My first brew

[Sander]

Dear All,

I did my first brew last monday, I live in Indonesia and many ingredients and items are hard to find here. I would like to share my story and find out which things I did wrong and should do different next time. The idea is too create a lager and I picked up a ingredient kit, but it did not come with any instructions at all.

The recipe kit contains the following:

German Lager - Extract Kit (4L)
Original Gravity : 1.056
Final Gravity : 1.013 - 1.019
ABV : 4.88% - 5.69%
IBU : 20

Ingredients :
Light Dry Malt Extract 600g
Hallertauer Hop A.A 3.4% - 6g @ 60 minutes
Hallertauer Hop A.A 3.4% - 4g @ 20 minutes
Hallertauer Hop A.A 3.4% - 4g @ 5 minutes
Mauribrew Lager 497
Yeast NutriVit 2g
Hop Bag (S)
Priming Sugar (Dextrose) 50g

I have bought some Irish Moss as an extra to clarify the beer.

Brew day
* I have added 4 liter of water to the brew kettle and dissolved all the Dry Malt Extract in cold water (mistake number 1, should be near boiling?).
* When the boil started, put in the first HOP (in a bag) and set timer to 40 minutes
* Timer went off and I put in the second HOP (in a bag), and set timer to 15 minutes and added little less then a teaspoon of irish moss
* Timer went off and I put in the third HOP (in a bag), and set timer to 5 min
* End of the boil, cooling down the kettle in an icebath and started sanitizing all equipment I need.

* Transferred the wort into a fermentation bucket
* Rehydrated the yeast (added it to around 39 degrees Celsius water, which I boiled before) and let it sit with the top covered for 15 min.
* Wort is now at room temperature, after 15 min I slowly transferred some wort to the yeast, to cool it down slowly. After added a lot and the temp was room temp, I added the yeast to the wort in the fermentation bucket. Did I make a mistake, should I have made sure the wort was already down to the desired fermentation temp?
* added the wort to a fridge which has a temp controller and is set to 15 degrees Celsius.
Within 24 hours, I noticed the airlock starts bubbling so the fermentation has begun.

Future
My plan is now to wait about 2 weeks, then warm it up to 20 degrees (diacetyl rest) for about 2 days and then start lowering the temp with 5 degrees per day until it is as low as the fridge can handle. Keep it there for a month or so.

Then add priming sugar, transfer the wort and start bottling. Will this work, will the priming sugar be able to carbonate the beer after it has been lagered?

Sorry for the long story and thanks for all the replies.

 

[Kent88]

I have added 4 liter of water to the brew kettle and dissolved all the Dry Malt Extract in cold water.

Not detrimental. I usually try to mix it in after the water/wort has been heating up a while. I'd guess that the liquid is typically around 75C.

I don't use hop bags. I just try to let the hop sludge settle out in the kettle before transferring. Seems like you performed all your hop additions correctly.

39C sounds a little high for yeast re-hydration. 15 minutes is about 6 minutes too long for rehydrating in plain water. Yeast like to have some malt sugars to wake up to. Everything should be fine, which you know as you are seeing airlock activity.

Wort is now at room temperature, after 15 min I slowly transferred some wort to the yeast, to cool it down slowly. After added a lot and the temp was room temp, I added the yeast to the wort in the fermentation bucket.

Not sure I understand what you mean here. You added a small portion of the wort to the rehydrating yeast to chill it? Some people want their yeast to be at the same temperature as the wort when they add it. That helps, but it isn't essential.

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew... or just a brew, because your first homebrew isn't finished.

Probably the only thing I would suggest is that you learn about yeast starters. I'm not sure what kind of access you have to some extra dry malt extract, but if you can keep some extra extract around (preferably in a freezer) for yeast starters it can be helpful.

 

[Sander]

Thank you for your reply.

