New to the site and first brew attempt

[vnzjunk]

"I think it went pretty well for my first time. Had 2 boil overs..."

I'm no expert at this either, but that gave me a chuckle. Nice photos!

Ya gotta smile at a boil over out of doors. What else you gonna do but pay better attention to the pot. When you do it on your wifes stove inside......not too many chuckles to go around..........:smack:

Depending on how you feel about cleaning up messes you either pay more attention to the pot eventually or not. And don't lose the smile. If it ain't fun why do it if you don't have to.

 

[vnzjunk]

I was able to bottle the Irish red on Saturday. I bought an autosyphon to transfer to the bottling bucket. The transfer didn't go as smooth as I hoped. I ended up getting 44 bottles and used the full 5oz of priming sugar. Might end up overcarbed I suppose. I did some research on the forum and found some info that will hopefully make the transfer smoother next time. I'm bottling my cider on Thursday and the wizen on Saturday. Gravity looks good on both and they taste great.

My carbing step got better results once I started weighing the sugar rather than just measuring it. Not sure it is a whole lot difference but makes me feel better about the process.......more precise.

 

[vnzjunk]

Ahhh didn't even think of that. Makes sense so that I dont accidentally siphon the water into the fermentor.

At least you found 1 thing good about that beer. Every time I try one of their offerings I have to remind myself........never again. But that is just me

 

[vnzjunk]

So I decided to take a hydrometer reading on the Irish Red today. It has been in two weeks now and is sitting at 1.014 best I can tell. Kit calls for 1.010-1.012. I'm not planning on bottling until next Saturday, so I will take another reading or two before then. Here is a picture of my sample in the glass before I partook. I was impressed with the flavor and even my wife seemed to like it.

I am no expert but in my case once the reading got down in the ballpark I would pay more attention to if it stops dropping appreciably rather than looking for some reading which may or may not ever be reached. Once the readings stop falling everything I have read says you should be able to bottle. I imagine there are exceptions......isn't there always some?

 

[rtyler8140]

I am doing the 32oz pet plastic bottles and I picked up some of the plastic milk crates from walmart. Caught em on sale. I think they were something like $3.50 a piece but I have seen em cheaper at beginning of school buying season in the fall. Make sure and check the height for stacking. My PET bottles are slightly taller than the crate sides so no stacking but I live with it. I can fit 12 of my bottles in 1 crate with too much empty space left over but no room to put in more bottles. With 12oz'ers it ought to handle quite a few of them and maybe fill the nooks and crannys better. They are very sturdy and never had any breakage problem. they stack pretty good, fitting inside one another when one turned on its side.:rockin:

I work in a wood shop and have been collecting some scrap plywood. I'm gonna build some simple cases. Can't beat the price. I'll post pics when I get them done.

 

[rtyler8140]

My carbing step got better results once I started weighing the sugar rather than just measuring it. Not sure it is a whole lot difference but makes me feel better about the process.......more precise.

Yeah I bought a scale last week. When I do the wizen I'm gonna weigh it out and adjust for the volume I end up with in the bottling bucket.

 

[rtyler8140]

I am no expert but in my case once the reading got down in the ballpark I would pay more attention to if it stops dropping appreciably rather than looking for some reading which may or may not ever be reached. Once the readings stop falling everything I have read says you should be able to bottle. I imagine there are exceptions......isn't there always some?

The Irish red stayed at 1.014. I'm not concerned that it didn't fall perfectly in range. It tasted good so no complaints. I left it in the primary for 3 weeks as per recommendations on the forum.

 

[RM-MN]

You didn't have to leave it in the fermenter so long but by doing it that way you could be pretty certain that the beer was done fermenting (verified with hydrometer too, good for you) and that let a bunch more yeast drop out so it didn't end up in your bottles. The beer that I left in the primary for 9 weeks had such a small yeast layer it was hard to see when the beer was carbonated. Some of my first beers had a quarter inch of yeast.

 

[rtyler8140]

Earlier this week my wife and I made a trip after work to get some bottles. I tried to get some from a recycling place here in town and they didn't want to sell them to me. The said it was a liability because I could get sick and sue them . I have been having friends collect bottles for me, but needed a stockpile for the batches I already had going. I was able to find a fellow homebrewer about an hour away selling his 12oz bottles. I paid $30 for 176 bottles.

Should be enough for me to finish bottling. On Thursday I was able to bottle my cider. Started out with 4 gal. in the fermentor and ended up with 42 bottles. Better yield than the irish red I did earlier.

I tried one tonight to see if they were carbing up. I'm afraid of bottle bombs. Still wasn't very carbonated, but tastes wonderful.

Hopefully they will carb up over the next few days and I can pasteurize them. Already have some co-workers asking if they can try some. Speaking of work, I was finally able to take an hour and work on some cases today after work. Hard to find time working 60 hrs a week. There are some things I'll modify for the next set I make, but these will work for now.

This evening I was able to bottle my Weizenbier from Brewers Best. It sat in the primary for 3 weeks. Had consistent hydrometer readings after 2 weeks, but figured I'd let it sit in there for another week. Nice yeast cake at the bottom and the siphoning went a lot smoother. The yield was 51 bottles. I was happy with that. Here they are in their new home for the next 3 weeks.

Only 2 weeks until the Irish Red is bottle conditioned (not that I'm counting)

 

[Clonefan94]

Awesome, welcome to the obsession. I started back in August with a BB kit just like you. Be aware though, I've got a three tap keg system, 5 kegs and am doing all-grain now. Some might say it only gets worse, but how can anything this good be bad.

 

[rtyler8140]

Awesome, welcome to the obsession. I started back in August with a BB kit just like you. Be aware though, I've got a three tap keg system, 5 kegs and am doing all-grain now. Some might say it only gets worse, but how can anything this good be bad.

Thanks! Yeah if you asked me in February when my wife bought the kit for me if I would have 3 different beers and 2 ciders going, I probably would have laughed.

 

[snowtires]

I started just last July with a Mr beer kit given to me as a groomsman gift. Now I have a kegerator, kegs, do all grain, just got a new 2 weld pot for the next project gravity brew tower.

 

[rtyler8140]

I started just last July with a Mr beer kit given to me as a groomsman gift. Now I have a kegerator, kegs, do all grain, just got a new 2 weld pot for the next project gravity brew tower.

Yeah I've been reading/reasearching about all grain recently.........