My first brew

[atio]

I was on the way to Sam's Club on "no membership needed weekend" to buy an MES 40 and decided to stop off at a tag sale I saw.  Low and behold, guy had a full set of brewing supplies.  Plastic primary, glass carboy, bottling bucket, brushes, sanitizer, airlocks, racking cane with auto siphon, capper & caps.  I really had no interest in brewing, but figured I'd ask.  When the guy said "I dunno, 5 bucks?" I suddenly had an interest in brewing! 

  The kit was his son's and there was some kind of dispute so he was getting rid of everything of his, so he didn't know what it was worth.  I had some insta-guilt so I told him that it was probably worth 10 times that and that was still a good price.  He said he just wanted the stuff gone and if I wanted it, 5 bucks is all it would take... Guilt relieved!

So, when I got home I started reading up on how to brew, what I would need, etc.  I got a couple of liquid malt extract kits from Midwest Supplies, a Belgian Witbier and an Irish Red.  Chose those to appease the wife who was none too happy when I came home with the gear, so I figured if I could make something she liked, maybe all would be forgiven.  And if they don't come out too good, I don't know what they're *supposed* to taste like (I'm a BCM guy normally) and I can take one for the team. 

Friday the 17th turned out to be brew day.  I had nothing to do at work, so I took the afternoon off and decided to brew the Belgian Witbier.  So about 1pm I started the process and quickly discovered I'm bad at estimating how big pots are.  We have a "large" stock pot and a smaller one for pasta.  I thought they were 5 gallons and 3 gallons respectively.  They were 2 gallons and 1 gallon.  Whoops!  So off to Walmart I go for a 21 quart pot.  By the time I grabbed it and headed home, it was about 3pm.

I figured I could get it all done before my wife got home from work and I could have everything cleaned so she wouldn't be mad.  I decided to use tap water (it's pretty good here) so I needed to boil it to remove the chlorine, so I started up two pots, one with 3.5 gallons and one with 1.5 gallons of tap water.  I severely underestimated the amount of time needed to boil 3.5 gallons of water, even when you fill the pot with hot water.  I turned out to take about an hour to boil the big pot.  So now I'm at about 4:15 and my wife gets out of work in 45 minutes so I come to the realization that I have to stop because I've got the kitchen full of stuff and we have to have dinner and what not, so the cleanup process begins and I find a place from my boiled water.

After dinner, I put things back on the heat and got the grains into the muslin bag and begin my steep.  I panicked here because it really didn't change color after 30 minutes of steeping.  I took a spoonful of the water and tasted it and it was pretty nasty, so the flavoring came out of the grains.  Not sure if I made a mistake here or not by not letting it steep more until the water changed colors.

I brought it up to boil and the removed and added the liquid extract, boiled again and began adding the hops and other ingredients, all the while thinking "This is pretty cool, wish I had done this before!"  Then it started to go off the rails when the wort was done.  I had figured I would just do a cold water bath with some ice if necessary.  I froze up a couple water bottles and some 2 liter soda bottles and thought I was okay.

Mistake #1 - Cooling a pot from 212 degrees to under 75 degrees for pitching is not as easy as I thought it would be.  I thought I'd put cold tap water in the sink, throw the pot in there and it would make it eventually.  I had a miscalculation here - My tap water comes out on cold at around 72 degrees, I thought it was much colder than that.  Plus, with all the boiling of water, the temperature in the house was about 80 degrees.  I got the wort down to about 85 and had put my other pot of boiled water in the freezer and it was at about 57, so I combined the two in the primary and was at around 73, so I could pitch!  This was by far the least fun thing I had to do that turned into a two hour process.  I honestly was close to quitting and dumping the wort.  I read all over the place about how cooling the wort quickly is very important to prevent infection.  I am still not sure if I got it down quick enough or not... we'll see in a few weeks I guess.

