New Brewer- 1st Brew Today, 1/12/12

[JeffoC6]

It's so hard to stop peaking in to check on. I've been good about not moving it or turning the light on, but I can't help myself from constantly checking the ambient temp around the carboy. I feel like a new mom checking on her baby.

 

[JeffoC6]

I just removed the blow-off tube. I pitched the yeast on Thursday at 2:00 PM and I'm 3 days into primary fermentation. It went like crazy 6 hours after pitching, and then slowed considerably the last day or day and a half, but there are still tiny bubbles just underneath the krauzen. I sanitized the airlock and filled it with vodka before adding it on in place of the blow-off tube. I'm planning to let the primary go for 3 weeks total, so just another 18 days to go *sigh*

 

[djfriesen]

Nice job, man. BBS's Everyday IPA was my first homebrew experience.

Things I've learned since then:

1) During the mash, take the pot off the heat as soon as your stir in the grains. Then, wrap the pot on all sides with a towel, blanket, sleeping bag, etc. and don't open it up to monitor temps. You can wedge that thermometer in between the pot and lid and just leave it peeking out, if you really want to keep an eye on it. But my guess is, if you wrap it up, you won't lose more than a degree over your 60 minute mash, assuming your pot is stainless steel as opposed to aluminum (aluminum bleeds heat off faster than steel).

2) As mentioned, sanitation is really only necessary post-boil. It's never a bad habit to get into, but things don't necessarily need to be sanitary during the mash/sparge stage.

3) I leave my blowoff tube in until right before I want to bottle, then I put on the airlock. It's the easiest thing for me to do. They serve the same function, and I don't really see the point of switching one out for the other.

4) For your ice bath, try a sinkful or two of straight tap water first. I see it didn't take you long to cool the wort, but the difference between 212° boiling wort and 60° tap water is not significantly different than that between the wort and 32° ice water. If you use tap water first, and get the temps down to 90°-100°, and then use an ice bath, you won't need nearly as much ice. Your call, but I've found it's almost just as fast, and I only need 4 or 5 trays full of ice instead of twice that.

5) If you have the chance, get a bottling wand before you bottle. It is literally a lifesaver. It's so much easier to use than that thumblock that comes in the BBS kits.

6) When siphoning, practice with water first. There's nothing more annoying than struggling with your siphon as the beer is sitting open, just begging to have a dog hair fall in or something. Also, you can fill you wand/tubing/bottling wand with water or a sanitizing mixture to prime your siphon (a spray bottle works great for this). Hydrostatic pressure will keep the liquid from dripping out, and it will lead to a faster siphon, as well as minimize bubbling through the tube.

7) Ignore the schedule on their kit instructions. You'll only do better by leaving stuff in there longer, be it fermentation or bottle conditioning. I'd double everything they say, as a decent rule of thumb.

Hope some of this helps make brewday a little easier. Welcome to the obsession!

 

[JeffoC6]

Nice job, man. BBS's Everyday IPA was my first homebrew experience.

Things I've learned since then:

1) During the mash, take the pot off the heat as soon as your stir in the grains. Then, wrap the pot on all sides with a towel, blanket, sleeping bag, etc. and don't open it up to monitor temps. You can wedge that thermometer in between the pot and lid and just leave it peeking out, if you really want to keep an eye on it. But my guess is, if you wrap it up, you won't lose more than a degree over your 60 minute mash, assuming your pot is stainless steel as opposed to aluminum (aluminum bleeds heat off faster than steel).

2) As mentioned, sanitation is really only necessary post-boil. It's never a bad habit to get into, but things don't necessarily need to be sanitary during the mash/sparge stage.

3) I leave my blowoff tube in until right before I want to bottle, then I put on the airlock. It's the easiest thing for me to do. They serve the same function, and I don't really see the point of switching one out for the other.

4) For your ice bath, try a sinkful or two of straight tap water first. I see it didn't take you long to cool the wort, but the difference between 212° boiling wort and 60° tap water is not significantly different than that between the wort and 32° ice water. If you use tap water first, and get the temps down to 90°-100°, and then use an ice bath, you won't need nearly as much ice. Your call, but I've found it's almost just as fast, and I only need 4 or 5 trays full of ice instead of twice that.

5) If you have the chance, get a bottling wand before you bottle. It is literally a lifesaver. It's so much easier to use than that thumblock that comes in the BBS kits.

