I just brewed my first batch on Friday night. It was a red ale that I am hoping to have for St. Patty's Day. However if I screw this up there won't be much time to brew another batch for that day. Now looking back I'm concerned that I may have had a few screw ups.

1. When boiling in the hops, most of the hops stuck to the side of the pan above the water. Is this bad?

2. By the time I pitched in the yeast the temp was already down to 60 degrees. Will that be ok?

3. How sanitized does everything need to be. It was a new kit my buddy and I used and we used a special sanitizer to rinse everything in but did not give it a thorough scrubbing. Will that be sanitized enough?

4. I'm planning on waiting till this Friday to bottle it (1 week time). Is there a way of telling if it is any good during the bottling phase?

Any help would be much appreciated. Hopefully when I get better at this I will be able to contribute more to this site.

Thanks,
Brian

Might not be as hoppy( but will be fine)
60 degrees is great for yeast pitching, then it can slowly warm to 65 or so.
As long as it was clean, sanitizing is just splashing it around mainly(not scrubbing)

Make sure you check the gravity before you bottle. & that fermintation has stopped(dont want any bottle bombs.

Sounds like it went fine.
Next time scrape the hops off the side. Make sure everything is clean, then sanitize.
60 is awsome for yeast pitching.
I like to go 2 weeks before bottling. but your gonna need about 2 weeks for carination so if its fermented at 1 week it will be fine.


Good luck & welcome to the wonderful world of making your own alcohol!!

Thanks for the info. It's funny I told my buddy we should scrape down the hops but he thought it was supposed to do that. Oh well that's how you learn.

Maybe I will push bottling a few more days and just begin brewing another beer instead. It seems like it can't hurt delaying bottling but will hurt if done too soon.

Thanks again for your help!

As long as its done fermenting you would be fine.
No bubbling & final gravity is what you were shooting for(roughly)
You really got to have multiple batches going to have homebrew ready all the time.
I used to do 1 & wait. then drink, then brew.
After running out right away I decided to always have beer on tap.
So i have beer fermenting most of the time now.(& i do 12 gallon batches now)

What is hard is that my friend and I did it together so the batch is actually at his house and all I can do is call occasionally to see how its doing like a parent calling a babysitter.

I definitely plan on doing more than one batch at a time in the future I just wanted to see how the first one went before I attempted another.

12 gallon batches is pretty insane. What do you do put it in multiple fermenters or one big one?

To be honest, my first batch of beer was bad. I had it in the house where it was like 90 for 2 weeks & kinda in the sun(in a bucket)
I ferment in 2 carboys & also a 16.5 gallon fermenter that i stock.

It really isnt that much more work or time consuming to do a 12 gallon batch. The first few times brewing it seems like there is a ton to do.
But after a few batches it becomes natural & very simple.
On my system its just opening & closing valves for the most part.
I have a 55 gallon brew pot in the works next.
So, that will be a little more involved.

So do you like sell your beer or are you just a really big fan of drinking it? Maybe some day I will be able to do that but until then I'll keep going with the 5 gallon batches.

I'm hoping that our batch won't turn out that way. I will have to figure out a way to keep it cool in the summer though because my place gets hot and hot fast. I guess I will have to break down and buy a air conditioner.

I'm hoping my batch isn't out in the open right now. We put it in the basement of my buddy's place so I hope he hasn't moved it at all.

No, i dont sell it, i am just an alcoholic!!/ no, I give most of it to friends & stuff. Or if there is a bbq i bring a keg of beer. I have taken kegs to friends weddings & stuff too. Whenever i go somewhere i bring beer.
Plus i mainly drink my own beer(much cheaper than buying beer.
Plus i dont brew all the time so i can stockpile it for a couple months.
A basement should be a great place to ferment in the summer. It should stay closer to ground temp. I used to fermet in a big hole i had dug in my old brewhouse. I covered it with plywood & a big piece of rubber roofing.
It stayed around 60 most of the time even when it was 90+ in the brewhouse.

That's a good idea digging a hole. The only problem I have is that I rent an apartment so I don't think the landlord will be too happy that I'm digging holes in his house.

It's been a week since I first brewed so I may begin bottling today but I might just wait a couple of days and brew another batch tonight. All I need to pick up are the ingredients and that valve that releases the CO2 from the fermenter.

I just got off the phone with my friend. He said that there is no CO2 being released from the fermenter but also said he didn't notice it being released after the first couple days and even then wasn't much. So I'm a little concerned if something went wrong. When it is fermenting, is there a lot of CO2 released or is it just some small spurts?

Are you using an airlock or blow off tube?
It should bubble pretty good for a couple days. almost constant.
Should start on day 1 or 2 & last for 2 to 4 days usually.
A smaller gravity beer will not bubble as much as a larger one.

I apologize for the delay. I didn't have my computer this weekend. We have an airlock on our fermenter and bottling has been delayed till Wednesday because we both didn't have any time this weekend. Hopefully it was bubbling more than my buddy thought because he wasn't around as much to watch it. But I guess in a couple weeks we will know if it is any good.

Did you guys get any gravity readings?

Yes I did take gravity readings. Unfortunately I left them at my friends house. We are going to be bottling them tonight so let's hope for the best and hopefully things will go fine. This is the one rough thing about brewing is that I still have to wait two more weeks to find out if I screwed up.

Well we bottled the beer last night. I think it went well. Final gravity was at 1.012 and it definitely smelt like beer. We took a quick taste of it and it pretty much tasted like flat beer so I think thats a good sign. We kept them in the same spot we let it ferment. The instructions say to only wait a week so my bud and I might put two in the fridge after a week and see how it is.

I just want to say thanks for all your help with my first batch. Now it is only time before I can tell how it went.

I know its been a while since I have commented on this but the recipe came out great and was ready just in time for my St. Patty's Day party. If anyone is interested in making a nice Red Ale try this recipe:

http://www21.inetba.com/westboylstonhom ... llians.pdf

Thanks again for all your help. I just started brewing another batch earlier this week and am planning another one as soon as I put this one in the carboy.