Hey guys, total noob here. Just thought that I would tell the tale of a noob's first brew so that other noobs might get an idea or two of what NOT to do. The beer is sitting the basement and we'll know if its drinkable in 2/3 weeks. At any rate, here we go...
Excited, perhaps a bit cocky, because I watched a gazillion YouTube video's and read posts from this forum and other places on the internet. Purchased a Hefeweizen premixed 5 gallon kit from the homebrew store and brew day came.
It all started smooth enough. Boiled 3.25 gallons of spring water and overshot the temp to 168F as the info out there says that once you put the grains in the temp drops to the 152F where you need it for the recipe that came with the kit. Slowly poured the grains while mixing in the mash tub, there was no way in hell I was going to allow any lumps in my mash.
I'm Superman.
Problem is, I did it too slow and the temp fell to like 148F. Damn. Ok, no problem, I'll boil some water and bring the temp up. Boiled in an electric kettle about 1/4 gallon. Damn. Still not up to temp. Boiled another 1/2 gallon and brought the temp up but I lost like 20 min and I have more mashing liquid than the recipe calls for. Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to make this mistake.
60 mins....
Boiled more water for the Splarge, mixed the Star San, disinfected, and put some in the spray bottle.
I start the Vorlauf. The first bit of wort comes out but then when I get to the 2nd pitcher and as it starts to clear up, it slows to a dribble. Damn. It looked like the bag of grains also had the rice husks to prevent it from getting gummed up but here we are. At the rate the wort was coming out of the tub, I could have kids and send them to college. So I take the mixing spoon and slowly try and move the grain away from mesh filter. The wort flows again but it's just as cloudy as before. Damn. I try a couple of times but I can't get the grains to stop gumming up the filter so I just use the spoon to clear the grain and just let it go. Cloudier than ideal wort.
I Splarge and get 6.5 gallons into the pot.
Boil. I realize the instructions have no time for the adding of the hops and the youtube guys didn't say and everybody has got a different opinion on when to add for a Hef, so I say whatever, I'll add 1/2 at the beginning of the boil, and then the other 1/2 at 30. If it works out, I'll have a new recipe.
I put the chiller into the wort for the final 15 to disinfect. Attach the chiller but for some reason, there's no water coming from the tap in my backyard. Damn. Move the wort and chiller to the garage but the tap is in an awkward spot so I'm playing Twister while chilling my wort. The water coming out is normally cold but its not today even though its winter here in Canada so I'm going through like 6 buckets of water to chill the wort. While I'm chilling, a few droplets drip from the hose of the chiller into the wort. Damn. Did I infect it? Damn. Oh well, we'll find out later.
I stop the chilling at 74F figuring that the wort will get to the 68F I need to pitch the yeast getting it in to the house and because it felt like somebody was inserting nails into my back from doing Twister while chilling and I couldn't go another bucket.
Get the wort into my kitchen. Damn. Temp not dropping quickly enough. Can't fit the pot into my sink. No problem, I'll let the wort sit with the lid on for 30 min to get to temp.
60 min later, the Wort only gets to 71F. 3 degrees in 60 min?!!
At this point, I think its a brilliant idea to try and filter and aerate the wort moving to the fermentation bucket so I use one of the fine mesh soup strainers. Bad idea. The hops and other solids gum up the strainer so fast, it was useless. Damn.
Whatever, I get the wort into the bucket and take another temp reading. I think the temp is still not ideal but it won't kill the yeast and time's a wasting. I pitch the dry yeast. The yeast sits there and floats, do I stir? Dunno what to do. I stir. I seal the lid and put an airlock on it and bring the wort to the basement where its consistently 68F. Not cold enough for Primary but it's the coldest spot I have in my place.
12 hrs, no bubbles, 24 hours, no bubbles. Meanwhile, I'm googling when the fermentation starts, is it weird that there's no bubbles, will my top blow off from the Krausen from just using an airlock when the Hef is supposed to have a crazy one? etc, etc...pretty much everyone says just chill...
48 hrs some bubbles but hardly. I figure I'll have a look inside and change to a blowoff line so that I'll have a peace of mind that I won't be cleaning beer from my ceiling.
Inside, I see signs of what used to be a small Krausen and some stuff floating on top but not a crazy fermentation.
72 hours no bubbling in the overflow bucket.
4 days later, no bubbling in the overlflow bucket. Damn. Did I infect it? Did I kill the yeast?
I figure I might as well change back to an airlock since the chances of a blowoff and now remote and I can take a gravity reading.
Gravity reading. 1.00X, can't tell exactly but its close to 1.000. Damn. I guess that means I have alcohol, around 5%. I take a small sip. It tastes like crap but maybe it gets to normal after another 2/3 weeks. At this point, I have no idea.
I put the Airlock on....Damn.....I pushed too hard and lost the stopper into the bucket.
It doesn't float so I guess it will be part of the beer....
