First ever brewday

[Klemay83]

So this morning I put my first ever batch in the FV to start its journey to what will hopefully turn out to be a very nice beer .

The recipe is based in Coopers ' Fruit Salad' pale ale, but I made a slight change or two.

1 X Ritchie's Simply Pale Ale Kit (minus the yeast)
1kg Youngs Dried light Spraymalt
25g Amarillo
25g Cascade
25g Summer hops
11.5g Danstar Munich wheat beer yeast

I let the Amarillo and Cascade steep in a muslin bag in 2L of off the heat boiled water for 30 mins, I then put the pit back on a low heat and put in the Spraymalt, stirred it till it was dissolved. Did the same with the Ritchie's Pale Ale. Chucked that in the FV, topped upto 21L and pitched the yeast ( mixed with 100ml of water) at 20 degrees. Where the FV is sitting it should ferment at an almost constant 18 degrees. I'll chuck the summer hops into the FV in a few days.

All in it was a great first time experience. Definitely been able to apply some of the tips I picked up here on the forum. Just hope the end result turns out to be drinkable!

 

[clibit]

I'm sure it will be very drinkable. Why did you go for a wheat yeast? Not a problem, just slightly left-field in a non-wheat beer.

 

[Klemay83]

It was just as a flavouring experiment. I wanted to try and see how much of a banana type flavour it would add to the beer in conjunction with those hops. I got 2 packs of the Danstar for the price of one, so I'll use the other pack for making an actual wheat beer later in spring.

 

[Dutto]

Of course it will be drinkable! :thumb: :thumb:

Enjoy! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[LarryF]

Really well thought out first brew, I think you're onto a winner there. I'd be really interested to see how this comes out, did you get an OG reading at all?

 

[Klemay83]

The OG I got was 1049. No activity yet in the FV/airlock. I slightly messedup prepping the yeast I put it in water that was room temperature rather than the recommended 35 degrees it said on the pack. I'm hoping this is just a minor mishap and won't affect the over all process. I pitched it into the wort which was about 20 degrees. So fingers crossed that something will start happening.

 

[LarryF]

1049 sounds nice, your yeast should be fine with your FV at 20c, in fact they say to expect a vigorous fermentation at 17c or above, maybe have a read up on blow off tubes.

 

[Klemay83]

12 hours since I pitched the yeast , still no signs of any happening , no krausen forming. Just wondered if by tomorrow evening there is still nothing happening what I should do?

 

[GlentoranMark]

12 hours since I pitched the yeast , still no signs of any happening , no krausen forming. Just wondered if by tomorrow evening there is still nothing happening what I should do?

I pitched a Safale US 04 on my brew last weekend and it took 2 days to get going. I'm experienced and I was worrying :) Give it time.

If there's still no signs after 2 days have a peek and see if there's a foam or crust forming but don't panic! Beers are usually pretty resilient and things rarely go wrong, no matter how bad you do things :)

 

[Dutto]

12 hours since I pitched the yeast , still no signs of any happening , no krausen forming. Just wondered if by tomorrow evening there is still nothing happening what I should do?

Nothing!

Be patient. Some of my brews are so slow that all I ever see is a slight off-set on the air-lock and a build up of trub at the bottom of the FV. (I suspect that the CO2 is escaping from either around the air-lock bung or from under the lid!)

 

[Klemay83]

Just checked it progress, krausen has formed on top. Just hope I can get back in time from work today to fit the blow off tube before it might come out and say hello.

Cheers folks!

 

[Rocksaga]

Be patient. Some of my brews are so slow that all I ever see is a slight off-set on the air-lock and a build up of trub at the bottom of the FV. (I suspect that the CO2 is escaping from either around the air-lock bung or from under the lid!)

I'm hoping that's the case with my first AG. Not much sign of anything happening in my homemade FV. :pray:

 

[LarryF]

Nothing!

Be patient. Some of my brews are so slow that all I ever see is a slight off-set on the air-lock and a build up of trub at the bottom of the FV. (I suspect that the CO2 is escaping from either around the air-lock bung or from under the lid!)

Just done a Wilko Sweet Newkie Brown with re-pitched Mangrove Jacks Workhorse yeast 17/02/16 - today, it went from 1050 to 1007 without a single bubble through the airlock. I'll bottle it tomorrow.

