New home brewer

[fireandice814]

Hi all just want to introduce myself here. My name is Pasquale and I've just started home brewing. I have been reading everything about brewing for a good 3 weeks. This weekend I just did my own home brew. I had a kit with recipe but I decided to use beer smith and make my own recipe. I went with an American IPA. I read on what usually goes in an IPA and what hops go and don't conflict with each other. I ended up with these numbers:

1.066 gravity
52 IBUs
15 SRM (little on the dark side)
6.5% alcohol

Brew day came I had all my equipment:

8 gallon brew kettle
Muslin bags
Carboy
Sanitizer
Wort chiller
Hydrometer

Followed my recipe made sure everything was sanitized even if it didn't need to be. No boil overs everything went pretty smooth. After everything was all done I took my gravity reading before pitching my liquid yeast (in which I thought my smack pack was going to explode) and got a reading of 1.062. I thought this was pretty good and it was close and wasnt going to be perfect.

I pitched my yeast and waited. Nothing happened for the first 14 hours. Then I woke up the next morning to this I was like oh crap but a happy oh crap because it had started fermenting and quite vigorously.

So did some quick research and decided to add a blow off tube. Using a bottling siphon tube that came with the kit
So this was my new setup

So far so good in day 3 .. I had to clean out the blow off tube because alot of gunk was getting stuck inside and didn't want an explosion but my only question is I have a lot of krausen on the top of the fermenter that's like stuck and thick see picture: I hope that this is normal for all that krausen. I know it's not supposed to go back in but I can't help think when i move the fermenter it's going to splash and all that's going to go back in. Any suggestions for that or should I not even worry about it (RDWHAHB).
I can't have a home brew yet because my first is still going lol.
Any help or criticism is appreciated.

Thanks all.

 

[m00ps]

Dont worry about the stuck krausen in the carboy. Whether or not it goes back in, same difference. You don't want that stuff floating in your final bottled beer, but if it does drop, the yeast will just clean it up anyway or it will settle out on its own

That is one dark IPA...maybe an India Brown Ale? If you want any help or tips forming your own recipes let me know. Id be glad to help. I started doing my own recipes from the get-go and it definitely took a while to get a good feel for how to balance out grain bills and hops

 

[fireandice814]

Ok thanks. Appreciate that. Yea it is darker than I expected. I think my inexperience got me there. I didn't really know how dark 15 SRM was. I added 2oz of chocolate organic specialty grain for color and I think it really wasn't needed. Also I took the picture in the dark so that could be why as well.

Here is one before fermentation started in some light.
Probably still a little dark lol

 

[m00ps]

here's a few recipes I've posted to spark your brain if you're interested. I've done maybe 70 brews so far and these ones I've actually done more than once to refine them.
IPA/
Honey Pale Ale
Imperial Coffee Oatmeal Maple stout
Hefeweizen
Saison
Belgian Strong Dark Ale

 

[cernst151]

Lookin' good. Congrats on your brew. Don't worry about the stuff on top in the carboy. As soon as you try cleaning it you'll be wishing it was loose enough to just fall in.

 

[fireandice814]

Wow m00ps those are some bad add recipes. Way more complex than mine. I've got a lot to learn. I've just recently learned about Irish moss which would be my next additive. I will check those recipes out to get ideas for mine. Ever think about selling your beer?


Thanks cernst. You are probably right.

Appreciate it guys.

 

[m00ps]

I use irish moss in everything except liek Wits and Hefes where you want cloudyness. I think it says to do 1tsp for 5 gals but I just dump it straight from the container since its so cheap and you arent going to taste it unless you add like a quarter cup or something.
The only other additive ive played with is Gypsum. Adding a bit of it really helps to bring the hops out in IPAs. Something in the water chemistry and alpha acid extraction.

Yeah, I do beer tasting whenever I can and have a ton of people urging me to get a license because they know restaurants around here would stock it. But the thing is, it doesn't matter how good my beer is or how in demand it is if I can only brew 5gal at a time. I'm trying to partner up with a new brewery which is opening close to me and maybe do some collaborations or use their system. Then maybe that'll open up the gates.

For now I've just got like 600 bottles around my apartment and try to give it out as much as I can. Its hard convincing people that homebrew can be good though. Most people hear the word and think of an old college roomate that made some terrible kit beer with expired yeast taped to the lid...

 

[max384]

That's awesome that you jumped right in with your own recipe.

I started with some extract kits, then all grain kits, then recipes I found online, then tweaking existing recipes, and then finally moving onto making my own.

It definitely looks dark for an IPA, but you learn from your mistakes, and it may turn out great just like that!


What kind of brewing are you doing? Extract or all grain? Care to post your recipe?

 

[eadavis80]

Congrats on your first batch - it will your first of many!