First brews tomorrow... tips/advice??

[gregmosu]

I was about to brew my first batch two days ago when I found that my kit did not contain Columbus hops. Stopped by the local supplier and he hooked me up, so I'm ready to go.

I read articles and watched some youtube videos... although most videos skip quite a bit. The keys seem to be to follow the directions to a tee a keep everything clean.

so on that note.. I'm going to use the powdered cleaner that came in my brewers best kit. From what I see, people spray their equipment down just before they use it. I have a spray bottle ready to go, but shouldn't I rinse the cleaner off? The instructions say to wash yourself thoroughly if you get it on your skin??!?!

Any other tips or ideas or warnings about issues that noobs get bit by are great appreciated.

thanks!

 

[chuckcomm]

The powdered cleaner cleans and needs to be rinsed well. Then you saintize with something like star-san which is great stuff. The sanitizer is what you have read about being sprayed onto equipment before use.

 

[gregmosu]

The powdered cleaner cleans and needs to be rinsed well. Then you saintize with something like star-san which is great stuff. The sanitizer is what you have read about being sprayed onto equipment before use.

Crap! I'm glad I asked. I don't have star-san, but I did get a bottle of stuff called IO-Star. If that the same thing?

 

[yohoe]

I'm guessing you have a 5 gallon pot? Watch for boilovers as it's a pain to clean.

 

[Sailingeric]

If using LME, warm it up so it will pour easier, remove pot from heat when adding extract, late addition is good as well. Weigh the hops out ahead of time. Take your time, it should be fun not a chore and don't have to many beers while brewing.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Crap! I'm glad I asked. I don't have star-san, but I did get a bottle of stuff called IO-Star. If that the same thing?

Yes IO-Star is similar to Star-san.

 

[Grossy]

First thing: Relax.

Second thing: It's actually pretty hard to contaminate your beer the first time out. Don't Worry.

Third thing:

Relax, Don't Worry, Have a homebrew. (in your case, have a good craft beer)

 

[Sammy86]

+1 @grossy !

Remember it's not as hard as it seems. Be prepared, be overly prepared! Have some good tunes ready to go and brew on!

Cheers!

 

[ffaoe]

My advice is to take your first batch as a learning experience. It takes quite a few batches to work kinks out. You will make improvements in your process on every batch.

 

[Slow_Day]

There will be beer. And it will be good.

 

[gregmosu]

Thanks for all the advice! I'll let you all know how it turns out... actually, I'll probably ask more questions along the way since this is somewhat of a long process.

 

[freekybrew]

1) Clean and sanitize everything: Post-boil equipment especially important
2) Don't over-mix Starsan (seriously - only 1.5ml per 32oz squirt bottle is all)
3) Boil-overs suck.... keep an eye on it if your pot is too small. (first when it comes to a boil, next with your hop additions) especially.
4) Cool your wort just a bit below ferment temp before pitching (be prepared with some bags of ice)
5) Aerate wort as best as you can
6) Control your ferment temp (too cool = stalled ferment, to hot = jet fuel)
7) The fermentation will be a couple/few degrees above ambient once it gets going and through krausen, then it will fall back to about ambient. keep that in mind.
8) Don't panic, it's going to taste like crap for a few weeks... you will be researching what you did wrong for sure, and the answer will be to give it more time. Unless your ferment temp got hot or you dump a bowl of fruit flies into your wort - it will be good!

Cheers.

 

[kirbcheck]

Read your instructions once so you can anticipate your next move and understand where everything is going. But seriously, just enjoy your first brew day. Forget about hydrometer readings and trying to notate everything. No matter what mistakes you make, you end up with beer you made. You get to talk to your friends about the beer you made to share with them. It's a hobby so just enjoy it. Good luck.

 

[Ski12568]

Its a pretty good feeling when you open a bottle of your first beer and hear that CO2 hiss.

Don't give up if you are not 100% satisfied with your first brew. My first two batches were fails and I almost gave up and they were still drinkable. This forum and a lot of youtube videos help me answer a lot of questions and kept me going. I like the Northern Brewer how-to videos the best.

