My first few brews

[completenewbie]

Hey all,

First of all I wanted to thank all the frequent posters in this forum -- it really is a goldmine of information, and has helped a great deal in my first week of brewing.

10 days ago I picked up a starter brew set and a couple of extract kits from my local homebrew shop, and went to town. Lots of fun. Bubbles started appearing about 12 hours later, then stopped 2 days later (I know bubbles don't mean anything, but they're nice to see appear .

3 days ago I decided to do a clone of Old Engine Oil, one of my all time faves. using this recipe (http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?t=46835). This is how much of a newbie I am -- my wife picks up the bits for the brew, and it's not until I smack the pack and open the huge bag she's brought home (and grain goes EVERWHERE) that I realize that it's an all grain recipe. So I scramble to find out what exactly I do with all grain. The answer is: have a very messy kitchen since I don't have nearly the capacity to deal with 11lbs of grain.

Anyway, things seemed to go well, and next morning it's bubbling away very happily.

This morning I decide to take some hydrometer readings to see where things are at. This is what I get:

Stout - 1.020
Porter - 1.023
Old Engine Oil - 1.025

Now, I have no frame of reference so... do these seem right? I'm going to leave the stout and porter in primary for another 2 weeks then bottle, and the OEO for 5 weeks in primary and see where it's at. I'm going to take another reading in a few days to see if everything has stopped, but I'd like to know if these seem "normal" so that I don't end up with exploding bottles or something later. I think the temperature in the room is constant and in the range which it needs to be.

Both the stout and porter taste really nice. I was really shocked about how good they taste (warm, at 7am, flat, cloudy), so I have high hopes for these after they've been bottled and had time to condition.

Thanks for your time =)

 

[completenewbie]

I think I've killed off my yeast - I didn't realize that as thing started to ferment you see such an increase in heat (see username), and the temperatures have been a tad high around here anyway, so...

The porter and stout gravity's haven't changed, so I'm going to bottle those in 2 weeks and leave them for at least a month before tasting. of course, if the yeast is all dead I'm going to have to deal with that...

The old engine oil clone is far too high and not moving. I'm going to pitch another smack pack tomorrow while it's in a cold water bath to see if I can get it lower.

 

[Ckarsanac]

How high was the temperature that you were worried about? It's tough to kill yeast. It's my understanding that yeast will continue to do their thing even if the temperatures are in the 80's to 90's, but they will leave you with a lot of off flavors. HOWEVER, if the SG is stuck, then, yep, going to have to re-pitch some more yeast.

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

it sounds like you are doing well.

To make sure that you are redy for bottling, check you SG three days apart and if it is unchanged then you can bottle.

your gravities sound good and close to what the heavy beers should be at.