New here, new to brewing - here to learn - questions within

[thinkshovels]

Hi,

This week I brewed my first batch of beer, a douple IPA kit from Best brewers. I have a vague idea of what I am doing, but am already convinced I've made mistakes, probably should have hopped on here earlier. There is only so much that can be crammed into a 1 page sheet of instructions, and there are thinks I wasn't certain on. I have done other reading, such as John Palmers How To Brew, but it's not the same as getting your hands dirty.


I had a couple of questions perhaps someone could set me straight on.

1) After the initial boil, the instruction sheet said that it was important to cool the wort quickly down to 70F. We managed to chill 2.5gallons down in about 30 minutes, but I have no idea if that is considered quick, slow, average or what. What would people suggest is ideal for this? What are the signs to look for?

2) The c02 escaping from the primary slowed in the last 24 hours, and according to the instructions in the kit, once that happens (between 4-6 days after going into the primary - I am at day 4), move it into the secondary. They seemed to indicate this had to be done before the bubbling stopped entirely. Would this be accurate? I read on another thread here that you should be going by the hydrometer, but what would you be looking for? The OG I measured was about 1.07, but I read nothing that came with the kit about taking a measurement when going from the primary to the secondary, should I have?

3) When I transferred from primary to the secondary, are you trying to avoid the dredges? We used an autosiphon that has a sort of filter on the end of it, so we didn't get all of it, but there is definitely some. What do folks recommend?

Hopefully I haven't completely destroyed this first attempt, any pointers are appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[lespaul23]

I am new to brewing but I will share my thoughts just from what I've gathered from the site and other info and from helping a friend brew a little bit. I am not a professional...

Q 1. Cooling your wort down in 30min is about average if using a ice sink bath to cool it. It's important to not aerate the wort at all so be cafefull not to shake it to much while it's hot.

Q2. What u want to look for in a hydro reading is after taking a og reading u want to make sure the reading stays the same after a few days after the bubbles stop in the air lock before moving to secondary. If the hydrometer reading changes then the wort or beer is still fermenting. Water alone is a 1.000 so u want as close to that as possible but it's never going to get that low. If your air lock stop bubbling check it a couple days in a row and see if it stopped going down or not.

Q3. You do not want to pick up the sludge tilt the primary on it's side and suck up as much as u can. Make sure when going from primary to secondary not to splash around or aerate the brew at all. It will cause oxidation.

Hope I can help a little and let us know what your readings are and how it's going.

 

[mikescooling]

IMHO to add to what's been said
1) do the best you can. No big deal at this stage of brewing.
2)if you can rack to secondary, wait till the yeast cake drops and only take the clear'ish beer and leave the most of the stuff at the bottom. FYI, I don't use a secondary.
4) If you have to, take a small sample at the end of the first week and 2nd week (all new brewers do) , but your beer will not be ready to rack till the 3rd week. I know what the directions say.
5th take a hydro smaple (OG) pre yeast pitch, and at the end of the 3rd week take 2 more readings over 3 days. This will give you ABV%
Welcome to homebrewtalk.
Mike

 

[45_70sharps]

Your cooling rate is fine.
Yes, you want to use a hydrometer to see when it's done fermenting. You don't actually need to move the beer to a secondary but you can. You want to wait till the fermentation is done before you do that because the reason for secondary is to clarify and sometimes you may want to dry hop in the secondary.
Keep in mind that the bubbling isn't a way to tell if fermentation is done. The beer can be fermenting long after the bubbling is done. There is no magic time when it's done either.
There are variables. The amount of fermentables in the wort will vary from one recipe to another. The amount of fermentables can vary based on what you do when brewing one time to the next with the same recipe, although with extract that would be minimal. The temperature that you ferment at and the amount of yeast you pitch will effect the time. You will eventually learn about making a yeast starter to up your yeast count, but when you are pitching a package of yeast, two packs of the same yeast can have quite a bit of difference of viable yeast in them. Yeast is a lengthy subject but that gives you an idea.

When you transfer, you want to keep the end of the siphon tube off the bottom to avoid the sediment on the bottom. When the fermenter gets low, you can tip it to get more clear beer above the sediment.
After you empty the fermenter, later you can learn to harvest some yeast if you wanted to. In the mean time the little yeast critters can be dumped down the toilet. I figure that the little guys can't be bad in the septic system.

Welcome to the world of brewing. Take good notes, pay attention to the fermentation temperatures, learn patients, learn to use the hydrometer and learn to relax and enjoy!

 

[thinkshovels]

Thanks for the replies. I think we probably did make a mistake or two here. Hopefully it turns out but I'll probably queue up another batch to try right away either way.