I will dissolve the malt extract next time around 75C. For the yeast, this is a dry yeast, as I read online, it is recommended to rehydrate it for 15 min with a maximum of 30 minutes. There is only 1 type of light malt extract available, and its no problem to get this but as I understand yeast starters are for liquid yeast only and not recommended for dry yeast.

For the temperature, so what I did was adding some wort slowly to the yeast, so that they wont get temperature shocked. Then once it hit the same temp as the wort, I have added them to the wort. The thing is my wort was probably about 24 degrees or so and after that I just added the wort to the fridge so it will lower it down to 15 degrees slowly. I am wondering if that is correct or my wort should have been 15 degrees from the start.

 

[Kent88]

this is a dry yeast, as I read online, it is recommended to rehydrate it for 15 min with a maximum of 30 minutes. There is only 1 type of light malt extract available, and its no problem to get this but as I understand yeast starters are for liquid yeast only and not recommended for dry yeast.

I'm mainly concerned that your yeasts are awake, looking for sugar to eat, and they aren't getting anything for a while. I'd want to give them something to eat after 9 minutes.

For very small batches, yeast starters made from dry yeast can be excessive. From what I've read and my own personal experience I believe that making yeast starters are helpful most of the time, even when working with dry yeast. Making a starter gives dry yeast a good environment to rehydrate, allows the brewer to set it aside while he or she finishes with other tasks, and lets you know that the yeast is alive and well.

Some people say that in some cases there are problems from adding too much yeast. In those cases I would just make the starter and add only a portion of the dry yeast, and proceed from there. For instance, I believe that most of the dry beer yeast around here comes in 11 gram packets, so when I would make 1-gallon batches I would make the starter to have it ready right before I started the boil, and I would try to add a little less than half the yeast packet. When it was time to add the yeast to the wort I made I wouldn't add the entire starter. That way I knew I was adding healthy, active yeast.

As for avoiding temperature shock to the yeast, a lot of people believe that is really important, but I usually don't worry about it too much. I usually try to get the wort down to room temperature before adding my yeast, but if it is a little warmer or a little colder I don't worry about it. For a lager a lot of people recommend that the wort temperature is a little below your intended fermentation temperature when you add yeast. If you are concerned about this, perhaps if you make this lager kit again you can put the partially chilled (around room temperature) wort in the bucket, put that in the fridge, then (assuming that you are just re-hydrating in water again) you can boil the water you'll use to re-hydrate, cool it to somewhere between room temperature and fermentation temperature, add the yeast, and 9 minutes later take a clean, sanitized ladle and add some wort to it, and put it in the fridge next to the bucket with your wort, and after 30 to 60 minutes add the yeast to the bucket.

If you haven't figured it out already, I have a habit of making things more complicated than they need to be. Your first beer should turn out well, and if it does then that will really show you that this can be a forgiving process and usually you can just relax, not worry, and have a homebrew.

 

[frankvw]

Being in South Africa myself, I understand your problem with the local availability (or lack thereof) of good home brewing products and instructions. My first response would be to read the online version of How to Brew by John Palmer, which is a great place to start.

Knowledge is the best weapon - arm yourself!

 

[John Eberly]

You impress me as a thorough and careful person. I expect that you will make wonderful beers!
While traditional European and American materials are not easily accessible to you, you probably have other grains, sugars, and flavoring herbs that could be used to make unique products of your own.
If you have a chance, I recommend the book “Radical Brewing” by Randy Mosher. It has been very influential in the U.S. home brewing and craft brewing communities by pointing out ways to use alternative materials and expand our beer flavor options.
Good luck and happy brewing!

 

[Sander]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[ncbrewer]

The Yeast book by White and Zainashef recommends against making a starter for dry yeast. If you have a concern about leaving the rehydrated yeast without anything to eat, you can add a little wort after it's rehydrated - Danstar gave me this tip when I contacted them about this issue. They recommend no more than 30 minutes after beginning rehydration without some wort.