First brews tomorrow... tips/advice??

[GHBWNY]

Stop. Dont brew. It will take over your life. Youll be up at 2 am reading these forums. Dreaming about recipes. Wanting to turn everyday things into brewing equipment. Theres no end. Stop while you can..

^^^ I would agree, except... IT'S TOO LATE!!!

 

[BigDog007]

Wort chiller was worth every penny. Highly recommend getting one.

 

[gregmosu]

It is definitely too late!

I've decided I"m not going to wait to see how this first batch turns out. I'm going to pick up my next kit sometime this week and get the second batch brewing... also getting a wort chiller and some star-san.

On a side note, my cousin recently picked up brewing as well and bought a Mr. Beer kit. Someone told him that brewing a gallon at a time would be much easier to manage than the 5 gallon kits. Tried his first batch and it was really good. Any truth to that?

Tonight is the night I'm switching over to the carboy for secondary fermentation. We'll see how it goes.

thanks again for all the help and replies!

 

[kirbcheck]

Tonight is the night I'm switching over to the carboy for secondary fermentation. We'll see how it goes.

thanks again for all the help and replies!

Just a little unsolicited suggestion... Don't rack to a secondary, leave it in the primary for the duration of the secondary. This way you can watch the primary fermentation of your second brew in a glass carboy.

 

[gregmosu]

Just a little unsolicited suggestion... Don't rack to a secondary, leave it in the primary for the duration of the secondary. This way you can watch the primary fermentation of your second brew in a glass carboy.

Thanks for the advice, but it's too late! Just got done with the transfer.

There was about and inch of gray sludge sitting in the bottom of the bucket afterwards. Does this sound normal? No 'off' smells or anything like that.. in fact, it smelled pretty good.

 

[kirbcheck]

Yep that is yeast & proteins that dropped out from flocculation. You can pour the wort from beer #2 on that yeast cake and voila...

 

[gregmosu]

Ok, so it's been a couple of days since I transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. What I"m seeing is that there's about an inch of beer at the very top that's somewhat clear compared to the rest. With in that clear beer I can see tiny red things floating around and what look to be patches of white bubbles(I think it's a groupings of tiny bubbles) floating at the top. Does this sound normal??

 

[Clonefan94]

Thanks again for all the replies! I should have posted and talked with you guys more before I even brewed this first batch.

I guess initially, I was too concerned with the timing of everything. From what I"m hearing, a few days over here and there is not a concern at all. I think I will move it to that carboy for secondary fermentation. Do many of you use those plastic pails still?? Or do the majority of experienced brewers use the glass carboys only for everything?

When in the secondary fermentation process, after about two to three weeks the beer will start to clear up. Is that when I start taking gravity readings? Then when there's no change in the readings it's time to bottle?

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As for sanitation, I made a 5 gallon bucket of that IO-STAR solution that I used to swirl around in my 5 gallon pot before the steeping/boiling process, then I moved it to the 5 gallon pail where I submerged anything that I was using.. spoons, thermometer, etc..

I'm not sure I like doing that every time. The people that use San-Star in those videos on youtube keep it in a spay bottle and that just seems so much easier and more convenient. Is that what most of you do?

You don't need to worry about sanitizing anything that will be boiled. So you don't have to bother with a sanitizer in the boil pot. The boiling will take care of that for you. Sanitizing is for anything that will touch the wort after the boil. So, doing the tools and all that stuff will still have to be done.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kirbcheck]

Ok, so it's been a couple of days since I transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. What I"m seeing is that there's about an inch of beer at the very top that's somewhat clear compared to the rest. With in that clear beer I can see tiny red things floating around and what look to be patches of white bubbles(I think it's a groupings of tiny bubbles) floating at the top. Does this sound normal??

It sounds normal minus the "Tiny red things". Can you take a picture to share with us? Might just be dust or something...

