Home Brewer question

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:33 pm

Just brewed my first batch today! The worst part was trying to get the wort into the fermentaion bucket without all the sediment.

Now I am trying to air out the house because the wife and kids don't truly appreciate good old home cookin'.

OG for my Kolsch was 1.041 at 71 degrees. Getting ready to bottle in 7 - 10 days. It should be ready for my wife's birthday.

Cheers

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:41 pm

Congrats on the first beer. Hope it turns out well for ya!

It's not a big deal if sediment gets into the fermentation bucket. It will settle out during fermentation and get left behind with the yeast when you rack it to your bottling bucket. This is one of the biggest reason for doing a secondary fermentation if you choose to do one in the future as well. You rack it into a second fermenter and let the sediment fall out of it again to get a clearer final product.

Post by **ZiggyZoomba** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:49 pm

oaklane2 wrote:Just brewed my first batch today! The worst part was trying to get the wort into the fermentaion bucket without all the sediment.

Now I am trying to air out the house because the wife and kids don't truly appreciate good old home cookin'.

OG for my Kolsch was 1.041 at 71 degrees. Getting ready to bottle in 7 - 10 days. It should be ready for my wife's birthday.

Cheers

If you need another opinion on taste... you know... Elmore is ONLY a few miles away. I'm just sayin...

Hope it turns out great for you!

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:47 am

Four day old Kolsch racked to secondary. It even smells like beer!

Yeast and sediment in the bottom of the fermentation bucket.

I had to tuck it back in to the closet for another week before bottling. Picked up two boxes of 22 oz bottles ( I will use a couple Grolsch swing tops for any extra beer) and an American Amber kit at Titgemeire's on Saturday. Their Steam beer kits looked to be pretty old and dusty so I passed on that one. I forgot to pick up more sanitizer so I get to make another trip up.

Cheers!

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 1:31 pm

oaklane2 wrote:Four day old Kolsch racked to secondary. It even smells like beer!

I had to tuck it back in to the closet for another week before bottling. Picked up two boxes of 22 oz bottles ( I will use a couple Grolsch swing tops for any extra beer) and an American Amber kit at Titgemeire's on Saturday. Their Steam beer kits looked to be pretty old and dusty so I passed on that one. I forgot to pick up more sanitizer so I get to make another trip up.

Cheers!

It smells like beer, because it IS beer now

But I think you're probably doing the right thing by letting it sit in secondary for another week before bottling.

When you're buying sanitizer my favorite, by far, was StarSan. It's an acid based sanitizer that you dilute in water. It is completely flavorless and requires no rinsing. I have a giant rubbermade tub that I would just fill with the mixture and keep in my garage. The stuff works well even after it's been frozen. I could use the same batch of sanitizer for many batches of beer. If you don't want to mix it in a large batch I also know a lot of people just fill it in a spray bottle and spray all the surfaces of everything they want sanitized. The stuff works wonderfully and is much easier to use than other sanitizers. I know they carry it at Titgemeier's too.

Post by **ZiggyZoomba** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:15 am

hammb wrote:
oaklane2 wrote:Four day old Kolsch racked to secondary. It even smells like beer!

I had to tuck it back in to the closet for another week before bottling. Picked up two boxes of 22 oz bottles ( I will use a couple Grolsch swing tops for any extra beer) and an American Amber kit at Titgemeire's on Saturday. Their Steam beer kits looked to be pretty old and dusty so I passed on that one. I forgot to pick up more sanitizer so I get to make another trip up.

Cheers!
It smells like beer, because it IS beer now But I think you're probably doing the right thing by letting it sit in secondary for another week before bottling.

When you're buying sanitizer my favorite, by far, was StarSan. It's an acid based sanitizer that you dilute in water. It is completely flavorless and requires no rinsing. I have a giant rubbermade tub that I would just fill with the mixture and keep in my garage. The stuff works well even after it's been frozen. I could use the same batch of sanitizer for many batches of beer. If you don't want to mix it in a large batch I also know a lot of people just fill it in a spray bottle and spray all the surfaces of everything they want sanitized. The stuff works wonderfully and is much easier to use than other sanitizers. I know they carry it at Titgemeier's too.

