Just racked my first brew to secondary

[jw93ls]

I just finished racking my Sweet Oatmeal Stout to a secondary. Being my first brew, i've made mistakes. First, I added the D.M.E before steeping the specialty grains (the instructions said to, but every other knowledge base says steep first, then add extract). My OG was lower than expected, 1.038 instead of 1.051. Second, I pitched at 86*, mostly because I'm impatient and partially because I didn't take a temp. reading until after transferring the wort to the fermentor and pitching the yeast. Within 6 hrs of pitching, I had a clogged airlock (in a 7.8 gal fermentor) and had to rig a blow-off tube, by the next morning my blow-off container was filled, and luckily I had it in a second pitcher that caught all of the foam that had overflowed from the first. By today my hydro reading was 1.011, and being the impatient person I am, racked to a 5 gal carboy. Hopefully my first non-Mr.Beer brew will not be too bad! I will resist my impatient nature and am going to leave the beer in the secondary for 2 weeks, and then a few weeks in the bottle. Next batch I'll RDWHAHB before I brew and will take my time and do things right.

Here's a few pics during and after racking.

 

[brewmonk]

nice! have fun. and let it sit in the bottle for a month.

 

[mojotele]

My OG was lower than expected, 1.038 instead of 1.051.

If you did a partial boil and topped off I can guarantee you that this isn't true. Your OG was likely at or very close to 1.051.

 

[Righlander]

patience is a must. you'll see. congrats on your beer!

 

[jw93ls]

A little update on my beer, I'm planning on bottling tomorrow, but just realised that I only have 35 - 12oz, 1 - 16oz, and 2 - 22oz glass bottles . I think my only saving grace is the 8 1L PET bottles from my Mr. Beer kit that are in the hall closet.

My question is can I use the old screw off caps on the PET bottles or do I NEED new caps for sanitation purposes? The used caps have only been used once. I would like to bottle tomorrow and am planning on using the PET's and the old caps. I don't think I can convince the wife to let me buy a 12 pack and have them empty by tomorrow .

 

[pokerfreak2]

Your plastic bottles will work just fine.
Sanitize all the bottles and caps. I know your impatient but it has only been 11 days since your racked. I think you should go to the beer store and get some craft brews with reusable bottles and drink that for another week then bottle your oatmeal stout. IMHO