Try and keep good detailed notes and complete all the steps.

FWIW, I am still a rookie.

 

[Grossy]

Forget about hydrometer readings and trying to notate everything. No matter what mistakes you make, you end up with beer you made. You get to talk to your friends about the beer you made to share with them. It's a hobby so just enjoy it. Good luck.

+1 on the hydrometer readings. They wont change what you brew, and you have enough to worry about already.

 

[Brian77095]

First and foremost have FUN!!

If your first brew day is anything like mine you will make mistakes just learn from them and move on. Remember what you did and how you will corrected. Don't get in a hurry if you rush you will make a mistake.

The process to longer than I thought it would but, it was a lot of fun and I did make mistakes but, I am almost ready to bottle and so far I really like what I taste!! I am sure you will to!

Brian

 

[gregmosu]

Thanks again for all the replies! Just a few comments/questions.

1) I think the process of steeping/boiling went by w/out any problems. I didn't miss any steps(that I'm aware of).

2) I'm not crazy about IO-star. It creates a reddish/brown solution that stains stuff. I think I'm going to pick up some of that Star-San for my next brew. Yes/No??

3) Wort chillers.. are they a must for brewing? The process of cooling down the wort took forever!!! and it kinda worries me that I screwed this up just by how long it took to cool it to 70 degrees. I'm leaning towards having one on hand for my next brew.

4) The fermentation process. I pitched the yeast(11pm last night) and put the airlock in place, but I don't see much going on. What sort of bubbling action should I see? The very second I put the airlock in, thT little upside plastic piece moved up and down a few times to let off the pressure, but since then.. nothing. I did place the bucket in my basement right after sealing the airlock and when I checked on it this morning the temp read 61 degrees(instructions say 64-72). Since then, I moved it up to a closet where it's been around 64-66 degrees. Did I do something wrong? Is this batch done for?

Thanks!

 

[watermelon83]

Thanks again for all the replies! Just a few comments/questions.

1) I think the process of steeping/boiling went by w/out any problems. I didn't miss any steps(that I'm aware of).

2) I'm not crazy about IO-star. It creates a reddish/brown solution that stains stuff. I think I'm going to pick up some of that Star-San for my next brew. Yes/No??

3) Wort chillers.. are they a must for brewing? The process of cooling down the wort took forever!!! and it kinda worries me that I screwed this up just by how long it took to cool it to 70 degrees. I'm leaning towards having one on hand for my next brew.

4) The fermentation process. I pitched the yeast(11pm last night) and put the airlock in place, but I don't see much going on. What sort of bubbling action should I see? The very second I put the airlock in, thT little upside plastic piece moved up and down a few times to let off the pressure, but since then.. nothing. I did place the bucket in my basement right after sealing the airlock and when I checked on it this morning the temp read 61 degrees(instructions say 64-72). Since then, I moved it up to a closet where it's been around 64-66 degrees. Did I do something wrong? Is this batch done for?

Thanks!

1) 155ish for 20mish hard to screw up, I'm sure you did fine.

2) I used to use a iodine based solution, I now use star-san. I like star-san better, but I have no idea why.

3) The brewday before last I left my covered pot sitting in the garage for 6 hours before I dumped the 120F wort into a carboy for chilling, the beer tastes great. Don't leave it uncovered, and don't worry about it.

4) Your fine, The little yeasty buggers can take quite a few hours to start making enough C02 to make the airlock move. You should see things changing though. The surface will get bubbly, the wort will get cloudy, etc. If your in a bucket, just leave it be. Eventually the airlock will start burping, unless there is a leak (which is no big deal). Just wait a 7-10 days and take a few gravity readings to verify it's not dropping anymore. Then bottle it.

 

[kirbcheck]

Watermelon83 has it right. I would recommend a chiller tho, it's a handy piece of equipment.

 

[gregmosu]

1) 155ish for 20mish hard to screw up, I'm sure you did fine.

2) I used to use a iodine based solution, I now use star-san. I like star-san better, but I have no idea why.

