Critique/Advice on My First Brew (thorough with pictures)

[electrolight]

So I have made apfelwein once. It was a fun experience so I decided to try my hand at brewing. And of course as a novice I couldn't chose to do extract, I definitely had to do an all grain batch. And of course I couldn't choose and "easy" beer I had to go with a Scaldis clone. Well all things considered I think it went pretty well and I definitely had a couple accidental strokes of luck.

I was trying to make a 5g batch using the stove top BIAB approach. The grain bill was 17.5lbs but I got an increased ratio of 19.5lbs in case my efficiency was bad (since it is my first attempt at brewing). As you can imagine this was alot more grain than I imagined it was when I took it home and got it out of the bag. Unfortunately I only had a 6g pot and a 5g pot so on the fly I had to improvise and make two mini batches and was worried silly I already would be ruining the brew before it ever got going (I later learned this was actually a common approach and have since eased my fears).

When I was done mashing and sparging? (it was on the stove so I'm not sure it is still called sparging) both batches I was left with about 9g of wort total in both pots [picture 1]. I couldn't believe I had so much because I followed the directions online as far as how much water to use almost to a t. Anyways I set the grain aside to dehydrate with my dehydrator because I remember reading something about making bread with the spent grain [picture 2].

In a pinch I decided to boil off 4 gallons (luckily my stove had no problem with heat and the fact that I had two pots boiling off meant almost twice as much wort). It took two hours to boil off the 4 gallons but I was then freaking out about how long one is allowed to boil. But I had my fingers crossed and carried on. I estimated when the boil-off would be done and added hops accordingly. I was impressed with my calculations and the consistency of my boil-off rate.

Once done I began cooling and had cooled the wort in about an 1.5-2 hours with my ice and bucket method. I started to worry even more because I got these clouds floating around in my wort [picture 3]. I had no idea what they were but I figured they probably shouldn't be there since I never saw them online. Still I have no idea what they are but I hope the yeast doesn't mind and it just settles at the bottom with the trub after fermentation. The wort at this point was also really sticky once it dried (ask my countertops!).

I got it down to about 85 degrees before pitching my yeast I made with a yeast starter. I then totally forgot about a blow off valve and was really disheartened because I didn't have the tools to make one. But I scraped it together and managed to set one up [picture 5]! But I noticed that the wort was separating into layers really badly and I thought that that's it, for sure its game over because I know I've never seen that before online [picture 4].

Anyways, after 24 hours there was a 1 inch krausen and after 5 days there is still a half inch krausen.

But the kicker on this whole adventure is that my OG was targeted at 1.110 and I thought for sure I'd never hit it or be way off. I told myself I'd be happy with 1.090... But I hit 1.111! (I measured more than once with different samples)! I know that is only half the battle but for my first go being within .001 was just so satisfying! Anyways I kept the ambient temp at about 60 for the first two days and then 70 degrees from then on. Its bubble rate on day 2 was about 123 bubbles per minute. It is now down to about 62 bpm on day 5.


TIPS FROM THE PRO: (now that I have a full 1 brew under my belt!)
-Don't brew such a big beer, but if you must, then get big pots! Would have cut my brew from 12 hours to probably more like 6.
-Don't keep wet grains for more than 24 hours! For the grain I did not dehydrate (there was just too much). By hour 40 it had strong smell, by hour 48 it was reaking and not tolerable (and I'm no wuss).
-If you are in the research phase figure out what that cloudy thing may have been and if you need to filter it out (I didn't filter it and wonder If I needed to, back to sticking my nose in the forums).

 

[electrolight]

Oh and I found the recipe to make bread with the spent grain that works like a charm! (except keep the temp more at like 400 degrees and bake for only 25 minutes (with two different ovens I had better results with my stated temp/time and I don't live on a mountain)). But great recipe!

 

[unionrdr]

Those cloudy clumps are hot break in the kettle & cold break in the fermenter. That's why I pour all through a dual layer fine mesh strainer. To get out as much gunk as I can & aerate the ber as well. I dry my grains in thin layers on baking sheets in a 200F oven over several hours. They're light & fluffy when dried. I cool them & place in 1 gallon zip lock bags for storage marked for what beer they were used to make. I use a Mr Coffee burr grinder on the finest esspresso setting to get flour from them.

 

[electrolight]

Those cloudy clumps are hot break in the kettle & cold break in the fermenter. That's why I pour all through a dual layer fine mesh strainer. To get out as much gunk as I can & aerate the ber as well. I dry my grains in thin layers on baking sheets in a 200F oven over several hours. They're light & fluffy when dried. I cool them & place in 1 gallon zip lock bags for storage marked for what beer they were used to make. I use a Mr Coffee burr grinder on the finest esspresso setting to get flour from them.

Aww man, too bad I didn't filter them out :/ I hoped that they might be supposed to be in the beer. I suppose not. But thanks for the tip with grinding them. I didn't know that flour was possible.

 

[skitter]

I didn't know you are supposed to filter it out... been doing it wrong on my beers then! 12 batches have been straight from pot to fermenter, after cooling of course, and I havnt seen anything that cloudy or separated

 

[twistr25]

I never filter that stuff out, just settles to the bottom of the fermenter. No big deal. Brewer preference for that step.

What was that bread recipe BTW?

