My First Post
I'm just beginning, and looking for a good place to keep my brewing logs online (with a family including small children, and a small house, keeping a decent notebook free of scribbling and grocery lists is nearly impossible), as well as find an online community to discuss the challenges and successes I encounter. This site seems to be the best I could find for journaling as well as community. It does seem like there's not many beginners, but hey, why not.
For posterity, I'm putting my notes from my first brew down. I added the recipe exactly as I used it as "Just Stout". The goal was to make a reasonably good stout as a foundation for my first goal of a creamy mocha stout (I'm thinking real chocolate, coffee, and lactose) even my wife will enjoy.
2.13.05
Notes - Used Idophor for Sanitizing, all new equipment, 24 qt aluminum brew kettle, 6 gal plastic primary fermenter
2:02 PM - Added 2 Gallons Poland Springs to Primary Fermeter, began heating 3 gallons of same water in brew kettle
2:19 - 100F - Added Grain Sack
2:50 - 160F - Removed Grain Sack, Rinsed with 1/2 Gallon from Primary Fermenter
3:35 - 210F - Added Malt Extract, Temp dropped bringing back to boil
3:55 - Boiled - Added Bittering Hops
4:40 - Added Flavoring Hops and Irish Moss
4:53 - Added Finishing Hops
4:55 - Turned off heat, stopped boiling, began cooling with wort chiller in brew kettle
5:25 - Cooled to 75F
5:25 to 5:35 - Poured to Primary Fermenter through strainer, Rinsed Trub w/1/2 Gallon additional water
5:35 - 70F - Hydrometer reading 1.053 (+.002 Temp Correction = 1.055), Added Yeast, stirred in
Temp in house - 69F
2.14.05
12:45 AM - Noticable bubbling in Fermentation Lock
12:45 PM - Home from lunch, fermenter about to explode! Beer in fermentation lock, lid complete bowed out by pressure. Removed Fermentation Lock cover, went flying spraying foam on ceiling., replaced cover but didn't seal tightly.
1:10 - Cover of Fermentation Lock gone again foam with trub coming out of Fermentation lock making a mess, replaced loosely and covered top of fermenter with towels.
10:30 - Foam came out all day, finally stopped. Cleaned and sanitized fermentation lock and replaced, now bubbling merrily...
2.17.05
12:00 AM - Bubbles about 65 seconds apart
12:00 PM - Transfered to Secondary Fermenter, while attaching fermentation lock the rubber stopper fell in!, improvised with saran wrap and duct tape.
S.G. 1.016
Good color for stout, tastes good - a little too dry, slightly carbonated, no really noticable off flavors
2.22.05
10:32 PM - Improvised new cork from a dense foam block of kids and duct tape, actually sends bubbles through fermentation lock (wife gets credit for this idea) - S.G. 1.015, think it's ready to bottle!
Tastes good, little sweeter and less dry, a little yeasty, smells really good.
2.26.05
9:00 - 11:30 PM - S.G. Still 1.015, Bottle 48 beers, didn't remove all labels from bottles a little concerned that it will mess up the sanitation but just don't have time, took this long just to get the time to bottle in the first place. Tastes really good now, can't wait for carbonation. As far as I can tell already very clear.
So if anyone made it this far, a couple of things I'm wondering while the bottles condition.
1) How bad was it that I didn't scrub the bottles with soap, just rinsed after using and thouroughly before sanitizing with very hot water, and I didn't remove the labels from the bottles before adding to the sanitizing solution. I did batches of 6-8 bottles in my brew kettle, using idophor an very hot water, changing the water if it got noticably tinted or very cool.
2) What is the absolute soonest I can start drinking the carbonated beer. It's getting really hard to wait.
3) Why did so much krausen foam come out of my fermentation lock!? Should I get a blow-off system next time or was it something about my recipe or techinique?
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