Another ''my 1st Brew" Thread

[Caffeine Dealer]

Hey guys and girls,

I put my 1st brew down yesterday afternoon and have a couple of questions.

I boiled up 2l of water along with 500g of LME. Added 10g of Williamette hops for 15 minutes and then 10g of Cascade at flame out. It started to smell very hoppy(?) and looked a bit green so thats about as long as i was tempted to leave it in there before adding it to my kit.

I added the other 500g of LME to my fermenter along with a Coopers Pale Ale can and poured the LME/hops that i had boiled in with it and then topped it up to 20l.

I didnt realise the temperature untill i stuck my thermometer to the fermenter but it was 29 degrees when i through the yeast in(coopers). It eventually settled down top 20-21 degrees(coldest place in the house) and has stayed there for the last 14 hours. How will that initial hight temp affect the yeast and end brew result?

I know that 18 degrees is optimal but is a constant 20-21c going to make a huge difference? Should i have chilled it down earlier by sitting the fermenter in chilled water?

 

[manticle]

20-21 will be fine. Don't forget that fermentation is an exothermic process and produces heat.

Better to pitch slightly lower than intended ferment temp but I'm guessing your brew will turn out better than most first time kits.

Certainly won't be ruined.

Next time you can either boil, then freeze/chill some water to add to the mix or chill your covered pot down a bit before pouring in. Aim for 16-17 degrees if possible (starting wort temperature)

 

[michael_aussie]

you'll be fine.....

I've pitched at around that temp .. and didn't have a fridge .. and still produced a drinkable brew.

welcome and good luck

 

[yum beer]

wont be a problem, you got down to decent temps quickly.

welcome to the world of your own great beer. :icon_cheers:

 

[RdeVjun]

Yeah, should be fine CD, no dramas with that at all.
With kits & bits it is difficult to prescribe a precise method as everyone has different equipment, ideas and expectations, but I think what you've done there should be fine and should thoroughly top up the 'late' hops, add the requisite malt extract for a full batch, while it should be far better than just a kilo of sugar! (As an aside, I'm a recent convert to late Willamette additions, so it is particularly appealing to me.)
At 21C, the yeast should be fine, however over the next two days I would place a few frozen plastic bottles of water around the fermenter, contact between the bottle(s) and fermenter won't be great so a towel or something to help stabilise the temperature would assist, and as manticle says, the exothermic nature of the yeast will probably raise the temperature so you will do well to regulate it as best you can. You can sit the fermenter in a tub of water, use chilled clean water at pitching etc, however IMO a most important aspect is actually stability in the temperature and not so much the actual temperature, which, so long as it is between say 16 and 22C with a minimal swing, the flavours should be acceptable. Change the bottles when the cooling ability is depleted, i.e. ice has thawed.
If you want to be sure the yeast is underway, take a sample from the tap and measure it with the hydrometer. Then do it again tomorrow, the latter reading should be lower than the first, if so you've confirmed in the most reliable way that fermentation is indeed proceeding as planned. A few blobs of pale gunk may appear through the tap and that's fine, its just trub (pronounced "troob", like the things our good lady friends usually have tucked away in their blouses) accumulating, perhaps discard that and continue, there should only be a few blobs from around the tap.
Hope its a cracker! :icon_cheers:

 

[Caffeine Dealer]

Thank you for the fast feedback.

From what i read, i could have left the hops on the boil for a bit longer but the smell was so strong i didnt want to risk adding too much hops. It would condition out with age anyway if i had of right?
I also read that people boil there hops with a lot less fermentables than i did(500g per 2L), is there any reason for or against this?

 

[manticle]

Too little sugar in the hop boil can give harsh bitterness but utilisation increases. Too much sugar and utilisation suffers.

Rule of thumb is 1030-1050 for your boil for a balance between the two. 100g of dried malt will give roughly 1040 when added to 1 L of water.

 

[RdeVjun]

No, I think that's fine. You're starting with a pre- bittered kit, you only need to top up the 'late hops' and they're usually added late in the boil to enhance the hops flavour and aroma character. If you'd boiled them for much longer, the bitterness would increase, which is not what you want, unless you're perhaps trying to change the original can's style (no, you're not in this case).
A rough rule of thumb is 100g/L of malt in the boil, this is around the optimum concentration/ gravity/ density for hops utilisation for bittering, but seeing as you're not bittering, it really doesn't matter.

 

[Caffeine Dealer]

Well i have no doubt it is doing something in the fermenter as when i woke up this morning i could hear the air lock bubbling away.

Speaking of the air lock. when i moved the fermenter down stairs to reduce the temps i'm pretty sure that some of the water was sucked from the air lock into the fermenter? I had used boiled water and it had been sitting in the air lock for about 2 hours before i moved it. Could this pose a problem in regards to infection?

One more question while i have you guys here

I have about 40 crown top bottles that i have cleaned and plan to use...most of which are fat yak and bee's knees 330ml bottles. I have a couple of bags of Coopers carbonation drops and it says to use 1 drop per stubbie(375ml). Will this over-carbonate the bottles enough to make them explode or should i be ok?

 

[manticle]

You will only have exploding bottles if you don't let ferment finish properly (with that amount).

That said, depending on your preferred levels of fizz, you may want to look at more precise methods of priming as you keep brewing.

 

[thesunsettree]

Well i have no doubt it is doing something in the fermenter as when i woke up this morning i could hear the air lock bubbling away.

Speaking of the air lock. when i moved the fermenter down stairs to reduce the temps i'm pretty sure that some of the water was sucked from the air lock into the fermenter? I had used boiled water and it had been sitting in the air lock for about 2 hours before i moved it. Could this pose a problem in regards to infection?

One more question while i have you guys here

I have about 40 crown top bottles that i have cleaned and plan to use...most of which are fat yak and bee's knees 330ml bottles. I have a couple of bags of Coopers carbonation drops and it says to use 1 drop per stubbie(375ml). Will this over-carbonate the bottles enough to make them explode or should i be ok?

While introducing water from the airlock intothe FV is certainly not advisable, any effect from what you have described will almost certainly be negligable. I certainly wouldnt be concerned but try to avoid it happening again. I keg so cant shed too much light on sugar priming, however i would suggest searching for bulk priming methods. If i bottled, thats how i would do it

Matg

 

[yum beer]

I have about 40 crown top bottles that i have cleaned and plan to use...most of which are fat yak and bee's knees 330ml bottles. I have a couple of bags of Coopers carbonation drops and it says to use 1 drop per stubbie(375ml). Will this over-carbonate the bottles enough to make them explode or should i be ok?

i use one carb drop in these size bottles. i find the fizz is fine for lagers but a little fizzy for a pale ale, but only a little. if you dont mind a bit of carbonation then go for one drop, other than that I have bulk primed a Pale ale with 1 cup of dextrose and that had a nice level of fizz....that was in 21 litres. :icon_chickcheers: