Your First Batch Stories

[rsieck1]

0369B83B-CCE1-45E4-BF26-41C967E0C42F

• rsieck1
• Jan 31, 2020
• 1

First batch prep...

Starting my very first batch tomo. Didn’t see a thread talking about everyone first batch experience. Soooo, doing my prep tonight and getting ready. Will post pics and how it goes tomo.

 

[Harleybrew32]

my first was a birthday gift, Mr Beer kit and read the directions, did everything like they said. turned out drinkable and was amazed i made beer. the truth now it wasnt very good. i think it had alot to do with the sanitizer and fermentation temp. the second refill kit was not so good and i ended up putting in the closet for 4 years. found it when cleaning out the closet and figured i would try again still wasnt impressed, then i watched some youtube videos and bought a starter kit from Northern Brewer with a Irish red and havent looked back since then, that was 2014.
looks like you are starting out pretty good there, cleaning and sanitizing are important, if your not sure clean and sanitize again. then temp control for mash and fermentation and dont forget to treat those yeasties really good. if you have any questions dont be afraid to ask, good luck and happy brewing.
cheers

 

[rsieck1]

Thanks man... I’m using a dry yeast packet. I was told and the instructions say just to add the yeast to the wort when cooled. But I have read to help the yeast proof it first before pitching. Any thoughts?

 

[Jag75]

Congrats on your set up man ! Love the profile pic too. Looks like your ready to have fun . What yeast are you using? fwiw when i use dry yeast i just sprinkle it on . Just make sure your fermentation temp is good . Be patient and dont rack into a secondary. Have a good time tomorrow!

My first batch was a Brewersbest extract kit . I bought a fastferment 7.9 gallon kit from my Aunts HBS .

 

[rsieck1]

Thanks! US-05 Yeast. Will do and no plans to rack to a secondary. Got my fingers crossed...

 

[Redpappy]

My first was a mr. beer., my kit came with 2, After I did my 2nd batch from MR. Beer, i moved to extract with a NorthernBrewer started kit that came with a amber ale.

Be patient, and have fun

 

[Buick Beer Gardens]

Thanks man... I’m using a dry yeast packet. I was told and the instructions say just to add the yeast to the wort when cooled. But I have read to help the yeast proof it first before pitching. Any thoughts?

Be sure to aerate the cool wort before pitching the yeast.

 

[Buick Beer Gardens]

My first kit was a Northern Brewer. Citus IPA. Turned out ok. Fermented two weeks. I should have let it go for 3 weeks. All in all I enjoyed brewing I ordered two more fermenters and have 3 different types of beers fermenting. Good luck!

 

[rsieck1]

My first kit was a Northern Brewer. Citus IPA. Turned out ok. Fermented two weeks. I should have let it go for 3 weeks. All in all I enjoyed brewing I ordered two more fermenters and have 3 different types of beers fermenting. Good luck!

Awesome and thanks.

 

[rsieck1]

My first kit was a Northern Brewer. Citus IPA. Turned out ok. Fermented two weeks. I should have let it go for 3 weeks. All in all I enjoyed brewing I ordered two more fermenters and have 3 different types of beers fermenting. Good luck!

will do, plan to just shake and roll it since I’m doing it in a carboy.

 

[bkboiler]

Can google safale 05 instructions. Some dry yeast requires rehydration and some does not. Second recommendation for aeration--I use an aquarium pump with sterile filter and 0.5 micron stone, was on clearance for $25 at my LHBS. Works well for low and medium OG beers but there are quicker options..

My first brew was an extract with specialty grains cream ale from NB. I had an aluminum pot that I did not passivate properly and fermented in my room (I was renting a room from a friend at the time), where temperature reached the 80s as it is summer and we did not have AC.
Lots of esters and metallic taste. Drank maybe half and dumped the rest. Made another batch and the metallic problem went away on its own (due to the acidic wort passivating the pot for me). But the esters/fusels did not until I got better at fermentation control. In fact, I wasn't pleased with my yeast flavors until I learned about rehydration and aeration...

 

[DVCNick]

My first was a Northern Brewer Chinook IPA extract kit, and I did a partial boil on my stove, which could barely keep a boil going on my ~2.5 gallons if memory serves. My setup was much less fancy than yours. It came out fine though.

Looks like you are ready to roll! Good luck.

 

[DVCNick]

US-05, is the yeast I've used more than any other. Sprinkled it straight in plenty of times with good results. Anything below 70 degrees should make a good beer, but low 60's is better I think. Fermentation temp is important. If you have a cooler and can keep it in a water bath and regulate the temp with frozen water bottles, that would be ideal and is what I did prior to getting a dedicated chest freezer.

 

[rsieck1]

Well all done. Will see how sanitary I was. Tried my best I think. Fist gravity reading was 1.072. Target was 1.063. So not sure if that super bad or not. Added the yeast when the wort was about 72 degrees. Got her sitting in the dark now...

