my first 5 gal brew

[jimlin]

This past Sat I did my first 5 gal batch. Got a 6.5 bucket setup, and used a True Brew Amber kit. Will not be using these kits int he future, as I didn't realized they came with hopped liquid extract. Felt like all I did was increase the size of a Mr Beer kit (which I got for Christmas... my wife had no idea what she was getting me into!). So, it came with one can (3.3 lb) of Muntons hopped amber LME, 2 pounds of Muntons light DME, 1 oz of First Gold hops. I decided to screw around with it a bit to try to bump it up a little. Added .5 lb of Dark Crystal (135L) for steeping, and another .5 lb of DME (Briess Sparkling Amber).


• Steeping the crystal: reached 154° turned off the gas, added the grain bag and covered for 30 minutes

• after removing the crystal, turned heat back on, slowly adding the 2.5 lb of DME, and half the can of LME, constantly stirring. Went through maybe 3 foaming boils before I got the foam to stop and settled at a rolling boil.

• Added the First Gold pellets (1 oz) in a muslin hop bag for a 30 minute boil (instructions said 20-30 minutes after getting it to boil w/o foaming up)

• with 7 minutes left I added 1 oz of Centennial

• cooled wort in an ice bath in the kitchen sink. Instructions said to get it to below 90° before adding the cold water in my bucket fermenter. As soon as I got under 90° I poured the wort (standing over the bucket, so it poured in from a couple feet above the bucket) into the cold water (2.5 gal) already in the bucket. Topped with more cold water to get closer to 5 gal mark. Unfortunately, my cold water must have been too cold, as the temp dropped down to 50°. So, I heated a small amount of water in a pan and added it, bringing it to just a hair over 5 gal and up to around 60°.

I pitched Safale S-05 dry into the bucket, let it sit for 10 minutes, mixed it in with a sanitized spoon, and covered. Rocked the whole bucket a while, moved to it's location for fermenting and put on the airlock.

Being my 1st 5 gal brew, I was fearful of the top blowing off (unlikely given the OG of 1.044 at 50-55°) so I fastened 1/2" inside diameter tubing to the airlock and ran it into a clean, sanitized growler half partially filled with water/one-step sanitizer solution. By Sunday morning it was bubbling really well. By Monday morning, the action had slowed, so I removed the blowoff tube and reset the airlock. While doing this, I took a temp reading with a sanitized thermometer and got a 72° reading. The thermostat is at 66 during the day, so the activity warmed it up. I removed the towel I had over it and left it for the day... we'll see what happens next, but I am planning on 2 weeks in the bucket, then bottling. I don't have another fermenter for a secondary, and the ingredients and OG on this makes me think 2 weeks will likely be enough, but I will do hyrdro readings at one week, and again during the end of the 2nd week to be sure.

[jimlin]

I have yet to pick up an adhesive thermometer for the bucket. my temp reading of 72° when I pulled the blowoff tube and replaced with the std airlock is likely that high due to the amount of activity in the first 48+ hrs. Now that it slows down, should the temp naturally drop a bit? House thermostat is typically at 64° overnight, and 66° during the day. The only cooler areas of the house are actually too cool: basement is in the low 50s. I would think the fermenter would ideally be in the mid 60s for the remainder of the time, but not sure if it will get there on it's own.

[scotchpine]

I have yet to pick up an adhesive thermometer for the bucket. my temp reading of 72° when I pulled the blowoff tube and replaced with the std airlock is likely that high due to the amount of activity in the first 48+ hrs. Now that it slows down, should the temp naturally drop a bit? House thermostat is typically at 64° overnight, and 66° during the day. The only cooler areas of the house are actually too cool: basement is in the low 50s. I would think the fermenter would ideally be in the mid 60s for the remainder of the time, but not sure if it will get there on it's own.

