Drunkenpolack Brewing
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Rough checklist for my first batch
7 Oct2008
I’ve made a quick and dirty checklist for brewing day. For you experienced home brewers out there please feel free to hack this up and add (or take way) whatever you want. I have also put in some questions. You’ll also notice I’m missing times on when to add hop pellets and such. That will be added on the next version of the checklist.
Before brewing day (Friday)
- Activate liquid yeast before I go to work, which is around 7am. Northern Brewers instructions claim that it’s best to
activate the yeast at least 24 hours before brewing time. Why this is exactly? I will learn over time.
On brewing day (Saturday)
- Collect and heat 1.5 gallons of drinking water in the brew kettle
Question: Is bottled drinking water ok right out of the bottle or is something else need to be done?
- Crush specialty grains with a rolling pin. Crush in a large freezer ziplock bag
Question: How will I know when I’ve crushed the grains enough?
- Steep the grains, Pour the crushed grains into the supplied mesh bag, and tie a knot to close. Add the bag full of grain to the water in the kettle and steep like a tea bag as the water continues to heat. Remove the bag and discard after 15 minutes or before the water reaches 170F.
- Bring water to a boil and add fermentables. Once boiling, turn off the heat and remove the kettle from the burner. Add ingredients and stir to dissolve.
- Boil the wort for 60 minutes and add boil additions as stated
Question: Do I constantly have to be stirring the wort or do I just leave it alone? When I add additions do I just drop them in or do I stir them in?
- Cool the wort as quickly as possible. In my case I bought a wort chiller.
Question: Even though I’m using a wort chiller should I still fill the sink up ice to make the tempeture drop even quicker?
- While wort is chilling, sanitize the fermenting equipment
- Fill the primary fermenter with 3 gallons of cold water. Follow that up with the cooled wort. Add as much water in the end as you have to, to get to 5 gallons.
- Take a hydrometer reading. Also on this step the instructions I have tell me to ensure that the wort is completely stirred and blended homogeneously
Question: How I do that?
- Aerate the wort. Gently swirl the fermenter to slosh the wort around. Make sure the fermenter never leaves the ground
Question: Is there a better and effective way to do this?
- Pitch the yeast
- Seal the fermenter. Add 1 tablespoon of water to the sanitized airlock.
- In: General Talk
8 Responses to Rough checklist for my first batch
Brad
October 7th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
1. Activate the yeast at least 24 hours before brewing time. Why this is exactly?
This is to ensure that the yeast is activated and happy! Did they send you an Activator pack? If so you can activate at least 3 hours before brewing by smacking the inner nutrient pouch and mixing with the yeast in the outer pouch. See the Wyeast page for complete info here dude:
http://tinyurl.com/4k5h9e
2. Is bottled drinking water ok right out of the bottle or is something else need to be done?
That is fine, just don’t use distilled water. How is your tap water quality?, in most cases that is fine unless you have a high amount of chlorine in your water. When I used to use bottled water I bought spring water by the gallon. Now I have a charcoal filter, more on that later!
Question: How will I know when I’ve crushed the grains enough?
Do you have a local homebrew shop nearby, better to be crushed in a mill (northern brewer can do this for you as well) but here is what good crushed grain should look like:
http://tinyurl.com/4nuwzq
You don’t want to pulverize the grain, just crack open the husks enough.
3. Do I constantly have to be stirring the wort or do I just leave it alone? When I add additions do I just drop them in or do I stir them in?
You should stir the wort when adding your LME and hops. If you don’t stir the LME it will scorch the bottom of your brewpot.
4. Even though I’m using a wort chiller should I still fill the sink up ice to make the tempeture drop even quicker?
No, you don’t have to do that, the advantage of the chiller is so that you don’t have to move the pot to the sink in the first place.
5. Take a hydrometer reading. Also on this step the instructions I have tell me to ensure that the wort is completely stirred and blended homogeneously
Question: How I do that?
Just simply stir the wort with a sanitized spoon before taking your hydro sample.
6. Aerate the wort. Gently swirl the fermenter to slosh the wort around. Make sure the fermenter never leaves the ground
Question: Is there a better and effective way to do this?
You are using a plastic bucket so just seal the lid and tilt it while it’s on the floor and shake the living shit out of it.
There are other ways, for example using an aquarium pump or pure oxygen. I still use the shake method and its fine. There is a basic brewing radio episode where they talk about aeration, definitley give that a listen!
Dave
October 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
What’s up Sick. Questions on some of your answers.
When I’m adding the ingredients in the beginning I know I have to stir all the fermentables in so it doesn’t attach to the bottom but do I have to do it any other time during the boil? Or do I need to keep a constant stir or do I just keep an eye on it and make sure it does attach to the bottom? When adding pellet hops say at 30 minutes do I need to stir them in or do I just put them in?
Now for the hydro sample part, do I take the reading when the wort is poured in with the 3 gallons of cold water? or do I do it when it’s still in the brew kettle? If I need to sitr when it’s in the carboy how the hell do I get a long ass spoon in the carboy =) Please remember I’m a noob when it comes to this.
When it comes to aerating I’m not using a plastic bucket, I went with a glass carboy.
Oh and btw I’m reviewing your beer soon. I just wanted to wait until I got a camcorder. I’m using it to also record the train wreck that will be my first home brewing experience.
Brad
October 7th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
You do not need a constant stir, just a nice rolling boil, I stir when i add the hops but that’s it. Also, drop your hop pellets in slowly, this is when a boil over can occur! Get the Fermcap-S at some point, you will never have a boil over with that stuff!
Take your hydrometer reading right before pitching your yeast and then take a sample when you think your fermentation is complete (OG and FG) You want to take your hydrometer reading with the full volume (with the water added) as the water will dilliute the beer and give you the reading you are looking for.
My mistake, thought you were using the buckets!
In that case, tilt and shake the shit out of it! I think they only say not to pick it up due to it being dangerous if you drop the carboy.
Can’t wait for the review dude! Hope it’s been aging well! Good luck on brew day!!! If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask!
Brad
October 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
One more thing I missed!
need to sitr when it’s in the carboy how the hell do I get a long ass spoon in the carboy =)
It should be fine once transferred, Siphoning into the carboy will mix it up just fine.
Dave
October 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Yeah man sorry about not trying it earlier but I have so much damn beer in my house. Sometimes it’s a bad thing but most of the time well it’s not =)
Dave
October 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Another question, when transferring the wort from the brewkettle to the carboy, is going from the spicket of the brewkettle directly to the carboy the way to go or is there a certain way I’m supposed to take it from the kettle to the carboy?
Dave
October 7th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Another question, when boiling the wort does the lid go on or not? Or totally open?
Brad
October 7th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
You have that spigot, use it!
You can get food grade clear plastic tubing at any Home Depot or Lowes. Sanitize it before attaching it to the kettle. You will also need hose barb fittings which you can also pick up at Lowes or HD. Looks like this:
http://tinyurl.com/4n5arx
When you add your priming sugar (after boiling it for 5-10 minutes) pour that into the carboy first. Then siphon the beer on top of that. The swirling action from the wort flowing from the plastic tubing will mix the sugar with the wort perfectly.
Do not put the lid on the pot during the boil, as this can prevent the escape of DMS, which can cause off flavors in the finished beer. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is an organic sulfur compound present above its flavor threshold in most beers. The “off flavors”!