Just brewed my first beer!

[JohnnyO]

Hey man, sorry to hear that your first attempt wasn't as acceptable/drinkable as you would have liked.

Take some time with this. I brewed my first batch on January 10th. They are still conditioning in the bottles. The wait can be a bit of a bear, but it's worth it in the long run.

Get yourself a better set up and pick up a 5 gallon extract recipe kit to start with. You'll appreciate it a little more.

Overall though, be patient.

 

[SumnerH]

AAAAAAAAAAAAck it's horrible! one sip, I recoiled, and poured it out. Next batch...

1) It's at _least_ 2 weeks from bottling day to fully carbed, and the flavor will change dramatically in that time.
2) It can take another few weeks or months to fully condition. If a beer is bad, put it in a closet for a couple months and taste again (unless it's obviously infected).

 

[Irish1225]

1) It's at _least_ 2 weeks from bottling day to fully carbed, and the flavor will change dramatically in that time.
2) It can take another few weeks or months to fully condition. If a beer is bad, put it in a closet for a couple months and taste again (unless it's obviously infected).

i think this guy is in a different boat, being right now, he is brewing 1 bottle at a time.

personally (and i wouldn't recommend this with 1 16oz bottle), i usually wait a week (and try 1 or 2) and most of my beers are plenty carbonated by that time. after 2-3 weeks, i'll have 1-2 more, and if i feel they're good enough, i'll start dishing them out to company.

OP - i admire what you're doing here - it's ingenious. i say adventure a little more with the coffee maker and read up on this site. once you take a quote on how much you can spend and how much it would cost you, then go out and get all you need to do some 5 gallon batches.

 

[Questor]

I just finished brew number two, this time using pots and a bit of new know-how from this site. Same barley and hops smash. This time I maintained a "mash" temp of 152-160 usually 154. And my "sparge" temp was 170.

When I was done, what had started as 42 fluid ounces had become about 15. I backfilled to 42, which cooled the wort pretty much instantly. Then I added brewers yeast (not baker's yeast this time) which I had primed with warm water and a bit of sugar.

So this time I made approximately double what I made last time, used pots, watched my temps, and tried generally to brew a bit more in line with this site.

I hope to see some yeast activity sometime before the end of the weekend!

I plan on waiting until the yeast is inactive before bottling, and then leaving it bottled for 2 weeks before drinking. Question - how much sugar should I add to the bottles?

 

[ftlstrings]

Maybe you should spend some time making some labels for the bottles. Some thing like " Pope Benedictine's Holy Bong Water" Then if someone has one, they can't complain that it does, in fact, taste horrid.