Rookie Lesson for the Rookies

[Burkhardt]

This afternoon I opened my very first bottle of my own home brew. It was awesome!

I feel compelled to post this message of reassurance for my fellow newbies. How many mistakes did I make during this first attempt? A ton!
- "Sanitized" with c-brite not realizing it was just a cleaner.
- Poured the boiling hot wort directly into the plastic primary bucket before cooling.
- Had no prior knowledge of cooling solutions, and took almost three hours to cool wort to 90 degree.
- Didn't know about aerating, didn't do it.
- Forgot to take OG.
- Pitched the yeast at 90 degrees.
- Left the primary in the garage, where it stayed 80 degrees (because I sealed when it was 90) for a day and then it fell below 45 degrees on the third day of fermentation and airlock bubbling. Cold temp quickly ended bubbling.
- Scared to move the primary or open the lid for any reason.
- Lost patience after just 10 days in the primary and decided to bottle.

Two weeks later...the beer had perfect carbonation, looked and tasted great. I may have been lucky, but a lesson was learned = stop stressing about the details and enjoy the ride!

cid:6A897DA2-3ED9-4F94-834D-BA7BB16CB43B/photo.JPG

 

[rdann87]

I had to take a step back myself and learn to just have fun and stop stressin so much!

 

[ReefkprZ]

just don't do what I did my first batch and put 5 gallons of wort into a 5gallon carboy and affix a regular airlock, sounds cool when it blows the stopper out but that's about it, Kräusen, and hops everywhere, several times. I learned about blowoff tubes after the fact.

beer brewing can be very forgiving, mostly let the yeast do its thing and you will end up with beer.

 

[commonsenseman]

Wow, beer is quite resilient isn't it?

 

[dshaggy]

I would say yeast is quite resilient. Beer has been made for hundreds of years. I would assume the methods back then were much less accurate, as far as measuring was concerned, and also less sanitary. Still they made beer.

 

[vinoterp]

All very good points.. thanks for sharing Burkhardt! You are definitely making me feeling better about my first batch in the fermenter. I made some of the mistakes you did and was getting ready to throw in the towel and order another kit to try all over again, but I woke up today and realized that it's fermenting vigorously so hopefully it'll turn out drinkable

 

[evanlee19]

Thanks for the story. Just put my first batch into the fermenter today. Took a little longer than I would have like to cool the wort. Hopefully it turns out ok.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Took a little longer than I would have like to cool the wort. Hopefully it turns out ok.

No worries mate, I've recently "no chilled" a few batches that took about a day and a half before pitching....rdwhahb

 

[TANSTAAFB]

My first brew was just over a year ago on my birthday. FIL and I brewed together and I decided if we were makin good beer we should be drinkin good beer so I bought a ton of great craft beer and we proceeded to get drunk...I mean brew...no, I mean get REALLY drunk. We trashed the kitchen, had no way to cool the wort and were too far gone by that point to care about an ice bath, let it cool with no lid on in the middle of my kitchen, probably pitched way too hot, did not rehydrate the dry yeast just sprinkled over the wort, and my FIL dropped the bucket and went ass over tea kettle carrying it back to his house...but he didn't spill any!!! We screwed up everything we could screw up. We boiled the steeping grains. We didn't have a decent thermometer. We had no idea how to use a hydrometer and had no test flask so we tried to take a reading floating it in the bucket We had no control over fermentation temps...in Texas. We bottled after about a week...

Long story short, we loved our beer and never looked back. Now, after about 15-20 AG batches, sipping a homebrew that couldn't taste any better (and no diacetyl either ), I am sure that beer really tasted terrible. But there is no way in hell you coulda convinced us of that!!! We learned, we grew, we gained experience and equipment, and we keep brewin' baby!!!

Welcome to your new obsession

 

[evanlee19]

Woke up this morning to find the airlock bubbling.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

That sounds very similar to the first few batches I did too...

The good news is that you'll have days like that as you gain experience too... I just brewed an American IPA on Saturday... Well, I forgot to eat supper because the beer was filling the void... Yup, lots of beer and no supper = stupid... Well, lets just say that the whole process was less than ideal but it's bubbling away like crazy and smells terrific. I've never been too big of a worrier BECAUSE of the success I had back then with a not-so-good process. It's good to have that experience and work to improve it over time. As things get better, so will your beer (which is promising since that one was so good).

 

[smyth]

FIL and I brewed together and I decided if we were makin good beer we should be drinkin good beer so I bought a ton of great craft beer and we proceeded to get drunk...I mean brew...no, I mean get REALLY drunk.

I did something a bit similar, the biggest difference was on my first batch i was so broke from buying the brewing equipment that i couldn't afford much nice beer so i had one bomber of Double Bastard and 13 PBR cans. It was funny to me though trying to make a nice IPA while I'm drinking Pabst.

 

[tknice]

I have one.

Don't accidentally pour the stirbar into the fermenter and think you'll remember it when you rack, but then forget and flush it down the toilet when cleaning the carboy!

 

[ThePearsonFam]

i have one.

