Well I took the plunge yesterday and did my first ever brew. I brewed a Hoppy American Pale Ale using one of the starter kits from Get Er Brewed.
It went fairly well considering it was my first time. The wort is now in the FV and is bubbling away like an asthmatic scuba diver, so fingers crossed it's working ok. I'm not going to get my hopes up though - I'm not 100% sure I had sufficient paranoia about the sanitation aspects.
A few things I need to do a bit more research on though:
It went fairly well considering it was my first time. The wort is now in the FV and is bubbling away like an asthmatic scuba diver, so fingers crossed it's working ok. I'm not going to get my hopes up though - I'm not 100% sure I had sufficient paranoia about the sanitation aspects.
A few things I need to do a bit more research on though:
- I started off with 26.5 litres in the mash tun, but now only have 16.5 litres in the FV. I was expecting it to be nearer 19 litres. Not sure where the extra 2.5 litres went, although item 2 might have something to do with it
- During the boil, I had to leave the lid semi-off the mash/boil bucket, as it would boil over or start spewing hot wort out of the air hole if the lid was left on. Suspect I might have lost a lot of liquid this way. What's the best way to overcome this? Add more water to start with, or get a heating element that can be adjusted for heat output?
- I measured the OG as about 1.045 which is right at the very bottom of the 'expected' OG. Does this mean I pulled the malt out too early?
- The FV bucket seems to have a small hole on each side at the top, presumably for a handle, but no handle was present, so thought these might allow the CO2 to escape, and also let bugs into the liquid, so I've taped them up. Was that the right thing to do? I'll drop Get Er Brewed an email to ask if there's supposed to be holes.
- The instructions for the APA said to put hops in at 60 mins, 10 mins and 0 mins. I couldn't quite work out what effect the 0 mins one would have - I presume that it releases some flavours/aromas during the cold break? And I also presume the hops should stay in the bucket during the cooling phase?
- Speaking of cooling, I was surprised how long it took to cool the wart down. It came down to 35C fairly quickly, but the last 16 degrees took an age!
- There seemed to be quite a lot of gunk/sediment in the wort as it went into the FV - is this normal, and will it settle down before bottling, or will I be picking bits out of my teeth when I drink it?
- I didn't realise quite how messy a job it all is. Now I know why they say it's 80% cleaning and 20% brewing!