Brewed my first batch on December 31st. Dunkelweizen extract kit from local home brew supply shop. Bottle conditioned. First sampling was Sunday for the Superbowl. Very happy that I actually brewed a “drinkable” beer for my first batch. To be honest, I was not very optimistic that it would be a drinkable beer. It is definitely not going to win any awards :-), but again, “drinkable”. It does have a good Dunkelweizen flavor but is watery and thin. Carbonation is great, very lively. Color is amber-brown, not too murky. Not very fruity but do get the clove and banana flavors slightly. Lessons learned: Was very concerned about cooling the batch down as quickly as possible. However, turned out to not be a big issue. I submerged the 10 gallon brew kettle in an old fashioned metal wash basin. Outside temp was about 40 degrees that day. I added two 20 pound bags of ice and topped it off with snow. Stirred about every 5 minutes or so. Was able to get it down to pitching temp in about 25-30 minutes. Next purchase will be a submersion wort chiller. Learned how to properly set up the airlock. First time around I put pure StarSan in it. What a mess that made. Learned how important it is to monitor and get proper fermentation temperature. Difference between ambient and fermentation temperature. Will be purchasing a fermometer before next batch. Learned about fermentation time. Measuring OG vs FG to see if fermentation is still active. Don't hurry the process. Let the yeast clean up after themselves. Learned about dialing in the proper amount of sugar for bottle conditioning. Also, proper bottle conditioning temps. Learned a lot more this first round and eager to get started on the next batch. It will be another extract kit, an Amber Ale. After that, I plan on moving on to All Grain brewing, just need to make the necessary purchases. Onward and upward!! Thanks to everyone who put up with all my Noobie questions!! JackHorzempa, riptorn, GormBrewhouse, billandsuz, PapaGoose03, VikeMan, JrGtr, PortLargo, Prep8611, and many others.
Sounds like you picked up on a lot from your first batch! And it's drinkable! Good stuff, welcome to the hobby that keeps on giving. Cheers!
Congratulations on ending up with a drinkable beer, and thanks for posting your impressions/lessons. Curious about your comment on the airlock: What kind of mess? Do you suspect Starsan was a big factor in contributing to the mess, or was the mess more a result of how the airlock was installed?
As Jasonja1474 suspected, yep, had a foamy mess all over the place. Then, I did a dilluted StarSan solution, same result, foamy mess. After asking here, switched to Vodka and was smooth sailing from there.
Hell yeah! You learned a lot your first batch. It seems like you really paid attention! You're going to make a great brewer. Don't get too bogged down in details though and remember it's as much an art as it is a science. The lessons we learn the best come from mistakes. I think most of us started with extract. I did. And I remember my first all grain batch.. that's when it went from "This is a cool little hobby, I could get into this." to "Holy cow this is a lifetime passion.. a bottomless well I'll never reach the bottom of." And THAT's when - for me - it got even more enjoyable. Happy brewing! Welcome!
Congrats on your new beer. Your comments sound like you experienced many bumps along the way that were able to teach you something, and that you're taking proper steps to not do them again. Live and learn. Your next beer will be better for it. Keep detailed notes along the way of each beer because some day you'll want to look back for whatever reason to learn more from this experience.
Great news. We are all glad to have helped. I think you'll find that after a few attempts the stress level goes way down and brewing becomes a lot more fun. Many things quickly become no big deal. Each of us has our own unique operation that we have become comfortable with; none of it is wrong and most of it is different. You kind of fall into what works and don't stress about it all that much. Consider that when you have asked some questions previously, you typically got a few approaches from of us. So you brewery like all of ours will be a hybrid of best practices that reflect your time, budget, space, interest and S.O. There are few cardinal rules that can't be ignored. The rest of the process is being a good caretaker of yeast. And you're drinking your own beers, so there is that. And you have this site as a resource, we are an opinionated group and not shy either. Ask away! Cheers
I see, said the blind man. Starsan is all I've ever used. The first time it started foaming through the pinholes in the airlock cap, I changed out the airlock for a blowoff tube. Now I start with a blowoff rig and put the airlock on when the violent fermentation is over, typically about 2 - 3 days. It's never made a mess that way, but there have been very active fermentations where it could have been a nasty mess with Starsan and an airlock (like maybe blow the top off the bucket ). Since I haven't experience that kind of mess, it never even crossed my mind. Sounds like things went pretty good. You encountered issues (expected), adapted (not all do) and overcame or filed it for figuring out how to overcome next time.
Sounds like you picked up a few things. The biggest one is when you think you're bleeping up, relax, take a deep breath, and think it over. It;s very hard to truly kill your beer, as long as you're watching a few things. And the hardest thing to learn is patience - sounds like you got that one. |Eventually you'll lern to leave it completely alone for a certain time. |Personally, I'll keep an eye on mine until |I know it's chugging away, then forget about it for a couple weeks. I may take a peek every couple days, just to make sure things are blown apart or something, but once settled, I'll leave for a week or more without looking.
Revel in your success and learn from your failures. Never be afraid to fail. Every failure is an opportunity. An opportunity to learn and improve for next time. If you don’t like it just dump it out and start again. Never suffer though a batch of shitty beer. It’s not worth it... ever. Sweat the small stuff. It’s what will make the biggest difference I guarantee you.
