My First Brew

fenderlvr

So here's my first brew. I made it in the bathtub of my apartment last night. The air lock was bubbling up quite a bit in the morning which I'm taking as a good sign.





The hydrometer read 1.050 which doesn't mean a thing to me. The kit I have doesn't say anything about what it should be. But after looking it up, that should put it somewhere around 6.7% potential alcohol. Doesn't sound too bad to me. Does that mean it will have that much alcohol at the end, or is some of that potential not reached?

Some interesting things happened during the process...

First, I didn't have a big enough pot to boil 2 gallons of water and the malt extract. So I ended up dividing it between 2 pots and tried to keep the ratio of water to malt extract to hop pellets the same. Then, near the end, enough water evaporated and I combined the 2 into 1 pot.

The other thing I'm a tiny bit worried about is the airlock. I filled it with vodka before I put it on the fermenter. Then when I put it on, some of the vodka sucked into the fermenter. I think this is ok from what I have read, but what are your thoughts?

-Eric


P.S. It was Kettle One vodka, not cheap stuff.

fenderlvr

I think there might be a problem.



I got home from work today and this is what I found. The "don't touch" note is for the maid.

What I'm reading online says that the beer will turn out fine. Some people are saying that they don't use lids at all in the first few days.

I'm gonna clean and sanitize the lid and put it back on without the airlock. Then tomorrow I'm going to pick up a blowoff tube.

fenderlvr

Alright, after a bit of cleaning I think it's gonna be ok.

I'm a little worried it might change the flavor because most of what exploded and what I cleaned off the lid looked like hops.



I jerry rigged up a blowoff tube using the rubber grommet and a tube that they gave me for siphoning. After I hooked it up it's got constant bubble action going. That means the fermentation is still going strong which I guess is good.



Does anyone with more experience than me want to tell me everything will be ok?

mayto

Nice pics there fenderlvr, had plenty of brews like that myself . The blow off tube is a good idea for very foamy ferments. The beer will be fine as the c02 is pushing all nasties away from your beer. What kind of hops are you using in it?

fenderlvr

They're tettnanger hops. The recipe called for 1.5 oz for 60 minutes and then .5 oz at the end.

I heard it's good to get oxygen in the wort, so I poured it from the pot to the fermenter from about 2.5 feet up. That might have done something. Plus I didn't have a thermometer so I just guessed the temp. It was probably a bit hot.

I think I've also solved the pot size problem...



Might be a little overkill at 20 quarts. The old pot is about 8 quarts. Go big, or go home!

-Eric, level 0 brewmaster


P.S. I like how the label has "POT" in big huge letters. As if I didn't already know.

lil_lisa

Having the larger pot is just an excuse to buy a bigger fermenter & keg for more beer I'm excited to see how this turns out (FYI: I'm brewing with fenderlvr).

Anyone know what the consequences are of pouring a cup full of vodka into it while its fermenting? Hypothetically...

mayto

lil_lisa wrote: »

Anyone know what the consequences are of pouring a cup full of vodka into it while its fermenting? Hypothetically...

It will be fine but might be slightly stronger . I just use water in the airlock and works fine, but ye may as well keep on using a blowoff tube now anyway. How are you cooling the beer after the boil and getting the beer into the fermenter ?. Ideally you will be leaving the cold break and hop particle behind in the pot.

lil_lisa

We placed the pot in the sink and ran cold water around it (making sure not to get it in it) for about 15 minutes. What do you mean by leaving the hop particle in the pot? Is that not required for the fermentation?

mayto

lil_lisa wrote: »

What do you mean by leaving the hop particle in the pot? Is that not required for the fermentation?

When you are finished the boil and cool the wort, cold break material and hops will settle on the bottom of the fermenter. At this stage you have gotten your flavour and bitterness from the hops and need them no more. Ideally you want to leave this material behind and transfer clear wort into the fermenter, but if it gets into the fermenter it will be fine. It will settle again before you bottle/keg your beer.

The_B_Man

Looks good, Dee! What sort of brew is it? I got meself a Coopers homebrew kit for mine. It has the tap on the bottom so bottling is piss easy!
You should get yourself a load of them Grolsch style bottles so ya can reuse them actually. I've only got some crappy plastic ones with screw on lids.

Also, dont worry about getting the vodka in the brew. It'll be diluted enough so ya wont notice any of it.

lil_lisa

Hey stranger!

