Getting Started (Concerns over first batch)

I've been wanting to get into home brew for a while now but never took the initiative. Received one of those "Craft a Brew" kits as a gift for Christmas for a West Coast IPA and had a lot of fun making it so I went ahead and ordered a couple more recipes to keep practicing. The kit came with a one gallon glass carboy and basic equipment needed to make the batch as well as the recipe. Once I finish the three recipes (one that the kit came with and two that are on the way) I want to expand and start experimenting on my own with five gallon kits which I am still researching.

Anyways, i'ts my first batch and they hold your hand through everything but I cant help but worry that something went wrong. To trace my steps, I used one gallon of filtered water through my brita pitcher which I brought to 155 degrees then steeped the grain bag for 15 minutes and added in the bittering hops per instructions. Removed the grains and brought to a boil then removed from burner and added the malt (it said to just add half). Returned to burner to begin the boil and added more hops at 30 mins in per instructions, added other half of the malt with about 15 mins to go, and the remainder of the hops with about 2 minutes left. It also required adding some table sugar with a few minutes left too. Threw it in an ice bath in the kitchen sink and waited until it dipped to about 75 and then I added the yeast directly to the pot and did some stirring (this is where I think I fucked up). Then poured it into the carboy using a funnel and mesh strainer. Everything was sanitized of course using the included no rinse sanitizer. I watched some videos after and realized I probably was supposed to strain the pot into the carboy, then add the yeast directly to the carboy instead of the pot. Is it possible I lost some yeast by doing it the way I did? I did have a semi significant amount of sediment in the pot when I poured it over the strainer. It was thick and gunky to the point where I couldn't even pass liquid through it so I had to keep dumping it in the trash to continue pouring. I then added more filtered water to get it to the fill line since I lost a good amount on the stove.

I had a tube going from the stopper to a half full glass of water for three days then switched to the airlock. Noticed a good amount of activity right off the bat but died down pretty quick. The recipe called for it sitting two weeks then adding dry hops. I just took the rubber cap off, dropped hops in, then recapped with the airlock again. It says to wait a week after doing that (did it Sunday night) before bottling. Right now would be day 16 of fermentation. There is basically no activity going on in the airlock at all. I'll link some images at the bottom. Just wondering if I messed up somewhere so I can avoid it in the future for my next two recipes.








Granted, this has been in the basement sitting in the dark and I haven't paid much attention to it but I don't ever recall a ton of activity in the airlock or any foam layer on the top of the beer.

 

Thanks! It didn't come with a hydrometer, do you think I should grab one and test it or is that not really necessary when following a recipe? From the images, is that what the bottom and top of the carboy should look like at this point? I don't recall ever seeing any krausen. It has been in the dark the whole time sitting in the basement. We keep the house around 67 but the basement is usually much cooler.

 

Would using a hydrometer in combination with a wine / beer thief work the same as a refractometer?

Something like this: http://amzn.com/B0064O9BYW

 

Any good refractometers you would recommend that aren't too expensive? You lost me a bit with the pitette. Is that a separate piece needed?

 

So I would want to grab one of these separately or do most refractometers come with it? With one of these, do you just take the cap off the carboy and take a sample with the pipette or do I need to siphon it out? I also just added dry hops on Sunday and it says to wait a week before bottling.

 

Dang, never took it before so might not help me here. Obviously would get good future use with it though. What's the standard for checking gravity? As soon as you pitch the yeast and then again before you bottle?

I stopped at the local homebrew store on lunch break today for the first time (I needed a brush and some b-brite) and he suggested using the hydrometer and the wine thief combo. He told me you can put the beer back in the wort after you measure it so you don't have any loss. Is this legit? The wine thief was pretty damn big though, it doesn't look like it would even fit in the one gallon carboy but he told me it should.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys, has all been really helpful. Is there harm in letting a beer sit in a carboy too long after fermentation has ceased? Also does taking the rubber stopper out of the carboy to take a sample negatively affect the beer if the cap is off too long? When you siphon to bottles are you putting the racking cane though the opening in the stopper or are you taking the stopper off all together?

 

Sorry for so many questions lol, I know for the one gallon starter kit it has you put some water and table sugar into a pot and siphon your carboy into it, and then from there to the bottles. I've started doing some starter kit research and I see a lot come with a bottling bucket. Is that serving the same purpose as the pot here? You would put sugar water in the bottling bucket and siphon your fermenting bucket into the bottling bucket, then from bottling bucket to bottles?

If I'm doing a sample with a wine thief, basically take the cap off and as quickly as possible insert and grab the sample and then recap. I take it you don't need to re-sanitize the cap each time you take it off and replug it, or do you? I think my inner perfectionist is getting the best of me already with brewing. I know its supposedly a very forgiving process, but I'm still always super cautious when starting something new.

I need to come up with a more efficient way of sanitizing too. I'm thinking just one of those big home depot buckets or something. All I had was a pitcher when I first boiled the batch and it was tricky to fit everything where it got full coverage.