6) When siphoning, practice with water first. There's nothing more annoying than struggling with your siphon as the beer is sitting open, just begging to have a dog hair fall in or something. Also, you can fill you wand/tubing/bottling wand with water or a sanitizing mixture to prime your siphon (a spray bottle works great for this). Hydrostatic pressure will keep the liquid from dripping out, and it will lead to a faster siphon, as well as minimize bubbling through the tube.

7) Ignore the schedule on their kit instructions. You'll only do better by leaving stuff in there longer, be it fermentation or bottle conditioning. I'd double everything they say, as a decent rule of thumb.

Hope some of this helps make brewday a little easier. Welcome to the obsession!

Thanks for these tips! I did a quick google search for what a bottling wand was, and it looks exactly like what I need. However, I already ordered an auto-siphon...Can you use a bottling wand and an auto siphon together?

Example: After my primary fermentation, I want to use the auto siphon to extract the beer into my bottles, using the bottling wand to fill them. Will this work? Can you use both at the same time? Thanks again...

 

[djfriesen]

Yep, that'll work fine, though you might have to practice some first. I imagine you'll have to keep the valve on the wand open while you start the siphon, but that shouldn't be too hard.. If you move to bigger batches, you'll probably opt for a bottling bucket for that process, but an autosiphon will still be very valuable. Just remember that they don't play well with hot liquids.

 

[JeffoC6]

Yep, that'll work fine, though you might have to practice some first. I imagine you'll have to keep the valve on the wand open while you start the siphon, but that shouldn't be too hard.. If you move to bigger batches, you'll probably opt for a bottling bucket for that process, but an autosiphon will still be very valuable. Just remember that they don't play well with hot liquids.

Thanks for all your help

 

[JeffoC6]

Yep, that'll work fine, though you might have to practice some first. I imagine you'll have to keep the valve on the wand open while you start the siphon, but that shouldn't be too hard.. If you move to bigger batches, you'll probably opt for a bottling bucket for that process, but an autosiphon will still be very valuable. Just remember that they don't play well with hot liquids.

Hey man, just a few more questions (if you don't mind)...

So right now, I've got the basic Brooklyn Brew Shop equipment. I'm looking to triple my set-up by buying 2 more carboys and thus, all of the equipment I need to go along with them. You already told me to get these, which I totally plan on doing:

38mm Plastic Screw Cap with Hole

Here are the 1-gallon glass carboys I plan on buying:

1 Gallon glass Jug

Here are the airlocks I'm picking up:

Airlock 3 piece type

Now, with regards to the bottling wand, what one would you suggest...Other than the sizes (which I'm not sure what size I actually need), I don't really know the other differences:

Combination Bottle Filler (3/8 Spring Or Springless)

Fermtech Bottle Filler

Combination Bottle Filler (1/2 Spring Or Springless)

I already ordered (and it's currently shipped) the auto-siphon from BBS as well:

Mini Auto-Siphon | Accessories | Store

Will this auto siphon jive with the above bottling wands?

Dude, thank you for all of your suggestions...I feel like you understand exactly what my set-up is, which is why I'm picking your brain.

 

[wmarkw]

Good notes! I'm also a BBS brewer. I'm a big fan of the 1 gal brew. Perfect set up for what I want to do. I have 4 1 gal jugs and I can brew up a batch every weekend or so. I highly recommend their book that just came out. I have brewed about 4 of their recipes so far. I have started tyring new recipes from this site and other brews I wanted to clone and scaled them down to 1 gal. I did buy a bottle wand and an auto siphon. I also made a bottling bucket and the best thing ever, a 5 gal MLT from a cooler from lowes. This saved me a ton of work and less mess to deal with. I suggest you do this. I get about 9 to 10 bottles and I'm good with that. But my goal is to keep rotating batches. Hope your beer turns out good!!

 

[djfriesen]

I'm sure that auto-siphon will work with the tubing you already have. Any of the bottling wands should work, but you may want to verify with the supplier what the ID and ODs are, to ensure compatibility with your tubing. They make them fairly universal, but you never know.

Also consider getting this stuff from a local HBS or wine-making store, if you have one local. You'll save some money on shipping, depending on what their prices are in-store. Also, you can bring in all your other stuff and test fit it, so you know it'll all work together. I got my bottling wand locally for a couple bucks, but I'm nowhere near you, so who knows.

Good luck. I'm happy to help, so let me know if you need anything else. I love the idea of people starting in AG on a manageable scale.