Don't accidentally pour the stirbar into the fermenter and think you'll remember it when you rack, but then forget and flush it down the toilet when cleaning the carboy!

nice!!!

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Woke up this morning to find the airlock bubbling.

The beautiful sound of a bubbling airlock will become like crack to you my friend...you're hooked. and you will do anything to get your next fix

 

[Kieran]

I have one.

Don't accidentally pour the stirbar into the fermenter and think you'll remember it when you rack, but then forget and flush it down the toilet when cleaning the carboy!

Rookie lesson #2: don't clean your carboy with toilet water

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I have one.

Don't accidentally pour the stirbar into the fermenter and think you'll remember it when you rack, but then forget and flush it down the toilet when cleaning the carboy!

Screw that!!! I scrubbed the **** outta my arm, dunked it in StarSan, counted to 30, and went arm fishing...no infection, no problems, tasted great :rockin:

 

[lou2row]

TANS, Do you have a recipe you can share for the Drooling Scottish Moose? Sounds like a combination of two of my favorite brews!

 

[cms]

I have one.

Don't accidentally pour the stirbar into the fermenter and think you'll remember it when you rack, but then forget and flush it down the toilet when cleaning the carboy!

Not sure if this is a common trick, but this is how I solve that problem...

When I take my starter off the stir plate (a homemade number using a hard drive magnet), I use the second magnet from that hard drive (which usually holds up kids artwork on my fridge) to 'carry' the stir bar out of the flask. The real advantage here is that at some point during the brewing, I will remember and be able to remove the stir bar at that time, rather that remembering the second I hear the plunk.

Just hold that magnet up to the bottom of the flask and it'll grab the bar, then slowly drag it out to the side, up and finally out of the neck.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Not sure if this is a common trick, but this is how I solve that problem...

When I take my starter off the stir plate (a homemade number using a hard drive magnet), I use the second magnet from that hard drive (which usually holds up kids artwork on my fridge) to 'carry' the stir bar out of the flask. The real advantage here is that at some point during the brewing, I will remember and be able to remove the stir bar at that time, rather that remembering the second I hear the plunk.

Just hold that magnet up to the bottom of the flask and it'll grab the bar, then slowly drag it out to the side, up and finally out of the neck.

After the arm fishin' adventure, this is EXACTLY what I do!!! When I go to crash cool my starter I just grab the stir bar with the magnet and bring it up out of the yeast on the bottom and leave it stuck to the side of the flask until I pitch. Then it is still in there to get cleaned and I don't expose anything to potential contamination by taking the foil cap off.

 

[pietro75]

Good stuff! I really enjoy brewing and it is something to remember RDWHAHB!

I couldn't wait till after dinner to start my first partial mash. I had sanitized two spoons and in the course of cooking dinner and boiling wort. I looked down to notice that I was stirring the wort w/ same spoon that I had been stirring the hamburger helper with.
I was just glad that I had sanitized the spoon in the first place.

Turned out fine.

 

[lou2row]

Good stuff! I really enjoy brewing and it is something to remember RDWHAHB!

I couldn't wait till after dinner to start my first partial mash. I had sanitized two spoons and in the course of cooking dinner and boiling wort. I looked down to notice that I was stirring the wort w/ same spoon that I had been stirring the hamburger helper with.
I was just glad that I had sanitized the spoon in the first place.

Turned out fine.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, beef stroganoff porter, ahhhhhhhhhh..............
(insert drooling Homer Simpson icon here)

 

[#p3brews]

This afternoon I opened my very first bottle of my own home brew. It was awesome!

I feel compelled to post this message of reassurance for my fellow newbies. How many mistakes did I make during this first attempt? A ton!
- "Sanitized" with c-brite not realizing it was just a cleaner.
- Poured the boiling hot wort directly into the plastic primary bucket before cooling.
- Had no prior knowledge of cooling solutions, and took almost three hours to cool wort to 90 degree.
- Didn't know about aerating, didn't do it.
- Forgot to take OG.
- Pitched the yeast at 90 degrees.
- Left the primary in the garage, where it stayed 80 degrees (because I sealed when it was 90) for a day and then it fell below 45 degrees on the third day of fermentation and airlock bubbling. Cold temp quickly ended bubbling.
- Scared to move the primary or open the lid for any reason.
- Lost patience after just 10 days in the primary and decided to bottle.

Two weeks later...the beer had perfect carbonation, looked and tasted great. I may have been lucky, but a lesson was learned = stop stressing about the details and enjoy the ride!

cid:6A897DA2-3ED9-4F94-834D-BA7BB16CB43B/photo.JPG

This is an awesome story.
Good for you and anyone else who is diving in. I brewed 1 kit and started making my own 5 gallon recipe designs. Self trained and 250+ gallons later, trial and error, the knowledge and confidence have risen. The biggest jump was when i put together a 1 BBL electric herms system with no knowledge and tried to brew my first 26 gallons. Temps were off, proteins were clumpy, i was buried. 14 hours later, from start to cleaning up a mess, i ended up with three 5 gallon cornies that i sold and was proud of.
The moral of the story is 'Go for it!'