Thumbs71
Well-Known Member
I've been reading a ton of posts here, so I figured I'd say hi and give a run down of my first home brewing experience from last Saturday.
Who can think of a better thing to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, especially since it was 45 degrees in January. For Christmas my girlfriend got me a Midwest Supplies home brew kit with a Irish Red Ale kit and a gift certificate to my LHBS.
I steeped my grains in 5 gallons of water for about 45 minutes at 155, removed from heat and added the LME. Boiled with 1oz Cascade bittering hops for 60 minutes, and added 1oz Fuggle aroma hops for last 2 minutes.
I used my homemade wort chiller (16'x1/4" copper pre-chiller packed in ice and 20'x3/8" copper chiller), which I sanitized in the wort for last 15 minutes of boil, to bring temp down to 75 degrees in 15 minutes.
Dumped into 6.5 gallon bucket, added about 1/2 gallon of water to bring it to 5 gallons, then used a whisk to aerate. Rehydarated yeast in about 1/2 cup warm water for 10 minutes. Moved about 1/2 the wort into 6.5 gallon glass carboy, which I aquired for free, added the yeast, then transferred the rest of the wort and capped with stopper and blowoff tube. The wort was about 70 degrees when I pitched the yeast. Hydrometer reading was 1.0143 SG.
I'm fermenting in the root cellar of our house, which stays between 50 and 55 during the winter so I'm using a water bath to maintain the temperature. I placed the carboy in a cooler with an aquarium heater and filled with 75 degree water to about 3/4 the height of the liquid in the carboy. I put a stick on thermometer on the carboy. I also have a pump in the cooler to circulate the water.
Fermentation was going strong (1 bubble every second) after about 4 hours, which was the first time I checked on it. Nice krausen forming. Checked it again about 5 hours later and it was still going strong. Water temp was about 65 at this time and the fermentor was about 70. Krausen about 2".
The next afternoon (12 hours later) the water dropped to about 65 so I pumped out a gallon of water and added a warm gallon to bring it to about 70. Fermentor temp was 68-70. Bubbles every 3-5 seconds. Krausen dropped to about 1/2". Repeated 10 hours after that. Bubbles every 15 seconds. No more krausen. Fermentor temp was 66-68.
This morning I checked it again, about 40 hours in fermentor, and there was still no krausen. I replace the blow off tube with a 3 piece airlock. Getting 1 bubble every 30 seconds. Fermentor temp was 66-68 and cooler water was about 62. Replaced 2 gallons of cooler water with warm water. I'll check again once I get home. Hopefully everything works out and I can rack to secondary in 1 or 2 weeks. I am concerend about the slow fermentation.
Sorry this was so long winded, but I realized once I was typing that I should record everything at least to have for my records.
How do you think I did? Did I forget any steps or should I be doing anything different? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Who can think of a better thing to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, especially since it was 45 degrees in January. For Christmas my girlfriend got me a Midwest Supplies home brew kit with a Irish Red Ale kit and a gift certificate to my LHBS.
I steeped my grains in 5 gallons of water for about 45 minutes at 155, removed from heat and added the LME. Boiled with 1oz Cascade bittering hops for 60 minutes, and added 1oz Fuggle aroma hops for last 2 minutes.
I used my homemade wort chiller (16'x1/4" copper pre-chiller packed in ice and 20'x3/8" copper chiller), which I sanitized in the wort for last 15 minutes of boil, to bring temp down to 75 degrees in 15 minutes.
Dumped into 6.5 gallon bucket, added about 1/2 gallon of water to bring it to 5 gallons, then used a whisk to aerate. Rehydarated yeast in about 1/2 cup warm water for 10 minutes. Moved about 1/2 the wort into 6.5 gallon glass carboy, which I aquired for free, added the yeast, then transferred the rest of the wort and capped with stopper and blowoff tube. The wort was about 70 degrees when I pitched the yeast. Hydrometer reading was 1.0143 SG.
I'm fermenting in the root cellar of our house, which stays between 50 and 55 during the winter so I'm using a water bath to maintain the temperature. I placed the carboy in a cooler with an aquarium heater and filled with 75 degree water to about 3/4 the height of the liquid in the carboy. I put a stick on thermometer on the carboy. I also have a pump in the cooler to circulate the water.
Fermentation was going strong (1 bubble every second) after about 4 hours, which was the first time I checked on it. Nice krausen forming. Checked it again about 5 hours later and it was still going strong. Water temp was about 65 at this time and the fermentor was about 70. Krausen about 2".
The next afternoon (12 hours later) the water dropped to about 65 so I pumped out a gallon of water and added a warm gallon to bring it to about 70. Fermentor temp was 68-70. Bubbles every 3-5 seconds. Krausen dropped to about 1/2". Repeated 10 hours after that. Bubbles every 15 seconds. No more krausen. Fermentor temp was 66-68.
This morning I checked it again, about 40 hours in fermentor, and there was still no krausen. I replace the blow off tube with a 3 piece airlock. Getting 1 bubble every 30 seconds. Fermentor temp was 66-68 and cooler water was about 62. Replaced 2 gallons of cooler water with warm water. I'll check again once I get home. Hopefully everything works out and I can rack to secondary in 1 or 2 weeks. I am concerend about the slow fermentation.
Sorry this was so long winded, but I realized once I was typing that I should record everything at least to have for my records.
How do you think I did? Did I forget any steps or should I be doing anything different? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
