First time brewing - Brooklyn Brew Kit

[JG81]

Hi all- very excited to brew my first home brew this weekend, when my Brooklyn Brew Kit arrives. I've read a lot of posts on here and other sites, and was just asking for any more tips and hints that may be out there?

I purchased the IPAD brew kit. Looks like sanitizing everything is the first (and most important) step. I tend to freak out when things are not going completely by the book with cooking, som assume it will be the same here, which is why I ask for any good unwritten tips?
Definitely looking forward to the voyage with this! Thanks everyone

 

[freisste]

Fermentation temp control. Get the wort cooled to a proper pitching temp (no, 75f is not cool enough) and keep it cool (no, 75 is not cool enough).

Search swamp cooler for a great way to control temps on a budget.

 

[hehawbrew]

I started with the BBS kit and am a big fan! I still use their recipes, I just do 5 gal batches. Tasty stuff.

Watch their youtube videos. They are simple but helpful. Read instructions several times before you start. Easy easy, so enjoy the process!

 

[Smokeater233]

Not an unwritten rule - just an oft forgotten rule. RDWHAHB. You will make "mistakes". It will happen. I still make some, and I've been brewing for quite some time now. Few get into the traditions of making homebrew to become professional brewers. So, if this isn't the beginning of a career in brewing, relax, and enjoy yourself. Some mistakes turn out to be the best non-decisions you ever made...

 

[woozy]

The Brooklyn Brew Kits have you mash you grains on a stove top and use a strainer. *If* you want to use a grain bag to make it neater that'll work but use two or three and pack them for *very* loose. Or you could use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from you hardware store. Bags aren't nesc. but they keep things neat. But if you use them the grain *has* to be very loose.

Maintaining temp during mash is key and a stovetop will fluctuate quite a lot. Cook low, lower than you expect. Over heating will harm the beer (make the sugars unfermentable, release tannins, and,worst case, kill the enzymes) but too low will just take a little longer, worst case, be too low to convert that you are simply wasting time that you'll have to make up for.

Don't worry, have fun.

 

[Smokeater233]

IF you do use a grain bag, make sure you have a false bottom, or at the very, very least, keep the base of your grain bag OFF the bottom of the pot during this boil. I made this mistake when brewing a dunkel a few years ago... Pulled the grain bag out at the end of the boil and watched my grains remain in the pot...the base of the grain bag so close to the burner actually burned in the pot...

 

[woozy]

...the base of the grain bag so close to the burner actually burned in the pot...

Hmmm... I really wouldn't have thought that was possible. I would have thought if the bag was in water then the water would be the medium and burning would be impossible.

Did you put the bag and grains in first and then add the water? I think if you put the water in first it'll be fine.

 

[Smokeater233]

Has nothing to do with the water. The bag sat on the bottom of my pot and the scorching heat through the pot melted the bottom of the bag. A good trick would be to use binder clips to keep the bottom of the bag off the bottom of the pot - in lieu of a false bottom...

 

[DArsenault]

Has nothing to do with the water. The bag sat on the bottom of my pot and the scorching heat through the pot melted the bottom of the bag. A good trick would be to use binder clips to keep the bottom of the bag off the bottom of the pot - in lieu of a false bottom...

I usually just tie the bags off to the side of the pot so they don't sink all the way to the bottom.

 

[RM-MN]

I heat the water first, turn off the burner, put the bag into the pot, stir in the grains, put the lid on and ignore it for the mash time. When the bag of grains come out to drain, I turn the burner back on. I never have to worry about melting the bag that way and the temperature doesn't fall much. Sometimes I wrap the pot in a towel to keep the temperature more even.

 

[freisste]

I heat the water first, turn off the burner, put the bag into the pot, stir in the grains, put the lid on and ignore it for the mash time. When the bag of grains come out to drain, I turn the burner back on. I never have to worry about melting the bag that way and the temperature doesn't fall much. Sometimes I wrap the pot in a towel to keep the temperature more even.

Same here. Into the oven though, set to 170 and turned off. I check it 20 and 40 minutes in to the mash to check on temps. Usually pretty stable. Sometimes I have to turn the oven back if the temp gets a little low. Either way, no chance of burning the bag.

 

[Smokeater233]

Sorry - went back through my earlier posting and realized I spoke of "the boil" when really what I was referring to was "the mash"...

I usually just tie the bags off to the side of the pot so they don't sink all the way to the bottom.

Except you can't do that with a real mash - the bag is too heavy. Steeping yes, but not a mash.

I heat the water first, turn off the burner, put the bag into the pot, stir in the grains, put the lid on and ignore it for the mash time. When the bag of grains come out to drain, I turn the burner back on. I never have to worry about melting the bag that way and the temperature doesn't fall much. Sometimes I wrap the pot in a towel to keep the temperature more even.

