Story of my first brew day

[Steve3730]

So I'm totally new to this but i have been reading up and got a kit for Christmas so it was time to give it a try. Here is how my brew day went and please point out any errors I might have made

equipment 5 gallon bucket fermenter 5 gallon kettle pot
Kit: Brewers best APA

So i boiled about 2 gallons of tap water in the kettle let it cool and put it in my fermenter with my hydrometer,glass measuring cup,stir spoon, air lock. added a teaspoon of bleach and let sit for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile I added 3 gallons of bottled water to the kettle and started heating. in another pot I boiled 3 gallons of tap water to use for rinsing anything of bleachwater.

Once the 3 gallons of water got to 155 degrees i added the steep bag of caramel grains. i held the temp at around 160 for about 45 minutes and than removed the bag and up'd the heat to bring to boil. in the mean time i rinsed all my equipment with the boiled water and began boiling 3 gallons of bottle water in another pot for my top off. added the malt extract to the boil and added the cascade hops. 40 minutes later i added another can of malt extract and continued the boil for 15 minute than added the citra hops let boil for 5 more minutes and shut it down. For cooling i put the pot in a snowbank, this took longer than expected only dropping about 20 degrees every 15 minutes taking about an hour to get down around 80 degrees.

So i dumped the wort in the fermenter splashing and making lots of bubbles. than pitched my rehydrated yeast and sealed up.

Wish me luck!

 

[Bordy]

I recommend getting some Starsan and ditch the bleach and boiled water. Boiling all that water seems a bit excessive and a waste of energy/gas. You can spray the Starsan on anything clean to sanitize and no need for rinsing.

 

[Steve3730]

I recommend getting some Starsan and ditch the bleach and boiled water. Boiling all that water seems a bit excessive and a waste of energy/gas. You can spray the Starsan on anything clean to sanitize and no need for rinsing.

Thanks I have since learned about Starsan and will be purchasing it when I go pick up my bottles. The most time consuming part was all the extra boiling.

 

[helibrewer]

You might consider buying RO water if it's available, I have no issues adding it when needed without boiling it first. The StarSan is a must. Your next considerations should be full boils and a wort chiller. I finally went from an immersion chiller to a 30 plate chiller from Duda Diesel. That thing drops my wort from flameout to 70F in a single pass.

 

[C-Rider]

Hold off on the RO water until you know your tap water is bad would be my idea. I've been using tap water for 2 years w/no problems. I do full boil BIAB so no need to boil anything before I use it.

 

[MDHarris]

If you stir your wort while cooling you will drastically decrease your chill time. Congrats on your first brew! You are on the right track!

 

[Steve3730]

Thanks guys

I work for a plumbing company so I have access to easily make a wort chiller. Which i planned on doing but originally I was going to brew 2 weeks ago when we had temperatures around -12 degrees and figured even a WC wouldn't cool as fast as the outside, But a flat tire sidelined my brew day.

Could I have boiled more water in the pot? I had 3 gallons and had plenty of room even with the foam boiling. its a 20qt pot

 

[MDHarris]

You can definitely boil more than 3 gallons in a 5 gallon pot. Good luck.

 

[Steve3730]

took my first gravity reading today,13 days in fermenter. What does it look like to you guys? I have it at about 1.009 @ 63f so about 1.012. How does the wort look to you guys?

Thanks guys

 

[itchygomey]

Doesn't look like wort at all........ You have beer and it looks delicious!

 

[flars]

took my first gravity reading today,13 days in fermenter. What does it look like to you guys? I have it at about 1.009 @ 63f so about 1.012. How does the wort look to you guys?

Thanks guys

Hydrometer reading of 1.009 at 63° would be corrected to 1.0093. You were off one decimal point.
May not go much lower, but give it another week for the yeast to clean up.