Brewing 1st batch Saturday

[carrisr]

Me gear is expected to arrive Wednesday and ingredients Thursday, so if all goes well I plan on brewing Saturday. This will be my first ever batch. I'm starting with an Irish Red since it's fairly cheap.

If anyone is interested in witnessing the carnage let me know.

Randy

[tony b]

I would, but I hope to have my ingredients for my Irish Red arriving in time for me to brew also this Saturday.

Good luck!!

tb

[Matt F]

Cool, have fun and remember...Relax, Don't Worry and Have a Homebrew, or any good beer for that matter. Everything will be fine. Looking forward to sampling your beer.

[BrewHound]

The heat is on.... I will be brewing my Irish Red on Sunday.

[brownbeard]

I am going to brew my Irish Red this weekend as well. I am hoping to brew 2 batches in one day. Irish Red and Raspberry wheat.

[Matt F]

Sounds like I better get going on my Irish Red. I have my recipe, just need to order some stuff and get brewing. Will be the first batch since November!

[carrisr]

Equipment and ingredients came on schedule and I just "smacked the pack". So as long as this yeast goes I should be brewing Sat as planned. I'll probably be enjoying some of that Hopslam while I'm at it.

It sounds like this is going to be a big weekend for reds. I hope all goes well for everyone.

Randy

[BrewHound]

This is nice if Matt gets off his butt that is at least 5 entries for the competition. Just isn't as much fun when you are only competing against 2 or 3 beers. Brew on peoples!

[Matt F]

I will probably brew the first full week of April. Not sure when. I usually decide the night before and do a starter. Then I get started around 6 the following night after getting home from work and finish in the wee hours of the morning.

[carrisr]

Well, things turned out pretty interesting. I did go with 1/2 the Irish Red Kit from Northern Brewer. I heated 1 gallon of water and added my grains at about 160. Tried to maintain the steep temp around 150-155, but it was kind of windy outside so it was hard to control. The thermometer that came with the turkey boiler is scaled in a way that lacks precision too.

After steeping for 30 min. I removed the grains, added 2 more gallons of water and cranked up the heat. Before the water boiled I added the extract. The boil went as planned with no boil overs, though there were a few close calls. I found I had to continuously adjust the fuel rate to maintain a good boil but not boiling over. I was surprised that 3 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot could start to boil over so quickly!

I put 20 pounds of ice in a trash can and added water to use as my cooler. It worked much better than I expected. I was able to drop the temp down below 80 in under 10 minutes. I think that system should be adequate for these small batches.

Unfortunately, I really misjudged how how much water would boil off. I ended up closer to 2 gallons by estimate. I did a read with my hydrometer and it came in around 1.062. I think the target OG was supposed to be closer to 1.040. I quickly boiled and cooled another 1/2 gallon of water and added it to the wort. That brought it down to right at 1.040 so I hope I'm all right. Things got pretty hectic so I hope I was able to keep everything clean enough. It also looks like I might be a little on the dark side.

Well, it's up to the yeast now...

Randy

[tompb]

It should be fine. You may have boiled a little hard, though a gallon in an hour isn't excessive. All you need is a rolling boil. The surface should be turning over. If the wort is jumping it's to hot.

You have to really be ready for a boil over. As soon as you see the wort start to turn over and small bubbles start rising be ready to turn down the flame and stir. Once you get past the initial boil it should be fine the rest of the time.

You might consider adding the extract later in the boil. It would help keep the color lighter. You need to adjust the hops some as you get better utilization with a lower gravity.

As long as the yeast pack swelled it's good. By tonight/tomorrow morning they'll be having a huge orgy. It's cool to see all the activity going on when they're at the peak. Kinda gives me a chubby.

[tony b]

Everything gives you a chubby!

[carrisr]

Yes, I thought the same thing. One tall glass of that stuff and I can feel it. Two pints gets me pretty buzzed. I have to finish that growler though while it's still fresh! (at least that's what I'm telling the wife...) Pretty interesting beer though. After the kick from the hops fades I get some interesting honey-like notes.

My brew started bubbling last night. By this morning there was over an inch of foam on top and a constant stream of bubbles out the airlock. I was a little worried about the yeast, since the pack didn't swell up much after 2 days out of the fridge. But all appears well at this point.

[brownbeard]

Be honest. How many times did you check it during the night? I can remember climbing out of bed, in the middle of the night, and heading down to watch it boil. All in my boxers mind you.

Fermentation. It's the new kink.

[Matt F]

Finally! I thought I was the only one! It is the one thing keeping me from splurging on a concial. I like to watch.

Man this Hopslam is good.