first timers questions....

[ALPS]

Just brewed my first batch last Thursday evening and have a couple of noobie questions...

I used an extract kit (American Wheat) from the store because it seemed an easy way to get familiarized with the process.

1) The air lock was bubbling like mad by Friday morning, but was down to one per minute or so by Saturday afternoon. The only safe place (ie: away from 1-year old daughter) I have to keep the carboy is about 62 degese. I thought maybe the yeast went dormant, or is that all the activity I should expect?

2) Also, even though we have "city" water, we still use a Britta filter/pitcher for taste. I never thought to santize the pitcher before filtering the 3 gallons I added. Will this be disasterous?

3) I forgot to measure the water first and began to pour pitcher after pitcher into the carboy as my wort boiled. Instead of starting over, I dumped the cold water from the carboy into the brew kettle over the finished hot wort ( it is marked in quart increments) to measure out my 5 gallons then siphoned that back to the carboy thought a screened funnel. This resulted in lots of foam. Was this terribly wrong as well?

Thanks for your help...

 

[El Pistolero]

1) 62 degrees seems a little low, you probably want to get it someplace 68 to 70. You may get increased airlock activity after you warm it a bit, or maybe not. Are you planning on racking to a secondary, or going staight to bottles?

2) You're probably OK here since you dumped the stuff into the hot wort.

3) The way you did it is fine, assuming the wort was fairly cool before you strained it. The foam is normal.

Relax, you're doing fine.

 

[ALPS]

Thanks for the reply, and the reassurance...

I doubt I'll find any place in the house that warm before next June. This old farm house gets cold in the winter. Is there any way to keep it warm with out cranking up the furnace? Are there heaters of any type made for this?

 

[voodoochild7]

This happened to me on the first batch that I brewed. I racked everything in that batch to the secondary yesterday everthing is fine. Mine only went through vigorous fermentation for like 18 hours. Cooking up my second batch as I write this.

 

[El Pistolero]

Is there any way to keep it warm with out cranking up the furnace? Are there heaters of any type made for this?

There's a heater for fermenters called a brew belt. Look here at the bottom of the page. Otherwise you could sit your fermenter in a big tub of 70F water...you'd have to remove some cooler water and add warmer back in a couple of times a day.

 

[voodoochild7]

If the temp is slightly higher say 74 what effects will that have my closet where I ferment is actually cooler than my basement and it's about a constant 74. My kithchen smells fantastic. Like pumpkin pie and beer cookin'.

 

[El Pistolero]

That would depend on the type of yeast you're using...every yeast strain has an optimal temperature range. For the most part tho, 74F is not out of line for ales...I doubt you'd have any problems at that temp.