting married at the Texas Rennaissance Festival on Saturday October the 22nd. The cerimony is at 11:00 am and well be heading out of the gates to an informal reception between two motor homes in the parking area. I'll be opening the bottles then.

 

[El Pistolero]

I'm getting married at the Texas Rennaissance Festival on Saturday October the 22nd.

So you'll be the knight in shining armor?

 

[ScottT]

Not shining armor but I will have a damn big sword.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah, but pretty much everybody at the Rennaissance Festival has a damn big sword if I remember right.

Bloody great idea for a wedding tho...Salut!

 

[patrck17]

That whole experience read a hell of a lot smoother then my first brew. You seemed to have a very solid knowledge of what you were doing. I was eyeballing all measurements and forgot to turn off the burner when I added the LME. My brew turned out great though. I tasted it again last night, and already I could tell a huge improvement since I opened the first one only 4 days ago. Grats on the wedding, and the first brew, I hope both will turn out great.

 

[ScottT]

It's been 5 days in the primary and the Krausen has dropped out and the airlock is bubbling less than once per minute. I've got a full 1.5" of yeast in the bottom of my carboy.

I Just took an SG reading and found it at 1.020 at 64 degrees. I didn't return the sample to the carboy, I drank it and it's pretty damn good! Very clean tasting very slight bitterness but not as much malt flavor as I expected and no sweetness at all. Very polite beer and will be easy to guzzle.

If my calculations are correct, I started at an adjusted OG of 1.053, at the end of my primary I'm at 1.020. So:


ABW = OG - FG x 76 / 1.78 - OG

ABV = ABW x 1.25

So: OG = 1.053
FG = 1.02

ABV = 4.312242091

Looks to me like I've got 4.3 abv right now.

I'll be racking it to a secondary tomorrow. Should I expect the SG to continue to drop even though my yeast have stopped producing at the moment?