First Timer's Brew Day Checklist

[pentachris]

First of all, let me say that I've been lurking here for a week or two - this looks like a great community. I've learned a lot already, and I've tried to answer all my questions by searching here and reading through John Palmer's site, as well as some other resources. I've put together the following equipment and brew day checklist; any input is appreciated.

I got this kit, a floating thermometer, a bottle blaster for bottle cleaning & 36 22oz bombers from my LHBS. I also got this 50' immersion chiller, this 8 gal. brew kettle and an ounce of Fermcap from Amazon.

I also got this recipe kit from my LHBS. It's 2 cans of LME at 3.3 lbs each, 2 packets of hops at 1 oz each, a packet of dry yeast, priming sugar, bottle caps and sanitizer.

The instructions are for a partial boil with a late LME addition. I'll be doing a full boil, so I'll be putting both cans in early. The recipe calls for a packet of the hops to go in at 45:00 as bittering hops, and another packet to go in at 15:00 for flavor. Converting to a full boil in BeerSmith told me to decrease the hops to .44 oz at each addition. That's close enough to 1/2 oz, so I'll just open one packet & divide in half.

Here's the plan:

1 Begin soaking LME cans in hot water
2 Put 6 gals of filtered water on heat and to a boil
3 Remove water from heat and stir in both cans of LME along with 18 drops of Fermcap
4 Return wort to heat and bring to boil
5 Add 1/2 oz of hops
6 Start timer counting down from 45:00
7 Prepare sanitizer solution, and: sanitize fermenting bucket, bottling bucket (& spigot), immersion chiller, hydrometer, floating thermometer, small thermometer for yeast, cup for yeast & mesh strainer
8 At 15:00, add 1/2 oz hops
9 Boil a cup of water and put small thermometer in - keep an eye on the thermometer, we want the temp to be down to 100F when timer reaches 0:00
10 At 0:00, remove wort from heat, drop in the floating thermometer and start up the immersion chiller
11 Sprinkle yeast in the cup of water, which should now be warm, around 100F
12 Stir wort in opposite direction of chiller water flow until wort temp is ~70F
13 Drain wort from kettle into bottling buket through mesh strainer (aeration)
14 Drain wort from bottling bucket into fermenting bucket through mesh strainer (aeration)
15 Take OG & pitch yeast, which should be nice and frothy now
16 Cover fermenting bucket, insert airlock and fill airlock halfway with water
17 Wait a few hours & check for signs of fermentation...

What have I forgotten? What am I dong wrong?

I know that my aeration method is a bit risky for infection, and not the most effective, but it should work well enough, right? I'm no weakling, but - how vigorously can you really shake 5 gallons of liquid?

 

[JPHussey]

1) In a 6.5 gallon carboy you can shake the s$%t out of 5 gallons of liquid! Grab 'er by the neck and let her have it!

2) I wouldn't put my yeast into 100degree water. That doesn't seem right; is that what the instructions tell you to do?

3) Don't stir while chilling the wort; I'd think that would risk some hot-side aeration. It will cool fast enough with the wort chiller.

4) As long as your funnel and strainer are sanitized you're OK transferring like that. But I'd just go right to fermenter and then shake the crap out of it.

5) I'm assuming you are using dry yeast, which I have little experience with, but just make sure you follow the directions closely for rehydration - that seems like a short period of time and too hot of water.

6) The hop method seems fine - as long as you ran it through a calculator.

7) Don't get crazy with it! This is your first batch. Keep it simple! Killer investment on a pot though; she looks beautiful

 

[jvp1]

I use two strainers -- a spaghetti strainer and a mesh strainer. The spaghetti strainer gets the big stuff and the mesh gets the small stuff (because I don't have a large mesh strainer!).

I first strain from the kettle into the bottling bucket (through the spaghetti strainer). I then rack again through a funnel and through the mesh strainer into the carboy/fermenter. I find this aerates the beer incredibly well.

 

[mountainman13]

First of all, let me say that I've been lurking here for a week or two - this looks like a great community. I've learned a lot already, and I've tried to answer all my questions by searching here and reading through John Palmer's site, as well as some other resources. I've put together the following equipment and brew day checklist; any input is appreciated.

I got this kit, a floating thermometer, a bottle blaster for bottle cleaning & 36 22oz bombers from my LHBS. I also got this 50' immersion chiller, this 8 gal. brew kettle and an ounce of Fermcap from Amazon.

I also got this recipe kit from my LHBS. It's 2 cans of LME at 3.3 lbs each, 2 packets of hops at 1 oz each, a packet of dry yeast, priming sugar, bottle caps and sanitizer.

