First Homebrew

[DarkPhyre]

I am starting my first brew tonight. My good buddy Kriznac is helping me Out. We have just finished added the strike water to the mash tun and added the grain.
The temp was approx 152 and we were shooting for 154. We did preheat the mash tun. We are thinking we should of preheated it to a higher starting temp (due the loss in temp from when the preheat water was drained until the strike water was added)

So far its been a great experience.

We are brewing a Pale Ale.

 

[waldoar15]

I usually shoot a little high on the strike water (especially in winter). No big deal if you have to stir it down a bit. IMHO, it's easier to cool down than heat back up (without a direct fired MT).

 

[DarkPhyre]

good advice, I'll do that next time. Also the preheat temp wasn't high enough, I think that caused the temperature difference.

We just drained the wort and did the first round of sparge'n we are doing the batch style.

 

[lumpher]

after grain addition, 152 is perfect for my mash for my best pale ale recipes. it varies by the recipe, but 152 is great. good luck on the brew

 

[DarkPhyre]

First problem, we bought a new auto siphon and it doesn't work.
We are not sure why, but it doesn't keep the flow. Doesnt' matter too much at this point I guess, but when we try and fill up the carboy it will be kind of a pain.
Or so I have been told.

 

[waldoar15]

First problem, we bought a new auto siphon and it doesn't work.
We are not sure why, but it doesn't keep the flow. Doesnt' matter too much at this point I guess, but when we try and fill up the carboy it will be kind of a pain.
Or so I have been told.

There's not really much that can go wrong with those run of the mill auto siphons other than the seal on the plunger being dried out and leaking. Doesn't take much to get a siphon going. Try putting a dab of keg lube around it. Keg lube is just food grade grease made from mineral oil.

 

[DarkPhyre]

It was odd, but we got it working.

It is sitting fermenting now (well, the yeast has been pitched and hasn't started its thing yet)

30 more days, here I come! Kinda nice my buddy bought all the stuff for me for my b - day which is on oct 14. So It will be ready just in time!


(I am moving out of my 20's, into the 30's)

 

[DarkPhyre]

The next afternoon it was in full blown fermentation mode. Its awesome to think all that funk turns into something so good.

 

[solbes]

Now the question is how long can you wait? My first brew I racked to secondary 4 days after primary start. I'd give it at least 2 weeks on primary yeast before doing anything.

Sounds like a successful first brew, Cheers

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I usually shoot a little high on the strike water (especially in winter). No big deal if you have to stir it down a bit. IMHO, it's easier to cool down than heat back up (without a direct fired MT).

That's not really true... I always heat up 1 or 2 gallons of extra water. When I mash in, I use whatever I need for the mash and put it in the mash-tun, and I immediately crank the heat on my gas stove to "after-burner" for the remaining 1-2 gal. The extra 1-2 gallons can then be used after the mash in to adjust the temperature up if needed, and likewise, cold tap water can be used to bring the temperature down if needed.

if the 1-2 gallons aren't used, it's no big deal, as I'll top it up to make heat my sparge water. So, it's not a huge thermal loss if I boil 1-2 gallons and don't use it right away.

M_C

 

[DarkPhyre]

Now the question is how long can you wait? My first brew I racked to secondary 4 days after primary start. I'd give it at least 2 weeks on primary yeast before doing anything.

Sounds like a successful first brew, Cheers

Thank you, It appears to be doing well.
We are planning on moving to secondary this saturday, which will be 15 days.

We did use his wine thief ( I believe that is what he called it) and took the gravity reading.
At this point we are at a 6.0% abv. It tasted good, no sharp or noticeable off taste/odors. Super flat of course

 

[BOBTHEukBREWER]

When you transfer to secondary, fill a couple of bottles with no priming sugar. Open and taste the first after one week - the second a week later. Compare them with the beer after secondary and kegging. If the bottles are best, don't tell anybody on this forum, don't want to upset them.......

 

[DarkPhyre]

Say what?

I plan on bottling them all, but you suggest bottling two after the primary with no priming sugar, and do a taste comparison of those non primed beer vs bottled primed beer?

 

[DarkPhyre]

I moved it over to a secondary. I took some w/a wine thief and it has some off flavors now. plus it lost a little of its hoppiness. The gravity was .010 which is supposed to be the final. Approx 5.9%
We also started a second Pale ale, same recipe. I wanted to change the last two hop additions.

Something went wrong w/that though I am making a thread now, please check it out and offer help to diagnose what went wrong - Although its not really wrong I just missed the OG readings by 8 points! (this brew we exceeded by 2 points, so it had a net swing of 10 points)

 

[DarkPhyre]

This is my new brew of pale ale as mentioned above.

 

[DarkPhyre]

planning on bottling this Saturday. 28 days after pitching.

How long should I bottle condition at room temp then cold temps?

I bought two cases of Kirkland beer for bottles. I figured that was a better route then buying empty bottles.
although, 22's seemed like a good idea.

 

[solbes]

2-3 weeks at ~ 70 degrees. Temp doesn't matter a lot, but they will condition faster at 70 degrees.

 

[DarkPhyre]

update:

I got all 45 bottles done up. I used oxyclean to clean/remove labels, I used PBW to clean. IO to sanitize.

I also made ribeye steaks w/shrimp for dinner.

I also had a half bottle left over so I drank it, it does taste good, No off flavors but I want more hops. I hope more comes out w/the carbonation.

 

[DarkPhyre]

Been two more weeks bottle conditioning. Still haven't tried a bottle. I want to wait 1 more week.

Sometime mid next week I am going to place several in the fridge.

 

[DHUKILL]

Quick Question..... after about 30 minutes of mashing, my temp dropped to 138 (from 165 when I added my grain) Can a small amount of 170 water be added to bring the temp back up to closer to 150-155?

 

[DarkPhyre]

I would say yes. but I assume its too late to matter what I say.

 

[DarkPhyre]

I drank my first bottle and I had a serious off flavor. (before time in the fridge) I put a half case in the fridge and left alone for 6 days. Off flavor is nearly gone ( I think its the yeast) and it does taste good.
I wouldn't buy it in the store unless the price was fair, but it is drinkable.

 

[RM-MN]

What temperature did your beer ferment at? I've found that I get much cleaner tasting beer if I keep the ambient temperature below 65 F. at least for the first few days until the ferment slows. Higher ambient temperature will give you some weird compounds that may not taste all that great. Time will reduce these off tastes, give it another month to mature.

 

[DarkPhyre]

I am not certain, but no way over 70 ambient temps (inside my house)