I just hope that the StarSan did its job. So now I've resigned to the fact that it is what it is and we'll have to see in a few weeks what I have. Live and learn I guess.
Excited, perhaps a bit cocky, because I watched a gazillion YouTube video's and read posts from this forum and other places on the internet. Purchased a Hefeweizen premixed 5 gallon kit from the homebrew store and brew day came.
It all started smooth enough. Boiled 3.25 gallons of spring water and overshot the temp to 168F as the info out there says that once you put the grains in the temp drops to the 152F where you need it for the recipe that came with the kit. Slowly poured the grains while mixing in the mash tub, there was no way in hell I was going to allow any lumps in my mash.
I'm Superman.
Problem is, I did it too slow and the temp fell to like 148F. Damn. Ok, no problem, I'll boil some water and bring the temp up. Boiled in an electric kettle about 1/4 gallon. Damn. Still not up to temp. Boiled another 1/2 gallon and brought the temp up but I lost like 20 min and I have more mashing liquid than the recipe calls for. Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to make this mistake.
60 mins....
Boiled more water for the Splarge, mixed the Star San, disinfected, and put some in the spray bottle.
I start the Vorlauf. The first bit of wort comes out but then when I get to the 2nd pitcher and as it starts to clear up, it slows to a dribble. Damn. It looked like the bag of grains also had the rice husks to prevent it from getting gummed up but here we are. At the rate the wort was coming out of the tub, I could have kids and send them to college. So I take the mixing spoon and slowly try and move the grain away from mesh filter. The wort flows again but it's just as cloudy as before. Damn. I try a couple of times but I can't get the grains to stop gumming up the filter so I just use the spoon to clear the grain and just let it go. Cloudier than ideal wort.
I Splarge and get 6.5 gallons into the pot.
Boil. I realize the instructions have no time for the adding of the hops and the youtube guys didn't say and everybody has got a different opinion on when to add for a Hef, so I say whatever, I'll add 1/2 at the beginning of the boil, and then the other 1/2 at 30. If it works out, I'll have a new recipe.
I put the chiller into the wort for the final 15 to disinfect. Attach the chiller but for some reason, there's no water coming from the tap in my backyard. Damn. Move the wort and chiller to the garage but the tap is in an awkward spot so I'm playing Twister while chilling my wort. The water coming out is normally cold but its not today even though its winter here in Canada so I'm going through like 6 buckets of water to chill the wort. While I'm chilling, a few droplets drip from the hose of the chiller into the wort. Damn. Did I infect it? Damn. Oh well, we'll find out later.
I stop the chilling at 74F figuring that the wort will get to the 68F I need to pitch the yeast getting it in to the house and because it felt like somebody was inserting nails into my back from doing Twister while chilling and I couldn't go another bucket.
Get the wort into my kitchen. Damn. Temp not dropping quickly enough. Can't fit the pot into my sink. No problem, I'll let the wort sit with the lid on for 30 min to get to temp.
60 min later, the Wort only gets to 71F. 3 degrees in 60 min?!!
At this point, I think its a brilliant idea to try and filter and aerate the wort moving to the fermentation bucket so I use one of the fine mesh soup strainers. Bad idea. The hops and other solids gum up the strainer so fast, it was useless. Damn.
Whatever, I get the wort into the bucket and take another temp reading. I think the temp is still not ideal but it won't kill the yeast and time's a wasting. I pitch the dry yeast. The yeast sits there and floats, do I stir? Dunno what to do. I stir. I seal the lid and put an airlock on it and bring the wort to the basement where its consistently 68F. Not cold enough for Primary but it's the coldest spot I have in my place.
12 hrs, no bubbles, 24 hours, no bubbles. Meanwhile, I'm googling when the fermentation starts, is it weird that there's no bubbles, will my top blow off from the Krausen from just using an airlock when the Hef is supposed to have a crazy one? etc, etc...pretty much everyone says just chill...
48 hrs some bubbles but hardly. I figure I'll have a look inside and change to a blowoff line so that I'll have a peace of mind that I won't be cleaning beer from my ceiling.
Inside, I see signs of what used to be a small Krausen and some stuff floating on top but not a crazy fermentation.
72 hours no bubbling in the overflow bucket.
4 days later, no bubbling in the overlflow bucket. Damn. Did I infect it? Did I kill the yeast?
I figure I might as well change back to an airlock since the chances of a blowoff and now remote and I can take a gravity reading.
Gravity reading. 1.00X, can't tell exactly but its close to 1.000. Damn. I guess that means I have alcohol, around 5%. I take a small sip. It tastes like crap but maybe it gets to normal after another 2/3 weeks. At this point, I have no idea.
I put the Airlock on....Damn.....I pushed too hard and lost the stopper into the bucket.
It doesn't float so I guess it will be part of the beer....
I just hope that the StarSan did its job. So now I've resigned to the fact that it is what it is and we'll have to see in a few weeks what I have. Live and learn I guess.