1st batch in the fermentor

[asciibaron]

Greetings-

Had a few hours to myself today - wife was at work and my son at daycare. Went ahead and made my 1st homebrew batch. The house still has a very strong air of grains and hops :)

I made the Autumn Amber from MidWest and the color is a nice deep brown with a hint of red. Not sure if I'm going to like the final product, it might be a tad to dark for me - but hell, it's homebrew and i made it!

The 1st batch was not without a few mis-steps, but I think I have the process down. I was surprised to see how much the 2oz of hop pellets expanded. I hope is normal.

I took an OG reading of 1.090. That seems rather high - maybe I read the scale incorrectly, but I don't think so.

The 1st time is always a learning experience and it was damn fun.

Steve Hanlon

[batkins]

I did my 2nd batch Wednesday. The first one didn't turn out as hoped, but I think I got impatient. It has gotten much better in the last couple of weeks(I kegged it, and have just let it sit). The 2nd went much smoother, and I even did a partial mash this time. So far, so good.
Keep us posted!
Cheers,
Bill

[danno]

Originally posted by asciibaron I made the Autumn Amber from MidWest and the color is a nice deep brown with a hint of red. Not sure if I'm going to like the final product, it might be a tad to dark for me - but hell, it's homebrew and i made it!
Your fermenting beer will always be darker than the final, in the bottle product. Remember, you're trying to look through 5 gallons, not 12 ounces...

I was surprised to see how much the 2oz of hop pellets expanded. I hope is normal.!
Yep, perfectly normal....

I took an OG reading of 1.090. That seems rather high - maybe I read the scale incorrectly, but I don't think so.

Yeah, it does seem pretty high. (Pet peeve about Midwest Supplies, would it kill them to put a target OG in their kit instructions???) Check out this link to How To Brew, Using hydrometers, by John Palmer (http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html) to check out your methods...

[danno]

I took an OG reading of 1.090. That seems rather high - maybe I read the scale incorrectly, but I don't think so.
I didn't think of this last night, but did you do a partial boil, and then add water to your carboy? I'd bet your wort wasn't fully mixed when you took your reading... To get a 1.09 OG, those 6 lbs of extract in the kit could only be in 2.5 gallons of water...

[paul84043]

I think Danno nailed it on that one, I would bet that the wort wasn't mixed....I don't think that even a barleywine is that high....

[asciibaron]

figured why the OG was so high. i took the OG of the 2 gallons in the brewpot, not the total 5 gallons in the fermentor. opps.

you all nailed it. based on that OG, what SHOULD it have been in 5 gallons at 78 degrees?

[danno]

just posted this in another thread, but what the heck, it fits here too.... http://hbd.org/recipator/

[DarkBrew]

Went ahead and made my 1st homebrew batch.

I finally got the chance to get my equipment yesterday, and did my first batch today. With any luck, it will be an IPA (from John Bull kit). I ran into a few "challenges" today, but I think I can get the bugs worked out for the next batch. I'm going to throw some commentary and pictures up on a web page in a bit and will post the URL when done, in case anyone wants to laugh along. :p

[paul84043]

asciibaron,
your original gravity, though a nice number to have, is not really necessary. It's your final that's important.
The OG is a good point of reference and needed to calculate things like Alcohol content.

It's good that you identified what went wrong, there's nothing worse than having something strange happen and have absolutely no idea why!

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by asciibaron
figured why the OG was so high. i took the OG of the 2 gallons in the brewpot, not the total 5 gallons in the fermentor. opps.

you all nailed it. based on that OG, what SHOULD it have been in 5 gallons at 78 degrees?

(2*1.90 + 3*1.00)/2+3 = 1.36

the above is a formula calculating the weighted average between the wort and the water.

i assume tap water at 1.00 gravity... thats sounds about right too me though i unfamiliar with the recipe

[asciibaron]

MidWest said it should be about 1.042 - so I'm in the ballpark. That is good news. The fermentor is bubbling very steady - about 1-2 times a second. It smells like beer, but I used vodka in the airlock to keep it clean.

Thanks for the help. 8 more days til I bottle :)

[paul84043]

Don't fool yourself into thinking that you're going to bottle when you're ready....you'll bottle when the beer says so!!!
I have a Dubbel in the basement that's going on week three with no real signs of slowing down...