Hello everyone,
I've been perusing this site for a few weeks now and have found a tremendous wealth of information - what a great community that shares recipes, hints/tips and other information just for the sake of providing noobs with a way to make better HB. My two friends that have been doing this for a while finally inspired me to try, so I gave it a go and brewed up my first batch Friday night. On the advice of many, I elected to do a mini-mash AHS belgian white kit, since that is the wife's favorite. Followed the directions, Pitched at 8PM and had some signs of life by 10AM the following morning! It is happily bubbling away as we speak.
A few questions:
Here in FL, unless it is dead of winter, I wouldn't count on room temps below 75F, so I bought a chest freezer and a ranco ETC. I have it set to 69, but the sticky thermometer is reading about 73 on the carboy. I've read the rule of thumb that fermentation temps will be 5F higher than the ambient - am I misinterpreting it to means that the temp in the center of the carboy is 5F higher than the sticky thermometer reads? What do you all set the ambient temps in the cooler if attempting to ferment at about 70-72?
I read deathbrewer's excellent partial grain write up - I noticed he transfers the grains to the sparge water and lets it soak for 10-15 minutes. The AHS kit instructed to steep at 155F for about 45 minutes, then move to a strainer and heat up about a quart of water to 170 and slowly pour over the grains - would extraction be better if doing deathbrewer's method? (I would obviously need more sparge water). Following the AHS instructions, I hit 1.046SG - target was 1.048....so was my extraction all it could be?
The color in the carboy appears quite a bit darker than the traditional belgian whites - I'm not concerned or worried, but do the colors become more pale as the sediment coagulates?
I don't plan to rack to secondary, so I'm gonna let this sit for 2 weeks prior to bottling - does this seem adequate? I need to get a beer thief, because any sample for hydrometer readings sacrifices about 12oz of precious beer - too much IMO.
Once again, thanks everyone for the help - I'm hooked for sure and am already thinking about my next brew....dunkelweizen?
I've been perusing this site for a few weeks now and have found a tremendous wealth of information - what a great community that shares recipes, hints/tips and other information just for the sake of providing noobs with a way to make better HB. My two friends that have been doing this for a while finally inspired me to try, so I gave it a go and brewed up my first batch Friday night. On the advice of many, I elected to do a mini-mash AHS belgian white kit, since that is the wife's favorite. Followed the directions, Pitched at 8PM and had some signs of life by 10AM the following morning! It is happily bubbling away as we speak.
A few questions:
Here in FL, unless it is dead of winter, I wouldn't count on room temps below 75F, so I bought a chest freezer and a ranco ETC. I have it set to 69, but the sticky thermometer is reading about 73 on the carboy. I've read the rule of thumb that fermentation temps will be 5F higher than the ambient - am I misinterpreting it to means that the temp in the center of the carboy is 5F higher than the sticky thermometer reads? What do you all set the ambient temps in the cooler if attempting to ferment at about 70-72?
I read deathbrewer's excellent partial grain write up - I noticed he transfers the grains to the sparge water and lets it soak for 10-15 minutes. The AHS kit instructed to steep at 155F for about 45 minutes, then move to a strainer and heat up about a quart of water to 170 and slowly pour over the grains - would extraction be better if doing deathbrewer's method? (I would obviously need more sparge water). Following the AHS instructions, I hit 1.046SG - target was 1.048....so was my extraction all it could be?
The color in the carboy appears quite a bit darker than the traditional belgian whites - I'm not concerned or worried, but do the colors become more pale as the sediment coagulates?
I don't plan to rack to secondary, so I'm gonna let this sit for 2 weeks prior to bottling - does this seem adequate? I need to get a beer thief, because any sample for hydrometer readings sacrifices about 12oz of precious beer - too much IMO.
Once again, thanks everyone for the help - I'm hooked for sure and am already thinking about my next brew....dunkelweizen?
