mikefranciotti
Well-Known Member
Well Thanksgiving weekend (Sunday 11/30 to be exact) I decided to brew my first batch of beer. I've read tons of info prior to this and felt I was ready to give it a go...
So Sunday I start my boil. My cousins come over one brings his girlfriend, then my brother shows up, then my fiancee & my sister come by and what was supposed to be a quiet day of concentration turned into a mobbed kitchen resulting in lots of conversation and a TON of forgetfulness...
I follow all the instructions in the beginning, then realize I never read how people cool the wort prior to pitching the yeast. On top of that, when it came to the yeast, I had never read anything about making a starter until I looked at the yeast packet itself...
Turns out the temp of the wort was around 90f obviously being too high to pitch the yeast. I then boil some water to dissolve the yeast and get ready to pitch to the wort. Without even thinking I let the boiled water cool, put the yeast in and dump it straight into the hot wort... CRAP & oh well...
Although I'm not a very patient person, I left the wort alone for a few days, periodically checking to make sure there was no mess to clean up and it turned out all was fine.
After about 2 weeks I racked to a secondary and even though I knew I messed the brew process up and figured it would turn out horrible, I wanted to wait it out and see what happened. The wort was a real nice amber color and smelled pretty damn good so I figured it didn't turn out that bad (also there was evidence of about 5" of krausen on the sides of the primary as well as some leftover gunk on the tip of the airlock).
I ended up bottling 3 weeks ago 12/17 praying the batch would be good.
I popped my first bottle last night, heard the nice hiss of carbonation, smelled the amazing aroma of my American Wheat and poured into my glass.
over 6 weeks of waiting thinking I messed up and it's up there with the best beers I've drank!
And that's the story of mikefranciotti's first homebrew
If there was one thing I have learned from this site and my own findings, patience is key!
So Sunday I start my boil. My cousins come over one brings his girlfriend, then my brother shows up, then my fiancee & my sister come by and what was supposed to be a quiet day of concentration turned into a mobbed kitchen resulting in lots of conversation and a TON of forgetfulness...
I follow all the instructions in the beginning, then realize I never read how people cool the wort prior to pitching the yeast. On top of that, when it came to the yeast, I had never read anything about making a starter until I looked at the yeast packet itself...
Turns out the temp of the wort was around 90f obviously being too high to pitch the yeast. I then boil some water to dissolve the yeast and get ready to pitch to the wort. Without even thinking I let the boiled water cool, put the yeast in and dump it straight into the hot wort... CRAP & oh well...
Although I'm not a very patient person, I left the wort alone for a few days, periodically checking to make sure there was no mess to clean up and it turned out all was fine.
After about 2 weeks I racked to a secondary and even though I knew I messed the brew process up and figured it would turn out horrible, I wanted to wait it out and see what happened. The wort was a real nice amber color and smelled pretty damn good so I figured it didn't turn out that bad (also there was evidence of about 5" of krausen on the sides of the primary as well as some leftover gunk on the tip of the airlock).
I ended up bottling 3 weeks ago 12/17 praying the batch would be good.
I popped my first bottle last night, heard the nice hiss of carbonation, smelled the amazing aroma of my American Wheat and poured into my glass.
over 6 weeks of waiting thinking I messed up and it's up there with the best beers I've drank!
And that's the story of mikefranciotti's first homebrew
If there was one thing I have learned from this site and my own findings, patience is key!
