Our first brew day!

[Z28Camaro]

Well last night my wife and myself brewed a Belgian triple from a Brewers best kit. We also made our first wine, (White Merlot) everything went well and we now have fermentation I want to say thanks to this fine group here that let me read more then my brain could handle and I'm sure I will have plenty of questions in the future. So far I enjoyed the first step and I'm ready to make more! I just don't have anymore room.

 

[bigrsmith]

Being out of room seems to be a common problem for us beginners. Keep an eye on ebay or even craigslist for some good used equipment. You can snag some pretty good deals there to help increase you capacity.

 

[jerbrew]

Congrats. Don't worry about room you'll find what works for you. Keep brewing.

 

[Z28Camaro]

Thank you both, I will keep a look out for some used stuff.

 

[bigrsmith]

If you happen to find some used equipment, be sure to look it over real good. Make sure you can clean it up and make it usable. You don't want to buy stuff that wasn't taken care of and can't be made usable. Enjoy brewing. I have only made 2 batches so far and love it. Working on freeing up some bottles so I can start on my next batch. Thinking something along the lines of a strawberry blonde from this site or a orange dreamsicle pushup I found online.

 

[Z28Camaro]

Thanks for the advise. I will for sure, don't need junk.

 

[pshankstar]

Congrats and welcome to the addiction. I mean hobby!!! Things will continue to evolve and grow as you continue to brew. For example I keg and thought one corny keg would be enough. Well now I have one 5 gallon and 2.5 gallon corny kegs and I'm about to keg my beer now but will need to use my Last Straw to bottle the brews and keg what's in the pipeline.

So @bigrsmith is right, running out of space is a common problem.

 

[unionrdr]

That's for sure! My man cave/brewery always seems to hit critical mass every so often. Then I need to weed out junk, old mail, etc & clean it out. I find myself coming up with new bits of equipment that help with storage, fermenting or bottling to aid in clearing up clutter in here. It's an on-going struggle, ass you can see in this video I did...

 

[Z28Camaro]

Thank you both.

 

[ncbrewer]

Welcome, and congrats on your first brew day.

 

[Z28Camaro]

Thank you! I had so much fun doing this but now I need to get more equipment so I can do more. :smack::smack: This is how it starts! next comes the therapy.

 

[unionrdr]

Therapy in the form of 12oz curls...

 

[Z28Camaro]

I like the way you think!

 

[unionrdr]

Dude, is there any other way???! I just remembered a funny one I realized a couple years ago. When her sister, friends, etc come over, & a hen party starts, I say to the menfolks, " To the man cave!"

 

[Z28Camaro]

:d

 

[hotwatermusic]

One lesson I've learned is to not let the next batch take your attention from the batch at hand. Meaning there will always be a lot to do with the beers that haven't been bottled or kegged, what have you. Monitoring fermentation and packaging is important and If you follow thru to the end properly, it sort of helps you from getting too carried away with adding equipment and fermenter space etc. Time will be the biggest obstacle. I think it is fine to keep building a brewery, and getting more and more experience will help but also make sure that you don't try to artificially augment the learning curve. Even a finished beer will slowly educate you on your process and what needs to be improved. Marathon not a sprint kind of thing. It's not about making good beer it's about making YOUR favorite beer.

 

[unionrdr]

It's all about making your favorite beers great! As for myself, I collected all the stuff you see in pictures over the course of 5 years+. Every single item has it's place in my process as it developed, so I'm not, shall we say, over-compensating. Hell, if I was, I'd have a top of the line kegging system, & all SS conical fermenters with temp-control jackets & a 3-teir E-brewing rig in here!

 

[Z28Camaro]

One lesson I've learned is to not let the next batch take your attention from the batch at hand. Meaning there will always be a lot to do with the beers that haven't been bottled or kegged, what have you. Monitoring fermentation and packaging is important and If you follow thru to the end properly, it sort of helps you from getting too carried away with adding equipment and fermenter space etc. Time will be the biggest obstacle. I think it is fine to keep building a brewery, and getting more and more experience will help but also make sure that you don't try to artificially augment the learning curve. Even a finished beer will slowly educate you on your process and what needs to be improved. Marathon not a sprint kind of thing. It's not about making good beer it's about making YOUR favorite beer.

Thank you, that sounds like some very good advice.

 

[Z28Camaro]

I moved it to secondary fermentation and all looks good. The wait is killing me but as hotwatermusic said it's a Marathon.

 

[Z28Camaro]

Well I checked the beer over the last two days and it has come to a stop, I had not seen any movement and it's been three weeks now so I added the priming sugar and bottle the batch. I got 52 bottles out of it and the sample glass was tasty. The final ABV came out to be 7.825 lower then I thought it would be, but that could have because I added to much water to top it off on brew day. Now all the bottles have been put away and the waiting game continues. I think I will try a honey ale next! Not sure.

 

[Z28Camaro]

So I tried one of the bottles last night and it taste very sweet! Did I do something wrong or is it too early?

I also brewed a Home Brew Supply Pumpkin Ale last night and everything went well but my OG was higher than the instructions said it would be. They said it would be 1.065 and to use one pack of 1056 yeast. I got 1.078! Should I buy another packet or will I be fine?

Thank you all for any help.

 

[ncbrewer]

So I tried one of the bottles last night and it taste very sweet! Did I do something wrong or is it too early?

I also brewed a Home Brew Supply Pumpkin Ale last night and everything went well but my OG was higher than the instructions said it would be. They said it would be 1.065 and to use one pack of 1056 yeast. I got 1.078! Should I buy another packet or will I be ,fine?

Thank you all for any help.

For the first batch, if the carbonation is right, then it should have eaten all the priming sugar. If it didn't seem to be fully carb'd, then you might be tasting some of the priming sugar. What was the measured FG?

For the Pumpkin Ale, if it was an extract brew, it pretty much has to come out to the predicted OG. The only way not to is if some measurements were wrong, eg less gallons than called for, etc. If this was a partial boil and topped off with water, it might not be mixed thoroughly - the gravity sample might not be representative.

 

[Z28Camaro]

I don't remember the FG and I did not write it down, Rookie mistake that I will not make again. it did not seem to be very carbonated, very little. do you think it just needs more time being that it was on three weeks?

Pumpkin ale was made exactly to the instructions outside of adding real pumpkin like the recommended. do you think this could have raised the OG? I top off with water and mixed it up well to make sure I got air in for the the yeast.

 

[Transamguy77]

I don't think you have an issue with your first batch, if the Gravity was truly that high I would let that one sit for another month before trying it again.

This is the hardest part! Being very excited to try those first few beers and having the will power not too, try brewing a few lower gravity beers that will be done in a few weeks to help build up your pipeline.

Welcome to the addiction! As others have said keep an eye out on here and craigslist, that's where I got my first bit of equipment and it just grew from there. Good luck and happy brewing!

 

[Z28Camaro]

Thank you, I will do that.