The instructions are for a partial boil with a late LME addition. I'll be doing a full boil, so I'll be putting both cans in early. The recipe calls for a packet of the hops to go in at 45:00 as bittering hops, and another packet to go in at 15:00 for flavor. Converting to a full boil in BeerSmith told me to decrease the hops to .44 oz at each addition. That's close enough to 1/2 oz, so I'll just open one packet & divide in half.

Here's the plan:
0 Grab a beer
1 Begin soaking LME cans in hot water
2 Put 6 gals of filtered water on heat and to a boil
3 Remove water from heat and stir in both cans of LME along with 18 drops of Fermcap
4 Return wort to heat and bring to boil
5 Add 1/2 oz of hops
6 Start timer counting down from 45:00
7 Prepare sanitizer solution, and: sanitize fermenting bucket, bottling bucket (& spigot), immersion chiller, hydrometer, floating thermometer, small thermometer for yeast, cup for yeast & mesh strainer
8 At 15:00, add 1/2 oz hops
9 Boil a cup of water and put small thermometer in - keep an eye on the thermometer, we want the temp to be down to 100F when timer reaches 0:00
10 At 0:00, remove wort from heat, drop in the floating thermometer and start up the immersion chiller
11 Sprinkle yeast in the cup of water, which should now be warm, around 100F
12 Stir wort in opposite direction of chiller water flow until wort temp is ~70F
13 Drain wort from kettle into bottling buket through mesh strainer (aeration)
14 Drain wort from bottling bucket into fermenting bucket through mesh strainer (aeration)
15 Take OG & pitch yeast, which should be nice and frothy now
16 Cover fermenting bucket, insert airlock and fill airlock halfway with water
17 Wait a few hours & check for signs of fermentation...

What have I forgotten? What am I dong wrong?

I know that my aeration method is a bit risky for infection, and not the most effective, but it should work well enough, right? I'm no weakling, but - how vigorously can you really shake 5 gallons of liquid?

There, I fixed your process

A couple of other things- I can't tell from the tiny pic on Amazon what kind of yeast it is, but looks like Fermentis. Make sure it's not too old (I personally wouldn't use it unless I knew it was stored properly,i.e. cold). Fermentis is a damn good yeast, and I have never rehydrated it. It just seems like an extra step that is unnecessary, and have never had a stuck ferm. I also call BS on hot side aeration. When I first got going and didn't have a pump, I always stirred my cooling wort and never had a problem. My theory is that I'd rather cool the wort faster and get it into a sanitary carboy than have it sitting in my kettle at it's most vulnerable point of infection. Plus, you want your wort to have oxygen in it for the yeast to get a healthy start. Whats the diff between stirring in the pot and shaking the **** out of the carboy?

One more thing- it seems to be a personal preference, but I never worry about hops getting into my carboy, as they WILL settle out and clump up with the yeast cake, so don't worry about straining into your bottling bucket. Your strainer will just clog and cause you another headache. Just dump it straight from the BK to the carboy. By the time it is cooled, most of the hops will have settled to the bottom of the BK anyway.

Any time I can cut an unnecessary step out to make my day easier, rest assure I will do so if I know my end product will still be kick @ss:rockin:

edit: I just read that you are straining for aeration. While this would work, just shake the hell out of the carboy like noted above.

Most importantly, have fun and be patient.

 

[ScottSingleton]

Somewhere around step #1 you need to have a beer, By step 10 you can pour your third or so

 

[ScottSingleton]

crap! Mountainman beat me to that by a minute

 

[RM-MN]

You will be dropping the immersion chiller into the boiling wort somewhere in the last 10 minutes and the boiling wort will eliminate the need for sanitizing. If it looks clean that is all you need to do for the immersion chiller.

If you dump all the wort into the fermenter bucket without straining you eliminate the need to use the bottling bucket so that won't need to be sanitized until it's time to bottle. Just dump everything into the fermenter bucket, dump it back into the boiling kettle (with the chiller removed) and then back into the bucket for the splashing and aeration. All the trub will settle out to the bottom of the fermenter and some have suggested that there are compounds in the trub that the yeast like. It doesn't seem to affect the flavor of the beer.

You can rehydrate your dry yeast if you want or you can just sprinkle it on top the wort in the fermenter. Either way works fine.

If you forget to take the OG it won't be a big deal. With extract the amount of sugars is set by the maker of the extract and the only variable will be the amount of extract you actually get into the wort (Liquid extract is hard to get out of the container. I put the container into a pan of water and slowly heat it while my water in the boiling kettle is coming up to temp. This makes it pour easier. Then I pour a little of the water from the boiling kettle into the container to rinse it out better.) and the quality of the water measurement. If you got all the extract in the right amount of water your OG will be spot on.