Mistake #2 - So I pre-boiled 1.5 gallons and 3.5 gallons of water because I was making a 5 gallon batch.  When I combined everything in the primary, I had 4 gallons of wort.  So I learned a new word, boil off!  I quickly boiled 2 gallons of water and then had to go through the cooling process all over again.

I finally got the primary up to 5 gallons of wort, pitched the yeast, and added the airlock at around midnight.  I put it in the downstairs stand up shower just in case I had a "violent fermentation" like I've seen online.  The next morning when I woke up, I had airlock activity!!

 

So now I have 5 more days in the primary, then I'll rack to the secondary for a week-ish then bottle.  I will try and take more pics along the way, or at least come back with an update when I open the first one.  I took some good lessons away from this brew that I think will make the next one much smoother.  Next time I am probably going to buy a gallon or two of spring water and put it in the fridge the night before so I can use it to cool my wort.  Depending on how these batches come out and if I decide this is something I may do more of, I may get an immersion chiller.  I should be able to get the wort under 75 with that and the cooled spring water much easier.

Got a bit wordy there, sorry about that, but if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.  Oh, and Sam's Club was out of the MES 40, so I'm still looking to buy my first smoker.  That has been another ordeal, but that's for another section of the forums! 

 

[atio]

Picture of the grains after steeping

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• atio
• Aug 19, 2012

 

[atio]

Airlock activity!

img225[1].jpg

• atio
• Aug 19, 2012

 

[diesel]

Man,  That sounds like a heck of a day.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how it turns out.  I found out after making a few batches that it isn't really that big of a deal to make a few mistakes.  The main thing in brewing is to keep everything as clean as possible.  Chilling the wort isn't as big of a deal when extract brewing.  So you should be Okay there.  You may not win any beer awards with your first brew but you probably won't noticed anything bad flavor wise.

I picked up a book that really helped me with my (stress) factor "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition".

Charles Papazian does a good job at explaining things on a level that one can understand.  He also provides some pretty good recipes.

Good luck on the brew and also good luck w/ the smoking!
[h1] [/h1]

 

[brewandsmoke]

The first time is always a mess! But its an awesome thing when you crack that first beer that you make! The book mentioned above helped me a TON. Congratulations on getting it done. Now the hard post comes.... Waiting!

 

[atio]

Thanks for the suggestion on the book, I'll have to see if I can pick it up somewhere local or order it when I get more kits.  I've been on a couple forums and they talk at such a higher level than I can understand right now, so hopefully it can help out some.

 

[bdawg]

Great!

You did the right thing by getting it cool before pitching and by removing the chlorine before using that water.

I suggest you keep the beer in the primary for 2 full weeks (despite the kits saying 1 week is sufficient) as the yeast will post process their byproducts more fully.  You can still rack to a shorter secondary and you will end up with a better beer in the end.

HTH

 

[atio]

Great!

You did the right thing by getting it cool before pitching and by removing the chlorine before using that water.
I suggest you keep the beer in the primary for 2 full weeks (despite the kits saying 1 week is sufficient) as the yeast will post process their byproducts more fully.  You can still rack to a shorter secondary and you will end up with a better beer in the end.
HTH

Thanks for the advice. How long would you think I need to leave it in the secondary for? I'm already tempted to order another primary to start another batch. This patience thing is tough!!!

 

[bdawg]

For a witbier, the secondary is optional, but if you want to do one, 3-7 days should be plenty.

 

[atio]

For a witbier, the secondary is optional, but if you want to do one, 3-7 days should be plenty.

I've been looking around and a lot of folks are doing a primary only thing.  I was hoping to move to the secondary for 2 reasons... #1 - Cause I had it and #2 to clarify.  My ambient temp is around 70 where the primary is, so it's going to be around 80--85 within the bucket.  Fermentation has slowed significantly from about every 3 seconds to about every 12 seconds.  I'm starting to get worried, but I keep telling myself RDWHAB   :)

I know patience is a virtue, but I'm having problems adhering to it.  I have a hydrometer, but I don't know how to use it.  I want to wine thief to a cup and when the hydrometer doesn't produce results, just drink the sample as to "not waste the beer."   I've held out so far, but I have another 10 days in the primary.... we'll see how it goes  :)

Thanks again for the guidance.  I'm on another forum and it's a bit more snotty where the standard response is "Go read the sticky noob" so getting something I can actually use is well received.  Now I just need to go find bottles to condition in...

