Started my first solo batch

[Diogenes]

Hey!

I've posted in the introduce yourself forum and figured I move one.

I have brewed in the past with my brother. He had the process and I helped with the grunt work. He's too busy now to brew so I have purchased my own gear and struck out on my own.

My first batch is a kit from "Brewers Best" a Russian Imperial Stout with canned malt extract, dried extract and grains. The equipment is a Brew True Gold kit and I picked up a 7.5 gl glass carboy as the primary fermenter.

Last night I cleaned everything. The equipment came with some cleanser but it did not describe it as a "no rinse" or anything like that. I just used it to scrub everything with mixed in really hot water. I rinsed with hot tap water. On some items I kept a chlorine dip bucket and would dip the items and rinse.

I've got a selection of large stainless steel stock pots and utensils already.

The recipe called for a two gallon cook to be mixed with three gallons in the carboy. I did three gallons and then two.

The wort is now in the 70 degree utility room, covered with a dark towel and pleasantly belching away.

The only question I have at this point is am I supposed to put anything besides water in the CO2 trap on the carboy?

The utility room is really starting to smell good.

My gas should smell as fragrant.

 

[wonderbread23]

I like to put cheap vodka in the airlock just in case some reverse suction happens and it gets sucked into the fermenter.

 

[Diogenes]

Kind of what I was concerned about, thanks!

 

[Diogenes]

Well the airlock bubbled pretty steady, a good burp about every second or so, for three days, now it burbs about once every ten seconds. Lots of kruzen on it.

The recipe is a Russian Imperial Stout that had two cans of dark malt and on bag of dried malt.

When should a take my next specific gravity reading? Is it ok to let it sit in the carboy after it has stopped bubbling and if so for how long?

Smells darn good.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I would just let it sit for 2-3 weeks before worrying about taking a reading, if at all.

 

[ajf]

One small point. If you are using bleach for sanitizing, a dip and rinse is not good. Chlorine takes 1/2 to 1 hour to sanitize (according to The Complete Joy of Home Brewing). One of the many advantages of Iodophor and Starsan is that they only need a couple minutes to sanitize (possibly less), and they don't require rinsing.
As for when to take a gravity reading, I'd wait until the krausen has dropped, and then another couple days. You could then take a reading. If that reading is close to your expected final gravity, you could take another one 3 - 4 days later, and if they are the same, fermentation is finished. If the gravity is still dropping, take another reading after 3 - 4 days, and repeat till you get two consecutive readings with the same value.

-a.

 

[Diogenes]

Thanks to both of you for the time frame and the information about the bleach dip. That's what I was doing, dipping and then rinsing under the tap. I will get some Iodophor or Starsan next time.

 

[dracus]

Humm imperial...big beer take your time with it for sure...yummy

+10 starsan