My brewing adventures

[nbas2b]

Hello all,
Ive finally decided to take the plunge and sign up! I've been a long term reader on these forums and all you guys have given me great inspiration! I made my first ever batch of home brew(hefeweizen) this past on Friday. It was pretty fun and exciting, to say the least.... I think I've finally found a lifelong hobby here.. Lol! But anyways, I think the best bet for me would be to just buy the pre-made beer kits for now until I get the hang of the whole process and have more of an understanding of what the hell is going on. Im also putting some plans together for a 3 tier system as I've discovered a gold mine of 2x4's and 2x6's in my backyard. Throughout the brewing process I took notes and pics, so any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

As for the brewing, most of it went without a problem until we were putting the wort the carboy. We forgot to flush/ screen out all the gunk of the wort as we were siphoning the wort into the carboy. (how do you guys do this process..screen/filter or siphon? Or do you guys just dump all of it in the carboy??) anyways, if you guys can look over my notes and give feedback, that would be awesome!!!

 

[nbas2b]

Boiled water intermittently and put in plastic container to a total of 2.75 gallons
Put malt extract in bowl full of warm water to liquefy it
Measure another 2.5 gallons and raised to 155
Grains were placed in water at 155
Water fluctuated between 155 and 160
Grains steeped for 34 min with no cover
Removed grains and poured 4 cups warm water over grains- put grains in sink
Half Covered boil kettle And brought to full boil( 20 min)
Remove from heat
Add in malt extract and dextrine kicker(temp 170)
Put on heat and brig to boil
Boil for 5 min(starts 60 min now)
Add hops at 5 min mark and stir frequently ( condensed hops )
Put in flavoring hops at 13 min mark (condensed hops)
Wort chiller was placed in right after hops
23 min later- wort cooled down to 72 degrees
Removed from heat
Wort chiller placed in other 2.5 gallon of water to cool down(cooled down to 72)
Wort poured into carboy by siphoning without screening
Siphoning was stopped and then poured through screen into plastic container with remaining water
Poured Remaining wort into plastic container through screen(minimal gunk)
Siphoned from plastic container into glass carboy.
Aerated the wort for 2 minutes.
After much deliberation we put in 500 milliliters of liquid yeast.
covered the carboy with plastic wrap and inserted a stopper.
shook the brew vigorously for 3 minutes.took off plastic wrap and inserted the stopper and the airlock.
Moved the carboy into the master closet, took pictures with brew

 

[jmprdood]

Ok - You have BEER! Congrats!

I'm not sure what the kit was - but it looks like you followed basic procedures for brewing an extract batch with specialty grains and hop additions.

Let it ferment @ about 20C until the Final Gravity (FG) is stable over a few days {did you take an Original Gravity (OG) with a hydrometer?}

Then bottle and let it set at room temp for a couple of weeks to condition and carbonate.

Welcome to the hobby!

Cheers!

 

[nbas2b]

Didn't take a hydrometer reading as We dropped it and shattered all over the floor... Thought it wasn't too big of a deal as we could continuously check the reading to see when it stops dropping.

The kit was just a pre-made extract kit you get at any home brew store!

The beer will be going into a closet so hopefully that won't effect fit too much!

 

[RM-MN]

Hello all,
Ive finally decided to take the plunge and sign up! I've been a long term reader on these forums and all you guys have given me great inspiration! I made my first ever batch of home brew(hefeweizen) this past on Friday. It was pretty fun and exciting, to say the least.... I think I've finally found a lifelong hobby here.. Lol! But anyways, I think the best bet for me would be to just buy the pre-made beer kits for now until I get the hang of the whole process and have more of an understanding of what the hell is going on. Im also putting some plans together for a 3 tier system as I've discovered a gold mine of 2x4's and 2x6's in my backyard. Throughout the brewing process I took notes and pics, so any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

As for the brewing, most of it went without a problem until we were putting the wort the carboy. We forgot to flush/ screen out all the gunk of the wort as we were siphoning the wort into the carboy. (how do you guys do this process..screen/filter or siphon? Or do you guys just dump all of it in the carboy??) anyways, if you guys can look over my notes and give feedback, that would be awesome!!!

People use all sorts of ways to screen out the break material, screens, whirlpools and siphons, bags over the siphon, but a lot of us just dump it all into the fermenter. The yeast will use what they can from it and let the rest settle to the bottom of the fermenter. It doesn't seem to hurt one bit.