First five gallons(not quite five) is in the bottles!

[Teufelhunde]

Well, the first five gallon kit is in the bottles. Brewed a Brewer's best extract American Pale Ale on 1/5/20.....fermenter kept in a mini fridge with an Inkbird controller set at 63 degrees (sensor next to the fridge wall with no coils/tubes in it). Two back to back SG readings of 1.010 told me it was done. The OG reading was 1.045 so ABV should be around 4.6

When it was all said and done, The krausen ring on the fermenter was less than 1.5 inches tall, so fermentation was well controlled. Surprisingly little gunk in the bottom.....probably 3/8 inch or less, but I WAS very careful (probably over careful) not to pour gunk from the brew kettle into the fermenter. Because of this, I threw a bunch of good wort away, and this likely accounts for the low OG (kit called for 1.051 or more......I now have some very fine cheesecloth that will be sanitized at the time of the next batch to strain it through, and we'll see how that does.

Bottling went pretty well, only got 42 longnecks due to pouring out so much wort......I found some plastic storage containers that each hold 24 longnecks and allow the lids to be fastened on in case of the unlikely bottle bomb.....

How come there is a magnet in the bottle capper? It seems that on every fourth or fifth bottle, I couldn't seem to get the capper set on top of the bottle/cap without the darn magnet grabbing the cap and causing it to NOT seat properly on the top of the bottle for crimping......

Anyway, now the waiting starts......again.....sure is a lot of waiting with this hobby........

Next up, either another Pale Ale (Northernbrewers, this time), or a Northernbrewers Chinook IPA. Decisions, decisions.......

YMMV

Lon

 

[grampamark]

The trick to using the magnet is to put the cap on the magnet and then put the capper with the cap attached to the magnet over the bottle.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I used to affix it to the magnet on the capper (after sanitizing the cap of course), but I found that I had more poorly sealed caps that way for some reason. I've since had a helper (my 11 year old...shhhh) place the sanitized caps right on the bottles after I fill the bottles...then I use the capper and line it up as best as I can. I seem to have less problems/bent caps/poor seals when I do this. Either way, I tend to keg more, which makes it a non-issue on those brews...haha.

 

[ncbrewer]

but I WAS very careful (probably over careful) not to pour gunk from the brew kettle into the fermenter. Because of this, I threw a bunch of good wort away, and this likely accounts for the low OG (kit called for 1.051 or more.

I Pour everything into the fermenter. It clears well, and I don't detect off flavors. ymmv

 

[Teufelhunde]

I Pour everything into the fermenter. It clears well, and I don't detect off flavors. ymmv

I got some very fine cheesecloth and plan to strain the wort through that on the next batch, which I hope to do tomorrow

Lon

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

When it was all said and done, The krausen ring on the fermenter was less than 1.5 inches tall, so fermentation was well controlled. Surprisingly little gunk in the bottom.....probably 3/8 inch or less, but I WAS very careful (probably over careful) not to pour gunk from the brew kettle into the fermenter.

Do realize "pour" at this point introduces oxygen. Oxygen at this point isn't helpful. Drink the brew quickly before it tastes of cardboard.

IMO, should have gently transferred from the fermenter (using hose, minimizing oxygen pickup).

 

[Teufelhunde]

Do realize "pour" at this point introduces oxygen. Oxygen at this point isn't helpful. Drink the brew quickly before it tastes of cardboard.

IMO, should have gently transferred from the fermenter (using hose, minimizing oxygen pickup).

My post rambled a bit and might have been confusing. I was talking about pouring the hot wort into the fermenting bucket....

Lon

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

My post rambled a bit and might have been confusing. I was talking about pouring the hot wort into the fermenting bucket....

Lon

What was the temp of the wort?

 

[Teufelhunde]

What was the temp of the wort?

My bad, pouring the cooled wort into the fermenting bucket (it had been in an ice bath and was around 72 degrees at the time.....

Lon

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

My bad, pouring the cooled wort into the fermenting bucket (it had been in an ice bath and was around 72 degrees at the time.....

Lon

That's actually good and the time to introduce oxygen.

 

[rburrelli]

Think about this. You say your gravity was lower because you left wort behind. That is just wrong. What you left behind would have the same gravity as what you emptied. Your low gravity was because of something else.

 

[Teufelhunde]

Think about this. You say your gravity was lower because you left wort behind. That is just wrong. What you left behind would have the same gravity as what you emptied. Your low gravity was because of something else.

by leaving wort behind, I added more water to get to the 5 gallon mark....more water to a smaller quantity of wort = lower gravity....

Lon

 

[rburrelli]

by leaving wort behind, I added more water to get to the 5 gallon mark....more water to a smaller quantity of wort = lower gravity....

Lon

Correct if you added more water. I don’t think you said that in your post. Thanks for the clarification and sorry if I missed that.

 

[Teufelhunde]

Correct if you added more water. I don’t think you said that in your post. Thanks for the clarification and sorry if I missed that.

Sometimes something I say or post is clear as a bell to me, but not to others.....likely just my poor communications skills......

Lon