Greeting !and 1st batch questionable

[brewdude]

Hi all ! sure pleased to have found this forum as i'am sure theres alot of brewers with more than useful info for me so thanks in advance.
Well 7 days ago i brewed my 1st bacth of wort, I seemed to have had trouble from the start , i proofed my yeast and the stuff cooled to about 70 or slightly cooler befor i got the wort ready to pitch the yeast.
we've got an electric range which shut on and off automatically, on and off, on and off. the darn wort never really did get to a rolling boil befor i gave up. then i took the wort out to a snow bank and left it for about and 1/2 hour or more but because we'er having all this weard weather and its warmer than normal it took to long to cool, thats how it is that my yeast cooled to much, I estimated the temp of the wort to be about 98 maybe even as much as 100 when i pitched the yeast
i kinda had felling the wort was to hot but my main concern was that the yeast cooled no further befor introducing it to the wort as i recall reading somewhere the yeast would go into shock and die, or something like that.
To my supprise for the next 4-5 days there was a good deal of activity in the formentor and a good deal of foam at the surface , Day six and the foam was all but totally gone. As the instrctions said to do i transfured to the secondary formentor and then took a hydro reading and it was .1006 day 2 in the secondary formentor there a nice clear beer look 3 " from there down its quite cloudy. any thoughts ? sound like i'am luck this time ? or has my 1st batch became drain cleaner ?

 

[andyman]

It all depends what style of beer you brewed. Don't dump it. A lower specific gravity is not that big of deal. Until you bottle its hard to tell if it is bad. S.G. won't really say if it is spoiled. Give it a few more days in the secondary to finish the ferment. Prime it then bottle it. Give it a couple weeks then sample it. Thats when you know if it turned out the way you wanted.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

Have you tasted it? It should taste like beer. Flat, and a little weak, but still like beer. If it does, then you should be ok. When it's had a chance to age a bit and is carbonated it will taste much, much better.

 

[brewdude]

Its a blond ale and yes i did sample it, it did taste a bit hoppy somewhat bitter and flat, i attributed the bitterness to the sasafras i spiked the wort with. Thanks so very much for your help guys, if its legal and it truns out i'ld have no problem sending yall a taste.

 

[Walker]

there are HUNDREDS of us, man.. keep your beer to yourself.

however, if I get this right... your wort never actually boiled on your stove?

-walker

 

[brewdude]

not really a rolling boil, no ! but it was boiling at times not consistant boil though

 

[Walker]

ah, then you are GOLDEN. nice work.

let that beer sit for secondary... that 3 inch clear section of beer at the top will just keep getting bigger and bigger and you'll have a nice looking. nearly-finished product in that carboy!

-walker

 

[brewdude]

Great news , Thanks!

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

patience grasshopper!!!!

 

[brewdude]

oh yeah one other thing, the brew book i've got suggest primming to a bottling bucket befor bottling ,cant the primer be added to the bottles instead ? it just seems as if what little action by the flow of the beer into the bucket would be enough to mix all that well.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

The book is right. Put your primer in the bottom of the bottling bucket and then siphon in your beer from the carboy. That will mix it up so all your beer is primed. Given the small amount of primer you would have to put in each bottle, unless you have an accurate and efficient way to put a measured amount in each bottle you will end up with some flat ones and others that will explode during carbonation.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

cooper's has carbonation drops that u can get. just drop one little piece of "candy" in each bottle, then get to filling.

when i bottled, i would add the priming sugar in stages, and stir gently after each addition. that ensures a more even distribution throughout the beer. just my $0.02.

 

[davy]

Since this is your first batch I assume that you are brewing with extract and brewing on a stovetop I assume you are not doing big batches yet. If you are trying to boil anything bigger than 3 gallons on an electric stove you are going to drive yourself crazy and make the power company very rich. The problem with electric stoves is that they are a direct heat source meaning that the burner is in direct contact with your pot. This can cause the sugar in your wort to burn on the bottom of your pot where the burners contact your pot. This can leave a black circle shaped like your burner that is very hard to clean and worse that burned sugar will be in your beer. My suggestion is to invest in a propane burner you can get a turkey fryer for less than $50 pretty much anywhere. And propane is cheap compared to what your electric bill will look like next month. It will definitely give you rolling boils and you can boil more at one time up to 5gallons or more. Of course boiling five gallons at once will be difficult to move to an ice bath. So my second suggestion is to make yourself an immersion chiller dont go out and buy one because they are easy to make. Just get 20ft of copper tubing from Lowe's or HD and twist it around a 1 gallon paint can. These are merely suggestions but they are also small investments that you will definitley be able to use if you decide to go to all grain brewing down the road. Hope this is helpful to you.