Right and I used to do the same, and you are right that this works fine...until you get to mash out when I'd increase the pot temp. Not everyone does a mash out or sparge, so this problem ceases to exist in that scenario. Anyway, was just offering my $0.02...

 

[RM-MN]

Sorry - went back through my earlier posting and realized I spoke of "the boil" when really what I was referring to was "the mash"...



Except you can't do that with a real mash - the bag is too heavy. Steeping yes, but not a mash.




Right and I used to do the same, and you are right that this works fine...until you get to mash out when I'd increase the pot temp. Not everyone does a mash out or sparge, so this problem ceases to exist in that scenario. Anyway, was just offering my $0.02...

I don't know why you would do a mash out when you are BIAB. As soon as the mash is done, I pull the bag out and turn the heat on. That stops the mash activity very quickly. Mash out is important for fly sparging when you use a conventional tun because it takes so long to sparge and the wort would still be at mash temp and conversion would continue for the whole time which would let the beta amylase continue to break down the long chain sugars giving you a much drier beer than intended.

It can be argued that you get more sugars out by bringing the wort and the bag of grains up to mash out temperature but the gain is pretty minimal for the chance of scorching the bag and the grains. Even using cold water as a pseudo-sparge rinses out a considerable percentage of the sugars because the bag of grain is hot and heats the cold water which increases the solubility of the sugars.

 

[JG81]

The end of the blow off tube that is in the beer...or soon to be beer, should it be just a bit above the liquid, or in the liquid?

 

[JG81]

It's is what it looks like after ice bath, as it now sits for a couple days. Should it be two different colors? With a lot of sediment it looks, on the bottom?

 

[hehawbrew]

Looks good! Tube just a bit in. You don't want it in the beer.

 

[Smokeater233]

I don't know why you would do a mash out when you are BIAB...

It can be argued that you get more sugars out by bringing the wort and the bag of grains up to mash out temperature but the gain is pretty minimal for the chance of scorching the bag and the grains.

Well, you answered your own question with that one. Yes, it was for efficiency sake, and yes, you are correct that the gain isn't worth the risk. I learned that lesson the hard way...as described. I did a few more BIABs after my original run-in with my melted bag, and eventually scrapped BIAB for a more traditional all-grain process, now with batch sparging.

 

[JG81]

Have now replaced the blow off tube with the airlock. Is the discolored stuff on the bottom normal ?

 

[PsyDanny]

Have now replaced the blow off tube with the airlock. Is the discolored stuff on the bottom normal ?

View attachment 142863

Yes, very much normal. Looks like you are off to a good start.

However, I would position the tube so that it is firmly, but just barely into the top. Once fermentation starts rocking and rolling, all that stuff on the bottom will become a foamy mix of solids, yeast, etc. called "krausen". Mostly you want to keep as much liquid and solids in the fermenter, with just enough tube to allow CO2 to escape. Often people stick the other end of the tube into another receptable (I use a small milk jug) partially full of sanitizer (such as StarSan) with that other end definately submerged. That way the CO2 bubbles through but no air gets sucked back into the fermenter.

After a few days, the fermentation slows down, at which point people often use an airlock.

Hope this helps. Good Brewing!!

 

[JG81]

That was the pic before I removed the tube and put the airlock on. Bubbles had slowed. It is now air locked away in the closet for a few weeks!

 

[Smokeater233]

Yeah, now that the krausen has fallen you won't likely have a problem with that tube making contact with your now fermented beer. That said, Psydanny is right about having the tube in that far. In the future you'll want the tube well secured to the top of the fermenter, but not deep enough that it touches the wort or the fermentation process.

Is that an oversized growler you're fermenting in?

 

[JG81]

It's whatever came with the Brooklyn Brew Kit

 

[hehawbrew]

Gallon carboy.

 

[JG81]

The beer is done. Had it today, very tasty for a first attempt. Had some sediment on the bottom if each bottle, and also the auto siphon didn't work on its own when I bottled them two weeks ago. Thanks to everyone on here for their help! Now to decide what to try next.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Looks good. I got back into brewing with a Brooklyn kit last winter, they are not bad kits. The only thing I would suggest is to calibrate the thermometer that comes with the kit by checking it in an ice water bath and a boiling water bath. Those thermometers are mass produced and can be off by several degrees. I wrote up my calibration here:

Thermometer Calibration Procedure with Data

Have fun!

 

[JG81]

Is there any way to check the Alcohol Content now that it is bottled, or did it have to be done during fermentation?

 

[freisste]

Without an expensive lab test, you need to compare FG to OG. If you have those numbers, you can get ABV (reasonably close). Without those numbers, no, you cannot. You COULD get a close approximation from brewing software, but you would have to make some assumptions: efficiency if you use grain, attenuation if the yeast, etc. Those are not standard numbers, which is why brewers need hydrometers.