First Homebrew

My advice is to read this before your first batch...
www.howtobrew.com

 

i wish every one of these threads would direct to this link.

 

Relax, don't worry, you're bound to fuck something up, but it won't impact your final beer that much. Can't have a homebrew since it's your first go around the racetrack, but... you can have a beer.. and probably if it were me, I'd wait to have that beer until you're done.

 

There's a lot to brewing good beer, but here are some critical things beginners sometimes don't do well:

Watch you temperitures - don't pitch the yeast until your wort is at the correct temperature. Keep your fermentation temperiture from getting too warm (use a wet towel around the fermentor if necessary).

Pitch plenty of yeast. If using liquid yeast, make a starter (pitch two viles if you cant make a starter).

Oxygenate your wort well by the best means available to you.

To avoid mess and anxiety - expect a vigorous fermentation and make sure your fermenter can handle the high krausen period (adequate head-space, blow off tube Etc)

Avoid oxidation. Be careful not to agitate the beer too much when you bottle. The first sign of oxidation is NOT detectable oxidized flavors; it is actually loss of aroma and flavor due to "reacting out" various compounds that contribute to flavor and aroma.

 

I agree with this for the 1st time. Things can get hectic and a clear head will help. Also a lot of kits will say to pitch your yeast once under 90-80 degrees. The research I have done says around 60-65 is better for a clean fermentation. Good luck and have fun.

 

My only advice for your first IPA:

 

Be very anal about cleaning and sanitizing, and you'll be fine. Other mistakes will make your beer taste less then perfect. Having an infected batch will completly ruin your beer.

The other thing to focus on is pitching yeast at correct temp and use lots of late boil hops (<15 Minutes).

Also take notes/measurements as you will forget many details, that way you can try and figure out what you may have done wrong/right and learn from your mistakes and successes.

The whole process will take 40% longer your first time. Once your finished, I recommend consuming many beers at a very expedited pace!

 

The whole process will take 40% longer your first time. Once your finished, I recommend consuming many beers at a very expedited pace![/quote]

You bring up a good point here that I don't think has been mentioned. It's a good idea, especially if it's your first batch, to save the drinking for after you're done brewing (at least until the cleanup phase). I almost never drink when I brew (but I also usually try to get started early in the day), but when I do, I keep it to a couple to avoid mistakes.

 

keep everything as sanitary as possible. make sure you're using star san or another food-grade quality sanitizer, as some no-rinse cleaners that come in homebrew kits aren't perfect. also, fermentation is key. you can do everything right on brew day but if you don't pitch and manage your fermentation correctly you could get some weird stuff going on. be sure to re-hydrate your yeast if you're using a packet of dry yeast, and try not to ferment above the low to mid 70s if you can help it.

 

A few folks have already mentioned sanitation, which is key. It's kind of tough to remember when you're in the thick of things, so constantly remind yourself: anything that touches your wort after it's finished boiling needs to be sanitized. That goes for the brew through fermentation through bottling until that sweet sweet beer goes in your glass. StarSan is good stuff...don't fear the foam, and don't wash it off with unsanitary water.

 

SANITATION - been said before but can't be said enough. Yes, STARSAN! Easy to use, foam not a problem. I always tell people for their first few batches to focus on sanitation (be fanatical), and just follow directions as best you can. Don't worry too much about too many other things - you'll just get confused. Get a few batches under your belt and then begin to add new steps/tips/tricks (chilling wort quickly, targeting ferm temps, aerating, yeast starters, etc.) - then you'll notice how your beer improves.

 

If you don't have a wort chiller, build or buy one. If you do have one (an immersion chiller) , but chilling is still slow, you can stir the wort in the opposite direction of the chiller flow to speed it up. If that still doesn't do the trick (say your tap water is too warm), you can get a relatively cheap pond pump and recirculate ice water through the chiller.

 

^ +1

Also, if you're doing a partial boil or smaller batches in general (eg 3 gallons) making an ice bath in a sink/tub/cooler/etc works pretty well. Rather than just regular ice from the freezer or a bag, I like to freeze 1 gallon jugs of water and use them instead. Cooling from ~boiling to pitching temp takes 15-20min and about three 1 gallon ice blocks.

 

sanitation
pitch enough yeast
watch fermenting temperature
sanitation

You will probably mess something up. Don't be overly critical of the finished product and enjoy the fruit of your labor.

 

I agree that while you don't have to have a wort chiller, you will find out what a pain it is to cool with just ice and wind up wanting/getting one anyway. After about the third batch I was done with using ice to cool my wort and just got the wort chiller.

 

^exacty...
I used Ice blocks for three batches, and when you're doing full scale boils it takes up to 30-45 minutes to bring it down to pitching temps. When I used my wort chiller for the first time it took 10 minutes to come down to about 70. So far my best batches have been done this way.

 

I'm just sayin, a wort chiller is a big expense when first starting out. If it's a partial boil or small batch, it's also not a necessary expense. This whole argument is predicated on small boil volumes, which is the case for a lot of people the first time. Not sure if it's true for the OP, he didn't mention either way.

 

All good advice above...again...read/absorb the book/webpages... http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html