Thanks again!

 

[diesel]

I don't think you will get any snobby responses here.  I know the waiting thing is hard to do but it is very important.  You almost need to just forget about it and smoke some meat or something.  As for secondary, I have yet to do that.  But, if you do I would wait the full two weeks.

I usually brew on a Sunday so I can mark my calendar for two Sundays from that point.  That is when I bottle.  And usually wait another two weeks.  But sometimes I try on a week in. 

As for your Hydrometer,  That isn't hard to use.  Did you get your Original Gravity?  As soon as I have chilled the wort to desired temp. I drop the hydrometer in and see what number I have.  Write it down.  Then before bottling I do the same.  Write that number down.  There is a simple math formula that will give you your Alcohol By Volume (ABV) .  ABV = (Starting SG - Final SG) * 131. 

Here is the thing.  Brewing beer is gonna take practice.  And like smoking meat, the products that are produced are usually pretty good.  Once you have brewed a few batches, read a few of the books about brewing, and kept up with this forum.  You will be producing fine homebrew in no time.

Aaron.

by the way.  I only have 3 brews under my belt and all have been great!  I am sure they wouldn't win any awards but it sure is nice sitting down with some smoked meat and a home brew.

 

[atio]

I don't think you will get any snobby responses here.  I know the waiting thing is hard to do but it is very important.  You almost need to just forget about it and smoke some meat or something.  As for secondary, I have yet to do that.  But, if you do I would wait the full two weeks.

I usually brew on a Sunday so I can mark my calendar for two Sundays from that point.  That is when I bottle.  And usually wait another two weeks.  But sometimes I try on a week in. 

As for your Hydrometer,  That isn't hard to use.  Did you get your Original Gravity?  As soon as I have chilled the wort to desired temp. I drop the hydrometer in and see what number I have.  Write it down.  Then before bottling I do the same.  Write that number down.  There is a simple math formula that will give you your Alcohol By Volume (ABV) .  ABV = (Starting SG - Final SG) * 131. 

Here is the thing.  Brewing beer is gonna take practice.  And like smoking meat, the products that are produced are usually pretty good.  Once you have brewed a few batches, read a few of the books about brewing, and kept up with this forum.  You will be producing fine homebrew in no time.

Aaron.

by the way.  I only have 3 brews under my belt and all have been great!  I am sure they wouldn't win any awards but it sure is nice sitting down with some smoked meat and a home brew.

I never got the OG.  I wasn't sure what the hydrometer was for, so I just didn't use it.  I'll have to try it on my next batch though, so thanks for the explanation. 

I really need to sit and actually read a book or two on brewing.  I knew enough to brew from the kit, but that is really it.  I'm going to try and track down The Complete Joy of Homebrewing as suggested earlier in the thread and give that a read and see if that knocks off some of the noob-ness 

 

[bdawg]

Yeah, the folks here are mellow.  No flaming.

Ask away.  There are a few of us here with quite a bit of homebrewing experience.  I brewed my first batch about 10 yrs ago and have been hooked ever since.

HTH-

 

[ted]

Instead of putting the kettle into the sink with cool water try adding a bag of ice to the water , I know guys that have used ice baths for a few years with decent success. I would also suggest a good brewing book to assist you , you can look up "How to Brew"by John Palmer online for free and use that, it's pretty good and covers almost everything you need to know. Also there are good homebrew forums for more reference, Homebrew Talk is a decent one. (besides the info you can get right here :))

 

[bdawg]

Ted-

Good info in general, though I will add that the ice bag idea seems like a great idea on the surface, but can actually become problematic.