Acually, you would want to raise the temp a few degrees, over a few days, after fermentation starts to slow. This would allow the yeast to clean up after itself. Ideally from low or mid 60's to at, or just above the top of the yeast temp profile. I think yours will turn out fine though.

[jimlin]

I have yet to pick up an adhesive thermometer for the bucket. my temp reading of 72° when I pulled the blowoff tube and replaced with the std airlock is likely that high due to the amount of activity in the first 48+ hrs. Now that it slows down, should the temp naturally drop a bit? House thermostat is typically at 64° overnight, and 66° during the day. The only cooler areas of the house are actually too cool: basement is in the low 50s. I would think the fermenter would ideally be in the mid 60s for the remainder of the time, but not sure if it will get there on it's own.

Acually, you would want to raise the temp a few degrees, over a few days, after fermentation starts to slow. This would allow the yeast to clean up after itself. Ideally from low or mid 60's to at, or just above the top of the yeast temp profile. I think yours will turn out fine though.

I pitched it at about 60... the water I poured my wort into must've been too cold (or I simply didn't use enough water in the boil, too much in the fermenter). So the fermenter started low and the reaction brought the temp up. Are you saying I should have worked to keep the temp in the low-mid 60s for the first few days?

I did one modified MrBeer brew a few weeks ago (added DME and a little honey to the recipe's kit) that leveled off and stayed around 65 after the initial higher temp (70) due to the activity in the first couple days. So the 5 gal bucket reacted similarly I guess. Now that the airlock on the 5 gal bucket has slowed significantly, I would imagine the temp in the bucket may have dropped a bit as well.

so in the future, I should aim to pitch low 60s and try to keep it in the low 60s during the first few days, then try to get it closer to 70 for the remainder of the fermentation? (at least for batches using the S-05 yeast)

[spiderwrangler]

That is typically more like what you want to do... keep it on the lower end of the range for the first few days, then allow a bit of a rise and yeast will clean up diacetyl and other early ferment by products. Too hot at the start can lead to products that they won't clean up later.

[jimlin]

That is typically more like what you want to do... keep it on the lower end of the range for the first few days, then allow a bit of a rise and yeast will clean up diacetyl and other early ferment by products. Too hot at the start can lead to products that they won't clean up later.

That explains (possibly) the cloudiness of the batch I have in my MrBeer fermenter. Supposedly a Hop Head Red recipe suing MrB extracts. I replaced the MrB "booster" wit DME and added some honey. Also used some Amarillo hops. I had a ton of krausen in the first week, and it took 3 weeks before the krausen started to settle. Took a sample to test with the hydrometer, and it was cloudy as hell at 14 days, and still pretty cloudy at 21. Left it in to see if it could clear a bit more this week. When I started it, I had it in a cooler intending to need hot water bottles in there to keep it warm enough given the winter temps, but it got pretty warm fast and I had to pull it out of the cooler and just leave it in the closet where the temp settled at 65-66.

Well, every day I learn a little more for the next batch!

[Cody]

That is typically more like what you want to do... keep it on the lower end of the range for the first few days, then allow a bit of a rise and yeast will clean up diacetyl and other early ferment by products. Too hot at the start can lead to products that they won't clean up later.

Can this be achieved successfully using a "heat sink" method, rather than controlled cooling? For instance, can the fermenter be placed in a large volume of water during the first few days to help control the fermenting temp during peak yeast activity?

[jm]

That is typically more like what you want to do... keep it on the lower end of the range for the first few days, then allow a bit of a rise and yeast will clean up diacetyl and other early ferment by products. Too hot at the start can lead to products that they won't clean up later.

Can this be achieved successfully using a "heat sink" method, rather than controlled cooling? For instance, can the fermenter be placed in a large volume of water during the first few days to help control the fermenting temp during peak yeast activity?

Absolutely. That's how most start with temp. control and how many continue to do it. The Brew Strong episode on temperature control (13-July-2009) goes into a lot more depth on this and many different options.