I've used StarSan and the granular Oxy-type stuff and don't really have a preference. But I think Brian's right about the life-span of the StarSan stuff. It's the way to go if you're going to be doing a lot of brewing!

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:50 am

oaklane2 wrote:

Cheers!

That looks like the fake john in Cheech Marin's bar in Desperado.

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:04 pm

Spent the morning cleaning and bottling. Og was 1.041 FG was 1.008 not a big beer but it is a start into homebrewing.

I am not sure what to expect tastewise with this, hard for me to tell when it is warm and flat.

I managed to bottle 1 case of bombers and 2 - 16 oz swing top bottles.

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:52 pm

It's carbonated! Brewed an American Amber this morning and to celebrate, I popped the top and tasted my first batch. Lets just say I am not going to be buying much in the way of BMC brews since I can do better at home.

Cheers!

Post by **ZiggyZoomba** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:00 am

oaklane2 wrote:It's carbonated! Brewed an American Amber this morning and to celebrate, I popped the top and tasted my first batch. Lets just say I am not going to be buying much in the way of BMC brews since I can do better at home.

Cheers!

That's lovely!

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:06 am

ZiggyZoomba wrote:
oaklane2 wrote:It's carbonated! Brewed an American Amber this morning and to celebrate, I popped the top and tasted my first batch. Lets just say I am not going to be buying much in the way of BMC brews since I can do better at home.

Cheers!
That's lovely!

Looks good man! Pretty clear too for a first try.

I really need to get off my lazy butt and brew again. It's been so long, I'm not sure I remember how to do it. Congrats on the first beer!

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:25 pm

I have bottles on order for the American Amber. I already have 1 liter bottles for the Mead up next, parents are bringing back around 10 lbs of Orange Blossom Honey from Florida when they return. I am mentally flipping a quarter over the third batch of beer, Hefeweizen or Pale Ale (I am definately NOT a hop head). The only part of the puzzle left is where to store the bottled beer (not at any of your houses)

. I am thinking about creating a cellar in a portion of my crawlspace which is fairly well finished and accessible.

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:32 am

American Amber is now in 22 oz bottles, I came up short and did not get one and a half bottles filled (only 22 and a half bottles filled, I only added water until max SG was attained for the style), and a two and a half gallon batch of Joe's Ancient orange Mead (7 lbs of local clover honey) is now bubbling contentedly away in the closet. The first time I bottled beer I was just giddy with making beer, this time cleaning, sterilizing, racking, cleaning, bottling, etc. wow almost three hours later. I can't imagine bottling with 12 oz bottles.

Regarding the half bottle, I realize it may not carbonate as well, but is it ok to cap a half bottle, will oxidation be a problem?

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:23 am

I think I bottled 2-3 batches of beer before I realized I needed to get kegging equpment. Kegs rock, and they're so much easier to clean, sanitize, and fill than individual bottles.

As to capping a half bottle I think I'd drink that one first, but I think you'll be okay in regards to the oxidation. As your beer carbs it is going to give off some CO2. CO2 is heavier than air so it will settle on the top of the liquid acting as a buffer between the beer and the air. Err at least that's what I think would happen. I'd drink that one first just to be safe though

Pete Segaard · Post by **Pete Segaard** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:37 pm

I think my wife would draw a very definite line in the proverbial sand if I were to even suggest making the move to kegging. Kegs, dedicated fridge, and of course I couldn't just suffer with picnic taps, all to make beer even easier to consume. Of course I could brew her favorite lagers for her if I had a dedicated fridge! Okay somebody just pinched me, end dream sequence.

Home Brewer question

bottled and put away

keep on brewing