 

[jrgtr42]

Welcome to the obsession.
Talk about jumping in to the deep end first time out, eh?
A minor point, if I may... Get the level of the blow-off jar below that of the level in the carboy. The way you have it, you're risking gravity sucking that water into your beer when the major fermentation slows down and there isn't as much pressure in there.
For the tips from a pro...
#1. if you're going to do a big brew like this, a more traditional mash tun / 10gal kettle and propane burner would have probably been a better plan, more control over what you're doing and how much wort you're collecting and quicker to boil - plus not having to boil that much off. You're probably going to end up with a darker beer than planned, and it won't taste like the original - that long of a boil causes changes in the wort. ANd not for the worse, you're proably going to end up with pretty tasty beer.
#2 yeah, definitely don't keep wet grains around. I do keep them wet, but as soon as they're cool, I pack mine into ziplocks or plastic storage containers and into the freezer, or at minimum the fridge, if I plan to make bread that day or the next.
I make bread out of my spent grains as well - it's damn tasty if I say so.

 

[electrolight]

I never filter that stuff out, just settles to the bottom of the fermenter. No big deal. Brewer preference for that step.

What was that bread recipe BTW?

Music to my ears! Thats great news! And...

Oops. I thought I posted the link. Here it is!

[Like I said though. Idk how he got those cook times/temps but on an old gas stove and a new electric one I got better results with temp/time of 400 and 25 mins. But I guess it is preference. But the recipe is DELICIOUS!

Welcome to the obsession.
Talk about jumping in to the deep end first time out, eh?

Yeah, I'm hooked... thankss alott guys/gals...

Guilty as charged, I have this "Why bother at all if I don't do it all the way the first time." And it usually bites me in the but... But I do feel like the learning curve is a bit faster (though harsher) this way.

A minor point, if I may... Get the level of the blow-off jar below that of the level in the carboy. The way you have it, you're risking gravity sucking that water into your beer when the major fermentation slows down and there isn't as much pressure in there.

That is the type of advice I was hoping to get by writing my first brew all up. Thanks!

For the tips from a pro...
#1. if you're going to do a big brew like this, a more traditional mash tun / 10gal kettle and propane burner would have probably been a better plan, more control over what you're doing and how much wort you're collecting and quicker to boil - plus not having to boil that much off. You're probably going to end up with a darker beer than planned, and it won't taste like the original - that long of a boil causes changes in the wort. ANd not for the worse, you're proably going to end up with pretty tasty beer.

Ok, well, differences I can handle, but bad beer I can't. This is still good news in my opinion! And yeah, I thought If i'm making a five gallon batch a 6g pot should be fine right? WRONG... But I know that now, I'm in a better place...

#2 yeah, definitely don't keep wet grains around. I do keep them wet, but as soon as they're cool, I pack mine into ziplocks or plastic storage containers and into the freezer, or at minimum the fridge, if I plan to make bread that day or the next.
I make bread out of my spent grains as well - it's damn tasty if I say so.

I agree! And that's a pretty interesting idea! Didn't even consider the freezer! In retrospect I probably would have dehydrated all 20 pounds If I knew the bread would have been so good. But I decided against it as I didn't know that; so after about pound 4 I stopped .


I am curious though, how would a larger pot have made me have to boil off less? Everything I did was a "ratio", if you will, so a bigger pot with my methodology still would have had the same boil off amount. Unless I'm missing something (very likely).

 

[Darwin18]

I got it down to about 85 degrees before pitching my yeast I made with a yeast starter. I then totally forgot about a blow off valve and was really disheartened because I didn't have the tools to make one. But I scraped it together and managed to set one up [picture 5]! But I noticed that the wort was separating into layers really badly and I thought that that's it, for sure its game over because I know I've never seen that before online [picture 4].

Anyways, after 24 hours there was a 1 inch krausen and after 5 days there is still a half inch krausen.

But the kicker on this whole adventure is that my OG was targeted at 1.110 and I thought for sure I'd never hit it or be way off. I told myself I'd be happy with 1.090... But I hit 1.111! (I measured more than once with different samples)! I know that is only half the battle but for my first go being within .001 was just so satisfying! Anyways I kept the ambient temp at about 60 for the first two days and then 70 degrees from then on. Its bubble rate on day 2 was about 123 bubbles per minute. It is now down to about 62 bpm on day 5.

A couple of recommendations:

1) Pitch your yeast starter at your fermentation temperature range. This will reduce off-flavors and is great practice if you ever decide to try lagers.
2) Ambient temperature is not temperature control. Your room is likely going to experience a wide range of temperature swings throughout the day. Fermentation is also a heat releasing process. Even a little basic temperature control (google swamp cooler) will greatly improve the quality and consistency of your beer. This is the one thing that I wished had been stressed on me as a new brewer.

 

[Trox]

One thing I figure might want to point out (not sure if the recipe you followed says it or not), but a big beer like the one you did you really need to let it rest for about 20-30+ days in the primary, then transfer over to a secondary for about 3-4 months before you bottle and let it condition for another 4-6 months. You are going to be waiting for at least 8 months to a year for that beer to really come into its own, if you try it to early it is probably going to taste off and make you think you did something wrong and wonder about dumping it.

Welcome to the obsession.

 

[pondochris]

One thing I figure might want to point out (not sure if the recipe you followed says it or not), but a big beer like the one you did you really need to let it rest for about 20-30+ days in the primary, then transfer over to a secondary for about 3-4 months before you bottle and let it condition for another 4-6 months. You are going to be waiting for at least 8 months to a year for that beer to really come into its own, if you try it to early it is probably going to taste off and make you think you did something wrong and wonder about dumping it.

Welcome to the obsession.

This. I'd brew something that finishes quick ASAP to get the taste of beer on my tongue. I can't stand waiting for big long brews without having other homebrew to drink.

Wet grain = fruit flies = unhappy wife in my house...