Today was my first Brew Day

[clonies720]

I made an Irish Red Ale from Midwest Supplies kit. Had a potentially minor issue while brewing though as I had to temporarily leave the brewing process in the hands of a friend, and the specialty grains reached a temperature way higher than the 155 F that Midwest recommends. But I believe that I adequately recovered from the mishap. My OG reading was consistent within Midwest's calculations, the color looked great, no funny smells or anything of the sort. I had another issue with my Shirron plate chiller. I got about 4.7 gallons into my primary before the plate chiller "Wort in" and "out" got clogged up with sediment. Had to flush it out with water and just gave up on the last .3 gallons or so. Should have topped my primary off with cold, clean water now that I think of it to make 5 gallons. *hangs head in shame* ETA: My original batch size was 5.5 gallons. Specialty grains were heated @ 155 F for 30 minutes, then steeped for another 10 off the heat. Add barley malt extract, stir in, bring to boil, add 1oz Cascade hops for 60 minutes @212 F, then add 1oz Fuggles hops for 2 minutes @ 212 F. Flamed out and got my 4.7ish gallons of wort chilled around 15 minutes. I was going to use a kickass pre-chiller with a stainless immersion wort chiller, but was missing a female thread adapter to fit on my plate chiller.

I sampled a bit of the wort after taking an OG and temperature reading, and it was actually pretty decent. Hah. Anyways, I pitched my Wyeast Activator and it's now cooling in my dual-tap kegerator (I'm shooting for around 68 degrees. Is this a good temp to ferment at?) until I get a fermentation chiller built in the meantime. But enough talk. Time for some pitchers. :rockin:

^20mm cartridge keg tap handle

Some of the equipment I used:
PolarWare 42 quart boiling pot w/ thermometer
Nylon hoses
6 gallon PET carboy
Shirron Economy Plate Chiller
Bayou Classic gas burner (they claim 135,000 BTU's but that sounds awfully high to me. It heated up my 5.5 gallon batch pretty quickly though)

 

[sonex]

cograts on the first brew. You did not mention the yeast strain. but in general for most ales I ferment around 65f.

 

[user 108580]

Congrats! Looks yummy. The temperature of your partial mash wont do too much since most of your sugars are coming from you extract. In the future, shoot for 5.5 gallons into the primary, not 5. You're gonna lose about half a gallon or more to trub and sediment losses.

Also, try doing a whirlpool before cooling. At flameout get a small vortex in your brew pot (dont aerate the hot wort) going then let it sit for about 20 minutes. Lots of your hop debris will settle out into a nice pile in the center of the kettle. Just dont open the ball valve full blast and that sediment should stay there for the most part.

Happy brewing!

Edit: I meant dont get such a vicious vortex going that you aerate the wort

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I like the keg handle tap!

Good luck on the brew; seems like it will turn out just fine if you give it enough time.

 

[clonies720]

cograts on the first brew. You did not mention the yeast strain. but in general for most ales I ferment around 65f.

Wyeast Irish Ale strain. Also had one more question: Should I top the airlock off with water or something? I topped my airlock off with vodka as suggested in Ed Wort's Apfelwine tutorial, but am not familiar if something similar should be done for brewing beer? Thanks in advance!

 

[user 108580]

water is fine, vodka is better if you get any suck back, but I've used water in all my brews

 

[clonies720]

water is fine, vodka is better if you get any suck back, but I've used water in all my brews

Good deal. I did actually top off the airlock with clean water. Didn't get any suckback I think.

Vodka suckback might not be so bad since the estimated ABV of this brew is 4.3%. A little light for my tastes, but I'm going for a crowd pleaser and plan on serving this at a party at my house, so not exactly looking to get people trashed... It's awfully hard to find the way out of my neighborhood even when sober

 

[greenhaze]

Congrats on your first brew. I will be brewing with the same kit as soon as my wort chiller arrives. This will also be my first brew.
Slainte

 

[iambeer]

Very cool. Except for the Crayola/blue lipstick/dildo tap handle.

 

[btgold29]

Nice work on your first brew day. If thats all that went wrong you did great. Looks like you have a great starting set up too!

 

[iamtheq]

I got the same kit. It's fermenting now. How long do you plan to leave it in the primary? The video from Midwest suggested that fermentation is done in a couple days (I used the dry yeast) but after reading a bunch of threads, I think I should leave it in for a week or two to clear up.

 

[clonies720]

Very cool. Except for the Crayola/blue lipstick/dildo tap handle.

It's a suppository...

