Pre-Questions about my first brew day

[Biff]

Hey all,
I'm just about ready to take the plunge. I've gotta procure some
equipment, but the tax refund should be comin soon, so I'll be diving into
a starter kit. A couple basics about what my setup will be...

- I'll be doing a partial boil with about 2.5 Gallons of water (3 Gallon Kettle)

- Of course I'm doin extract, and I'd be ok with doing a pale LME and
steeping grains

- My current plan is to use 2 x 5 Gallon Buckets to do the ferment (for no
other reasons than saving cash -- 5 Gallon buckets are FREE everywhere)

Without further adieu, here are my questions!

- Doing a partial boil, do I have to boil/cool the water I stick in the
fermenters? I'm worried about that from a infection perspective...

- I've heard boiling bittering hops on the usual schedule then adding the
LME fairly late in the boil is a good idea, any particular feedback here?

- Am I being too cheap doing a 2 fermenter setup? It would be nicer if I
had a specific point to doing 2 fermenters, like trying different yeasts,
etc.... Should I just break down and buy a 6.5 Gallon bucket and/or
carboy?

- I haven't found grommets in the LHBS, do grommets from Home Depot
work ok? (context might help, grommets to put in the lids of my 5
Gallon bucket fermentor(s))

- I want to get folks' idea of my brewday schedule, then talk about a yeast
starter...

9am - Prep work, Ensure I have all ingredients , sanitize fermentors
and associated equipment -- (Start Yeast Starter?)
10am - Get Boil going
11:30 - Done the Boil
12:00 - Used wort chiller, and wort is cool, rack to fermentors (that are
already filled some with water)
12:15 - Pitch Yeast

Am I insane? Will roughly 3.25 hours be enough for the Yeast starter to
get going?

Please tell me I'm crazy, but also try and help me by contributing what
your brew day schedule usually looks like. Thanks!

[Homegrown Hops]

If those 5gal buckets are food grade then I say hell yes. One thing to clear up though, if you are planning on using them to ferment 5gal of wort in each you may want to reconsider. If the plan is for splitting a 5g batch into 2 buckets then you are good to go.

If you plan to buy glass or plastic fermenter, I recommend going with the 6gal plastic carboys. B3 now carrys them, or you can get them from other sources also. They are somewhat unbreakable and affordable. I would not use grommets myself, I would get some stoppers with hole and bore to the appropriate size into the lid. Another note is too stay away from the black stoppers etc.. that you can get in the hardware stores because I think they contain lead. Beer Pal covers your answer about the starter below.

Cheers,
HH

[BeerPal]

A yeast starter needs 12 to 24 hours before it's ready to pitch at high kreusen. Some like to let it ferment out completely, usually around 3 days. But in any event, 3.25 hours is not enough time.

The food-grade plastic bucket point is important. Don't use anything that isn't food-grade.

I think you are being overly optomistic if you think your first brew session is going to be done in about 3 hours. And if you push to keep a time-table like that, you are likely to make mistakes. You will probably make mistakes anyway, why rush yourself? Take your time, be prepared and do things right.

[bub]

I say get a new bucket for your ferment... here is why...
You know it's history (bacteria etc)
You know it is food safe

Start your yeast the night before..

It will take you longer that 1.5 hours to do your boil... just the fact of the matter.
It will take you about 30 minutes to get the water boiling, then add some of your extract (if you can split it this is ok) wait for it to boil again.
Wait for the hotbreak (wait until it stops trying to boil over) add your hops then start counting your 60 minutes.
Add the rest of the extract 15 minutes before the end of the boil, but make suure it BOILS for 15 minutes.
Remember you can do some of the cleaning and sanitizing during this time thus lesening your prep time, but you will still probably use the hour to get ready.
You have a wort chiller?? If you do 30-45 minutes should do it, I have never tried chilling 2.5 gal before so it may go quicker.


Put some top off water in your fermenter and you shouldn't have to worry about WARM wort going in there... REMEMBER NOT HOT WORT, the plastic can probably handle it but you may get off flavors from the aeration of hot wort.

As far as grommets go no need for them... just cut the proper sized hole in your lid (for a stoper) and you are set... you could use a rubber gromet but that sounds like too much work. The hole also allows you to pull samples without removing the lid.

Word of advice.... BUY the 3 piece airlock not the cool S shaped bubbler style... you will thank me sooner or later.

Remember to relax this is supposed to be fun, and welcome to the hobby, BUT make sure to be clean and sanitize the hell out of everything.
BUB (boob)

[Lufah]

My really quick answer.....

