Holy Crap! I made beer!

[creepyjackalope]

Well, it'd been about 16 days since I set the yeast loose on my maiden batch and after going back and forth on the matter I decided to crack open my bucket and rack to a better bottle for secondary fermentation. I've seen a lot of people saying that it's not necessary, but for various reasons I wanted to. Primarily to free up my bucket for bottling later. (right now I just have one fermenting/bottling bucket and one 5 gallon better bottle. I asked Santa for a 6 1/2 gallon carboy for Christmas so hopefully in the future I can use the bucket exclusively for bottling.) My gravity was 1.015/6, right on target. I tasted my hydrometer sample and I'll be damned if it didn't taste just like beer! My volume was a little high so once I'd filled the better bottle I threw some priming sugar in a 22oz bottle and filled and capped it. It may blow, but then again it may give me a little taste of what's to come a couple of weeks early. I just couldn't pour all of that beer down the drain. I could have gotten another 22oz-er or more out of it, but I was getting down to the trub so I binned the rest. Unfortunately I'm not set up to harvest/clean my yeast yet, but after getting a mash tun up and running it'll be my next investment.
Anyway, I don't have any questions or anything, I'm just super jazzed and wanted to tell somebody. Y'all have a great night.

 

[Hammy71]

Congrats

 

[boydster]

Nice! Isn't it the best beer ever when you made it yourself?

 

[BigJack]

Congrats! Hope it turns out well!

 

[Dovage]

Congrats to you ! Being fairly new myself my first few batches flipped my lid too. Not that they were anything special I'm sure but that I had made beer, something I had been buying for some 14 years. It is a great obsession, err "hobby".

 

[Trox]

Congrats and welcome to the obsession. I can't stress enough to read these forums almost religiously; there is so much great information here and a lot of people with great advice/suggestions that any future questions or concerns you can have either have already been answered or you'll get an answer really quick.

 

[bobeer]

Congrats on the first batch! My first batch was horrible but the whole idea of brewing kept me at it and now I brew great beer!

Trox's comment couldn't be more dead on. I pretty much gained all of my brewing knowledge from this forum and personal experience. Check the forum every day and read read read! It's a fantastic hobby and it can be as easy or as complicated as you want! Brew on, man!

 

[Newsman]

Only thing I would add to the previous comments would be to see if you can find a homebrew club within reasonable driving distance of you. Of course, you will have to define "reasonable driving distance" for yourself. For me it is about 30 minutes or so to the next "big city" where the local homebrew club meets once a month. If you can find a club, the more experienced brewers there will also give you good advice.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Only thing I would add to the previous comments would be to see if you can find a homebrew club within reasonable driving distance of you. Of course, you will have to define "reasonable driving distance" for yourself. For me it is about 30 minutes or so to the next "big city" where the local homebrew club meets once a month. If you can find a club, the more experienced brewers there will also give you good advice.

^THIS! Nothing will encourage or challenge you more than being in a homebrew club. It's also great to have local experience and advice to fall back on, as well. HBT is great, but when you can call someone for immediate advice, and even have them join you on a brew day, that's invaluable.

I think I make pretty good beer, then I try samples from my club and I'm completely blown away. There's so much experience and creativity in these people, it's just mind blowing.

 

[Brewtah]

Awesome! I love the sound of the Co2 escaping when you lift the cap.

 

[Jayhem]

Congrats!

Now go spend $5 at the homebrew store and get yourself a plastic hydrometer test tube so you don't have to use a 40 oz jar for a test tube!

 

[Newsman]

Congrats!

Now go spend $5 at the homebrew store and get yourself a plastic hydrometer test tube so you don't have to use a 40 oz jar for a test tube!

Man, I'd love to find a shatterproof plastic hydrometer test tube. The ones my LHBS sells are made of the hard plastic that shatters if you drop it.

 

[Jayhem]

Man, I'd love to find a shatterproof plastic hydrometer test tube. The ones my LHBS sells are made of the hard plastic that shatters if you drop it.

I've had mine for 3 years and dropped it several times, never a crack. It's also hard plastic. Maybe the brand yours sells is low end.

 

[Newsman]

I've had mine for 3 years and dropped it several times, never a crack. It's also hard plastic. Maybe the brand yours sells is low end.

Could be. I recently got a new one as the first one I had fell and broke. This new one has a special collar on it to help protect against breaking if it falls over. That would suggest to me that it is not shatter proof.

 

[hokieguy95]

Congrats!

Now go spend $5 at the homebrew store and get yourself a plastic hydrometer test tube so you don't have to use a 40 oz jar for a test tube!

I'll add, get a Wine thief so you don't lose any of that homebrew. You can santize the Wine thief and the hydrometer and use it to take a reading. Then drop that good brew back in the bucket. No waste.

 

[boydster]

I'll add, get a Wine thief so you don't lose any of that homebrew. You can santize the Wine thief and the hydrometer and use it to take a reading. Then drop that good brew back in the bucket. No waste.

No! It is your sworn duty as a home brewer to drink the sample, not return it!

 

[twistr25]

No! It is your sworn duty as a home brewer to drink the sample, not return it!

Agreed, but on a more serious level. I would tend to think you have a better chance contaminating adding test beer back to the bucket then transferring to a secondary, especially if you sample from it. Gives you a chance to see the progress and you still get to have all of the beer

 

[creepyjackalope]

Haha! You guys must be psychic. I was gathering all my gear from the sanitizer bucket and dropped my brand new hydrometer test jar breaking off a chunk of the base. It still stands and holds liquid tho.
Now I've gotta get ready to bottle soon, and think of a clever name, then think of what to brew next... So much to do.

 

[hokieguy95]

Agreed, but on a more serious level. I would tend to think you have a better chance contaminating adding test beer back to the bucket then transferring to a secondary, especially if you sample from it. Gives you a chance to see the progress and you still get to have all of the beer

In my experience (which ain't much) as long as the thief and hydrometer get properly sanitized and you don't splash it back into the batch, then it's really no problem to put the test beer back.

But I've done it both ways and tasted my tester too. Which I guess I'll start to do now to not upset the beer gods. I just don't like to lose any.

I think the biggest issue people have with wine thiefs is they have trouble with the Hydrometer sticking to the sides and the sanitizer bubbles that the thief picks up.

 

[shawnstr71]

Congrats! I'm on my 8th batch! And have learned so much on here and youtube! I am getting a corny keg kit for christmas and am super stoked to be able to force carbinate and drink my beer sooner! Maybe bottle every other time till I get another keg.
It is truely the most enjoyable hobby I have ventured into. I have a buddy that's about 8 blocks from my house that got me started and we brew together often. Its a blast!
Enjoy brutha and cheers!

 

[WyomingBrewer]

Congratulations on your first batch! Now get out there and do it again!

 

[prohl84]

I just don't like to lose any.

It's not lost if you drank it.