The problem is that the water they use to make the ice is sanitary enough to drink, but not sanitary enough for brewing.

The small but non-trivial amount of bacteria will be introduced into the cooling wort once the temps get low enough (below 140F) and while there is still ice to melt.

That is the point where bacteria are at their prime and able to take root and then spoil the whole batch.

You will hear lots of times where folks will do this and it will in fact work a bunch of times.  Then, WHAM! you get nailed with an infection which ruins the batch.

Honestly, it is much less risky to use the ice outside the vessel (as in an ice bath), where it can't make contact with the wort.

HTH-

 

[atio]

I thought about using the ice directly into the wort but didn't end up going that way because of the reasons BDawg mentioned.  I figured I spent all the time boiling and cooling just to create the wort, I didn't want to add anything I didn't know into it.  Another suggestion someone gave me was to go buy a bottle or two of spring water from the store and put it in the fridge and only use it for brewing.  Use the ice bath as before but when the temperature gets into the 80's, add the cooled water to finish it off.  Much easier than having to boil extra tap water and then cool that to add to the wort.

I'm two days away from bottling, so I hope to get a taste on Friday or some time over the weekend.  Tom Petty was right... the waiting is the hardest part!
 

 

[bdawg]

Cold Bottled water IS a very good way to do this, especially if you live in a place where the water is very hard.

Water chemistry is probably the most advanced topic associated with homebrewing. 

If your water is good enough to drink, it's probably good enough to brew with.  However,

If water spots around the sink consistently leave white marks when they dry up, then adjusting your water will most likely be necessary to brew good beer.

This is highly location dependent.

 

[cricky101]

I never got the OG.  I wasn't sure what the hydrometer was for, so I just didn't use it.  I'll have to try it on my next batch though, so thanks for the explanation. 

I really need to sit and actually read a book or two on brewing.  I knew enough to brew from the kit, but that is really it.  I'm going to try and track down The Complete Joy of Homebrewing as suggested earlier in the thread and give that a read and see if that knocks off some of the noob-ness 

Congratulations on your new hobby! It can be a blast, but don't let yourself get overwhelmed with all of the nuances and different gadgets/methods. Yeast and wort want to become beer!

Your kit probably has an estimated OG you can use. If you ended up with the volume of wort specified in the instructions, and used all of the fermentables that were supplied, you should be very close.

I've been brewing for quite a while (do all-grain brew-in-a-bag), and it'll only get easier for you. I still do extract kits on occasion for certain styles - I'm drinking a keg of an extract heffeweizen brewed with dry yeast - that tastes great right now. Nice, cloudy orange-ish yellow color and a good hit of bananas and cloves.

I also don't use a secondary very often except when I make something that's going to sit for a long time. This weekend I'm brewing an attempt at a Founder's KBS clone that will have to sit for at least four or five months, so that will go into a secondary (with bourbon-soaked oak). I haven't had any problems with clarity leaving most of my beers in primary for three weeks or so and then right into the keg.

Again, congratulations!

 

[atio]

I got this kit from Midwest:  http://www.midwestsupplies.com/belgian-witbier.html

It gives an OG of 1.043.  I'm bottling soon, can I take a reading then and compare it against 1.043 and see where I'm at?
 

 

[atio]

Cold Bottled water IS a very good way to do this, especially if you live in a place where the water is very hard.

Water chemistry is probably the most advanced topic associated with homebrewing. 

If your water is good enough to drink, it's probably good enough to brew with.  However,

If water spots around the sink consistently leave white marks when they dry up, then adjusting your water will most likely be necessary to brew good beer.

This is highly location dependent.

We are lucky to live in a city with really good tap water.  I drink it "straight" every day and have never tasted anything out of the ordinary.  I've met other people who say it tastes bad, but I don't see it.  I know you can buy things to fix your tap water, but I didn't think it necessary.  I guess we'll see in a couple weeks tho!  :)