First brew today

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mb92755
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First brew today

Post by mb92755 »

I boiled my first wort and pitched my first yeast today. It is my idea of English IPA: 8 Lbs of light malt extract, 1
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wottaguy
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RE: First Brew Today!

Post by wottaguy »

Hello mb92755
Congrats on your first brew and i'm glad to hear that all went smoothly too.

I wouldn't worry about a "secondary fermenter" as you really don't need one. The most important thing to concentrate on at this time is keeping your fermentation temperatures under control. Just let the wort ferment out and let it sit in the primary around 10 - 14 days or so before bottling or kegging. I do this all the time and it saves me from a lot of extra work and the beer comes out fine. It also reduces the risk of getting the beer contaminated during the second transfer.

Hope this helps and that your 1st brew is a good one!

Brew on!!
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mb92755
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doing ok

Post by mb92755 »

OK, it's bubbling away and forming a "head" on the top (I don't know what you call it). I'm able to keep the temperature constant and it seems to like it.

Here's a question (an intelligent one I hope): I want my next batch to be a strong stout and I've read that one can "pitch" a fresh wort onto the yeast left in the bottom of the fermenter after transferring to the secondary. Is this a good thing to try for my second batch?
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Push Eject
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Re: doing ok

Post by Push Eject »

First of all, congratulations! How fun is THAT?! Whatever happens with this beer, know that the hardest one is now behind you.
mb92755 wrote:OK, it's bubbling away and forming a "head" on the top (I don't know what you call it).
It's called a krausen; I hope you can see it because you are fermenting in glass and not opening a bucket. :)
mb92755 wrote:Here's a question (an intelligent one I hope): I want my next batch to be a strong stout and I've read that one can "pitch" a fresh wort onto the yeast left in the bottom of the fermenter after transferring to the secondary. Is this a good thing to try for my second batch?
No, not really*... but WHY NOT. Go ahead! BUT do not secondary... just let your primary finish out like wotta said. 14 days would be good. Then be ULTRA clean when you rack the beer out to your bottling bucket or keg and put your stout right on top of the yeast cake left behind.

If you can, chill the fermenter for the last couple of days at around 34F to get the yeast to floculate out (fall to the bottom of the fermenter) before racking.

Cheers!
Push Eject

* why 'not really'? Because without knowing the OG of your first batch and the health of your yeast we have no way of knowing what condition they will be at the end. Nor how many will be viable. The odds are you may grossly OVER pitch the second batch and/or introduce a large bacteria load during transfer. Nonetheless, DO IT -- just be clean and practice the best sanitation you can muster.
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Post by billd220 »

If you can, chill the fermenter for the last couple of days at around 34F to get the yeast to floculate out (fall to the bottom of the fermenter) before racking.
I'm curious what the benefit is of this procedure? Dont you need this yeast for carbonation?
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Post by Push Eject »

billd220 wrote:I'm curious what the benefit is of this procedure? Dont you need this yeast for carbonation?
This will help clarify your beer quickly. There will be plenty of yeast left to carbonate if you bottle condition (again, said without knowing the general health of the original yeast pitch).

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mb92755
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turned out great

Post by mb92755 »

Been drinking my first homebrew for a few days now and am very pleased with it. It is a little more bitter than I wanted but that's because I boiled 1
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Post by Push Eject »

Beautiful, Mike.

Where in the country are you?

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Post by billd220 »

Wow...you're jumping right in. On your third batch in 6 weeks or so.

Good for you!
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Post by mb92755 »

I'm in the Willamette valley, Oregon. We have a pretty good brew supply store in Corvallis (Oregon State U), a couple more down the freeway in Eugene (U of O) and a bunch that I haven't been to up in Portland.

I want to get a variety of ales in keg or bottled because variety is the spice of life.

I messed up bottling the Honey Steam. I spent saturday washing and sanitizing bottles, canes, tubing, siphon, etc. I had it all set up and got ready to add sugar to the brew and realized I was about to stir up all the yeast from the bottom of the bucket and hadn't sanitized a bucket to rack to so that wouldn't happen. I was too tired and impatient to wait another half hour to do it so... there's too much yeast in the bottom of the bottles.
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Post by Push Eject »

That's what lagering and decanting are all about, man.

After about two weeks at room temp to carbonate, put them in a ~36F fridge and leave them for at least another two weeks (if not months).

All that crap will compact on the bottom and you can decant your beautiful beer.

Just don't let some shmoe do a crappy pour with them! :)

Cheers,
Charlie
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