You may not see signs of fermentation in a few hours. I've had ferments not start for up to 36 hours. You can open the lid of the fermenter after a couple days and look for krausen or the krausen ring on the sides of the fermenter. You could also wait 3 days and then take a sample with your hydrometer to see if the specific gravity has dropped. This is the only sure method of checking for fermentation.

 

[pentachris]

Dang! I forgot the most important step. Thanks mountainman13 & ScottSingleton.

While I understand the KISS mantra in theory, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. It's my nature. With that said, I guess I can probably cut the rehydration out, and sprinkle the yeast straight into the fermenter. It's Fermentis yeast, and it's marked "02 2013 IXB", which I'm guessing is expiration date and lot number. JPHussey, as for the rehydration temp, I was remembering that from what I'd read on Palmer's website. Maybe I misremembered? Whatever, let's just scrap that altogether.

RM-MN, thanks for the tip on immersion chiller sanitation. Makes sense - I'll maybe just give it a good rinse.

jvp1, I'm still leaning towards straining like you said. But more for aeration than for actual straining, as others have noted. But, If I could cut having to sanitize the bottling bucket, that would make things simpler and easier. So, I'm on the fence of using the shaking method. I've got another concern with it though, and that's the fact that the lid for it has a hole in the top for the airlock. I've been doing some practicing with the equipment (see below), so I guess I could give it a try and see how much spillage I get.

Last night, I hooked up the propane burner that my father-in-law got me for Christmas two years ago and I've never used. It brought 6 gallons of water to 200F in about 30 minutes, so that piece of equipment has been checked. The first time I put the water in the pot, though, I had pretty serious leakage from around the thermometer. When I drained the pot and examined the assembly, I figured out why - I'd put the nut on backwards, so that the channel where the O-ring should fit was facing the inside of the pot. Oops. Corrected that, and the leak stopped.

I hooked up the immersion chiller, and water sprayed terribly at the connection of the plastic tubing to the copper tubing. I was pretty sure that was going to happen. It came with those silly little hose clamps, and I couldn't really get them tightened down well. I think they're defective. So, I made a trip to the hardware store and got some compression fittings and barb adapters. I'll try it again this evening to make sure it's good to go.

By the way, I'm pretty excited about this. My wife told me that when I finished my degree I could buy brewing equipment. I graduated two years ago LOL. Things came up (don't they always?), and starting this hobby got put on the back burner. I tried a little Mr. Beer kit, but the results were less than satisfactory. I can't wait for this weekend!

 

[kh54s10]

Here's the plan:

1 Begin soaking LME cans in hot water good
2 Put 6 gals of filtered water on heat and to a boil good
3 Remove water from heat and stir in both cans of LME along with 18 drops of Fermcap add the fermcap when you add the yeast. A couple of drops at the beginning of the boil is all that is needed to stop boil overs
4 Return wort to heat and bring to boil
5 Add 1/2 oz of hops
6 Start timer counting down from 45:00
7 Prepare sanitizer solution, Prepare the sanitizer before starting anything else and it will be ready before you need it.and: sanitize fermenting bucket, bottling bucket (& spigot), immersion chiller, hydrometer, floating thermometer, small thermometer for yeast, cup for yeast & mesh strainer
8 At 15:00, add 1/2 oz hops
9 Boil a cup of water and put small thermometer in - keep an eye on the thermometer, we want the temp to be down to 100F when timer reaches 0:00
10 At 0:00, remove wort from heat, drop in the floating thermometer and start up the immersion chiller
11 Sprinkle yeast in the cup of water, which should now be warm, around 100F get the temperature a little lower maybe 90° or skip rehydrating entirely
12 Stir wort in opposite direction of chiller water flow until wort temp is ~70F this is good, hot side aeration is not a concern!
13 Drain wort from kettle into bottling buket through mesh strainer (aeration)
14 Drain wort from bottling bucket into fermenting bucket through mesh strainer (aeration) This seems unnecessary
15 Take OG & pitch yeast, which should be nice and frothy now
16 Cover fermenting bucket, insert airlock and fill airlock halfway with water
17 Wait a few hours & check for signs of fermentation...it may take longer, but don't worry until about 72 hours have passed.

What have I forgotten? What am I dong wrong?

I know that my aeration method is a bit risky for infection, and not the most effective, but it should work well enough, right? I'm no weakling, but - how vigorously can you really shake 5 gallons of liquid? plenty vigorously. tip your bucket on edge and shake the snot out of it!

Good luck. Your plan is ok, or you can make the suggested alterations. Either way you are on your way to some tasty beer.:rockin: