First brew

[Fry]

Hey all!
Love beer but always thought home brew was a bit meh. Maybe just tried shit home brews. Then a mates mate had a bit of a gathering and put on some beers that were quite nice. He moved overseas, mate took over his biab setup, I help in a few brew days, get hooked, buy a Robobrew and here we are now.

First brew is a simple citra smash. Been in the fv almost a week now on us-05. Think its almost finished, airlock bubbling has slowed a lot.

This is where I am not sure what to do next. I am thinking dry hop then make sure FG has been reached. Should i just throw hops in loose or put in a sock? If in a sock when should i remove the sock? After FG reached? Then cold crash, wait for that to settle, add gelatine, wait for that to work then keg it?

Yes gone straight to kegs. Helped mate bottle once and that was a chore.

Learnt a lot already, been lurking these forums a bit picking up tips. Things I will look to change in future -

OG was a bit low. Putting that down to my crush. Wasnt fine enough, sparging took no time at all. Mill was on 0.05 have moved to around 0.035 for next time.

Immersion chiller. Wifes garden was happy with it. Got wort to 40, got fv fridge to 0, transferred wort, put in fridge with controller set to 18 and went to bed. Got up 5 hours later and pitched yeast. No chill cube in future, but worried about hop timings as i like pale and ipa's.

Airlock. Blew its sanitizer a couple of times. Changed to vodka. Worked better but dont want to waste vodka all the time. Gladwrap in future. Won't have that visual info of bubbling, besides experience and taking gravity readings, to know when yeast is finishing?

Cheers all

 

[Grott]

Welcome Fry, and your certainly on the right track for some awesome brews. Don’t worry about the bubbling, hydro readings are the go and visual bubbling, condensation and expanding gladwrap will provide all the indications of fermention happening.

Ps agree, don’t waste the vodka

 

[Bonenose]

Hi mate and welcome,

I have dry hopped with loose hops and with tea bagged hops, have not used a hop sock but assume would be much the same. I am a bit limited on time and space in my fermentation fridge so generally end up with two days dry hop at the end of ferment and then 24 to 48 hours cold crash before kegging. I have never taken hops out before kegging everything seems to sink nicely, just drain off half a cup of sludge then transfer is nice and clean. Have never used gelatine or anything else so don't know what the go is with that.

My advice would be not to worry too much at this stage you can always fine tune later. Just keep it simple, get your basics sorted and enjoy making some great beer.

 

[Hpal]

I would stick with tea-bag hops or a stainless tea ball type thing. I would not risk a hop sock in the fermenter, leave that for the boil kettle.