 

[rsieck1]

Well all done. Will see how sanitary I was. Tried my best I think. Fist gravity reading was 1.072. Target was 1.063. So not sure if that super bad or not. Added the yeast when the wort was about 72 degrees. Got her sitting in the dark now...

so question is.... since my gravity was high and I added no water. My ABV will be higher with less bitter hop flavor? I think my efficient was close but I did lose some when boiling.

 

[rburrelli]

so question is.... since my gravity was high and I added no water. My ABV will be higher with less bitter hop flavor? I think my efficient was close but I did lose some when boiling.

If you took that gravity before topping off then the actual gravity would be lower if you had done so. ABV may not necessarily be higher. Depends what the yeast attenuates to.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

My first brew was a total **** show, but I didn’t really realize it and the beer came out weak, but tasted good. Since then I have incrementally improved my process each batch. Some of my mistakes on my first batch included but were not limited to: Used Phoenix tap water which is high in Chloromenes, tried to rack wort into my 1 gallon glass carboy by dumping the cooled wort in from my kettle, dumped about half of it down the sink, topped off carboy with tap water direct from tap, used all the hops rather than 1/2 like directions said to. The beer was cloudy, but didn’t taste too bad, so I continued and got educated. My beer now is much better.

 

[CharlieW]

First brew was quite a while ago. 1990? It was probably some kit, I don't remember which. I do remember LME/DME and boiling it on an electric range in the small kitchen we had and adding water etc.. My wife asking why the floor and counters are so sticky like fly paper. She was less than thrilled about my new hobby. I did make make beer and it was drinkable.
After another 2 times of doing that, I said enough and went to all grain. For me, it was easier and more fun. Plus she got her kitchen back. So still brewing and making good beer, having fun.

 

[Velnerj]

It was my first brew that got me hooked on the hobby. Living in a foreign country with not a lot of money I cobbled together enough makeshift equipment to start all grain right off the bat. Kits were basically unheard of here and I found a Malt house to buy ingredients from directly. So my first batch of beer was an all grain recipe that I designed myself.
I probably put in close to 100 hours of study, calculations and thread reading before I ever heated up my strike water.
Despite not having a temperature control chamber and using dry yeast, my first batch of beer came out really well. May have been one of my best beers.
Being that I make all my recipes myself I have yet to brew the same beer twice but perhaps I should revisit that one...

 

[SouthBounds]

Nice work! My first beer came out great...and that started the brewing addiction

 

[Harleybrew32]

congrats, US-05 is a beast of a yeast, it usually chews my brews down to at least 1.010 if my og is 1.065 or under. I do rehydrate it when i use it. keep us posted on how it turns out.
Be patient, i know it seems like forever, but it will be worth the wait.
cheers

 

[lanev]

My first brew was last Thursday. The non-removable shelves on my mini-fridge door kind of get in the way of the 5-gallon carboy. The carboy pushes against those shelves a little so I used childproof "lock" straps to hold the door closed. This forces the carboy to sit at a slight slant in the mini-fridge but my tests seemed OK.

On Friday night the family went out to dinner and when we came home I had 5 gallons of wort (and shattered glass) spread across my garage floor. Those childproof locking straps were clearly not carboy proof, they popped off the side of the fridge allowing the carboy to crash a few inches to the floor.

Until I can upgrade to better equipment (soon I hope) I will be upgrading to lashing around the fridge to make sure it doesn't pop open again. New carboy and ingredients will be here Thursday so hoping I can brew again this weekend.

 

[Harleybrew32]

i made a collar around my minifridge from 2x4's, some sheet metal so the door magnets would hold it and I took the door insert off and used a piece of plexiglass in its place, a few hours of work and now I have a great chamber that can hold 32F no problem.
if you want i can post a pick of it.

 

[Saunassa]

On Friday night the family went out to dinner and when we came home I had 5 gallons of wort (and shattered glass) spread across my garage floor. Those childproof locking straps were clearly not carboy proof, they popped off the side of the fridge allowing the carboy to crash a few inches to the floor.

After reading about glass carboys breaking and people going to the ER I used plastic fermenters from the get go. The one glass carboy I was given I threw in the garbage when the person was gone.

 

[Saunassa]

My first batch of beer was an extract pale ale and we had hot weather so the room temp about 78. Then when done I bottled during a thunderstorm while nearby low areas were flooding.
It was the Best pale ale ever, well until I made another batch at cooler temps. Now that was amazing. I still buy that kit because I really like it and it 6helps support a lhbs.

 

[lanev]

i made a collar around my minifridge from 2x4's, some sheet metal so the door magnets would hold it and I took the door insert off and used a piece of plexiglass in its place, a few hours of work and now I have a great chamber that can hold 32F no problem.
if you want i can post a pick of it.

Pic would be great, thanks. Thought about dissecting the fridge door but just not sure what I'm doing with it yet.

