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Date: 03 Sep 2006 14:42:59
From: Artarius
Subject: Lost My Brewginity! (and an introduction to all)
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My name is Roger Shannon and I am a brewaholic. <All together -Welcome
Roger >
I learned what real beer was in the Military, no American SWILL for me.
I am no longer in the Military, but investiging in many a good beers.
I have been lurking here for a cupla years, and then discovered Craigslist
with the help of my fellow brewers here.
Thats where the brewaholic sickness began. -and thanks all!
On craigslist a guy posted he was giving away all his homebrew stuff. 4 ball
valve cornies, regulator and full 5lb tank
2 6.5gal carboys, 2 5gal carboys, hydrometer, all teh stoppers and airlocks,
brass bottle washer, wort chiller, all the hoses, bench bottle capper ect.
When I went to pick these up I asked him why he was getting out of
homebrewing and he said he developed a bad allergic reaction to all yeast.
Kudos to you guy! Hope you drink lotsa liquor mebbe.
Living in Houston Texas, I knew I was going to need refrigeration. 7 units
later I now have 2 newer refrigerators with r135a, (one for a backup) and an
old kelvinator ice cream freezer from the 60's that can hold 4 cornies and
these all work fine! Got my external temp control calibrated on the fridge
to ~65-70 deg. Scored 7 more ball lock cornies while at the metal recycler.
I met a dude there who watched me frown at crapped cornies in the dump, and
he offered me his.
Paid $6.50 a piece!
*A word of advice. Many people are giving away refrigeration (R-12 freon
units) on craigslist, that are either on thier way to death, or dead because
garbage pickup i dont think does it unless it has a tag for professional
evacuation - ie. $150 for a professional evacuation.*
The kelvinator was a fluke that it still runs as well it does, this will see
a restoration and use for lagering in the kegs and mebbe convert to a
keggerator in the future after I get a chest freezer.
Enough of this ranting.
My first batches!
kits: (brewers best) an english brown ale and the full bodied weizenbier.
the eng brn ale has caramel malts 1lb. I steeped.
Kept to the instructs, but added .45 lb muntons dark DME to both. I wanted
more depth and maltiness. Calbrated turkey fryer thermometer to a known
digital that is ~accurate and hit temps with my new banjo burner rather
fast. Did 50 percent extract, and added the remainder 10 min till flameout.
Also added the aroma hops at 5 min till FO. Chilled with 90 deg water from
outside hose in wort chiller, 90 deg in 10min. Kept stirring and my water
pressure is immaculate, so rapid decrease to 90 deg.
Next was 120qt coleman cooler placed very high filled with ice and water,
and hit 65 deg in ~15 min.
I did both kits back to back and boy was I tired after all the sanitation
and boiling. Next time I'll use the buddy system if I do 2 kits the same
day.
A little high on the starting gravity but probably because I added .45 lb
muntons dark DME to both.
From information here, I knew that I didn't want both batches having the
same Nottingham dry yeast that was included.
so I went to the LHBS and got wyeast 3333 German Wheat Yeast for the
weisenbier. I added both packets of Nottingham to the eng brn ale. Pitched
direct -not advanced enough for starters yet.
The weisenbier kicked off in 4hrs and went up to the neck of the 6.5gal
carboy... rushed to homedepot and got blowoff tube and jar with sanitizer
ready. It never blew any higher than that, and the airlock stay clean
(whew)! The airlock bubbled at once ~5sec.
The eng brn kicked in at 5 hrs, and had normal krausen. Airlock at once
every 10 sec. but in 4 days the krausen had begun falling. At 6days I
checked gravity - all near where they should be. Wait till 7day, then
transfer the eng brn ale to secondary. The weisenbier, being a wheat, I did
not transfer to secondary as it is naturally murky at finish anyway and UGLY
krausen! I was raised by a swamp asa kid and only seen SCUM like it
there! -eheh
4 days in secondary and the eng brn ale has NO airlock activity... hmmm
gravity check -reached target final gravity, actually a few points lower.
That was quick. It was murkey, so I add isinglass to clear, as soon as it
hit the wort, much gas plumes forth. Cap airlock and it bubbles at 20sec
slowing down to zero in ten days in secondary. gravity check -a few points
lower YAY!
17 days total, and final gravities are a few points lower than the instructs
said. The weisenbier is still activity once every 2 1/2 min but transfer to
kegs for both.
DISSAPOINTED. Tasting at tsfer to kegs is sweet and watery not much hops
(grumble). Force carbonate at 20psi and rock and rollem. Refer at 45 deg.
2days later, bring to 9psi and taste. VIOLA!
Eng Brn Ale: clear and maltiness and much hoppiness! a little edgy, but
should round down by 1st game of the season for NFL.
