Noob from Western Pa

[dand9066]

Hey,

I'm new to brewing and have been doing a to of reading from treads on this sight. I'm about to brew my first batch in the coming days. Chose American Wheat extract kit for my first beer. Any tips regarding this beer would be awesome. Should be ready to drink by my 21st!! Ha

Thank you all

 

[BillyBroas]

Well there are tons of tips I could give you, and you'll learn this stuff over time, but if there is one piece of advice I wish I had known when I started it's to pay more attention to fermentation temperatures.

Pitch the yeast on the cool side, 66-68F as opposed to the 72F your kit might have told you. Try to keep the beer around these temps. Remember, the beer will heat up during fermentation and get warmer than room temp. Use a swamp cooler if you need to.

Above all, RDWHAHB. You're beer will turn out great, and we're here for comfort if you do freak out.

Welcome to the hobby

 

[dand9066]

Above all, RDWHAHB. You're beer will turn out great, and we're here for comfort if you do freak out.

Had to search what the acronym meant. I believe I've learned to sanitize, sanitize, and yeah sanitize. I kinda laughed at the guy I bought equipement off of when he told me to make sure everything is sanitized but after reading info I understand what he meant. I'll keep calm take your advice and the rest should take care of itself. Except for the bottling!

 

[BillyBroas]

lol Yea you'll hear it used a lot around here. It's from Charlie Papazian, sort of The Godfather of homebrewing.

Yep, sanitizing it very important. Don't let it worry you so much though that it takes away from the fun of brewing. This happens to some people. There's nothing magical about it. Just follow the steps, always clean first then sanitize, and you'll be fine. You can make a lot of mistakes in homebrewing and still have great beer. Bottling isn't hard, just tedious. Start saving up for kegging equipment

 

[dand9066]

So I created a yeast starter about 1 hr ago. I boiled 4 cups of water. Took off burner. Added 1/2 cup of the wheat LME in my kit from NB. Brought back to a boil for 10 min. Gave cold water bath down to 78*F in about 5 or so min. Pitched 1010 Wyeast smack pack. I know everything was sanitized. If what I did isn't totally wrong how long should it take to see activity in the starter or airlock? I believe I'm going to brew tomorrow or Saturday.

 

[BillyBroas]

If I'm not using a stir plate, then I usually see bubbles start rising in the starter after 12 hours. Sometimes there is very little activity at all though. Sounds like you did everything right and it will be ready when you brew. Just give it a swirl every time you walk by it. You want to get plenty of oxygen to the yeast. Along those same lines, you want to use sanitized aluminum foil instead of an airlock. Just loosely press it down over the opening. That will allow the air to enter.

 

[passedpawn]

Good luck. Go Jimmy Stewart.

 

[dand9066]

I wasn't expecting such a quick reply! Thanks. I'm not aloud to brew at my place says the other half. So I have a make shift air lock because mine isn't at my place. Tube through a cap and into a glass of sanitizer water. Not seeing bubbles in the wort but about a bubble a second through the air lock. So take the cap off and put loose sanitized foil over the container. Now I don't get to see the cool bubbles. Oh well I'll listen to the expert. Thanks again.

 

[dand9066]

Good luck. Go Jimmy Stewart.

Small town. What brings you to know about Indiana and Mr. Ste"wort"

 

[passedpawn]

Small town. What brings you to know about Indiana and Mr. Ste"wort"

Let's just say that I had a house on main street ( "the Outhouse" ) that got some traffic. Met my lovely wife there, too. Love her.

 

[dand9066]

I just wanted to follow up and say I brewed my first beer. On Thursday I made a starter. Thanks again for the tips. Everything took off well. Friday afternoon I sanitized a food grade bucket and the turkey lifter for my new fryer. Added 2.5 gal of water and placed the hook in the water then put in freezer. 24 hours later I started the brew. Noticed that the yeast had done it's job and the fermentation in the starter subsided. I brought my 2.5 gal water to boil. Took off heat and added malt syrup. This was a pain. Is there and easy way to do that? Back to a boil added hops. 15 min left added aroma hops. 10 min left added yeast nutrient. At this time i took the bucket of frozen water out of the freezer and put in warm water bath to melt ice on edges. Finished the boil and I was ready to ad my ice directly to the wort to cool. It wasn't completely froze!!! I was able to use the hook and carefully pull it out and gently set the ice in the wort. I poured the remaining water in. This brought me down to 68* in about 5 min. Thank got it wasn't completely froze or I would have been at lager temps. Poured the wort in better bottle. Pitched yeast and put the ail lock on. I did pour half the starter liquid off the top without refrigerating. Didn't check on it over night but by 10 am the next day it was bubbling away. My OG Was 1.045. Temp in the basement is 60. My instructions say 58 to 74 is optimal. All in all I think it was a successful brew day. Think I'm gonna RDWHA Sam Adams since I don't have any HB in the pipeline. Plus I can use the bottles

 

[passedpawn]

I just wanted to follow up and say I brewed my first beer. On Thursday I made a starter. Thanks again for the tips. Everything took off well. Friday afternoon I sanitized a food grade bucket and the turkey lifter for my new fryer. Added 2.5 gal of water and placed the hook in the water then put in freezer. 24 hours later I started the brew. Noticed that the yeast had done it's job and the fermentation in the starter subsided. I brought my 2.5 gal water to boil. Took off heat and added malt syrup. This was a pain. Is there and easy way to do that? Back to a boil added hops. 15 min left added aroma hops. 10 min left added yeast nutrient. At this time i took the bucket of frozen water out of the freezer and put in warm water bath to melt ice on edges. Finished the boil and I was ready to ad my ice directly to the wort to cool. It wasn't completely froze!!! I was able to use the hook and carefully pull it out and gently set the ice in the wort. I poured the remaining water in. This brought me down to 68* in about 5 min. Thank got it wasn't completely froze or I would have been at lager temps. Poured the wort in better bottle. Pitched yeast and put the ail lock on. I did pour half the starter liquid off the top without refrigerating. Didn't check on it over night but by 10 am the next day it was bubbling away. My OG Was 1.045. Temp in the basement is 60. My instructions say 58 to 74 is optimal. All in all I think it was a successful brew day. Think I'm gonna RDWHA Sam Adams since I don't have any HB in the pipeline. Plus I can use the bottles

Well good job, I'm sure it'll turn into beer. How was it? What's next?

 

[dand9066]

Well good job, I'm sure it'll turn into beer. How was it? What's next?

It did turn into to beer. A little darker than expected but I guess that's extract for ya? Seemed to have an after taste but I don't know how to explain it. It was good though and it felt awesome to drink my own beer. I had 2 of the kits so last Saturday I brewed up the second batch. Boiled a little less than half of the extract and added the rest with 15 min. Ended up with a lower OG. Gonna add strawberries. Thinking about going all grain for the next brew. Reading this forum has taught me a lot.