# First homebrew. Nut Brown Ale (Updated B-View Finally)



## hooligan8403 (Jul 21, 2012)

Ok this was my first home brew. Bought a kit from the local homebrew shop and it was an extract+specialty grains kit. Bit more than I expected when I bought it for my first time but i rose to the challenge. Steeped the grains for 25 min at 160 then brought it to a boil. Added the dry and liquid extracts and boiled for 60 min. added 1oz fuggles hop pellets at 5 min. Pitched yeast at t 78-79. Had trouble getting the temp down so now I know that Im going to have to plan ahead with more ice saved up(I used all the ice in my freezer) or get a wort chiller. Much easier than what I thought it would be and I learned a lot about brewing from the experience and how easy it can be. Looking forward now to future brews to gain more experience.  

O.G. is 1.0562

will update in a week or so before i bottle with f.g.













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Before Bottle Conditioned


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## bdawg (Jul 22, 2012)

Congrats!

Keep the fermenter cool.  Fermentation naturally produces heat.  The fermenting beer will be 5-10 degrees above ambient temperature.

A simple effective technique is to put the fermenter in a shallow pan (like a washtub or similar) and fill that with water.  Then, drape a T-Shirt over the fermenter so that the bottom soaks up water like a wick.  Blow a fan on the t-shirt and the evaporation will cool the beer down by 5-10 degrees easily.

Give it a good 2 weeks in the fermenter at least.  Often, the kit directions say to rack (transfer) it at 1 week, but that is bad advice.  After fermentation seems to have completed, the yeast are post-processing the fermentation byproducts as they hunt for whatever remnants of food are left.  Giving them all the time they need results in a far cleaner beer and far fewer off flavors.  In my experience (around 150 batches or so), 2 weeks is a good minimum for a normal strength beer.  Give it more time for stronger (ie, 1.065 or higher) beers.

HTH-


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 22, 2012)

BDawg said:


> Congrats!
> 
> Keep the fermenter cool.  Fermentation naturally produces heat.  The fermenting beer will be 5-10 degrees above ambient temperature.
> 
> ...


Ok. I was going to bottle at one week because thats what it said so maybe now about a week and a half to two weeks and then about a week or two in the bottle sound about right? going to a feed store tom to look for a metal tub to put it in. This will work with a plastic ale pail?


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## kombona (Jul 22, 2012)

Patience is key!  On my first brew I bottled and drank as soon as possible.  Since then I have learned to take my time.  Usually I let the beer ferment for 2 weeks on the primary them another two weeks in the secondary. Then I bottle and wait another month or so.   Brewing is really fun hobby.  I am in the process of trying to locate all of the parts for a Son of a Fermentor, once built I will start brewing once again.


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 22, 2012)

Had hoped to have it done by the time my brother gets out here but that looks less and less likely since he just moved up his trip. Can a botteling bucke be used as a secondary fermentor? Otherwise this is getting bottled after two weeks in the primary. Looking like Im going to be getting a 6 1/2 gallon carboy on top of a wort chiller.


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## alelover (Jul 23, 2012)

It will take about 2 weeks to carbonate after bottling. It will ferment quickly since you pitched the yeast at such a high temp. Probably going to have some esters. I usually pitch at 68ºF. A wort chiller is a must. At least you've taken the 1st step now. It will only get better.


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 23, 2012)

alelover said:


> It will take about 2 weeks to carbonate after bottling. It will ferment quickly since you pitched the yeast at such a high temp. Probably going to have some esters. I usually pitch at 68ºF. A wort chiller is a must. At least you've taken the 1st step now. It will only get better.


Yeah Im figuring there might be some esters. The thermometer on the side of the ale pail says its at about 74 so Im hoping that it might be minimized. Heading to a feed store this afternoon to see about getting a metal bucket/tub to sit it in. I had hoped to not need the wort chiller but after this first batch its a must. might build it if i can get copper cheap enough otherwise i saw one for $40 from AIH.


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## diesel (Jul 23, 2012)

My 2 cents:

I do not rack to secondary.  I wait two weeks in primary and then bottle.  I think you can drink it after one week in the bottle but two weeks it better.  Keep the beer in a cool dark place while brewing and after bottling.  I have read where chilling the wart quickly isn't as important with the kits as it is with All grain.  Not sure how true that is?  Maybe someone will chime in on that one.  I have been successful with putting the brew pot into my kitchen sink and just adding ice and water.  That seems to get the temp down in a reasonable time.  I saw a youtube video where a guy made a chiller out of copper tubing he bought at home depot. But I am not sure you will save much money that way.

glad you got one under your belt. 

something else I did different on my last brew.  I tasted every ingredient and I also taste the beer before I bottled.  It helps give you an idea what it will taste like.  "flat beer".


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 23, 2012)

Diesel said:


> My 2 cents:
> 
> I do not rack to secondary.  I wait two weeks in primary and then bottle.  I think you can drink it after one week in the bottle but two weeks it better.  Keep the beer in a cool dark place while brewing and after bottling.  I have read where chilling the wart quickly isn't as important with the kits as it is with All grain.  Not sure how true that is?  Maybe someone will chime in on that one.  I have been successful with putting the brew pot into my kitchen sink and just adding ice and water.  That seems to get the temp down in a reasonable time.  I saw a youtube video where a guy made a chiller out of copper tubing he bought at home depot. But I am not sure you will save much money that way.
> 
> ...


I should have tasted it with what I pulled out for the gravity reading. I did smell everything really good except the malt syrup as I definatly wanted to smell the specialty grains and the fuggles hops (Im a hophead). Maybe next time Ill put the brew pot in the sink instead of the fermentor with the wort added and then add the cooled wort to the other 3 gallons of water.


