First brew!

[IckySticky]

Hey everyone,

Just completed my first brew last night, a Dunkelweizen kit from Brewer's Best. She's happily bubbling away in the FV behind me, but I did make a few mistakes & was just wondering how those would affect things.

My biggest concern is about tannins in the mash. This kit had 16oz of grains (Chocolate and Munich) and 6.6lbs of wheat LME. They suggested mashing the grains at 150-165F, and my enamel brewpot took forever (like 45 minutes) to inch up to 150 so once it did I threw the grains in and immediately walked away (I had an important phone call which distracted me.) When I came back near the end of the 20 minute mashing period, the temp was somehow around 180. I know that tannins are "not good" but I don't really know in what way yet.

Also, the instructions with this kit suggested siphoning the liquid from the brewpot to the FV, which is what I did, but it seems that the more common method is to dump the trub & all, and siphon when you rack to secondary. Pros/cons of leaving the trub behind in the primary stage? (I did read the noob stickies on this forum but that one wasn't listed.)

Thanks everyone, I'm stoked for my first brew!

 

[bschoenb]

You'll be fine!

Try to keep it below 170 next time.........

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah def keep the steep temp down to 150-165F as stated by getting the water up to temp with a thermometer in the BK. Turn the heat down to try & maintain the temp & add grain bag. I use a cake cooling rack that fits my BK to keep the bag off the bottom. It also lets water circulate around the grain bag.

 

[daksin]

Yea, I'm inclined to say you'll be ok. Just something to look out for next time!