 

[eadavis80]

Gregmosu - in response to your query about if it's easier to "manage" a 1-gallon batch vs. a 5-gallon batch, I guess it all depends on how you define "manage." I'm in the midst of my first 1-gallon batch now. I've done over 20 5-gallon batches. I think they're basically equal. Each batch required more or less the same steps. There were a few differences in that the 1-gallon was an all-grain batch from BrooklynBrewing while my 5-gallon batches are all extract and/or partial mash, but each batch required a boil, sanitation, yeast pitching, aeration, cleanup, etc. It takes the same amount of time from brew day to cracking open your first one. AFter 8 or so weeks, with the 1-gallon batch, I'll be lucky to have nine beers. With a 5-gallon batch I usually get 4 cases. So, if the batch turns out poorly (not very likely) I'm "stuck" with nearly 50 iffy beers, but if it turns out good, then I'm bummed I only have a six-pack and a half of the 1-gallon stuff. 1-gallon batches, however, do lend themselves to more experimentation as since if it goes wrong, you're only "out" a gallon's worth of brew. What I honestly plan on doing some is brewing 5 gallons of say, a wheat, and then putting different things in my different 1-gallon jugs to yield different styles of wheat beer. For example, throw some honey in one, raspberries in another. So, in that sense you could get a variety of beer out of one batch. But, the basic "work" is the same for 1 and 5-gallon batches in my limited experience.

 

[lcbjr77]

Me being a newbie I can only give you a little bit advice...

Sanitize sanitize sanitize... keep a spray bottle filled with your favorite sanitizer nearby for quick cleaning.

Keep an eye on that pot, boil overs suck. My first time ever making a starter turned into a fiasco. Its mostly when adding boil additions when you have to be concerned with boil overs like when adding hops, malt, etc.

Last but not least have fun!!!

 

[gregmosu]

It sounds normal minus the "Tiny red things". Can you take a picture to share with us? Might just be dust or something...

I"ll try to get a picture and get that posted tomorrow.... but the more I look at it, I don't think they're red. I think they're white-ish floating particles and the beer(nut brown) is making them look red. The white floating things on top are definitely bubbles.

 

[Slow_Day]

Relax. Don't look at it. It will be fine. Stop thinking about it.

OK. Go look at it again. We need pictures.

 

[ZogCity2015]

Stop. Dont brew. It will take over your life. Youll be up at 2 am reading these forums. Dreaming about recipes. Wanting to turn everyday things into brewing equipment. Theres no end. Stop while you can..

I just recently decided to start home brewing in the future, and I already do that. I always knew I would eventually, but in the last week, I decided to make it happen. Money is being saved for brew equipment. And here I am, at 2 am, reading about other people's first brew, trying to learn everything possible.

 

[gregmosu]

I just recently decided to start home brewing in the future, and I already do that. I always knew I would eventually, but in the last week, I decided to make it happen. Money is being saved for brew equipment. And here I am, at 2 am, reading about other people's first brew, trying to learn everything possible.

You WILL NOT regret doing this! I should have been on here asking questions and reading posts.. and then maybe I wouldn't actually have dreams about my beer being ruined!

to add to this... let me know if you have any questions. I'm not super knowledgeable yet, but I can tell you things I ran into that I had no clue would be an issue. For example, how to get every last bit of LME out of the container and cover your wort while you're trying to cool it. Also, star-san seems to be MUCH better than the cleaners that came with my kit.

 

[gregmosu]

Relax. Don't look at it. It will be fine. Stop thinking about it.

OK. Go look at it again. We need pictures.

LOL!!! Not possible! I feel like a little kid at Christmas! I should have pictures posted within the hour.. camera batteries are recharging.

 

[gregmosu]

Here are the pictures of the things floating in my beer. I'm no longer concerned about what's floating on top, because they are definitely little bubbles. But the things in the pictures kinda look like big white chunks floating around everywhere. Just want to make sure they aren't a big deal. (sorry the pictures are so bad. I took a bunch, and these were the best)

 

[kirbcheck]

I'm guessing it's just trub that will settle out in a couple days.

 

[gregmosu]

I'm guessing it's just trub that will settle out in a couple days.

I guess I need to run the beer through a strainer then when I transfer it to the bottling bucket? I didn't strain when I transferred to the secondary fermentor and I probably just wasn't careful enough about not picking up the trub that settled to the bottom. Anyways, thanks for the reply.. I still have maybe another week and a half before I can even bottle. We'll see then what it all smells like in there.

 

[kirbcheck]

No you don't need to strain. It will settle out. Even if it makes it to the bottle it will settle and the yeast in your bottle will hold it at the bottom when you pour.