Brewing my first ever batch tomorrow

Exactly backward unless you want to darken the wort.

 

I obviously missed your brew date and agree with many of the previous posts. As a fellow home brewer the two most important factors to a better brew (aside from meticulous sanitation practice) is a proper/appropriate yeast pitch and controlled fermentation temperature.

 

So does that mean you would add 1/3 first, then 2/3?

 

Yeah, the point HerbMeowing was making is that the idea is to add most of it late, so that there's less time for the reactions that cause the wort to get darker.

 

Cool. That's what I figured. Although my recommendation was 2/3,1/3 because, when I used to use extracts, I remember reading that hop utilization would decrease dramatically with a low(er) percentage of wort in the boil - so I guess I used to err on the side of caution in that regard. Can you speak on that VikeMan and is it agreed that 1/3, 2/3 is the best way to add extracts to the boil?

 

Actually, hop utilization theoretically increases with lower gravity, so the larger the % of the extract you add late, the better the hop utilization. Some have claimed (though I'm not sure there's any experimental evidence behind the claim) that you need at least 'a little' extract in the beginning to allow isomerization of the alpha acids from the hops. Putting the two together, the idea became 'add a small amount of extract early, and a larger amount late.' And indeed, '1/3 early, 2/3 late' works fine for a lot of people.

I think you may be thinking of the lower hop utilization that results from partial boils (less volume, higher gravity), rather than the lower amount of extract added early to a given boil (which results in lower (temporary) gravity and better hop utilization).

 

Thanks for clarifying that. I definitely misunderstood what I was reading a few years back.

 

Yessireebob.

 

This is probably good advice for a first brew, if only to avoid a thread about overblown infection concerns. While I agree that he shouldn't need to do anything to his beer during this time frame, he doesn't need to be too paranoid about opening the fermenter. Tasting the beer throughout the process could be helpful, and I always recommend tasting when you think the beer is finished. If not during beer #1, eventually.

 

If you stick with it for more than a couple batches, you'll want to start looking at some kind of temperature control. It makes a big difference.

 

Fermentation temperature is important, but you can make great beer without caring too much about it in my opinion. I am in California where it is always hot, I don't have any temperature control, I always end up on the hot side, and I still make good beer. Of course I brew mostly styles that can withstand certain levels of heat, so I guess it is a little limiting.

I mean, its a consideration, it's just not my first consideration.

 

I live in TX and the first thing I bought when I got here was a freezer with a controller unit. Definitely makes for some damn tasty beer. I do brew some beer under non-temperature controlled conditions, but always make sure to have a yeast that will make good beers at those temps. Since it's mostly hot here, that mostly means saison type yeasts.

Right now it's cold (well, for us it's cold), but that won't last long. I do attribute a pretty large part of my successful beer making to fermentation temperature control. If you are serious about brewing, you'll get serious about this.

IMO the top concerns for homebrewers are fermentation temperature control, yeast pitching temperature, sanitation, and KISS methodology.