My first Beer

[MisterClean]

I'm in the process of brewing my first beer. I offered my equipment and the Spring Irish Stout from AHS, and did my boil last Wednesday.

Brew day went great, my dad and I really enjoyed the process. I went with the Muntons Premium Gold Ale dry yeast, because I don't have the starter experience yet, and wanted something that would just "go". And it went pretty well. Fermentation kicked off within 24 hours, and by the 3rd day I had a really great looking thick krausen. This was with the carboy in a temp controlled fridge with the probe taped to the carboy. Temp has been set at 62.

I checked the beer today, and it still has some bubbles, but has slowed down considerably. Krause has already fallen, and there are some yeast clumps floating on top. I didn't want to open it yet, so now gravity check, but I did go ahead and raise the fermenter temp a few degrees to around 65-67. Hopefully this will rouse the yeast a little. And help to clear everything up.

Plan on checking for FG next Wednesday, and if everything looks good for a few days in a row I'll keg it and force carb. I'll post updates here when I do.

Oh yeah, pictures:

 

[Jeremy_N]

Cool bud. Looks great. Keep in mind the taste will improve after some time in the keg. Give it at least a week before you drink a whole lot of it. If your anything like me, that will be hard. Haha.

 

[MisterClean]

Thanks man, hope it winds up tasting as great as it looks. The waiting is the toughest part. Told my friend that also homebrews that I'm going to be slow carbing it, and he's said "so what 3 days?" I told him a week carbing and he couldn't believe it. He's not as good at the patience thing lol.

Still, pretty excited to see how it turns out. I was pretty meticulous with my sanitizing, so I'm not worried about infection. After doing some reading, most posts say it's normal for primary to wrap up in about a week, and that raising the temp a bit, and moving the carboy (swirling a little) will rouse any slow yeast. So that's what I'm hoping to accomplish by raising the temp a little, hopefully it's a good move.

 

[Jeremy_N]

Raising the temp is good. From my understanding, the primary fermentation is where the yeast create alcohol and co2 and byproducts. Secondary fermentation is where the remaining yeast clean up the byproducts it created, giving a cleaner beer with less chance of undesired flavors. Most recipes I have done seem to recommend raising the temp for secondary. Also, during primary fermentation, the beer is actually warmer than ambient temp. But perhaps your temp controller and fermentation chamber accounted for that. Fermentation temps and sanitation are very important so you will be very happy with your beers I am betting. And brew another one as soon as your fermenters are empty to get a nice pipeline. I am having problems with not being able to keep enough homebrews on tap. Damn family and friends...

 

[pabloj13]

Temp controlled fridge already? You are well ahead of the game! Yeah I keep my ales in the low 60's for the first 4-5 days of fermentation and then ramp it up a few degrees to help the beer reach FG and help the yeast clean up. How warm you ramp it to depends on the strain. For neutral ale strains going from 62-66 to ~68 seems to work well.

 

[billpaustin]

That looks good! I always stick one of those strip thermometers, like for aquariums, on the glass carboys.

 

[MisterClean]

Temp controlled fridge already? You are well ahead of the game! Yeah I keep my ales in the low 60's for the first 4-5 days of fermentation and then ramp it up a few degrees to help the beer reach FG and help the yeast clean up. How warm you ramp it to depends on the strain. For neutral ale strains going from 62-66 to ~68 seems to work well.

Good to hear. Also the fridge was a donor (that's why it's so dirty inside. I don't care how it looks as long as it cools), so I just had to buy the Ranco controller. It gets too damn hot and humid here in the summer for me to have to constantly have to worry about my fermenter temps in a swamp cooler.

That looks good! I always stick one of those strip thermometers, like for aquariums, on the glass carboys.

That's a good idea, I think I'll pick one of those up at petco tomorrow.

 

[Cyclman]

Sounds like a well planned brew, nice setup. Now, build your pipeline, try a lager, you'll be an addict soon if not already!

 

[MisterClean]

I'll have to stick with the pipeline idea for now I'd love to try a lager, well really I'd like to make a doppelbock. I don't have time, though. I'm leaving the country on business in August and won't be back for a while. So it will have to wait. Once I get back however, I will give it a shot.

 

[pabloj13]

I'll have to stick with the pipeline idea for now I'd love to try a lager, well really I'd like to make a doppelbock. I don't have time, though. I'm leaving the country on business in August and won't be back for a while. So it will have to wait. Once I get back however, I will give it a shot.

Sounds like a PERFECT time to make a lager! Brew a few weeks before you leave, lager while you are gone, come back to crisp, clean, delicious lager!

 

[Darwin18]

Very impressed that your first beer is going into a temperature controlled fridge. You should be very pleased with the end result. I wish I had been smart enough to do that starting off instead of having to learn the hard way!