 

[GallonJugs]

I have a BBS kit, but I've added an auto-siphon and bottling wand (and a buch of other stuff). I have the fermtech, and can heartily agree that you have to practice with water first. It took me quite a few tries to get the siphon going smoothly. What I realised is that you have to have the bottling wand depressed, so it's open at the bottom when you start the siphon, and once the water is flowing freely with no air in the tube, you can raise the wand, so the flow stops. If you do this will boiled-cooled water, your siphon is primed and ready to be used for the beer. At first I was doing long smooth pumps with the auto-siphon, but eventually realised that a couple of small pumps was all that was needed to get it going, so long as there was plenty of water and the siphon was fully submerged.

I also got the BBS book, and I think that is far more useful to me now that I've done a couple of batches, I think it was actually a pretty bad book as an introduction to brewing. Now that I know what to expect, it's a pretty fun recipe book.

I would also +1 the advice to find these smaller pieces of equipment in your local homebrew store. My local ones charge the same price as the online places, but I don't pay for shipping, so it's easy to pick a couple of things now and again, as I need them, rather than having to worry about getting it all in one order.

 

[JeffoC6]

So I'm 3 full days into primary fermentation. I pitched the yeast on Thursday at 2:00 PM and the primary started off like gangbusters, and now it's slowed to almost a stop. I've got the airlock on and plan on fermenting for another 18 days (giving me 4 full weeks of primary fermentation). I already know the answer to this question, but it just helps hearing it from veteran brewers...Is it OK that my fermentation has basically stopped? I'm getting no bubbles in the airlock and the krauzen is just a small ring around the neck of the carboy. There are very very very tiny bubbles moving up towards the krauzen, but that's about it. I've maintained 60 degrees ambient temperature for this Brown Ale. Unfortunately, I don't have a hydrometer, as I'm just following the directions from the kit.

I'm still ok, right?

 

[djfriesen]

You're OK, but I would get a hydrometer. Vigorous fermentation in these kits stops in a few days, however, the yeast will keep working slowly for the next 1-2 weeks. The only way to be sure you're done is to get a stable gravity reading over 3 days. That said, if you ferment for a full month, you should be good. But you'll want a hydrometer.

60° might be a little low and depending on the yeast used (my kit had Munton's dry yeast, but it's the only BBS kit I ever bought), it might go to sleep on you. Now that initial fermentation has slowed, I would suggest gradually bringing the temperature up to around 70° over the last week or so, just to make sure that the yeast has done everything it can. Fermentation temp control is most crucial during the earlier stages, so you shouldn't see any adverse effects.

 

[GallonJugs]

Dude, I'm a total noob too, so I mean it with affection, but you need to seriously take the best advice that anyone can give around here.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a beer. (and soon you will be relaxing with your homebrew)

 

[DGibb]

The big activity at the start of a brew does slow down quite a bit, but the yeast is still doing its work. You will be fine, just give it time.

 

[JeffoC6]

Hey all- So I bought one of those stick on thermometers for my carboy. I'm a little confused though, because there are 3 temps that are "highlighted"...One is turquoise blue, one is a tan color, and one is a darker brown. Since the thermometer is calibrated by 2, the colors are 60 (tan), 62 (turquoise), and 64 (darker brown).

What one is correct? haha

 

[RM-MN]

The turquoise color is the closest. The stick on thermometers aren't the most accurate but when you are fermenting close is good enough. Once the vigorous fermentation is over you can let your beer warm up a bit to encourage the yeast to finish the clean up phase. I like to give mine a week at 60 to 65 and then bring them to 72 for the next 2 weeks.

 

[JeffoC6]

The turquoise color is the closest. The stick on thermometers aren't the most accurate but when you are fermenting close is good enough. Once the vigorous fermentation is over you can let your beer warm up a bit to encourage the yeast to finish the clean up phase. I like to give mine a week at 60 to 65 and then bring them to 72 for the next 2 weeks.

Yea, my primary started off really vigorously, and hasn't done much since. I want to primary for 3 weeks so it can clean itself up and give me a clear brew but I'm only 5 full days into it and there hasn't been much action in about 3 days. So you think it's time to raise the temp to around 70-72?

 

[J187]

One - If you aren't already, get a hydrometer and take those readings. If for no better reason, it's a very fun part of the process!