 

[justinbrew]

I've heard people say not to get drunk during the boil. I had a few too many and went to cool my wort in an ice bath. I was waiting for it to cool, so decided to sit down on my couch for a bit. Forgot I had kept the water on. Overflowed my sink. Big clean up LOL. The beer turned out great though!

 

[rsieck1]

My first brew was last Thursday. The non-removable shelves on my mini-fridge door kind of get in the way of the 5-gallon carboy. The carboy pushes against those shelves a little so I used childproof "lock" straps to hold the door closed. This forces the carboy to sit at a slight slant in the mini-fridge but my tests seemed OK.

On Friday night the family went out to dinner and when we came home I had 5 gallons of wort (and shattered glass) spread across my garage floor. Those childproof locking straps were clearly not carboy proof, they popped off the side of the fridge allowing the carboy to crash a few inches to the floor.

Until I can upgrade to better equipment (soon I hope) I will be upgrading to lashing around the fridge to make sure it doesn't pop open again. New carboy and ingredients will be here Thursday so hoping I can brew again this weekend.

I would have cried...

 

[bracconiere]

i've said it before here, but my first batch was something like a mr beer kit...didn't ferment, when i was 18...but liked the whole making my own drugs idea, so went straight to all-grain, and kegging....now i can brew a $8 10 gallon batch of 8% beer, love it! @applescrap (lol, told you it would keep coming up)

 

[bucketnative]

Damn, you're not half-assing your first batch. Mine was a continental lager, fermented in my parents basement in 2000. I probably did everything wrong, but it was the most satisfying batch I've ever made. Perhaps because I did it myself. Still chasing that, after all these years.

 

[Harleybrew32]

Here is a pic of it, that's my Rice Lager in it now, doing the D-rest now.

 

[Harleybrew32]

One with the door closed

 

[randal-c]

My first batch was a Williams brewing starter kit with a Porter extract ingredient kit included. I had been into "microbreweries" (adjusts onion on belt) for a number of years and always considered myself a fan but was never into the brewing side myself. In 2003 we were broke after the dot bomb and I was out of work and my wife decided to get me the kit for Christmas. It sat for a few months and one day I discovered it in the closet and decided to take the plunge.

Williams used to include an extremely basic book and video with their kits - I read and watched and nervously followed the instructions. It turned out pretty well - a bit thin but decent enough to sneak into the North Texas Irish festival in a stroller so we could buy one expensive cup of Guinness and then refill with the porter.

I was hooked, next up was an extract hefeweizen, then a partial mash and for my third batch I built a cooler mash tun.

Now I have a B3 brewing sculpture, temp control, kegerator, endless gadgets, etc.

Welcome to an endless excuse for learning and spending.

 

[SEndorf]

Interesting stories.
My first batch was an Irish Ale kit.
Everything conceivable a person could do wrong - I did wrong.
But by gawd I made beer and it was damm tasty.
I thought, this is easy! And immediately went to all grain using coolers.
My first all grain batch tasted like Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup.
OOPS!

 

[lewiley36]

My first batch was an interesting start and simple as.... can be!
5 gallons of apple juice 1 lb of brown sugar and I think 1 irish yeast pack, put it all in a fermented bucket for 3 weeks.... and carved for 2 in bottles... came out sort of like a dry apple wine but it was good.... lesson learned was to add a back sweetener after the fermentation....

 

[rsieck1]

Here is a pic of it, that's my Rice Lager in it now, doing the D-rest now.
View attachment 665383

Very cool. I would like to get a mini fridge to control my fermentation temp at some point as well and for cold crashing.

 

[rsieck1]

Interesting stories.
My first batch was an Irish Ale kit.
Everything conceivable a person could do wrong - I did wrong.
But by gawd I made beer and it was damm tasty.
I thought, this is easy! And immediately went to all grain using coolers.
My first all grain batch tasted like Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup.
OOPS!

I’m hoping for something drinkable and not cough medicine! Lol

 

[jjw5015]

Well all done. Will see how sanitary I was. Tried my best I think. Fist gravity reading was 1.072. Target was 1.063. So not sure if that super bad or not. Added the yeast when the wort was about 72 degrees. Got her sitting in the dark now...

congrats! your volume looks quite low, so some top up water would've brought the gravity down closer to your expected numbers.

 

[firerat]

My wife bought me a Mr. Beer kit with a light lager.

I made the lager first with no temperature control or really any knowledge on WTF I was doing.

I came away with something that tasted like banana water and dirty socks. And I drank every one.

So I wanted to find out why it was so nasty. This time I did a little research and got a can of pale ale. I joined here and read a lot. While far from good it was a lot better as I at least attempted to control fermentation temps. So now I made banana beer without the socks!!

11 years later I'm still researching and trying to improve.

 

[rsieck1]

congrats! your volume looks quite low, so some top up water would've brought the gravity down closer to your expected numbers.

ya I had no clue about the top off water part. It was so far my biggest mistake.