My first ever homebrew is fermenting!

[elwray]

Before I started homebrewing, I never would have thought I'd be excited about anything of mine fermenting lol

It's been a week in the fermenter and the airlock is bubbling steadily.

This is [supposed to be] a pale ale. The recipe included:

Specialty grain Pale and Crystal 40L (I don't exactly know what that means yet )
Extract Pale 1.5qts Adjunct 0.5 qts
Bittering hops Fuggles 1.25oz Cascade .66oz
Finishing hops Fuggles .66oz Columbus .5oz Irish Moss 1 scoop.

I started trying to brew outside on a propane turkey fryer but it was cold and windy so I brought the operation inside to the stove with the big 30qt kettle.

5 gallons of water takes a LONG time to boil! I'm glad I wasn't outside watching it the whole time!

Anyway, it seems like it went pretty well for the first time. I used an immersion chiller (had to run a hose in through the kitchen window) and White Labs california ale yeast.

Had a little trouble with the airlock... filled it with bottled water, but thought it was too high so tried pulling it out and, yep sucked water down into the fermenter It started bubbling about 18 hours later, and is still going strong 6 days later so I'm hoping it's still good. I guess we'll see how it goes!

 

[lmg95]

once the weather gets better you'll love the outdoor propane burner... and congrats on the first brew!!

Sounds like you'll have a delicious english-type pale ale.

 

[llazy_llama]

Yeah, a little suckback from your airlock into your fermentor is nothing to worry about. I've done it with sanitizer and vodka both, and never had a problem.

Glad everything went well for you! Next time, instead of running a hose through your window and freaking your neighbors out, you might just buy a faucet adapter that will let you hook that chiller right to your sink. Just some food for thought. Congrats on your first brew.

 

[elwray]

Yes I didn't get the tip on the vodka until after it happened.. oh well!

I was planning on looking into adapting the hose onto the faucet at a later date since everything was planned for an outside brew... except I underestimated the temperature, and didn't end up starting everything until after 8 pm and it was dark, lol

 

[orangeandblue302]

congrats and welcome to the obsession.

Cheers

 

[Runyanka]

congrats and welcome to the obsession.

Cheers

I am way beyond obsession, and straight onto addiction... you know your hooked when you got 5 gallons in primary, 5 in secondary, 10 gal bottled, and 4.6 gal of apfelwine fermenting on your counter top!!! LIFE IS GOOD

 

[BierMuncher]

There's nothing like that first brew.

One piece of old fart advice...when you bottle that batch...set aside 6 or more and forget about them for....ever.

It's always nice to pull one my my early editions out of moth balls and take a trip down mammary lane.

 

[orangeandblue302]

trip down mammary lane.

suckling the forgotten homebrew teat?