Two - I am a new brewer as well and I LOVE my autosiphon. I'd get the clip with it - it really helps to hold it in place. The bottle wand is great! When you use it, go slow at first when filling bottles or you will get a rush of foam to the top of the bottle that will settle down and leave you way too much airspace. Starting out slow and speeding up a little will fill the bottle to the top and removing the wand, the displacement of the wand leaves exactly the right airspace.

I use buckets and not having any experience with carboys, my gut reaction tells me that getting a bottling bucket and racking to that and using the spigot plus bottling cane would be much easier than trying to bottle from the siphon.

 

[JeffoC6]

This message is for Mark. I forget your username, but you just PM'd me. I think I responded, but I'm not positive, and like an idiot, deleted all of my inbox/sent messages. If I didn't respond, let me know hahaha

 

[RM-MN]

Yea, my primary started off really vigorously, and hasn't done much since. I want to primary for 3 weeks so it can clean itself up and give me a clear brew but I'm only 5 full days into it and there hasn't been much action in about 3 days. So you think it's time to raise the temp to around 70-72?

One of the reasons to begin the fermentation cool is that the process is exothermic so if you start the ferment with the wort at 72 it might be 82 in the middle of the fermenter which will give you some weird flavors and usually a hot jet fuel burn from the fusel alcohol. When you start it cooler the yeast activity is slower so it doesn't warm up as much but then when the fast ferment is over and most of the sugar is gone the yeast need a little warmer to keep going. Your flavor is pretty much set as the yeast propagate and do the fast ferment so you can safely raise the temperature. I normally let mine have a full week just so I know that the easy sugars are gone but I doubt you will have any off flavors by warming it after just 5 days.

 

[JeffoC6]

One of the reasons to begin the fermentation cool is that the process is exothermic so if you start the ferment with the wort at 72 it might be 82 in the middle of the fermenter which will give you some weird flavors and usually a hot jet fuel burn from the fusel alcohol. When you start it cooler the yeast activity is slower so it doesn't warm up as much but then when the fast ferment is over and most of the sugar is gone the yeast need a little warmer to keep going. Your flavor is pretty much set as the yeast propagate and do the fast ferment so you can safely raise the temperature. I normally let mine have a full week just so I know that the easy sugars are gone but I doubt you will have any off flavors by warming it after just 5 days.

Thanks...I just opened up the door to my walk-in closet to let some more warmth in. Here goes!

 

[JeffoC6]

Hi guys- so I'm a full 6 days into my primary fermentation. Day 1 and 2 really went strong, day 3 was a bit of a decline, and day 4, 5, and today, were pretty much nothing but very very tiny bubbles moving up to the surface (hardly any). The krauzen is basically gone and the yeast cake is very visible at the bottom. For the first 6 days, my ambient temp was between 60-62 (Brown Ale). I got some feedback that after the vigorous fermentation was finished, it would be wise to bump the ambient temp up a little higher, say 68-70, so that the yeast can clean up after itself for a week or 2.

I just did this, and hope someone can confirm that this is the right move. I moved the primary from my walk in closet where the ambient was 60, to the middle room closet where the ambient is 66. I wrapped a towel around it and I expect the temp to rise just a bit.

Sound good? (I want to ferment a complete 3 weeks, so it's OK to leave in the warmer (68-70) range for the next 2 weeks, right?

Thank you!

PS- I don't have a hydrometer...Getting one for my next brew though.

 

[J187]

PS- I don't have a hydrometer...Getting one for my next brew though.

Get one for this brew. Make sure you've got a stable gravity for a few days before you bottle.

 

[RM-MN]

The part of the ferment where keeping it cool is important is the initial couple of days as the yeast are propagating and then eating the easy sugars. This fast action raises the temperature of the wort which causes the yeast to give off flavors and higher alcohols (fusel oils). Once the ferment slows and the krausen drops you can let the beer (yes it is beer now as it contains alcohol) warm to room temperature to encourage the yeast to clean up. The flavor is already determined at this point.

 

[JeffoC6]

The part of the ferment where keeping it cool is important is the initial couple of days as the yeast are propagating and then eating the easy sugars. This fast action raises the temperature of the wort which causes the yeast to give off flavors and higher alcohols (fusel oils). Once the ferment slows and the krausen drops you can let the beer (yes it is beer now as it contains alcohol) warm to room temperature to encourage the yeast to clean up. The flavor is already determined at this point.

I really appreciate your help. Thank you!