beer =[ GM's 1st 16x Batches, and/or 10 mo. Brewing ]=

[grantmichaels]

Came close ...

De-scaled some gear, moved some water around, made some sanitizer, but didn't get to brew ... tonight.

Ice is still mostly fine, so if I can work it in between work tomorrow - it's on - otherwise I'll just wait until after the Cool Brewer bag arrives, I think ...

Planning to start my journey w/ full-volume AG/BIAB ...

This really tied everything I've read together ...

Just need to figure this puppy out ...

http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?t=1869#p25993

 

[RocketMan]

when my hops are ready here if your still into this I will send a couple varieties to play around with. 

Wow, very nice offer. What varieties do you grow?

Man seems like I remember seeing a statement or question about cleaning from eariler but I couldn't find it, get some Powdered Brew Wash next time your at the LHS, just dump some into your bucket/kettle throw everything in and fill with water. Come back later, rinse it all off and your golden. Seems like Inread somewhere that OxyClean will do the same thing but I'd haven't have Wheebz confirm that.

 

[FreeportBum]

Wow, very nice offer. What varieties do you grow?
Man seems like I remember seeing a statement or question about cleaning from eariler but I couldn't find it, get some Powdered Brew Wash next time your at the LHS, just dump some into your bucket/kettle throw everything in and fill with water. Come back later, rinse it all off and your golden. Seems like Inread somewhere that OxyClean will do the same thing but I'd haven't have Wheebz confirm that.

I have cascade, chinook, warrior and an unknown variety. They do really well here.

 

[RocketMan]

Very cool, I'd love to be able to grow some but Hops and Florida just don't mix well when it comes to growing. I've heard of people here growing some varieties but it's mostly up in the pan handle and I've never heard of anyone having great results.

 

[wheebz]

I use iodophor for all of my sanitizing, just throw some in a spray bottle and dilute it and you are golden
 
as far as cleaning, that powdered stuff works good for breaking apart nasty stuff in the kettle and the fermenter

 

[cypresshill1973]

I am keep here seeing your breaw. It's very interesant for me.
 
Years ago i had to make my beers. Here exist a very lot comunity that made beers. They are teachers and have all materials to sell. Never I do it.

 

[grantmichaels]

I use iodophor for all of my sanitizing, just throw some in a spray bottle and dilute it and you are golden
 
as far as cleaning, that powdered stuff works good for breaking apart nasty stuff in the kettle and the fermenter

 
Thanks for the info ...
Basically, the exact thing that I thought would happen - happened ...
 
I postponed doing the kit, and have since loaded up on fragmented knowledge from reading and asking questions for a week and a half, and now the kit is annoying because the yeast isn't named, nor are the grain rations and/or make-up ...
 
I have no way to know if the yeast for each of the kits is better or worse suited for the fermentation temps I'll have (especially before the cool brew bag arrives) ...
 
So ...
 
Now the kits are kind of valueless, or at least, somewhat random ... not knowing their ingredients makes them useless to parcel out for later, so I might as well just let 'em rip ...
 
My next steps will involve higher integrity recipes, and a vastly simplified process (BIAB, full-volume) until I have a lot of brew under my belt, to know better or otherwise ...
 
So, yeah ...
 
We're going to cook one of these kits up ...and get it into a fermenter, and maintain a guarded expectation ...
 
I'm going to use the bottled drinking water in the 2 gal SS pot, get it to about 160F, mash in the contents of the grain mixture in a muslin sock, keep it between 144 and 152 for 60-90min, then lift the sock up and place it into a strainer above the same pot, and sparge 170F water over the sock of grains, and then boil the pot for 90 mins, doing the hop dance, and then when it's done, I'm going to pour it straight through a sterilized screened funnel, into the fermenter jug until it's right over the ONE GALLON mark, pitch the dry yeast pack in, dip my hand in the sanitizer and shake it up good, and then stick the sterlized cap and hose into the top, w/ the other end in a tupperware of sterilizer, and put it all in a doubled up cooler w/ an ice pack to do it's thing for a couple of days ... at which time i'll mix up some sterlizer again for an air lock, and i'll switch it out ...
 
That's all the kit is getting from me =)
 
It looks like you can mash in to the 160F water and then stick the 2 gal pot in a 170F oven for an hour to mash too, but I'm not doing that this time, today ...
 
In the future, when I have all of the ingredients and know what everything is (I don't know the grain mix or the yeast in the kit), I'm going to to full-volume BIAB for a while, using the guidance of the BIABacus to figure amounts out, etc ...

Until I know why I need a multi-vessel setup, I'm not going to worry about one ...

 

[grantmichaels]

Should still squeeze in a gallon, hopefully ...

 

[grantmichaels]

woot!

 

[grantmichaels]

sparging like pour-over ...

3x through the bed ...

sweet liquor ...

Boil ...

Little Golding Hops ...

Reduced a bit, I think ...

Two bags of ice took it down to like 58F ...

Pitched yeast ...

Added 3/4L to cover the reduction, and popped in the cooler w/ a frozen two liter ...

Is it OK if it gets cold, or does it need to be closer to 65-70F, or?

 

[Bumper]

It needs to be 65-70, preferably 68.  If it isn't, the ferment will be sluggish, or worse still stall - they can be a bugger to get going again.  

Still looking at the photos, great first effort G.  When you put the yeast in, it is better to rehydrate it in some water about 80F for 20 minutes rather than toss it straight in - you need to pitch more dried yeast if you direct pitch.  It reduced by 35%  What was your starting gravity (OG?) 

FWIW, I also tend to let the grains steep for 90 minutes and stir every now and then, as some batches of grain I have had haven't converted so well at 60 minutes.  Thinking I might brew tomorrow, so will take some pics of my session for you. 