Get a bucket from the LHBS. They are only a few dollars and you only have to have one.

Start your starter the night before.

Give yourself 6 hours or so for your first brewday. Don't freak out about doing it fast. You can start working on getting faster once your comfortable with what your doing.

You can use boiled/chilled water for your top off water if you want. I always used bottled water for mine. I wouldn't worry to much about it to begin with.

I've been really happy with doing the late addition of the extract. I usually do (or did) it at about 15 minutes left in the boil. This does make things a little more complicated. So if you don't feel like messing with it I wouldn't worry about it.

9am - Prep work, Ensure I have all ingredients , sanitize fermenters
and associated equipment -- (Start Yeast Starter?)
10am - Get Boil going
11:30 - Done the Boil
12:00 - Used wort chiller, and wort is cool, rack to fermenters (that are
already filled some with water)
12:15 - Pitch Yeast

Night Before - Start yeast starter - Get equipment organized and get my plan together.

9am - Get steeping grains a'steeping. Prep equipment....
9:30am - Start boil. Prep equipment....
~10am - add 60 minute hops. Prep equipment.....
NOON - chill and dump to fermenter AEREATE
12:30pm Pitch yeast ....CLEAN SO SWMBO DOSN"T KILL YOU

Cleaning will take a while. I would just make sure you have plenty of time for the first couple of brews. It takes a lot of the stress off.

Also if you haven't before take a look here... http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Travis

[seanhagerty]

No mention of sanitizers yet. This is one of the single most importnat steps in brewing make sure you get everything as close to sterile as you can.

Be anal about sanitizing stuff. Do not use bleach, go spend some money and get sarsan or idophor. They are loads easier and wont leave off flavors if properly used.

Also, Relax. This is a hobby and its meant to be fun. If you can hook up with some one local and spend a day with them brewing. It will make your brew day that much easier if you know what its supposed to look like.

Good Luck

Sean

p.s. F lufah

[Biff]

Thanks so much for the quick replies! First, let me say I'm definitely
relaxed. I've read most of the Papazian book (so far, the first 50 pages or
so is what applies to me right now). I've been listening to the BN since
Christmas or so, and have been catching up on the archives. I've also
joined the LHBC (www.kroc.org), and finally visited the LHBS!

Whatever thing I get into, I like to do all the background I can on the
subject first. Most of the questions that were in my initial post had to
do with process. IMHO, process is the thing that's talked about least in
the homebrew community, and also the thing that will vary most from
brewer to brewer.

First, responses to your answers

- I got some frosting buckets from the local Sam's Club. They had just
got done using them that mornin, and they cleaned up pretty good. So,
they must be food grade, and I think they'll be ok

- I will be doing a partial boil for a 5 Gallon batch, then fermenting that
between two 5 Gallon buckets

- I'll definitely get a stopper from the LHBS, thanks for the tip!

- Out the door with the grommet idea, I'll just go with a stopper!

- Good stuff on the starter -- The night before it is!

- I'll revisit my timeline...

- I'll be making my wort chiller today. Coil of copper, some garden hose,
won't be hard, and chilling 2.5 Gallons should go fairly quickly

- I was looking at the difference between "The Bubbler" and the "Three
piece" -- I was leaning towards the latter anyway, thanks for the tip!

- I was also planning on doing Star San for sanitization

- I'll be doing bottled water for my topoff water

One more question for you all... Can I (should I?) do a blowoff tube with
a bucket, then switch to the 3 piece?

My revised brewing schedule is....

Night before ('bout 7pm) I'll get my starter going
Night before ('bout 8pm) I'll get all my equipment ready
8:30am - Steep specialty grains, sanitize equipment, prep equipment
9am - Start Boil
11am - Chill and dump to fermenter (AERATE)
11:45am - Pitch Yeast, and cleanup

Lastly, please share any nifty procedural things you do. It can be very
hard or even impossible to transfer "experience" with words, but I'd
appreciate your effort in doing so!

Cheers all -- I'm probably going out today to get my equipment, and then
get the starter going this evening, and brewin tomorrow! (I get off work
for Presidents Day).

[seanhagerty]

Mark your bucket/carboy with lines on them that show gallons, so you know how much liquid you got


Do the same thing with your stir spoon, mark it so you know how much liquid you got in your boil kettle


Do a dry run with all your equipment first. Its a PITA, but it will make sure you know the flow of things.