My First Batch

10/23/2005

I am done brewing my first batch of beer. Somewhat done. Still have the bottling to do in a few days…

I decided to boil all 5 gallons of water and add the ingredients as instructed from the kit. Everything was going fine. The boil overflowed at one point, but from there on out I kept it down. Finally, the boil was done and it was time to cool it down. And here is where it all went to hell…kinda.

I took the brew pot off the burner and carried it to the bathtub and put it in water surrounded by ice. But it took forever to cool down. I kept tabs of the temperature of the wort and it was consistently 80 degrees after about thirty minutes. After an hour, still 80 degrees. So I siphoned the wort into a skinnier bucket. I then noticed my five gallons was now only 3 gallons. So I added 1 more gallon of cooler water. After awhile, it only got down to 77 degrees.

So then I ran to the store and got some ice. Put the ice in the sink, and put the bucket on top of the ice. Still 77 degrees. So two hours later, I siphoned to the glass carboy and put that on ice. At this point, I couldn’t put the thermometer in the carboy, so I was just praying that the temperature dropped below 75 degrees.

I then added the yeast and stirred it a bit. And it is now sitting in the bathroom with the airlock on it and I hope that it will start fermenting.

Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. I just need a wort chiller now to drop that 2 hours down to 15 minutes or so…

  1. brian w. says...
    Oct 23, 09:33 PM

    Dude, you got to just relax, dont worry, and have a homebrew. I’m sure it will be fine. Anything below 80 and it’s not a huge deal. Below 75 is better, but don’t worry about it. The wort chiller is handy though. Mine sometimes cools it in 15 minutes, sometimes an hour (that’s in summer when the water that comes in isn’t cold enough).

  2. Matt says...
    Oct 23, 09:52 PM

    Yeah…gotta relax…just heard a couple blurps from the airlock – thats good. I am looking at the wort right now – it seems all the yeast is starting to float to the top and float in clumps. Is this normal?

  3. brian w. says...
    Oct 23, 10:29 PM

    yeah – that’s normal. It will get a big of a head usually. If it really gets rockin, it will bubble out the top. Usually the first few days during the really active fermentation, I’ll have a hose going from the top, instead of the airlock. The hose I’ll put into a bucket or tupperware in some water. That bucket will fill up sometimes with bubbled out beer.

  4. Matt says...
    Oct 24, 08:38 AM

    This morning, it was starting to get a little head. The airlock was going about every 9 seconds. The temp of the room is at 66 degrees.

    What type of hose do you use – the siphoning hose? Since it is only 4 gallons, I think I’ll have enough room…maybe.

  5. brian w. says...
    Oct 24, 09:44 AM

    How big is your fermenter? Yeah I used siphoning hose. I have accumulated a few hoses by now, so I have one that I just use for that. What temp did it say to ferment at? Sounds like you’re right on track.

  6. Matt says...
    Oct 24, 10:28 AM

    My fermenter is a glass carboy that can hold 6 gallons. The directions just said to ferment in a cool dark place.

    Do you use a secondary fermenter at all?

  7. brian w. says...
    Oct 24, 11:38 AM

    Yep. I have a stout in secondary right now. Two gallons of headspace is usually plenty.

    The directions on the yeast should tell you optimal temp.

  8. huff says...
    Oct 24, 01:27 PM

    i was under the impression that it took weeks to brew beer….

  9. Matt says...
    Oct 24, 02:47 PM

    The whole process does. I brewed it yesterday. Now it sits in a fermenter for two weeks where it develops alcohol and carbonization.

  10. brian w. says...
    Oct 24, 03:14 PM

    depends on the beer on how long you want to let it sit in the fermenter. Likewise the amount of time it sits in the bottle. Some can take as few as two weeks. Others, months and months.

  11. huff says...
    Oct 24, 05:31 PM

    yesssssss. i love it when i’m right-ish.

  12. Matt says...
    Oct 24, 09:30 PM

    Got home tonite and the brew is bubbling away like crazy after 24 hours. There is alot of action going on…it’s kinda fun to sit there and watch a big carboy of beer fermenting. It’s amazing that the yeast just shoots around the carboy while the carboy has been sitting there completely still for 24 hours…


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