 

[Klemay83]

I went to Wilko today and bought a syphon to use the tubing from it to make a blow off tube.Got it going into a recycled 5L water bottle I found at work today.

 

[Klemay83]

Didn't bother with the blow off tube in the end, it doesn't seem to have been overly active as the Danstar website suggests. I took a reading earlier when I got in from work. It's sitting at 1016 at the moment. Tomorrow I'm going to dry hop it with 20g of Summer hops. Then leave it till Wednesday and take another reading. The recipe that I based my brew on said the final ABV should come out around 4.7%, and I'm not far off that after 2.5 days of fermentation.

 

[Dutto]

Didn't bother with the blow off tube in the end, it doesn't seem to have been overly active as the Danstar website suggests. I took a reading earlier when I got in from work. It's sitting at 1016 at the moment. Tomorrow I'm going to dry hop it with 20g of Summer hops. Then leave it till Wednesday and take another reading. The recipe that I based my brew on said the final ABV should come out around 4.7%, and I'm not far off that after 2.5 days of fermentation.

"Whoa there hoss!!" :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

You started this brew less than three days ago and by my count you have opened it up at least twice!

For a comparison, my Summer Ale brew was:

o Started on 5th February.

o Opened to Cold Hop on 17th February.

o Bottled on 19th February. (Didn't want it too "hoppy".)

It took me 12 days to reach the stage you are expecting to reach in less than 4 days!

Patience is a virtue in brewing and as ...

"The recipe that I based my brew on said the final ABV should come out
around 4.7%, and I'm not far off that after 2.5 days of fermentation."​

... it might be time to sit back and do nothing. :thumb: :thumb:

Brewing is a bit like *** where coming first doesn't always mean that you have won! :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Lesinge]

"Whoa there hoss!!" :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

You started this brew less than three days ago and by my count you have opened it up at least twice!

For a comparison, my Summer Ale brew was:

o Started on 5th February.

o Opened to Cold Hop on 17th February.

o Bottled on 19th February. (Didn't want it too "hoppy".)

It took me 12 days to reach the stage you are expecting to reach in less than 4 days!

Patience is a virtue in brewing and as ...

"The recipe that I based my brew on said the final ABV should come out
around 4.7%, and I'm not far off that after 2.5 days of fermentation."​

... it might be time to sit back and do nothing. :thumb: :thumb:

Brewing is a bit like *** where coming first doesn't always mean that you have won! :whistle: :whistle:

I agree with you there on both points! I have done over 90 brews now and have learnt to leave them from between two and a half weeks to three weeks to transfer to bottling with a dry hop with a week to go. If you are an impatient type of person naturally just brew more brews at a time, split a week apart and you will always have something coming off the production line. Mind you I just can't stop myself testing the brews once bottled even after a few days!

 

[Klemay83]

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave it be for a couple of weeks before I dry hop it then. In the mean time to keep me occupied I might work out how to do a couple of small 5L batches of stuff. I fancy trying to do a Brewdog Trashy Blonde clone and also try doing a WOW.

 

[Notlaw]

"Whoa there hoss!!" :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

You started this brew less than three days ago and by my count you have opened it up at least twice!

For a comparison, my Summer Ale brew was:

o Started on 5th February.

o Opened to Cold Hop on 17th February.

o Bottled on 19th February. (Didn't want it too "hoppy".)

It took me 12 days to reach the stage you are expecting to reach in less than 4 days!

Patience is a virtue in brewing and as ...

"The recipe that I based my brew on said the final ABV should come out
around 4.7%, and I'm not far off that after 2.5 days of fermentation."​

... it might be time to sit back and do nothing. :thumb: :thumb:

Brewing is a bit like *** where coming first doesn't always mean that you have won! :whistle: :whistle:

Faith and patience are the things I'm trying to stand by.

My first AG was in the FV for 21 days and the lid wasn't off once.

AG 2 I am tempted to give 3 weeks as well and as I'm not dry hopping, the lid won't be touched all that time.

 

[cheapbrew]

I have clear FV so easy to see what is happening, but I take the lid off regularly to have a poke and a smell and take samples and pictures, just don't leave it open to the air for long periods.

I also suck my siphon and other practices frowned on by some, I is a mucky little chimp!