3) The brewday before last I left my covered pot sitting in the garage for 6 hours before I dumped the 120F wort into a carboy for chilling, the beer tastes great. Don't leave it uncovered, and don't worry about it.

4) Your fine, The little yeasty buggers can take quite a few hours to start making enough C02 to make the airlock move. You should see things changing though. The surface will get bubbly, the wort will get cloudy, etc. If your in a bucket, just leave it be. Eventually the airlock will start burping, unless there is a leak (which is no big deal). Just wait a 7-10 days and take a few gravity readings to verify it's not dropping anymore. Then bottle it.

3) I left it uncovered in the sink and kept running ice and cold water around the pot until it was down to 70. Do you think not covering will cause contamination??

4)Bottle it after 7 to 10 days?? The instructions recommend a secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. You're thinking skip the secondary fermentation step and go straight to the bottle?

 

[gregmosu]

Watermelon83 has it right. I would recommend a chiller tho, it's a handy piece of equipment.

I think I will get one just because of how much time it takes to cool the wort. For some reason I remember seeing somewhere that the faster you cool it the better. Is that not necessarily true?

 

[GHBWNY]

3) I left it uncovered in the sink and kept running ice and cold water around the pot until it was down to 70. Do you think not covering will cause contamination??

4)Bottle it after 7 to 10 days?? The instructions recommend a secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. You're thinking skip the secondary fermentation step and go straight to the bottle?

Very doubtful you will have a contamination problem. Next time, you may want to keep it covered while chilling it to minimize the possiblilty of any airborne contaminants.

Bottling that soon is "possible", however, it would benefit the beer to leave it in your fermenter at least 2-3 weeks to clear and the yeast to "clean up" after itself. Then, take a couple of FG readings a couple days apart and if they are the same, you're good to bottle.

I would skip the secondary. It won't do anything significant that won't be accomplished in your primary. Your bottle conditioning is actually a form of "secondary" where it carbs up, clears further, and any potential off-flavors are minimized. You will eventually learn that your best friends in brewing are time and patience.

 

[watermelon83]

3) I left it uncovered in the sink and kept running ice and cold water around the pot until it was down to 70. Do you think not covering will cause contamination??

4)Bottle it after 7 to 10 days?? The instructions recommend a secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. You're thinking skip the secondary fermentation step and go straight to the bottle?

You'd probably know if leaving it uncovered screwed the pooch. You'll taste it before bottling, a very off sour taste here would be bad. Your probably fine unless the vacuum was running or something crazy. Just cover it next time.

No need to secondary, unless you absolutely need to (extended, like 6 months, aging, adding fruit or wood chips, etc.) Just make sure your gravity has quit moving and you'll be golden.

 

[McKnuckle]

A secondary is not essential and many if not most brewers avoid one. However, I'll put my $0.02 into the hat and state that it's a valuable step for a new brewer.

One, it gets the beer into a clear glass container where you can watch it form sediment and visualize when it's clear enough to bottle. Two, the practice of siphoning is essential for brewing at some point, and this gives you a first try. If your primary is a pail with a spigot, you can avoid the siphon of course, and still get experience moving the beer with tubing and gauging how much trub (if any) makes it into the secondary (remember, it would be going into your bottles if you chose to bottle from the pail!).

Third, if you have the patience to cold crash the beer, it will be clearer in the bottle with another layer of sediment coaxed to settle. Presumably your carboy has less head space than the pail. So storing the beer cold in the carboy for a week or so will be safer from an oxidation standpoint.

I know there are a million ways to do things and it's hard to sift through the noise and make decisions. So I'm not trying to confuse you. I'm just offering another perspective on the use of a secondary for a brewer's early batch(es). It's really NOT that big a deal and is absolutely standard practice for winemaking, after all. Only a little care is needed to avoid the pitfalls.

