Newbie Alert - My First Brew, And Forum Entry!

[Xphile]

Ingredients:
Brewcraft brewkit 
Cascade 'Imperial Voyage' Pale ale
Safale US-05 yeast
Brewcraft Brew booster # 15
20L Filtered water (room temp)

Method

Sterilise all equipment
Boiled 4ltr filtered water
Heated can in hot water 10-15 minutes
Assembled fermented
Took 1ltr of boiled water to another pot, boiled (simmered) 15grams Chinook hops for 20 minutes
Added 2ltr of boiling water to fermenter
Added contents of can
Stirred till fully dissolved
Rinsed out contents of can with .5 litre boiling water added to fermenter
Strained hop water into fermenter
Added Brew booster kit
Stirred till fully dissolved
Added 20ltr filtered water – stirred
Waited for temperature to settle to 20-22c
Pitched yeast
Stirred (surface only)
Sealed
Fitted airlock
Filled airlock with filtered water
Took sample into tube, to take SG reading
SG reading 1.039
Flavour was very sweet, weak fruitiness on nose and aftertaste.
Wort size was 23.5ltrs

Plonked into the brew fridge, thick towel wrapped around it.

*NOTE (to self) make wooden shelves up for brew fridge – wire ones are quite flimsy when sitting a filled fermented on them!

I'll let you know how things go in a week
Going to purchase a temperature controller for the fridge this week.
With ambient temps in Melbourne around 15-21 this week I don't think it will be too bad till I can get it fitted.
​

Nothing to spectacular but for my first go I deem a worthy post

 

[Shed101]

Welcome aboard!

*NOTE (to self) make wooden shelves up for brew fridge wire ones are quite flimsy when sitting a filled fermented on them!

You're lucky you have wire ... I broke the glass shelf in my fridge on my first brew :lol:

 

[lordofthebottleshop]

I have wire shelves in my fermenting fridge - it seems to cope quite well when I put 2 shelves in one below the other. Doesn't seem nearly as flimsy as having just one. Just a thought, if it saves you having to make a new set of shelves.

Hope the beer turns out well for you! :icon_cheers:

 

[The Giant]

Nice work, did better than me for the first crack!

 

[Shaneygrog]

Sounds like you have a good start at brewing. the tastings in weeks to come will tell. I remember my first few brews, all those years ago, they were bad. In fact I was experimenting far too much with a mixture of results for the first few years, then after a few years off I got kegs and I got serious. I'm still an extract brewer but the results these days are more than I would need to keep me happy. Keep at it and good luck.

 

[Brewlord]

Good luck madmarty and welcome. You will probably hear this a lot but do be afraid to have a go at new things. In my experience its hard to muck it up so badly that its undrinkable. Have a good look through these forums - heaps of good, wise advice here.

Dont be afraid to give the wort a good stir to aerate it when adding yeast as the oxygen at this stage help the yeast start fermentation. It later when fermentation has stopped that splashing duing racking or bottling is bad and causes oxidation.

Also as long as the wort is not excessively hot (30s) just pitch anyway no waiting but ensure that you are also starting to cool as well. Your brew fridge will help this.

Also hops can be just chucked in dry so boiling them might have been a bit of extra work not really required. Later if you move on to extracts or AG, you need to boil hops to add bitterness / flavour / aroma to unhopped malts. Hopped kits already have these attributes.

Go the brew fridge - but just watch your temps anyway. With Safale US-05, 18 Deg C is good if you cant get there.

Anyway - Best of luck mate - let us know how you get on.

Cheers, Keep records, Be patient and get another one going when this one is finished so you can get your stock up and therefore not try and drink them too quickly before they have conditioned properly.

 

[Xphile]

Had a bit of a look in the brew fridge tonight..

Temperature is sitting arround 18-20c, I had a temperature logging thermometer in there today got temp range of 17-20 (ambient) very slow rises and falls over the day.

The airlock is burping away quite nicely 'burping' about avery 5 seconds atm.

Thanks for all the well wishings! This is fun!

Thanks for the advice on the hops Brewlord..... Im aware the kit does come hopped but wanted to give it a lil extra something rather than just ABKB (another boring kit brew)

 

[Yob]

You will probably hear this a lot but do be afraid to have a go at new things.

Dont be afraid to give the wort a good stir to aerate it when adding yeast as the oxygen at this stage help the yeast start fermentation.

Firstly, welcome aboard, temp control on first brew.. nice one, better than the :icon_vomit: that was my #1 attempt..(No temp control.. summer.. no AHB.. )

I think in the first line Brewlord means "DONT be afraid to have a go at new things." and it's true, the more you try the more you refine to "your tastes".. and thats what its all about..

