Heavywalker
Well-Known Member
I thought this would be a good place to post some stories of your first brewing experience. There are countless questions on here, and people worrying, me included, about their first brew. All our beginning stories may help with easing the fear of a noob, and see that even the pros that frequent this site had issues when they first started.
So without further ado here is mine. (disclaimer I made a few kits before this but this is my first time with a boil and hop additions)
I made a 1.5L starter two days before brew day with 6 oz of DME brought to a boil for 10 minutes chilled and pitched yeast.
The night before I sanitized my clean carboy by dumping about half gallon of san star in it an capped it with a solid rubber bung, gave it a good shake and let it sit overnight. I also filled a bucket with sanstar and placed a stiring spoon, funnel, drilled stopper, 3 piece airlock, and a strainer put a lid on it and gave it a good shake and let that sit over night. I also picked up two bags of ice from the store the day before for the ice bath (should have got 2 more). I then went outside to set up my propane burner and tank and get everything ready, only thing was that I had not used the burner in years and the damn hose was clogged and would not work, being 30 minutes from the nearest store I had to move the operation inside (oh well nothing I can do now).
next morning I wake up and get the coffee going, and start getting things going, I bring my 2.5 gallons up to the steeping temp of 155 and place my 1 lb of crystal 40L in a mesh bag to steep them for 20 minutes, I think to myself this is easy... Little did I realize the burner was still on and the temps kept creeping up I realized once the temp was at about 160 and turned the burner off, then stupid me leaves the pot on the hot burner and the temp continues to rise to about 168 (oh well nothing I can do now) moving on, I turn the burner back on and bring the the wort up to a boil and shut the burner off and remove from the heat, then since I planned on adding half of my DME now and the other half at flame out, naturally I added all of it upfront.
(oh well nothing I can do now) moving on...
Once I got all the DME stirred in I brought the wort up to a boil and started adding hops, I narrowly avoided a boil over on the first 60min addition, noobs keep your hands free at this point and prepare to move fast in between hop additions I prepared an ice bath in the utility sink for cooling. The rest of the hop additions went smoothly and I moved to cooling, the ice from the two bags I picked up the night before was not nearly enough and melted rather quickly, so I emptied all of the ice from the ice maker, I am sure that the wort didn't cool down nearly as quickly as it should. oh well... Once the wort was cooled down I packed it into the bathroom (the carboy is sitting in the tub) and transferred the wort into the carboy, this is the point that I realized that the strainer that I sanitized the night before should have been used during said transfer. oh well... moving on. I add the rest of the water to the fermenter and fill the bath tub about halfway up the carboy in my redneck swampcooler method with 62 degree water. I waited a couple more hours and made sure the wort was cool then pitched my starter, and put my airlock full of sanstar on.
I watched this thing like a hawk the rest of the day, about 10PM the yeast started getting happy, I was afraid of a blowoff so I stayed up until around midnight and decided that there was no need for a blowoff so I went to bed. WRONG! woke up the next morning to an airlock full of beer and little splatters of beer all over the tub. oh well... moving on, I went and fetched a siphon tube out of my man cave sanitized it and stuffed it in the drilled stopper and the other end in a half gallon jug with sanstar.
The brew has been happily bubbling away since Saturday. No less than 6 screw ups and I still haven't bottled and primed so that number could go up, but oh well nothing I can do about that.
This stuff is stressful, I have got to tell you for first time brewers the response of RDWHAHB is infuriating, look, this is our first batch, we don't have any f'ing homebrew... so why don't you relax and tell us everything is going to be ok.
Anybody want to share their first experience, don't need to be detailed as the above but how did you screw up and how did your brew turn out.
Cheers
So without further ado here is mine. (disclaimer I made a few kits before this but this is my first time with a boil and hop additions)
I made a 1.5L starter two days before brew day with 6 oz of DME brought to a boil for 10 minutes chilled and pitched yeast.
The night before I sanitized my clean carboy by dumping about half gallon of san star in it an capped it with a solid rubber bung, gave it a good shake and let it sit overnight. I also filled a bucket with sanstar and placed a stiring spoon, funnel, drilled stopper, 3 piece airlock, and a strainer put a lid on it and gave it a good shake and let that sit over night. I also picked up two bags of ice from the store the day before for the ice bath (should have got 2 more). I then went outside to set up my propane burner and tank and get everything ready, only thing was that I had not used the burner in years and the damn hose was clogged and would not work, being 30 minutes from the nearest store I had to move the operation inside (oh well nothing I can do now).
next morning I wake up and get the coffee going, and start getting things going, I bring my 2.5 gallons up to the steeping temp of 155 and place my 1 lb of crystal 40L in a mesh bag to steep them for 20 minutes, I think to myself this is easy... Little did I realize the burner was still on and the temps kept creeping up I realized once the temp was at about 160 and turned the burner off, then stupid me leaves the pot on the hot burner and the temp continues to rise to about 168 (oh well nothing I can do now) moving on, I turn the burner back on and bring the the wort up to a boil and shut the burner off and remove from the heat, then since I planned on adding half of my DME now and the other half at flame out, naturally I added all of it upfront.
(oh well nothing I can do now) moving on... Once I got all the DME stirred in I brought the wort up to a boil and started adding hops, I narrowly avoided a boil over on the first 60min addition, noobs keep your hands free at this point and prepare to move fast in between hop additions I prepared an ice bath in the utility sink for cooling. The rest of the hop additions went smoothly and I moved to cooling, the ice from the two bags I picked up the night before was not nearly enough and melted rather quickly, so I emptied all of the ice from the ice maker, I am sure that the wort didn't cool down nearly as quickly as it should. oh well... Once the wort was cooled down I packed it into the bathroom (the carboy is sitting in the tub) and transferred the wort into the carboy, this is the point that I realized that the strainer that I sanitized the night before should have been used during said transfer. oh well... moving on. I add the rest of the water to the fermenter and fill the bath tub about halfway up the carboy in my redneck swampcooler method with 62 degree water. I waited a couple more hours and made sure the wort was cool then pitched my starter, and put my airlock full of sanstar on.
I watched this thing like a hawk the rest of the day, about 10PM the yeast started getting happy, I was afraid of a blowoff so I stayed up until around midnight and decided that there was no need for a blowoff so I went to bed. WRONG! woke up the next morning to an airlock full of beer and little splatters of beer all over the tub. oh well... moving on, I went and fetched a siphon tube out of my man cave sanitized it and stuffed it in the drilled stopper and the other end in a half gallon jug with sanstar.
The brew has been happily bubbling away since Saturday. No less than 6 screw ups and I still haven't bottled and primed so that number could go up, but oh well nothing I can do about that.
This stuff is stressful, I have got to tell you for first time brewers the response of RDWHAHB is infuriating, look, this is our first batch, we don't have any f'ing homebrew... so why don't you relax and tell us everything is going to be ok.
Anybody want to share their first experience, don't need to be detailed as the above but how did you screw up and how did your brew turn out.
Cheers
Happy brewing!
