my first brew is in the fermenter

[dkm11b]

well im hoping that all is going to be fine with my first brew.
8# lme
4 oz maltodextrin
2# of steeping grain
dry pack of us-05, mixed in with a starter.
.5 oz magnum 15%aa 60min
1 oz citra 14%aa 30min
1 oz citra 15 min
1 oz citra flameout
plan to dry hop with 1 oz of cascade.
here is the problem though, i made a batch that was about 6.5 gallons, realized this when i was putting the malt in....so its about 6 gallons in the fermenter now, the og was 1.050. i tasted it, and it tastes pretty good so far. my question is, do you think that it will be adversely affected by the larger batch? any reccomendations? had fun, and had some much needed help from my buddy. so lets here it.

 

[captianoats]

sounds like an extra few beers. Can't see a problem with that.

In reality, I never worry about how many gallons I have. Look at OG versus FG. Based on your recipe you wanted a fairly hoppy pale or IPA, and I think your on target for a great first brew. Post your FG, I'm curious how it ends up.

 

[AdamPag]

I just brewed up the same beer except the dry hop was ANOTHER oz of citra, its outstanding and is notably grapefruity, the extra water is just gonna give you more beer, maybe water down the ABV a bit. im at week 4 in bottles and the last one I had like an hour ago was outstanding. Hope it all turns out

 

[dkm11b]

ok, as with all new brewers, i keep thinking that im going to end up brewing battery acid if i dont follow one part to the T. ill post a FG when it gets there.

 

[RM-MN]

If you dry hop with Cascade it will taste like grapefruit juice/beer. If you skip the Cascade I think it tastes more like Mango/beer. You should try it both ways. I love them both.

 

[dkm11b]

hmmm, i do have an ounce of cascade hops, so i think ill try that out.

 

[AngerManagement]

That extra beer in the fermenter is just a nice little bonus.

 

[dkm11b]

so the consensus is, ending up with about 7.5 gallons of wort boiling, and about 6.5 gallons cooling, and about 5.5-ish in the carboy isn't going to make my beer diluted? im a happy man.

 

[RM-MN]

so the consensus is, ending up with about 7.5 gallons of wort boiling, and about 6.5 gallons cooling, and about 5.5-ish in the carboy isn't going to make my beer diluted? im a happy man.

I understand going from 7.5 to 6.5 by boiling, we all do similar to that but why are you losing a gallon from cooling to carboy? When my wort is cool I dump all of it into the fermenter, wort, trub, break, all of it. I like to have all the wort I brewed become beer except for the little trub that gets trapped in the yeast cake.:rockin:

 

[dkm11b]

weeeellll...i ended up boiling too much wort up (about 7.5 gallons) i let it do its thing, and when i was done boiling, about 6.5 gallons remained. i dumped the cooled wort into my bottling bucket (sanitized) and put the carboy+funnel underneath it, and let the wort drain into it, with the hopes of aerating it. pitched the yeast in in the funnel and let it mix with the wort. to answer your question rm-mn....i messed up....that has been my concern, but the og reading was 1.050 before i put it into the carboy, and the krausen is forming up, so i hope all is well. sorry about the run on sentences.

 

[dkm11b]

there was a little less then a gallon left in that bottling bucket, it was mostly hop sludge, so we didnt pour that in.

 

[dkm11b]

well 24 hours into the fermenting, and the krausen is forming well, and the bubbling is about 1 every 10 seconds or so. keeping it at around 64 degrees with a window mounted fan, and a fan in the closet that its kept in. also a t shirt is draped over it, with the bottom in a Tupperware container of water to keep it cool. temp is measured with a stick on thermometer. ambient temp is about 70.

 

[RM-MN]

there was a little less then a gallon left in that bottling bucket, it was mostly hop sludge, so we didnt pour that in.

It reallyonly looked like hop sludge. It really was a mixture of wort, cold break, hot break and hops. Had you poured that into the fermenter you could have let the yeast sort it out, using what it wanted and dropping the rest to the bottom of the fermenter to form a layer under the yeast that would drop out later and have gained about 2 to 3 quarts of beer. Maybe you don't like that much beer?

 

[dkm11b]

i know, lol. we were already getting to the top of the carboy, and i wasn't real sure how much room there was supposed to be in there. though as of today, the krausen is forming nicely, and the airlock is going crazy, the temp is about 64-65 degrees according to the stick on thermometer. ill be going out to the field for a 2 week block of training, so when i get back, i can check on it then. thanks for all the input.