 

[grantmichaels]

Planning to do 90/90 for BIAB going forward, kind of followed the kit directions for this one.

Didn't take OG etc because a) thief comes later this week, b) meter's jar uses a significant amount of wort/beer on a 1 gal batch (will add refract.-based meter), and c) KISS and "trust" kit first time ...

Lots of stuffing coming this week, incl. second SS pot (would have helped), bigger strainer, and I need to add hops bags or tea-ball etc ... clogged funnel filter putting into fermenter ...

We'll see, I'm planning to do BIAB once I'm done w/ the 3-4 kits ...

It needs to be 65-70, preferably 68.  If it isn't, the ferment will be sluggish, or worse still stall - they can be a bugger to get going again.  

Still looking at the photos, great first effort G.  When you put the yeast in, it is better to rehydrate it in some water about 80F for 20 minutes rather than toss it straight in - you need to pitch more dried yeast if you direct pitch.  It reduced by 35%  What was your starting gravity (OG?) 

FWIW, I also tend to let the grains steep for 90 minutes and stir every now and then, as some batches of grain I have had haven't converted so well at 60 minutes.  Thinking I might brew tomorrow, so will take some pics of my session for you. 

 
Yeah, temp in the cooler on the surface of the fermenter jug was 57F ... no bubbles ...
 
Probably should have just left it out, as the weather was cooler last night and the house kept 70F by itself ...
 
Live and learn, I guess ...
 
I removed the frozen two liter and turned the top cooler side-ways to let it increase in temperature somewhat gradually ...
 
There's sediment on the bottom, so I didn't swirl it or touch it, but maybe I should? ...
 
 
f sediment on the bottom ...

 

[HigherThisHeat]

The yeast are probably sleepin a bit due to the low temp. Let it rise some, and gently rouse the jug to help get the yeast back in suspension. All that sediment and what not will fall out given time anyways.
 
Did you rehydrate the yeast, or just pitch it straight from the package?

 

[grantmichaels]

I pitched it straight as directed by the kit ...
 
I'll hook myself up w/ a stirrer etc for the next batch, though, I think ...
UPDATE: I swirled it a bit, and upon closer inspection there's no sediment to speak of ... just an illusion from the curvature of the bottom edge of the jug ...

 

[HigherThisHeat]

With out rehydrating it will take them even a little longer to get going while they hydrate themselves in the liquid, and then start reproducing. Get it up to temp and give it another day and you'll probably see it take off. Probably later tonight or by tomorrow morning I bet.

 

[grantmichaels]

Cool, that's what I did ... I gave it a swirl, too, a few mins ago ... It *looks* like beer, lol ...
 
I'll get my Amazon packages within an hour or two, and then I'll have one of those thermometer stickers to put on there ...
 
Since it came down to 58F when I checked it first in the ice-bath, and was 57F this morning, there's no reason to believe it ever was higher, which would probably correlate w/ slow activity of the yeast ...
 
Don't stall little bitches! ...
 
Anyways, the majors all went well ...
 
It didn't stink, and I was worried about that ... smelled kind of nice, actually ...
 
It really didn't require the full-time baby-sitting that it got ...
 
I'm seeing people throwing their mash pot in the oven on the lowest setting to keep it warm, and I think I might have to give that a try next time instead of pulsing the burner ...
 
I'm planning to try to BIAB in the future, so long as it works out, but even sparging wasn't a big deal - and would have been simple had I had the second matched SS pot ...
 
The time the boil needed to be watched was probably only the first 10-15 mins, and the other 75 mins seemed like just coming in to drop the hops would have been fine ... no foaming etc, except immediately following the hops drops ...
 
I'm definitely adding a little hops ball or whatever ... and I guess a stir plate, too ... oh, and a shallower more broad tupperware for sanitizing ...
 
Overall, not too bad - hope it wakes up and comes out alright =) ...

 

[Bumper]

It should be fine, can you give it a blanket?  This sounds silly, but it will help keep the temp up a bit.  If you have a hydrometer or refractometer coming in the packages today, please do yourself a favour and measure the starting gravity.  You need to know how much alcohol can be made from the wort, (so you can adjust to get the right ABV with a bit of extract if needed) and, more importantly you need a final gravity to know whether you can bottle it.  Bottle bombs are dangerous and messy to clean up.  
 
Congrats on your first run!

 

[RocketMan]

Don't feel too bad Grant, on my first homebrew I listened to my wife and moved it into the 95+ Heat. If it wasn't for Fiddy and Sum it would have been totally messed up. As it was it turned out pretty good.

 

[grantmichaels]

About 90 min ago it started to produce a little bit of trace foam, right around 65F ...   Now, it's got a little bit more than that, mostly across the top, and it's at 67F ...   The problem was the lack of hydrometer jar and thief, but they've since arrived an hour ago ...   What am I to do, now? ...   Mix up some sanitizer ... sanitize the thief, hydrometer, and jar ... and then my hands, squirting some on the capper thingy holding the rubber tube ...   Then steal wort w/ the thief, and put it in the jar (how high?), and then squirt the cap and tube some more and replace them? ...   Since it was cold overnight, there hasn't been that much activity at all yet ... in fact, it's just getting started now, actually ...   Is this the right process? ...   I guess I'll have to Google how to read the hydrometer, too - it says it's a triple-scale hydrometer (el cheapo) ...
 

 

 

 

 
OG = 1047 (temp adjusted +.001) for being upper 60's ...
 

 
Amirite?

 

[RocketMan]

Looks about right, next time spin the hydrometer and it'll cleat away the bubbles