Re: Lost My Brewginity! (and an introduction to all) <LONG>

On Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:42:59 GMT, <someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My name is Roger Shannon and I am a brewaholic. <All together -Welcome
Roger>

Welcome to the obsession... er... hobby. ;)

Sounds like you're off to a great start. I've just got a couple comments
on small things.

A little high on the starting gravity but probably because I added .45 lb
muntons dark DME to both.

Yeah, the extra DME will boost the OG some. Also, if you did a partial
boil batch and topped up with water at the end of the boil, this can throw
off your OG some. It's nothing to worry about though.

so I went to the LHBS and got wyeast 3333 German Wheat Yeast for the
weisenbier. I added both packets of Nottingham to the eng brn ale. Pitched
direct -not advanced enough for starters yet.

You don't need to make starter for dry yeast, so pitching the Nottingham
direct was fine. You probably didn't need to use both packets, unless you
just didn't want to keep it around. One packet of dry yeast (they're usually
10gm packets) is perfect for pitching into a 5 gallon beer. Pitching both
won't hurt anything, but it probably wasn't necessary.

Liquid yeast, on the other hand, really should be used with a starter. It's
up to you, but I would recommend sticking with dry yeast for awhile. Dry
yeast is a lot easier to use, which is usually a good thing for someone just
getting started with the hobby.

transfer the eng brn ale to secondary. The weisenbier, being a wheat, I did
not transfer to secondary as it is naturally murky at finish anyway and UGLY
krausen! I was raised by a swamp asa kid and only seen SCUM like it
there! -eheh

Yeah, wheats tend to have more krausen than other beers, and sometimes it
sticks around forever. Don't let it bother you though. It's just the
higher protein level in the wheat that makes the krausen really "sticky".

4 days in secondary and the eng brn ale has NO airlock activity... hmmm
gravity check -reached target final gravity, actually a few points lower.
That was quick.

Don't worry too much about the timeline, there are lots of variables that
effect how long fermentation takes. Also, don't worry too much about hitting
the final gravity dead on. The FG posted in a recipe is just a guess
anyway. Within a couple points of it is actually pretty good.

17 days total, and final gravities are a few points lower than the instructs
said. The weisenbier is still activity once every 2 1/2 min but transfer to
kegs for both.

You've probably seen me post it a 100 times... ignore the bubble rates. ;)

Especially when you start getting down to the 2 1/2 min range, they don't
necessarily give you any indication as to what the fermentation is doing.
There are things which can cause bubbles in the airlock that have nothing
to do with fermentation activity. IMO, not worrying about them and racking
to the keg was the right thing to do.

DISSAPOINTED. Tasting at tsfer to kegs is sweet and watery not much hops
(grumble). Force carbonate at 20psi and rock and rollem. Refer at 45 deg.
2days later, bring to 9psi and taste. VIOLA!

Yeah, the flavor will change a lot, especially early on. It's nice to
taste the beer early (during fermentation, when you bottle, etc) in order
to learn how your beer changes, but don't get too worried when it doesn't
taste like you want. There are a lot of things that go on in the keg/bottle
during that first week while the carbonation is forming which will really
improve the beer.

*I do not taste any extract taste as noted by some here* -clean and good
with little aftertaste except for some hops.

This usually has to do with the freshness of the extracts you use. The
"extract twang" is usually due to old LME. As long as the kits you get are
reasonably fresh, you shouldn't have too many problems with it.

Now I relax and have a homebrew -whew!
Excuse while I get a little VerKlemPT, <sniffle> I really want ot thank ALL
here as I never would have been able to do this without the information
locked in my head and spilling out of my ears from your posts and answers to
this newsgroup!
You people are great artists and craftspeople, and a worderful family of
Homebrubberss..., I'll try not to snobber in my beer...
and now back to my obsession.... -Roger

It's always nice to hear such a good success story on someone's first batch.
Sounds like you really did your homework and had everything under control.
Now you get to enjoy the beer and plan your next batch. ;)


John.
.

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