Well I did it, just one concern

[Daverust]

Hello people, well I finally made the jump, my first homebrew, a very basic Amber ale (I love them ) and of course it took me like 4 freaking hours! I will definitely considering upgrade or plan a little better the wort chilling phase, was a pain in the ass... it took like 40 min, and I left it at 35 degrees (Celsius, mexican here).

Anyway, I'm a little concerned about the OG, the recipe says 1.052 and the reading was... 1.110, should I be concerned about the final result? A friend told me is ok, and the beer will likely give me a ABV about 4% (Hope so)

Closing, was a great experience! drinking some beers, with music out loud, doing different plans, notes, measures, I will definitely repeat this again. So sad I start kinda old...(32 years old)

I want to thank this page and the amazing advices for everyone here, it definitely helped me to decide to make my own beer. Cheers!

I will post results of my beer, even if it ends horribly :rockin:

Ignore spelling errors, english is not my original language :cross:

 

[jro238]

Congrats on your first brew.

I'm guessing that this was an extract beer. 1.110 might be your gravity before adding the top off water to the batch, but it should have been very close to 1.052 once everything was mixed together well. A full batch of 1.110 wort will yield something closer to 11-12% abv.

 

[BugDude]

Congrats and welcome to the tribe. It's never too late to start homebrewing. Unless of course you're already dead.

 

[tektonjp]

"Ignore spelling errors, english is not my original language"
Yeah, well you hit "pain in the ass" dead center!

You don't say how you made the beer. Was it an extract kit? If so, it's possible you didn't mix things up well enough, IF you followed the recipe and water amounts.

BTW, did you pitch your yeast into 35c wort? That is definitely not a good idea.

As for age, I started after 50. 32? Get outa here! Big future ahead for you.

 

[RM-MN]

At 32, you're just a kid yet with so many years of brewing ahead of you. Enjoy them all.

 

[unionrdr]

Just to clarify things,35C is 95F. Definitely too warm. I brew with local spring water & put 2 gallons in the fridge a day or two before brew day. So when I top off to recipe volume,it gets the wort I chilled to 75F or so in the ice bath down to about 65F (23.8C & 18.3C respectively). And I agree you most likely didn't get the wort & top off water mixed well. I stir roughly for a few minutes to get them mixed well before taking my hydrometer sample.

 

[Daverust]

Hello again, and thanks for your replies. Um yeah I think it was too warm when I pitched the yeast but right now is bubbling like there's no tomorrow! A lot of activity in the airlock. Im using a Cool Brewing bag, another question, if I close the bag there will be no issues about not letting it "breathe" and then explode or something like that?

This is the list of ingredients of my kit (I made half batch, 2.5 gal)

Amber Waves Of Grain
Yield: 5 gallons

Starting Gravity: 1.052-.56
Final Gravity: 1.012-.15
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Color SRM: 15.6
Hop IBU’s: 29

Ingredients
6 lbs. Amber Dry Malt Extract 1 Grain Steeping Bag
.50 lb. 40 L Crystal Malt (Grain) 1 Hop Bag
.25 lb. Carapils (Grains)
.50 lb. 90L Crystal Malt(Grain)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Bitter)
1 oz Willamette Hops (Flavor)
5 oz Priming Sugar
1 pk Brewers Yeast

 

[unionrdr]

Well,the problem with a high pitch temp is the action of the yeast fermenting the wort will drive the temp even higher. You get off flavors that way.

 

[cease]

Yup, def too warm to pitch. Try to pitch at the temp you are fermenting at. I also use a Cool Brewing bag and find I can get my carboy to 68*, pitch but then need to add an additional frozen 2L bottle of water to keep temps in check the first 3 days of active fermentation. The bag is great at maintaining constant temps but you do have to make adjustments every 6-12 hours.

Welcome to the hobby! Nothing quite as rewarding as pouring your own pint or having people ask where you bought that beer from.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Daverust]

Oh my, well... let's see how it ends. For better or worse, im building experience for my next batches

 

[cease]

It will be fine, nothing to kick yourself over. Just give it some extra time so the yeasties can hopefully clean up any byproducts of high ferm temps.




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[tektonjp]

Hello again, and thanks for your replies. Um yeah I think it was too warm when I pitched the yeast but right now is bubbling like there's no tomorrow! A lot of activity in the airlock. Im using a Cool Brewing bag, another question, if I close the bag there will be no issues about not letting it "breathe" and then explode or something like that?

This is the list of ingredients of my kit (I made half batch, 2.5 gal)

Amber Waves Of Grain
Yield: 5 gallons

Starting Gravity: 1.052-.56
Final Gravity: 1.012-.15
Alcohol by Volume: 5.2%
Color SRM: 15.6
Hop IBU’s: 29

Ingredients
6 lbs. Amber Dry Malt Extract 1 Grain Steeping Bag
.50 lb. 40 L Crystal Malt (Grain) 1 Hop Bag
.25 lb. Carapils (Grains)
.50 lb. 90L Crystal Malt(Grain)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Bitter)
1 oz Willamette Hops (Flavor)
5 oz Priming Sugar
1 pk Brewers Yeast

Dumb question, but since you said you made a half batch of 2.5 gallons, that means you split all the ingredients in half too, right?

 

[Daverust]

Hey tek! Yes, sorry for not pointing it in my post, I cut the ingredients to half.

Btw, just a quick update about my brew. Right now smell very good! But no actvity in the airlock, I know I shouldn´t be too concerned about this but still... also, I figure it out how to hold a better temp, right now is on 70F, my question is, the beer can be saved if at first the temp was too high, and then cool? The flavors will be very off?

Thanks


What can I expect

 

[tektonjp]

Unless you absolutely have to (ie, only one fermenter and just got to have some beer right NOW), leave it be. Time will mellow most mistakes and what seemed to be maybe undrinkable becomes okay afer a couple of weeks or three.

 

[unionrdr]

True that. Allowing 3-7 days after initial fermentation is done allows the yeasties to clean up any by-products of fermentation.

 

[Daverust]

Thanks guys. Yeah, my original plan was to leave it 2 weeks, bottling and other 2 weeks for a total of 1 month, I consider it will be enough...

Below, nastyness.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ktism7kexzbgxbd/mJR6grfspG