 

[clonies720]

I got the same kit. It's fermenting now. How long do you plan to leave it in the primary? The video from Midwest suggested that fermentation is done in a couple days (I used the dry yeast) but after reading a bunch of threads, I think I should leave it in for a week or two to clear up.

2 weeks in the primary, and then rack to secondary for another 2 weeks? Haven't really thought it through.

 

[user 108580]

I use the 1, 2, 3 rule

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the bottle

You can go longer on the primary if active fermentation is still showing (i.e. krausen)

 

[clonies720]

I use the 1, 2, 3 rule

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the bottle

You can go longer on the primary if active fermentation is still showing (i.e. krausen)

I have a complete kegging system since I didn't want to mess with the time consuming process of bottling, and since we don't have the fridge space... I have an EdgeStar KC2000 dual tap kegerator and I like it so far. Needs a few of the usual home-tinkering that most cheaper kegerators require like insulating the beer tower, lines, and adding a small fan. That old chestnut

 

[user 108580]

I have a complete kegging system since I didn't want to mess with the time consuming process of bottling, and since we don't have the fridge space... I have an EdgeStar KC2000 dual tap kegerator and I like it so far. Needs a few of the usual home-tinkering that most cheaper kegerators require like insulating the beer tower, lines, and adding a small fan. That old chestnut

I keg too. I bottled once and said "screw that" and went out and bought a kegerator

 

[sonex]

I don't know were this 1,2,3 rule started but its a bunch of crap. There is no time table for brewing, when the fermentation is done its done it might be done in a couple days it could be a couple weeks, no set timetable. Same with carbing in bottles sometimes it takes a couple weeks sometimes closer to a month too many variables to make general time schedule rules.

 

[clonies720]

I don't know were this 1,2,3 rule started but its a bunch of crap. There is no time table for brewing, when the fermentation is done its done it might be done in a couple days it could be a couple weeks, no set timetable. Same with carbing in bottles sometimes it takes a couple weeks sometimes closer to a month too many variables to make general time schedule rules.

Seems legit. I noticed airlock activity a little while ago though. :rockin:

 

[clonies720]

And here's the fermenting result that I woke up to this morning Krausen is so pretty. However, I've been unable to figure out a blow-off setup for my primary 6 gallon PET fermenters and possibly for my 5 gallon glass carboys. Any suggestions?

 

[helibrewer]

For blow-off I use a 1" vinyl tube in the top of the fermentor with a wash cloth soaked in StarSan wrapped around it.

 

[user 108580]

I don't know were this 1,2,3 rule started but its a bunch of crap. There is no time table for brewing, when the fermentation is done its done it might be done in a couple days it could be a couple weeks, no set timetable. Same with carbing in bottles sometimes it takes a couple weeks sometimes closer to a month too many variables to make general time schedule rules.

Although fermentation may be done in a few days, there's still plenty of things the yeast can do in a longer time frame. For example, a diacetyl rest. I understand that Brews can have different times, but the 1, 2, 3 rule is a good basis to start brewing with.

 

[sonex]

Although fermentation may be done in a few days, there's still plenty of things the yeast can do in a longer time frame. For example, a diacetyl rest. I understand that Brews can have different times, but the 1, 2, 3 rule is a good basis to start brewing with.

totally disagree here. Too many experienced brewers have been trying to teach new to brewing to use hydrometers and be patient and don't rush the process. To set a specific time table only confuses and perpetuates false procedures.

 

[user 108580]

totally disagree here. Too many experienced brewers have been trying to teach new to brewing to use hydrometers and be patient and don't rush the process. To set a specific time table only confuses and perpetuates false procedures.

Well, everybodys got their own opinions. I for one have never had a brew go wrong by employing the above method. There's nothing wrong with carboy conditioning so I dont see the rush. I like it cuz it's more of a set it and forget way of brewing which helps me relax and enjoy the process more than fussing with taking gravity readings every couple of days.

But I think we're getting

 

[clonies720]

water is fine, vodka is better if you get any suck back, but I've used water in all my brews

So why do we use water or vodka to top off the airlock? So you can see the CO2 bubbling?

 

[user 108580]

So why do we use water or vodka to top off the airlock? So you can see the CO2 bubbling?

Let's the co2 out and doesn't let air get back in causing potential contamination.

 

[clonies720]

Let's the co2 out and doesn't let air get back in causing potential contamination.

Thanks. The last real question I can think of is: When my fermentation ends (i.e. take consistent FG readings), what next? Do I leave it in my fridge @ 66-68 degrees? Do I warm the temperature up a bit?

 

[sonex]

its an ale so just let it condition for a couple weeks at its fermentation temp. then package.