Weisenbier: cloudy but wicked taste, like a champane of Mrs. Butterworths
with a slice of banna thrown in the hops are there on both bitterness and
aroma -on both beers.
Both came out ~5% ABV
*I do not taste any extract taste as noted by some here* -clean and good
with little aftertaste except for some hops.
Now I relax and have a homebrew -whew!
Excuse while I get a little VerKlemPT, <sniffle > I really want ot thank ALL
here as I never would have been able to do this without the information
locked in my head and spilling out of my ears from your posts and answers to
this newsgroup!
You people are great artists and craftspeople, and a worderful family of
Homebrubberss..., I'll try not to snobber in my beer...
and now back to my obsession.... -Roger
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Date: 05 Sep 2006 15:33:48
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Lost My Brewginity! (and an introduction to all)
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On Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:42:59 GMT, <someone@microsoft.com > wrote:
> My name is Roger Shannon and I am a brewaholic. <All together -Welcome
> Roger>
Welcome to the obsession... er... hobby. ;)
Sounds like you're off to a great start. I've just got a couple comments
on small things.
> A little high on the starting gravity but probably because I added .45 lb
> muntons dark DME to both.
Yeah, the extra DME will boost the OG some. Also, if you did a partial
boil batch and topped up with water at the end of the boil, this can throw
off your OG some. It's nothing to worry about though.
> so I went to the LHBS and got wyeast 3333 German Wheat Yeast for the
> weisenbier. I added both packets of Nottingham to the eng brn ale. Pitched
> direct -not advanced enough for starters yet.
You don't need to make starter for dry yeast, so pitching the Nottingham
direct was fine. You probably didn't need to use both packets, unless you
just didn't want to keep it around. One packet of dry yeast (they're usually
10gm packets) is perfect for pitching into a 5 gallon beer. Pitching both
won't hurt anything, but it probably wasn't necessary.
Liquid yeast, on the other hand, really should be used with a starter. It's
up to you, but I would recommend sticking with dry yeast for awhile. Dry
yeast is a lot easier to use, which is usually a good thing for someone just
getting started with the hobby.
> transfer the eng brn ale to secondary. The weisenbier, being a wheat, I did
> not transfer to secondary as it is naturally murky at finish anyway and UGLY
> krausen! I was raised by a swamp asa kid and only seen SCUM like it
> there! -eheh
Yeah, wheats tend to have more krausen than other beers, and sometimes it
sticks around forever. Don't let it bother you though. It's just the
higher protein level in the wheat that makes the krausen really "sticky".
> 4 days in secondary and the eng brn ale has NO airlock activity... hmmm
> gravity check -reached target final gravity, actually a few points lower.
> That was quick.
Don't worry too much about the timeline, there are lots of variables that
effect how long fermentation takes. Also, don't worry too much about hitting
the final gravity dead on. The FG posted in a recipe is just a guess
anyway. Within a couple points of it is actually pretty good.
> 17 days total, and final gravities are a few points lower than the instructs
> said. The weisenbier is still activity once every 2 1/2 min but transfer to
> kegs for both.
You've probably seen me post it a 100 times... ignore the bubble rates. ;)
Especially when you start getting down to the 2 1/2 min range, they don't
necessarily give you any indication as to what the fermentation is doing.
There are things which can cause bubbles in the airlock that have nothing
to do with fermentation activity. IMO, not worrying about them and racking
to the keg was the right thing to do.
> DISSAPOINTED. Tasting at tsfer to kegs is sweet and watery not much hops
> (grumble). Force carbonate at 20psi and rock and rollem. Refer at 45 deg.
> 2days later, bring to 9psi and taste. VIOLA!
Yeah, the flavor will change a lot, especially early on. It's nice to
taste the beer early (during fermentation, when you bottle, etc) in order
to learn how your beer changes, but don't get too worried when it doesn't
taste like you want. There are a lot of things that go on in the keg/bottle
during that first week while the carbonation is forming which will really
improve the beer.
>
> *I do not taste any extract taste as noted by some here* -clean and good
> with little aftertaste except for some hops.
This usually has to do with the freshness of the extracts you use. The
"extract twang" is usually due to old LME. As long as the kits you get are
reasonably fresh, you shouldn't have too many problems with it.
> Now I relax and have a homebrew -whew!
> Excuse while I get a little VerKlemPT, <sniffle> I really want ot thank ALL
> here as I never would have been able to do this without the information
> locked in my head and spilling out of my ears from your posts and answers to
> this newsgroup!
> You people are great artists and craftspeople, and a worderful family of
> Homebrubberss..., I'll try not to snobber in my beer...
> and now back to my obsession.... -Roger
It's always nice to hear such a good success story on someone's first batch.
Sounds like you really did your homework and had everything under control.
Now you get to enjoy the beer and plan your next batch. ;)
John.
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