 

[eadavis80]

Many new brewers don't realize there is a difference between CLEANING and SANITIZING. Cleaning your equipment is just that - making sure old gunk, etc. is off. Since all your stuff is brand new, that's no problem. But, be sure YOU SANITIZE (with your IO-Star). I'm not familiar with that stuff. Some sanitizers, like Star San, are no rinse. Apply it (either put your stuff in a tub of that solution or put that solution in a spray bottle and spray it on) and leave it for 2 minutes and then it's fine. Don't worry about having your beer touch stuff that's wet with a no-rinse sanitizer. Also, Star San FOAMS. It scares a lot of people because they fear it will cause their beer to taste soapy. Star San DOES NOT affect the taste of your beer in any way. Read all your directions before beginning and enjoy the process. You will learn a lot in your first brew. Most importantly, you will learn it will not be your last!

 

[muels]

Don't panic if you don't see a lot of bubbles either. Some buckets don't have the best seals. The pressure of the co2 in the bucket will keep the bad stuff out.

Partially cover your pot when cooling to help keep nasties out. Fully covered will hold heat and fully open adds potential for contamination.




Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[gregmosu]

Thanks again for all the replies! I should have posted and talked with you guys more before I even brewed this first batch.

I guess initially, I was too concerned with the timing of everything. From what I"m hearing, a few days over here and there is not a concern at all. I think I will move it to that carboy for secondary fermentation. Do many of you use those plastic pails still?? Or do the majority of experienced brewers use the glass carboys only for everything?

When in the secondary fermentation process, after about two to three weeks the beer will start to clear up. Is that when I start taking gravity readings? Then when there's no change in the readings it's time to bottle?

---


As for sanitation, I made a 5 gallon bucket of that IO-STAR solution that I used to swirl around in my 5 gallon pot before the steeping/boiling process, then I moved it to the 5 gallon pail where I submerged anything that I was using.. spoons, thermometer, etc..

I'm not sure I like doing that every time. The people that use San-Star in those videos on youtube keep it in a spay bottle and that just seems so much easier and more convenient. Is that what most of you do?

 

[lowelldw]

I don't think you can overuse the Star-San. If in doubt use it!!

I have a tub to dip in and also have a spray bottle.

It will be used at every step...transferring, checking gravity, bottling. Everything needs the "Touch" of sanitizer!!

It's not rocket surgery....have fun and be clean!!

 

[eadavis80]

You can figure out for yourself if you want glass carboys, plastic Better Bottles or plastic buckets. Each have pros and cons. I have 2 plastic buckets - they're cheap and easy to clean. The only downside is you can't see the fermentation happening, while you can in a clear vessel. Well, that and they can scratch, but as long as you use a soft sponge when cleaning, I think they're fine. You can get 3 buckets for the price of 1 glass carboy. I do have a glass 5 gallon carboy for secondary, but I also have a 5-gallon plastic Better Bottle for secondary. If both are open, I always use the plastic one - it's so much lighter and you can't break it. However, if you're aging a beer for a few months, glass is the way to go.

 

[elsphinc]

Stop. Dont brew. It will take over your life. Youll be up at 2 am reading these forums. Dreaming about recipes. Wanting to turn everyday things into brewing equipment. Theres no end. Stop while you can..

 

[GHBWNY]

Stop. Dont brew. It will take over your life. Youll be up at 2 am reading these forums. Dreaming about recipes. Wanting to turn everyday things into brewing equipment. Theres no end. Stop while you can..

^^^ I would agree, except... IT'S TOO LATE!!!

 

[BigDog007]

Wort chiller was worth every penny. Highly recommend getting one.

 

[gregmosu]

It is definitely too late!

I've decided I"m not going to wait to see how this first batch turns out. I'm going to pick up my next kit sometime this week and get the second batch brewing... also getting a wort chiller and some star-san.

On a side note, my cousin recently picked up brewing as well and bought a Mr. Beer kit. Someone told him that brewing a gallon at a time would be much easier to manage than the 5 gallon kits. Tried his first batch and it was really good. Any truth to that?

Tonight is the night I'm switching over to the carboy for secondary fermentation. We'll see how it goes.

thanks again for all the help and replies!

 

[kirbcheck]

Tonight is the night I'm switching over to the carboy for secondary fermentation. We'll see how it goes.

thanks again for all the help and replies!

