My first batch!!!

[DrugCoder]

I finally did it! My first batch! It was a honey nut brown ale from Midwest. Everything went great. OG ended up right at 1.052 which is what the directions said it should be. I pitched White Labs WLP005 at 79 degrees into a glass 6.5 gal carboy. I pitched at about 11 AM this morning and about an hour ago I started seeing constant bubbles out of the airlock. I am extremely happy with how everything went, but I do have a couple of questions.

First, the instructions gave the option of adding the honey at 30 mins left of the boil for a slight taste of honey or with 10 mins left for aroma. I decided to just split the difference and put it in with 20 mins left. The more I think about it the more I think I screwed up and should have decided on one or the other. Any suggestions?

Second, There was 4 oz of chocolate malt and 8 oz of caramel 10L that was supposed to be steeped at the beginning. The ingredients weren't sure about when to put in the grains but it did say to steep at 155 for 10-30 mins. As the water was heating up, I put the grains in at about 95-100 degrees and then started the clock when it got to 155 and left it for 28 minutes. Should I have done anything different with this?

Thanks for all the help and I look forward to being able to help out with questions on the forum as my experience increases.

 

[dennc2]

that was fine with the honey ,just remember the longer you boil the honey the less the sweetness you will taste, as for the grains some recipes i've came across have you put it in early and take it up to temp and steep for the 30mins and other tell ya to put the grains in at 155 and then steep , i think everything will work out fine for you

 

[DrugCoder]

Great! It's downstairs bubbling away great. Thanks for the reply!

 

[RyanJE]

Hey did you end up with 4 gallons of beer. I just did my first today and should have started with 6 total gallons so i ended up with 5.

Gotta love being a newbie!!!

 

[DrugCoder]

nope. I ended up with 5. I knew how much water I had already in teh carboy, then measured the wort as I poured it in the carboy, and then topped off with water to end up with the 5 gallons.