Well we bought our kit at the local brew mart/micro brewery and have a cornelius keg and the tap at the bottom for bottling too. We're probably going to keg it more than bottle it for now. The brew mart made the recipe so we're using amber dry malt extract and Coopers ale yeast to make a German Amber Style Ale.

I was asking about the vodka because I was wondering what would happen if I poured like half a bottle into the beer, would it dilute and not change the taste but raise the ABV? Or would it just ruin the fermentation?

The_B_Man

nah i'd say it'd be manky. The taste would be ruined. As far as I know, the yeast will die under higher levels of alcohol so the vodka might actually stop fermentation, but I'm not too sure about that.

fenderlvr

We decided to start a second batch before the first one finished. This one went a lot smoother than the first time.

The kit of supplies we bought had 2 buckets. The first one was for fermenting, then there's an identical one with a spout at the bottom that they call the bottling bucket. We decided to just buy another rubber stopper and tube and made the bottling bucket into another fermenter. The reason we did this is because we're going to be going straight from the fermenter to a keg. If I was bottling I guess I would (maybe) use the bottling bucket.

The recipe was another one put together by the home brewing supply store we go to. It's an American style pale ale. It's got almost twice as much hops as the first one we did.

This recipe had some specialty grains to steep. So we bought a paint strainer (mesh nylon bag) at the hardware store to put the grains in. We have that large 5 gallon pot now so everything fit easily into the one pot. The only problem we really had (and it's not a big problem) is that the stove took about 45 minutes to get all the water and malt to a boil. That doesn't sound too bad I guess since we had about 3 gallons of water, but that time was AFTER steeping so the water was already around 160-170 degrees.

So here's the latest pic.



10 gallons of beer is quite exciting to think about.

Edit: The original gravity after correcting for temp was 1.072. Should be quite strong!!

rubadub

Just be careful with your US/UK gallons, if people imported kits from Europe it will be in UK/imperial gallons.

fenderlvr

Good thing to note. I'm in the US so all my measures are smaller. We get smaller pints at bars.

fenderlvr

We decided the beer is done. Yesterday was the 8th day in the fermenter. Measured the gravity at 1.012 two days in a row. The OG was 1.050 at around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Using this I get 5.2% ABV. Not too bad.

We have a corny keg which we were going to put all of the beer into. But we decided to bottle some and put the rest in the keg. Got 20 12 oz.(US) bottles, bottled them up, then put the rest in the keg. Put the CO2 at 30 PSI and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

I can't wait to taste it. Didn't want to taste the warm flat beer, so tonight it will be a complete surprise.

lil_lisa

Does anyone know if having air in your tube while siphoning it from the fermenter to the bottles will have any negative effects on the beer?

The_B_Man

I wouldnt think so, since all the fermenting is done and you effectively have your finished beer, minus the fizz! Dont quote me on that though.

Also, I read somewhere that you shouldnt put your beer in the fridge until you're ready to drink it, eg leave it to mature in a wardrobe or somewere for 2 weeks minimum, then stick it in the fridge just before drinking. Could be different with kegs though.

fenderlvr

Yeah, for bottles they need the 2 weeks. That allows the extra sugar to get consumed by the yeast and create the carbonation. Since we're force carbonating ours with a co2 tank, that time isn't needed. A lot of people still recommend letting it sit longer to condition, but I'm impatient.

lil_lisa

fenderlvr wrote: »

Since we're force carbonating ours with a co2 tank, that time isn't needed.

NOTE: For the keg, not the bottles!

fenderlvr

Oh yeah. We're letting the bottles sit for 2 weeks for sure. We're also gonna save a few bottles for 2 or 3 months to see what the difference is with age.

fenderlvr

And just when I thought everything was over... another small catastrophe.



Thats frozen beer all over everything.

And this is what a regulator looks like when it's coated in frozen beer...



So, last night we tasted the beer. It was really good. It's cloudy as hell, but thats expected since it's only 9 days old and straight out of the fermenter. It tastes great!

It was a little under-carbonated, so at the end of the night, I cranked it up to 25 psi and went to bed.

No one mentioned that the party line beer dispenser I have can't handle that kind of pressure. So I woke up to this mess. I had to use a hair dryer to melt it all and clean it up before work. I also turned the fridge temp down a bit.

But, the beer is amazing. It's got the perfect amount of carbonation now. A nice half pint at 9am before work isn't bad. Might have to make it a habit.