Lessons Learned after first batch

[tmurph6]

Thought I'd share a few lessons learned from my first batch in about 4 years. Maybe this will help other newbies as well. I have a propane burner and was brewing outside, much different from what I'm used to. (Electric range in the dorms)

1. When adding hops, lower your heat and add slowly. I got a good rolling boil and added 2 oz of amarillo and wow did it foam up quick. Lowering the heat while adding seemed to remedy this and it dissolved quite well after lowering the heat.

2. Monitor your boil. I was sitting there watching it boil for about 10 minutes and got bored and decided to do some dishes that were stacked up in the kitchen. I opened the kitchen door all the way so i could watch the pot while doing dishes. I happened to look over just in time to see the foam all the way at the top of the pot. I raced over and turned down the heat but did lose about half a pint of wort.

3. Don't put your racking cane inside of hot wort to transfer. It will warp the cane. Furthermore, don't try to "bend it back", it will break.

4. Ice is your friend and you can never have too much. I mixed up some ice water at the bottom of the primary to cool the wort. Well I ended up having to add all the ice in the house to cool it to 85. When I ran out of options, I pitched at 85, airlocked it and shoved it in the mini fridge (and I do mean shove, I had to tape the door shut). I'll take it out of the fridge before bed and let it ferment out in a closet.

All in all, a stressful brewday, but not too terribly bad. Had a lot of fun and learned a lot for the next batch. Yielded about 5.5 gallons or so, at a gravity of 1.051, adjusted for temperature of course since I took my reading at 85.

Made an ESB, can't wait to drink it!

 

[Grizzlybrew]

3. Don't put your racking cane inside of hot wort to transfer. It will warp the cane. Furthermore, don't try to "bend it back", it will break.

lol! Good advice...

 

[ChshreCat]

1. When adding hops, lower your heat and add slowly. I got a good rolling boil and added 2 oz of amarillo and wow did it foam up quick. Lowering the heat while adding seemed to remedy this and it dissolved quite well after lowering the heat.

2. Monitor your boil. I was sitting there watching it boil for about 10 minutes and got bored and decided to do some dishes that were stacked up in the kitchen. I opened the kitchen door all the way so i could watch the pot while doing dishes. I happened to look over just in time to see the foam all the way at the top of the pot. I raced over and turned down the heat but did lose about half a pint of wort.

Look into getting some Fermcap. A few drops in the boil and it makes it very hard to boil over.

 

[Frodo]

lol! Good advice...

+1.

You added ice straight into the primary? Better to use an ice bath on the outside. Ya it's pretty slow, but it's really just best to wait until it's down to fermentation temp to pitch - even if it's the next morning (make sure your sanitization is really good).

EDIT: I could have misunderstood... just re-read your post and it sounds like you might have just had the fermenter sitting in an ice bath - so disregard if so.

 

[tmurph6]

No added ice water in primary. Just took ice cubes from my icemaker.

 

[Frodo]

Best to use bottled, or boiled then cooled, water to top off the fermenter. Lots of bacteria apparently reside in our refrigerators and freezers, especially in the ice so I've heard. That said, and to ease your worries, I think sometimes the "sanitize" bandwagon is a little on the overzealous crazy side of the spectrum... I've done some questionable stuff but haven't noticed any real problems (knocking on wood). Case in point, just last brew I had my siphon tube pop out of the carboy onto the kitchen floor - oops, I call 5 second rule - back in the carboy it goes!

I'd really worry more about pitching at too high a temp... Yeast will produce off-flavors at higher fermentation temps than what their desired range is.

Best not to tempt the bacterial gods though... knocking on wood again. Do what you can, don't worry about the oops moments.

 

[tmurph6]

Yea. Not too worried about it. New fridge real clean. Buddy of mine uses ice and tap water with no issues. Thanks for the advice. I'm gonna build a wort chiller for next time.

 

[primer]

Just did my first batch as well ( Yey new years) and the major lesson learned? When you open your thermometer from the pack....look to make sure it reads below 100f before you shove your wort into the ice bath. Lol

 

[Calder]

Ice makers can get dirty over time. If new fridge, that's not your problem.

Using ice or cold water to directly cool the wort results in hot side aeration. Water (and ice) have a lot of dissolved oxygen, and should not be added to wort until it is below 100F (just guessing at that temp). The only exception would be if you previously boiled the water and boiled out any dissolved oxygen and then cooled or froze it. Try it next time. Boil 3 gallons of water the night before, leave to cool in pt overnight, and place in fridge/freezer in the morning.

Get some FermCap. Works out about 15 cents a batch, no boil-overs and no blow-offs ....... OK; Belgian yeasts seem to laugh at it, but it works OK for everything else.

 

[tmurph6]

Yeah, ice may have been a bad call but oh well. Here's to hoping it comes out good.. I'm also trying my hand at kegging as well. Built my kegerator a few days ago and ordered the equipment yesterday. I'm just jumping in with both feet.

Also, I hate bottling.

 

[Frodo]

Using ice or cold water to directly cool the wort results in hot side aeration. Water (and ice) have a lot of dissolved oxygen, and should not be added to wort until it is below 100F (just guessing at that temp).

Much of the worries about hot side aeration have been queled; it's generally thought of as not much of a worry nowadays. You can use cold water to cool wort - that was even acceptable back in the days when hot side aeration was a big boogyman.

 

[tmurph6]

Thought I'd bump my own thread. So I took my hydrometer reading at 1.015, not bad for English ale yeast. I'm going to take 2 more readings then cold crash my primary before racking. Took a little sample. Definitely has hop bitterness! 2 oz of Amarillo at 60 minutes may have been aggressive for an esb. It has a great biscuit flavor from 1 lb of victory and a tiny tiny bit of residual sweetness from the crystal. I hope the sweetness comes out a little more with aging and the bitterness mellows out. All in all pretty tasty, I was left wanting more after putting the lid back on.

Just thought I'd share.

 

[Frodo]