Took my 1st gravity test today post fermentation.

[woody4]

I brewed my first batch ever, English Brown Ale from Brewers Best on September 18th. I have been thinking about bottling this weekend so I wanted to get a gravity test.

My OG was 1.045 and today’s test was 1.012. It is finishing out pretty nicely I think. I also took my first taste and it was…..AWESOME! I didn’t taste anything in it that I didn’t like. I only hope it tastes that good when it’s bottled and carbed.

I know I am a total noob. The only thing that has me a bit worried is that I have been fermenting it in my basement. My basement is pretty cool and has stayed between 62 and 64 degrees. It is a little damp down there and I am sure that some mold lives down there too so I didn’t want to open it up down there. I carried it as carefully as possible upstairs to measure gravity. I cleaned and sanitized the hydrometer and tube as well as the turkey baster used to pull the beer to test. When I was getting beer into the tube beer would come dripping quickly out of the baster and into the beer. It kind of dropped into the beer enough to cause bubbles. Between that and carrying it up and back downstairs I hope I didn’t oxygenate the beer too much. It is soooo good right now that I hope it doesn’t affect my beer that much. What do you guys think?

2nd question - I have a bunch of used bottles. What is the best way to clean the inside of the bottles? I don’t have one of the bottle jet sprayers. I bought Star-San to sanitize with.

I am planning my 2nd batch right after I bottle. It is Rocky Pale Ale from Midwest Supplies. I can't wait!

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Congrats on your first brew! Welcome to the addiction!

I don't know how much you may have sloshed around your fermenter, but you should be fine. The headspace is filled with CO2, so the chances of oxygenating your beer are pretty slim.

Soak those bottles in a hot oxyclean solution and rinse well. You might want to buy yourself a bottle brush (basically looks like a small toilet brush). Sanitize them when you're ready to bottle.

 

[imrook]

Congratulations on your first beer. In my experience, if the hydro samples taste good, it's even better after conditioning and carbing. It sounds like you're practicing good beer hygine but I'm unclear on one thing. You said you sanitized the hydrometer and tube. I typically don't do that because I toss the beer out after measuring (or drink it :cross: ) But I would not recommend pouring the sample back into the fermenter even if you sanitized everything--it's just not worth the risk to save a couple ounces.

Other than that, you sound like you're well on your way. Make sure you give those bottles 2-3 weeks to carb up too. When I first started brewing, I couldn't wait to drink my beer so I tended to drink it after 10-14 days. While I thought it tasted good at the time, the bottles that made it a few weeks longer tasted _much_ better.

 

[cadarnell]

my turkey baster always drips back into the beer .. no biggie there ... unless the beer was making sloshing noises while you were carrying it, it's fine .. even if it was, I have read it's pretty hard to get enough oxygen into the beer to cause a problem unless you are just trying to do it.

start another brew ASAP !!!!! .. good luck

 

[kyleobie]

Woo hoo! You made beer! Isn't that awesome?

Soak those bottles in a hot oxyclean solution and rinse well. You might want to buy yourself a bottle brush (basically looks like a small toilet brush). Sanitize them when you're ready to bottle.

+1 to oxyclean.

 

[Pilotpip]

Woody,

I took the bottles I saved up and soaked them in oxyclean (the kind with no dye/perfume) overnight. Just filled up a cooler with a couple scoops and water. Many of the lables were floating in the water the next morning. Those that weren't slipped right off. I used a scotchbrite pad to clean off the adhesive. While I was cleaning the adhesive I used one of those bottle cleaning wands you see on the various store sites, well worth it. It blasted the inside good.

Before I bottled them I dunked them in starsan to sanitize and let them dry on a bottling tree. Worked well. The hardest part has been waiting for the brew to carb up.

 

[rycov]

yeah, you should be fine. as was said there is CO2 in there. i think you have to try pretty hard to oxidize your beer. i'm pretty clumsy and i haven't ever had an oxidized batch.

 

[woody4]

Thank you everyone!

@imrook - I didn't really think about why I was sanitizing the hydrometer and tube. HaHa. I just did because I'm a noob and I'm a little worried about ruining my beer so I sanitize everything I use beer related. But I never really thought about the beer not going back in the fermenter last night. It went into my belly sanitized though!

I am definitely going to use Oxyclean then.

I plan on leaving them to condition in the bottle for 3 weeks. I hope I can wait that long.

 

[acuenca]

Another tool I just recently discovered and made me wonder WHY I didn't buy it sooner was the vinator:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/vinator-bottle-rinser.html

I got mine at my LHBS but man does it make life freaking easy for bottling...