I'm going to do my first brew tomorrow!

[Soulshine2]

I was just reading the directions on my Brewers Best instruction sheet for my first brew.

It states to "Cool the wort down to approximately 70° by placing the brew pot in a sink filled with ice water."

So, this morning I ordered a "Hydra Immersion Wort Chiller" but I don't know how soon it will arrive and I'm eager to get my first brew done, so I'm planning on doing the ice bath thing.

How much ice do I need? I have one of those under counter ice machines that is rated at 50# per day, but it only holds about 9 pounds in its ice bin. Should I start bagging ice and putting it into my chest freezer to save some up, or maybe just go to the store and buy a few bags of ice.

Will I have to keep adding ice to the ice bath as it melts down?

Has anybody just used their small chest freezer as the "sink" for the ice bath and then drained it with the defrost drain in the bottom of the freezer?

Am I overthinking this? How critical is it to cool the wort quickly?

I know my first brew will not be perfect, but I do want it to be drinkable.

Thanks for the help everybody.

Im lucky enough to have a beer fridge in the basement (doesn't everybody )where I plan on my future brewing . I keep a few gallon jugs filled with water and frozen so when brew day comes I have 2 giant chunks of ice I can just change in my chiller pump bucket. I also have hooked up a water supply to my upstairs fridge ice maker . Once I get a full bin , I'll bag it and keep it in the basement fridge too.

 

[MajorJC]

Well, I finished my first brew. I was able to cool a 5 gallon boil, actually it had boiled down to just above 4 gallons, from boiling to 69°F in 13 minutes.

First in a running water bath, I cooled it down to 110°F.

The garden hose was running and filling the bin from the bottom, the kettle is setting on a half cinderblock. You really can't tell from the picture, but the water is overflowing on the left side of the bin providing a constant water exchange and I was stirring it constantly.

Ice bath is ready.

After it reached 110°F I moved it over to the ice bath and continued stirring until it got down to 69°F

Before I took it out of the ice bath, it had dropped another 3° to 66°F in another 3 minutes without stirring.

 

[bendog15]

Congrats on your purchase of jaded hydra. I’ve had mine for 5 years and it cools wort down like a boss. Cooling down wort as fast as possible is desirable. Some argue that it’s not that important but that’s another matter...
For now put your boil kettle in the sink with ice to cool it down. Keep ice packed around the sink, stir your wort every 15 min with a sanitized spoon. You’ll be fine.

 

[urg8rb8]

I guess you can tell that I like Lazy Magnolia beer, and a friend of mine wanted me to try the Sierra Nevada and the Abita. He brews his own beer and has a kegging system. I asked him what I should brew for my first brew and he asked me what I liked. To be honest, I usually just buy the suitcase of Miller Lite, and when I told him that he laughed and said I need to start trying a lot of different beers to see what I was missing and to decide what I wanted to brew. So far my top two favorites are #1 Yazoo Sue Porter, which I tried on draft at the Blind Pig Pub in Oxford, MS, but I haven't been able to find in bottles. My #2 is the Lazy Magnolia Gulf Porter which I have only found in their Lazy Dozen Sampler, hence the four boxes in the photo above.

I just brewed a SN Torpedo! I love that beer. It's one week into fermentation, hopefully it comes out well!

 

[Tribe Fan]

I just brewed a SN Torpedo! I love that beer. It's one week into fermentation, hopefully it comes out well!

I used to do a Celebration clone that was my go to beer. Loved that stuff. Aging has brought on the reality of session beers though.

OP if you can find it, try Old Peculiar. It's technically not a porter but a nice dark british ale. Love these.

 

[MajorJC]

I just brewed a SN Torpedo! I love that beer. It's one week into fermentation, hopefully it comes out well!

After I read your post I went ahead and poured one. It is really good! I'm trying to broaden my beer horizons so I'm buying a lot of beers that I've never tried before and taking notes.

OP if you can find it, try Old Peculiar. It's technically not a porter but a nice dark british ale. Love these.

I will look around for that one. My Kroger has a very poor selection of beers but I'm planning on driving to the next town over where they have a super Kroger. They have a wall of beer where you can build your own six pack.

 

[MajorJC]

Here are the pictures I took during my very first brew! (Everybody loves pictures, Right?)

Ok, since I already posted the pictures of the wort cooling in a post above I'm skipping them in this post.

Here are the pictures from my first brew! (Everybody loves pictures, Right?)

 

[MajorJC]

Here are the settings that I used on my Ink Bird controller.

• TS = 68°F
• HD = 2°
• CD = 2°
• AH = 73°
• AL = 63°
• PT = 5
• Ca = 0.0
• CF = F

Those of you using this setup, do these settings look right for my brew?

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Your inkbird settings look fine. You definitely want the compressor delay(PT) set at 4 or 5 so it's not switching on and off too much and burning it out. Your brew looks good. I love Cascade and Citra.

 

[Soulshine2]

I guess you can tell that I like Lazy Magnolia beer, and a friend of mine wanted me to try the Sierra Nevada and the Abita. He brews his own beer and has a kegging system. I asked him what I should brew for my first brew and he asked me what I liked. To be honest, I usually just buy the suitcase of Miller Lite, and when I told him that he laughed and said I need to start trying a lot of different beers to see what I was missing and to decide what I wanted to brew. So far my top two favorites are #1 Yazoo Sue Porter, which I tried on draft at the Blind Pig Pub in Oxford, MS, but I haven't been able to find in bottles. My #2 is the Lazy Magnolia Gulf Porter which I have only found in their Lazy Dozen Sampler, hence the four boxes in the photo above.

Yazoo makes a great Hef too.