Newbees First Brew

[Gormand]

Ok so I have been thinking of starting for a while as a couple of mates do it already. I have been reading here for a week or 2 (Great resource BTW) and finally got my first brew on yesterday.

Morgans Dockside stout
Safale s-04 yeast (Rehydrated, tested)
1kg Dry dark malt
200g Lactose

Put 4 litres of water on to boil, sanitised everything and put the can in hot water for 5-10 min to loosen.
Boiled 200ml of water and put in pyrex jug to cool.
Once water was boiled and the 200ml had cooled rehydrated the yeast and poured the can into the pot.
Brought to boil, added malt, after malt was all mixed in took out small sample (About 1 tablespoon I would say) .
Boiled for 15 min while yeast was rehydrating, When I put the tester in the yeast I also put the pot in cold water.
After 30 min of testing and cooling, yeast was reacting (Hooray)
Added wort to fermenter, topped up to 23l, temp was dead on 22. Stirred in lactose, pitched yeast, sealed and put in the cupboard under the stairs. OG was 1.040 Looking at spread sheets and such this seems low though, any reason for that? Should be 1.046 from what I can tell.
As of this morning the airlock is going nuts bubble every 2-4 seconds. Had gone up to 24 so strapped a towel around it with 2 ice packs. Need some more of those.


So based on that can anyone think of anything I should do differently? Any tips for me going forward. I have a Coopers heritage pilsner for my next batch which should go on when this one gets bottled.

Thanks again for this resource, tons of information that really help the process go smoothly.

 

[petesbrew]

As of this morning the airlock is going nuts bubble every 2-4 seconds. Had gone up to 24 so strapped a towel around it with 2 ice packs. Need some more of those.

Congrats on getting batch #1 underway. Sounds nice too.
chill a couple of bottles of water, and pour over the towel, keeping that cold and wet too. Use that with the freezer bricks.
Welcome to the obsession!

 

[felten]

brewstrong just did a show on kit beers, it's got a ton of good info in there for people brewing kit beers. I don't want to regurgitate what they said but there was some good tips on there like you don't have to boil your LME and so on. (and there's all the other shows on various other topics which contain good info)

 

[mwd]

Don't really need to boil the can or the malt IMO they should be pretty much sterile from the factory. It takes forever to get the temperature down if you boil so much.

One tip I found to loosen up the goop in the can is put the tin in the oven at the lowest setting for about 30 mins need to wear gloves but it pours nice and easy.

That apart looking very good try to get that temperature down to a steady 18C if you can probably have to change the icepacks twice a day wild swings in temperature cause more problems in the fermentation stage than anything.

good luck the first one is looking good.

 

[Gormand]

chill a couple of bottles of water, and pour over the towel, keeping that cold and wet too. Use that with the freezer bricks.
Welcome to the obsession!

Thanks for that Ill get that setup tonight when I get home. Have a few hot days on the way.

Obsession is also right, takes a whole lot of willpower to not start taking readings already, just to find out how its going.

Another question I have is racking, how much difference does that make? How do I know the best time to rack, and how long do you rack for? I cant get a rack setup going just yet but maybe in a couple of months.

 

[felten]

If you are going to be leaving the beer in the fermenter for 1-2 weeks then you only have to rack if you're bulk priming (imo). If you want to age it longer you might look into racking, or if you want to age on wood, fruit or want to remove the beer from dry hops in the primary so you can dry hop a 2nd time. Some people might disagree but that's my view on it.

 

[mwd]

Pretty much the same view as Felten on racking. The only time I rack is onto gelatine finings or if I have a real big heaps of hops in my primary.

In the early days I would concentrate on temperature control it will have more effect on your beers than racking.

 

[Gormand]

Another question I have is in regards to the kilo part of K&K I notice that a lot of people tend to put in more then 1kg of DME/Sugar/whatever. Is that normal? I read in the FAQ that
"The effects of different ingredients on your brew:
Dextrose adds no exra flavour or body to your brew, only alcohol.
Malt (either dried or liquid) adds body, flavour and alcohol to your brew.
Maltodextrin adds body and some sweetness to your brew."

So if I just want to add more body and booze to the brew can I just throw in more Dex, and similar with the others? Prob wont for my next couple, but I plan to tweak recipes laster dso just tryign to get the does and donts down pat.

 

[Pennywise]

If you want more body in the finished product as well as alcohol, then malt would be the go. Dextrose, while giving you more alcohol, will not wive you a noticable improvement on body, if at all.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

brewstrong just did a show on kit beers, it's got a ton of good info in there for people brewing kit beers. I don't want to regurgitate what they said but there was some good tips on there like you don't have to boil your LME and so on. (and there's all the other shows on various other topics which contain good info)

I would recommend all aspiring K&K brewers to listen to this podcast/mp3. I rarely do K&K these days but JZ and RP reminded me that there really is nothing wrong with kit beers. Like they stated, there is a general negativity towards kit brewing. Most cans are made very well from the factory/brewery and if brewed with the correct yeast under temperature controlled conditions with good sanitary and brewing practices then there is no reason why these beers can't turn out very nice.

Check it out if you are interested!

 

[Gormand]

If you want more body in the finished product as well as alcohol, then malt would be the go. Dextrose, while giving you more alcohol, will not wive you a noticable improvement on body, if at all.

And now that I reread it I can see that. Apparently Im blind and I havnt even had 1 beer.

I kinda wish I drank more beer so that I could make more brews quicker and learn more.