Post edit: This turned into more of a dissertation than I had planned, so my apologies for the length.
Hey, guys! I've enjoyed reading through the forum. Homebrewing is something I've wanted to try for years, but for one reason or another, I never got around to it until now. Since we're all teleworking and social distancing, I figured now was as good a time as ever to order some equipment and ingredients and give it a try. I wanted to just dip my toes in the water first to see if it suits me, so I bought equipment to brew a few one gallon batches. If I find that I enjoy it (so far so good), I'll upgrade to larger batches.
I brewed my first batch, an all-grain amber ale, on Friday, from a recipe and instructions I found online:
1 lb Pale Ale malt
0.75 lb Caramel 20L malt
0.25 lb CaraMunich malt
0.15 oz Cluster hops (60 min)
0.15 oz Cluster hops (20 min; plus 1/4 tsp Irish Moss)
0.15 oz Cluster hops (0 min)
California Ale yeast
Mash in @ 148-153 degF for 60 min.
Mash out @ 170 degF for 10 min.
I started my brew day by thoroughly sanitizing everything with StarSan. The mash and sparge went off without a hitch. After sparging, I had 1.5 gal of wort.
I had a little trouble controlling my hop boil. My gas stove has an oversized "power burner" in the middle of the four normal-sized burners. I used that, and the wort started boiling, but after 10 minutes or so, I never got the hot break, just TONS of coarse bubbles on top. I had to stir frequently to keep it from boiling over. I played around with the temperature a bit, and I discovered that the burner is so large that was putting most of the heat around the sides of the pot. Once I turned the heat down so that the flames stayed under the pot, my hot break happened almost instantly.
After the 60 minute boil (actually, a little bit more because of the issues above), I cooled it in an ice bath in my sink, down to 75 degF in about 15 minutes. I ended up with less than a gallon of wort. I would say that I had ~0.75 gal, just eyeballing it, so I added tap water to bring it up to a gallon. I took a hydrometer reading, adjusted for temperature, and got an OG of 1.039. Target OG was 1.051. Hmm. Checked it again: 1.039 again.
I put the wort in my fermentation bucket, aerated vigorously with a whisk for five minutes (good foam on top), and pitched half a packet of White Labs California Ale yeast. Put the lid on, filled and fitted my airlock, and put it in the corner of my bedroom, near the thermostat set to 68-73 degF.
24 hours: No airlock activity (I know, not a reliable indicator of fermentation), and no yeasty smell.
48 hours: No airlock activity, and no yeasty smell.
72 hours: No airlock activity, and no yeasty smell. I decided to have a peek. No bubbles, foam, ring, or any other indication that has happened. I decided to pitch the other half of the PurePitch pouch, squeezing every bit of yeast out (like a toothpaste tube). I also swirled the bucket for about a minute to mix in the yeast and (hopefully) add some more oxygen.
84 hours: Bubbles (~2/minute) in the airlock, and a slight yeast smell!
96 hours (now): No airlock activity, and I can't smell any yeast.
Finally, to my questions:
1) Could over-boiling my wort cause an issue? What effect would topping up with 25% water have?
2) Why was my OG so far off? I think I should have given the wort/water mixture a good stir before taking my gravity reading. If I got more water than wort in my sample, would that cause it to be off by that much?
3) WHAT THE HECK ARE MY YEAST DOING? I know, RDWHAHB and all that, but this is my first batch, so I don't HAHB. I should probably just embrace the RDW part, but should I open my fermenter back up and take a gravity reading? Or, should I let it have its full week in primary and wait to take a gravity reading when I rack it to secondary?
Hopefully the collective wisdom of the group can either set my mind at ease or tell me what I did wrong. Thanks!
Hey, guys! I've enjoyed reading through the forum. Homebrewing is something I've wanted to try for years, but for one reason or another, I never got around to it until now. Since we're all teleworking and social distancing, I figured now was as good a time as ever to order some equipment and ingredients and give it a try. I wanted to just dip my toes in the water first to see if it suits me, so I bought equipment to brew a few one gallon batches. If I find that I enjoy it (so far so good), I'll upgrade to larger batches.
I brewed my first batch, an all-grain amber ale, on Friday, from a recipe and instructions I found online:
1 lb Pale Ale malt
0.75 lb Caramel 20L malt
0.25 lb CaraMunich malt
0.15 oz Cluster hops (60 min)
0.15 oz Cluster hops (20 min; plus 1/4 tsp Irish Moss)
0.15 oz Cluster hops (0 min)
California Ale yeast
Mash in @ 148-153 degF for 60 min.
Mash out @ 170 degF for 10 min.
I started my brew day by thoroughly sanitizing everything with StarSan. The mash and sparge went off without a hitch. After sparging, I had 1.5 gal of wort.
I had a little trouble controlling my hop boil. My gas stove has an oversized "power burner" in the middle of the four normal-sized burners. I used that, and the wort started boiling, but after 10 minutes or so, I never got the hot break, just TONS of coarse bubbles on top. I had to stir frequently to keep it from boiling over. I played around with the temperature a bit, and I discovered that the burner is so large that was putting most of the heat around the sides of the pot. Once I turned the heat down so that the flames stayed under the pot, my hot break happened almost instantly.
After the 60 minute boil (actually, a little bit more because of the issues above), I cooled it in an ice bath in my sink, down to 75 degF in about 15 minutes. I ended up with less than a gallon of wort. I would say that I had ~0.75 gal, just eyeballing it, so I added tap water to bring it up to a gallon. I took a hydrometer reading, adjusted for temperature, and got an OG of 1.039. Target OG was 1.051. Hmm. Checked it again: 1.039 again.
I put the wort in my fermentation bucket, aerated vigorously with a whisk for five minutes (good foam on top), and pitched half a packet of White Labs California Ale yeast. Put the lid on, filled and fitted my airlock, and put it in the corner of my bedroom, near the thermostat set to 68-73 degF.
24 hours: No airlock activity (I know, not a reliable indicator of fermentation), and no yeasty smell.
48 hours: No airlock activity, and no yeasty smell.
72 hours: No airlock activity, and no yeasty smell. I decided to have a peek. No bubbles, foam, ring, or any other indication that has happened. I decided to pitch the other half of the PurePitch pouch, squeezing every bit of yeast out (like a toothpaste tube). I also swirled the bucket for about a minute to mix in the yeast and (hopefully) add some more oxygen.
84 hours: Bubbles (~2/minute) in the airlock, and a slight yeast smell!
96 hours (now): No airlock activity, and I can't smell any yeast.
Finally, to my questions:
1) Could over-boiling my wort cause an issue? What effect would topping up with 25% water have?
2) Why was my OG so far off? I think I should have given the wort/water mixture a good stir before taking my gravity reading. If I got more water than wort in my sample, would that cause it to be off by that much?
3) WHAT THE HECK ARE MY YEAST DOING? I know, RDWHAHB and all that, but this is my first batch, so I don't HAHB. I should probably just embrace the RDW part, but should I open my fermenter back up and take a gravity reading? Or, should I let it have its full week in primary and wait to take a gravity reading when I rack it to secondary?
Hopefully the collective wisdom of the group can either set my mind at ease or tell me what I did wrong. Thanks!