My Plan for Starting Homebrewing

On your instructions write "Watch for boil-over" as part of Step 4A. After you add the DME is when it will happen. Since you have a large pot I don't know how likely it will come to actually boiling over (I've never had the luxury of so much extra space in my boil pot), but be ready to stir like crazy and/or lower/turn off your heat to settle it down. It happens quickly!

Also on your instructions, after you reach a boil to begin step 4A write a time line for each step where you add hops and follow it fairly closely. And if you have a wort chiller to cool it down after flame-out, put a note on the instructions to insert the coils into the wort at the 10 minute mark before flame-out. This will sanitize the coils. Writing these times on your instructions will help to keep you organized. Good luck. You can do it.

 

Bag of ice in the sink worked really well for me. I probably should have noted how long it took for the wort to come down to temperature. It wasn't long, but it'd be nice to know the exact time. I was considering buying a wort chiller with the rest of my 1 gallon equipment, but I'm going to wait until I step up to 5 gallon batches.

 

Just leave it. It will soon disappear and become live. If you want to swirl your fermentor (today only) to speed up the process, that okay too.

 

Yes. It's residue from the krausen.

Sounds reasonable.

 

I've never heard of adding the wort chiller during the last 10 minutes but it sure sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone else do this? Any possible negative effects I need to be worried about?

 

No negative effects afaik. In addition to sanitizing the chiller, it also will provide trace amounts of copper, which is a good thing. One word of caution... make sure you don't have a lot of water (from the previous batch) still sitting in the coils. If there is, it can boil and make a fast exit from the ends of the coil.

 

Thanks for the tip. My chiller is made of stainless steel so I don't know if that changes your answer. I do my best to get as much water out of it when I'm done chilling my batch.

 

Same answer. Minus the copper benefit.

 

In addition to Vikeman's replies, I'll also mention that I don't quite have enough room in my kettle for a full boil thus the upper portion of the copper is not getting immersed in the wort. I go overboard when it comes to sanitation, so I have already soaked the chiller in sanitizer before immersing it in the wort, and this is just an extra step to give me peace of mind. (Redundancy is always a good thing when it comes to sanitizing.) But to sanitize the upper copper portion of the chiller I put the lid over my pot for a few minutes to capture the steam and allow it to work on that part. I mention this only in case anyone wants to begin sanitizing their chiller by using this method but then skip the sanitizer soak beforehand. So you do have to pay attention to sanitizing the upper section too if you don't have a full capacity boil.

 

Yup, today I sanitize the shit out of the chiller! I submerse in Starsan and wash down the arms many, many times prior to putting it in the pot.

 

I'm kind of late on this thread, but judging by your excitement it sounds like you'll be moving to 5-gallon kits sooner than later Sounds like you'll be bottling this Sunday... let us know how it goes. You'll find bottling day to be much more rewarding when you start bottling over 2 cases of beer, as opposed to just 9-10 bottles from your 1-gal kit. I agree with some of the others though – 1-gal kits are the way to go for the first-timer, but it only took me one batch until I decided to make the switch to 5-gallon batches. Welcome to the addicting hobby!

 

Anything under 3 gallons is manageable with ice.