Just a little unsolicited suggestion... Don't rack to a secondary, leave it in the primary for the duration of the secondary. This way you can watch the primary fermentation of your second brew in a glass carboy.

 

[gregmosu]

Just a little unsolicited suggestion... Don't rack to a secondary, leave it in the primary for the duration of the secondary. This way you can watch the primary fermentation of your second brew in a glass carboy.

Thanks for the advice, but it's too late! Just got done with the transfer.

There was about and inch of gray sludge sitting in the bottom of the bucket afterwards. Does this sound normal? No 'off' smells or anything like that.. in fact, it smelled pretty good.

 

[kirbcheck]

Yep that is yeast & proteins that dropped out from flocculation. You can pour the wort from beer #2 on that yeast cake and voila...

 

[gregmosu]

Ok, so it's been a couple of days since I transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. What I"m seeing is that there's about an inch of beer at the very top that's somewhat clear compared to the rest. With in that clear beer I can see tiny red things floating around and what look to be patches of white bubbles(I think it's a groupings of tiny bubbles) floating at the top. Does this sound normal??

 

[Clonefan94]

Thanks again for all the replies! I should have posted and talked with you guys more before I even brewed this first batch.

I guess initially, I was too concerned with the timing of everything. From what I"m hearing, a few days over here and there is not a concern at all. I think I will move it to that carboy for secondary fermentation. Do many of you use those plastic pails still?? Or do the majority of experienced brewers use the glass carboys only for everything?

When in the secondary fermentation process, after about two to three weeks the beer will start to clear up. Is that when I start taking gravity readings? Then when there's no change in the readings it's time to bottle?

---


As for sanitation, I made a 5 gallon bucket of that IO-STAR solution that I used to swirl around in my 5 gallon pot before the steeping/boiling process, then I moved it to the 5 gallon pail where I submerged anything that I was using.. spoons, thermometer, etc..

I'm not sure I like doing that every time. The people that use San-Star in those videos on youtube keep it in a spay bottle and that just seems so much easier and more convenient. Is that what most of you do?

You don't need to worry about sanitizing anything that will be boiled. So you don't have to bother with a sanitizer in the boil pot. The boiling will take care of that for you. Sanitizing is for anything that will touch the wort after the boil. So, doing the tools and all that stuff will still have to be done.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kirbcheck]

Ok, so it's been a couple of days since I transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. What I"m seeing is that there's about an inch of beer at the very top that's somewhat clear compared to the rest. With in that clear beer I can see tiny red things floating around and what look to be patches of white bubbles(I think it's a groupings of tiny bubbles) floating at the top. Does this sound normal??

It sounds normal minus the "Tiny red things". Can you take a picture to share with us? Might just be dust or something...

 

[eadavis80]

Gregmosu - in response to your query about if it's easier to "manage" a 1-gallon batch vs. a 5-gallon batch, I guess it all depends on how you define "manage." I'm in the midst of my first 1-gallon batch now. I've done over 20 5-gallon batches. I think they're basically equal. Each batch required more or less the same steps. There were a few differences in that the 1-gallon was an all-grain batch from BrooklynBrewing while my 5-gallon batches are all extract and/or partial mash, but each batch required a boil, sanitation, yeast pitching, aeration, cleanup, etc. It takes the same amount of time from brew day to cracking open your first one. AFter 8 or so weeks, with the 1-gallon batch, I'll be lucky to have nine beers. With a 5-gallon batch I usually get 4 cases. So, if the batch turns out poorly (not very likely) I'm "stuck" with nearly 50 iffy beers, but if it turns out good, then I'm bummed I only have a six-pack and a half of the 1-gallon stuff. 1-gallon batches, however, do lend themselves to more experimentation as since if it goes wrong, you're only "out" a gallon's worth of brew. What I honestly plan on doing some is brewing 5 gallons of say, a wheat, and then putting different things in my different 1-gallon jugs to yield different styles of wheat beer. For example, throw some honey in one, raspberries in another. So, in that sense you could get a variety of beer out of one batch. But, the basic "work" is the same for 1 and 5-gallon batches in my limited experience.