 

[MisterClean]

Alright so took a gravity reading yesterday, and one today. Both were spot on 1.013. The taste and color weren't exactly what I was expecting, though. It's thin and more pale than I thought it would be. It's almost a copper color. Taste wise, it's almost like a brown ale, without the hops. very dry. I can't really explain it very well. It also tastes a bit alcoholic. Not astringent, but almost like a whiskey kind of flavor. Or it may seem strange, but you know that smell you get when you let a beer like bud light dry? That kind of alcoholic beer smell? That's what my beer smells like. It's not sharp or burning, but it's there. I don't know if that's because it's young, and it's flat and warm, or if it's because maybe it has some fusels?

Tomorrow I'm going to rack it to a secondary to free up my primary. I'll let it sit in that for another week and get another taste. This sound like a good plan, or should I just go ahead and keg it up?

If it's because of fusels I think it could have been caused by two things:
-ferm temp: even though I have a fridge, and the probe is taped to it, it's possible my temp controller isn't controlling to the right temperature. I need to get a fermometer on my carboy before the next brew session. That way I can tell exactly where my carboy is, compared to where it should be, and adjust the temp controller accordingly.

-under pitched yeast: My OG was a little higher than I thought it would be (1.06 vs 1.54). I only added 1 packet of dry yeast, no starter. Next time I will double pitch or use a starter. My pitching temperature could have been on the higher side, as well. I can't remember what temp I pitched at exactly, but it was under 80, but higher than 60. Probably somewhere in the mid high 70s. Next batch I will try and bring the wort temp down more before I pitch. Also, I could probably stand to aerate it more.


Anyway, that's where the brew stand right now. Any ideas, thoughts, or tips?

 

[martiniw2olives]

This guy is good!

 

[MisterClean]

Many municipalities inject chlorine and/or chloramines to keep germs at bay and provide us citizens with clean, pest-free drinking water.

I used bottled distilled water from wally world, so I don't think it was chlorine but it's always possible.

And i'm not that good apparently lol. I'm not even sure if this beer will taste good, still a little worried about the alchol-ish flavor. But maybe given some age it'll taste great, who knows I'm trying to learn as much as I can to minimize mistakes, and learn from what I do wrong to make sure it doesn't happen again. There is an amazing amount of knowledge on these forums, and most questions can be answered with a quick search. I spend a ton of time looking through threads here just trying to soak up as much as I can.

 

[Jeremy_N]

I think your are doing really well. Don't worry so much! Haha. Your beer is going to be fine. You do a very good job paying attention to the finer details and you will be rewarded.

If you are going to rack it and let it sit warm for another week, why not skip the carboy and go straight to the keg? Then you can purge the oxygen and still leave it at room temp. My beer always tastes better after it has been cold and carbonated for more than a week. The beer gets a much better balance over time. IMO the hydrometer sample at two weeks is not exactly what your beer will taste like, so don't sweat that.

If your yeast was fresh, you pitched enough for 1.060. I don't use yeast starters for dry yeast or pitch two packs. You would consider that for liquid yeast. Dry yeast has more cells.

Cheers.

 

[MisterClean]

Thanks for the encouragement. I know, I should really RDWAHAHB, but it's hard to do when it's the first one

You have a good point on going straight to keg. I think I will do that instead of racking to a secondary. Less chance of contamination, and cuts out an extra step/more stuff to clean. I have the ferment chamber set at 72 in the garage, so kegging it and throwing it in my closet won't make much of a temp difference. (Home ac is set to 69, and yes, I do live like an eskimo lol). I can leave it there for a few more weeks, then carb it up and see how it does.

 

[MisterClean]

So I got it into the keg with little issues today. The tubing on my autosiphon was sucking in air. Had to stop, and push it further onto the cane to get it to stop. I doubt that little bit of air that got into it will hurt anything though. Put the keg lid on, and squirted some Co2 into it. Now the waiting begins!

On a side note, I put the ingredients and recipe into the brewersfriend calculator. All of my numbers match what it's showing. the interesting thing is the BF calc shows that this recipe doesn't match the qualifications for a stout...but is closer to a brown ale. It estimates the color will be lighter and the IBU's lower. And that's really what I see, The beer is much lighter than a stout, and the 2 week sample test tastes like a dry brown ale. So, good to see the calculator at least matches what I'm seeing in the real world.

 

[Jeremy_N]

For you pressurize the keg and pull the relief valve multiple times? Co2 weighs more than oxygen. By doing this multiple times, you purge all the co2 out. I do it about 5 times.

 

[Jeremy_N]

*did you pressurize....


Buzzed up typo. Haha

 

[MisterClean]

For you pressurize the keg and pull the relief valve multiple times? Co2 weighs more than oxygen. By doing this multiple times, you purge all the co2 out. I do it about 5 times.

Sure did. Set the pressure at 15 psi, opened it up and burped it a few times, until I saw the cold condensed co2 come out of the relief valve. Should be good to go.