In the second line I think I should add... 'stir and aerating your wort is a good idea and helps the yeasties get a good foothold, just remember that aerate before and not after adding the yeast. As said, its during fermentation you dont want to add any O2.. though I do know of some people who whisk when adding the yeast, Personally I dont, they will get to where they need to be..

anywhooo.. seems you are doing alot right already so above all have fun and enjoy the results..

:icon_cheers:

(edit)

To get the most out of your Hop additions when adding to kits (as I do too) try to add them toward the end range of your fermentation, the ferment can drive off alot of the flavour/aroma when added early.. I either toss the pellets in at about 1015 (if expecting a FG of 1010) or make a hop tea type thing, both good ways to get more from your Hops..

I quite like a chinook addition too.. and perle.. and cascadde... and... well you get the drift..

Cheers

 

[Tanga]

Congrats Marty. I've done about a dozen brews and I'm still not at your level. Though in my defence I don't even really have access to ice blocks at the moment (my flatmates hog the freezer). I am going to make a concerted effort to build some kind of cooling set up after Christmas though =). Thanks for the kick in the pants, and welcome to brewing. Sounds like a decent brew (even if the Hops does jump out the glass and kick people in the teeth).

 

[kelbygreen]

looks like a ok process till you get it down pat, May I suggest though when you boil hops add 100g LDME per 1lt of water. boiling in pure water will make it more bitter and may produce stronger unwanted flavour. Also I found chinook very strong but it does mellow out so if its to strong just let it sit, I found 6 weeks it started to settle. Also when stiring in the fermenter make sure the spoons sanitized not saying you didnt but sanitization wasnt mentioned

 

[Xphile]

Update, got away for the weekend

So I wasnt pacing around he fridge

Took SG reading tonight - 1014
No bad smells ... only good ones !
The liquid is very cloudy and took some amount of time to settle in my test tube.
Smelt quite fruity
Taste was actually quite resonable, no very strong knock ya back teeth out bitterness.
Tasted slightly grapefruit but Id say more 'peachy'.

Temperatures have been maintained around 17-20c in the fridge... outside ambient temps have been 14-34!
And my Brewmate temprature controller finally arrived today!

Not going to have time to hook it up tonight but will tommorow
I'll keep an eye on the SG over the next couple of days, Im suspect it may be close to bottleing as Ive seen / heard no burping from the airlock, although the water level seems to change on each side of it reasonably regularly.

P.s: Thanks for all the welcomes and bits of advice so far... theres alot of other brewers here to learn from! I'll be sure to try some of the advice next brew!

 

[dcx3]

Dont worry about the airlock mate just keep taking gravity readings,once you get 3-4 days in a row of the same reading then you can start to think about the next step.
I usually find that if the beer is still cloudy its roughly 7 days away from being ready to bottle,dependent on temps etc.

 

[Xphile]

After 3 days of 1014
went to 1012 today

I think it may of possibly stalled?
The temperature has been a fairly steady 18-20c in the brewfridge.

 

[Yob]

After 3 days of 1014
went to 1012 today
I think it may of possibly stalled?

or finished... what was your expected FG? I should think this one was done and ready for the bottle....

 

[Bats]

Hi Madmarty,
It seems like you've done heaps of research before starting your very first brew. Keep us updated on this particular brew and any further experiments. It's always good to learn from other people's success and failures.
Happy brewing and dont forget to let us know how it tastes!

 

[JunkzOr]

it also helps that he knows at least 3 other homebrewers he can chew the ears of for advice ;-)

 

[Xphile]

As far as I could tell my FG was around 1012-1014 anyway.

Well its been conditioning in the bottle for 2 weeks now so I popped a few bottles in the fridge for consumption on Saturday.
Pleasantly surprised!
Visually: Clearer than I expected, dark for a pale ale, I was waiting for a big hit of bitterness.
The result to my palate: Sweet pale ale with a slight citrus after taste ... low on bitterness, good carbonation, little head
If it had a bit more head Id be happier (everyone could do with a little more in their life )
Even though I took it easy on the hops, with the quick boil hopping the flavour of them has definitely come though.
I think it will get better in the next few weeks so Im putting some aside
Im not afraid of handing a few bottles around so yes JunkOr, Ill see you today ;P
Took a few pictures now just got to work out how to post up.
Lots of research yes, and lots of listening and talking... its all good!
Going in the fermenter today Im doing a Mexican cerveza, with a few tricks Ive read of these very forums! But thats another post