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## alelover (Jul 23, 2012)

If all you added was one oz of fuggles at 5 minutes you will barely detect any hops. Were there not a bittering or flavor hop included?


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 23, 2012)

alelover said:


> If all you added was one oz of fuggles at 5 minutes you will barely detect any hops. Were there not a bittering or flavor hop included?


Bittering hops were in the syrup. Finishing hops was pellets. This beer Im not expecting a lot of hops because I wanted something the wife would drink and if she hears IPA she knows she probably wont like it. Trying to ease her into it.


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## alelover (Jul 23, 2012)

My wife hates hops too.


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## gunner65 (Jul 23, 2012)

A nut brown is not a hoppy style.  I primary four weeks bottle minimum of four weeks.  Sounds like a lot of waiting but patience and temp control is the difference between drinkable and excellent.  Good luck on your first.  Homebrew talk is an excellent forum for brewers.

Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2


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## bdawg (Jul 23, 2012)

Deisel asked about wthether a kit wort can be chilled less quickly than an All grain wort.  

The short answer:

You chill fast to avoid producing DMS, to get clearer beer, and to prevent bacterial contamination.

Kits can come with Liquid Malt Extract (LME) or Dry Malt Extract (DME) or a combination of both.

LME doesn't have enough of the "stuff" to produce large amounts of DMS, and many of the haze causing proteins are removed in the manufacturing process, but there's still a risk of contamination when chilling slowly.

Dry Malt Extracts and All Grain have all of the above issues to contend with, so chill quickly..

Here's the  technical answer, but I'll try my best to make it easy to understand the subtleties involved.

Chilling the wort quickly serves several purposes;

1) SMM   (S-Methyl Methionine) is the precursor chemical to DMS (DiMethylSulfide).  DMS tastes and smells like cooked corn or cabbage (or sometimes shellfish).  It is produced naturally in the wort when the wort temp is above 140.  It volatizes out during a rolling boil, and diminishes over time.  Normally, SMM is pretty much depteted in a 90 minute boil.  This is most important for beers with large amounts of Pilsner malt in them, as Pilsnerr malt is the least kilned and produces the most SMM.  So, if you are using a boil less than 90 minutes, chilling quickly stops formation of SMM, which keeps it from turning into DMS later.  Now, don't go covering the pot during the boil, or the SMM will condense on the lid and go right back into the wort.  Keep it uncovered for best results.

2) Sanitization.  Bacteria LOVE temps between 140 and 80F.  Letting the beer slowly cool down allows microbes in the air to land in an open kettle, take root, and multiply as the wort cools.

There will nearly always be a low level of microbial content in your homebrew.  Chilling down to pitching temps quickly allows the yeast to get a head start and the alcohol then tends to kill off any microbes.

3) Chilling quickly allows hazing proteins to flocculate (clump together) as the temp drops, where they come out of solution.

The faster the chilling action, the faster the clumping action.  This is called cold break.  Once cooled, you can whirlpool the wort to help build a pile of junk in the center, then cover it and let all the trub (pronounced 'troob') settle out.  You can then siphon clear wort out of the kettle into your fermenter, where you then aerate and proceed normally.

Now we move on to the manufacturing the forms of extract and how that changes things

Liquid Malt Extract goes through a short boil and cooling cycle when manufactured.  This is enough to form both hot and cold break which is filtered out at the manufacturer.  Hopped extract is no different, it simply has hops annd ususlly hop bitterness extract in there too.  You will still get a small amount of hot and cold break using liquid extract, but it is much less than Dry Malt Extract and certainly less than All Grain.  This means that less of the materials that produce SMM are present when you open the can, which reduces but not eliminates the need to chill quickly.

Dry malt extract usually does not go through a vigorous boil at the manufacturer.  It is usually simply brought to pasteurization temps and then sprayed out in the presence of a vacuum chamber.  This spraying causes the water to evaporate right out and the malt content falls to the floor as a solid, which is then fully dried.  Since it never reached a boil, it stillhas all the protein content so all the considerations for chilling quickly that an AG batch goes through.

Steeping grains really don't count in this equation because

1) the starch is already converted so they are almost all sugar, color, and flavor compounds, not starch.

2) usually you are talking a lb or 2 in a 5 gallon batch, so that's a relatively small amount of grain anyways.

Whew!

Hope This Helps-


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## alelover (Jul 25, 2012)

Good answers BDawg.


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## hooligan8403 (Jul 26, 2012)

Thanks BDawg. Lots of good info. I used both liquid and dry so Im hoping that the SMM will be minimal. Its been fermenting for 5 days now at around 72-74 so it its on the higher end of the scale but Im thinking it should be fine.


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## hooligan8403 (Aug 7, 2012)

Fianl gravity was 1.008. Ended up with a abv of 6.04%. I have to say it taste nothing like new castle. Closer to a wells bombardier. Not that Im complaining as I prefer wells. Pics will come when I get my camera back from the wife who stole it for her trip.


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## bama bbq (Aug 7, 2012)




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## hooligan8403 (Aug 7, 2012)

Bama BBQ said:


>


I swear they are coming when my wife ges back from england. next week.


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## brewandsmoke (Aug 7, 2012)

Bdawg hit it right on the head! Welcome to another hobby that you'll love!


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## hooligan8403 (Aug 25, 2012)

Finally added pics. sorry it took so long. Been bottled about 3 weeks now and Im going to be putting some bottles in the fridge for a week till my brother gets here. Really looking forward to this.


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## atio (Aug 26, 2012)

Looks good so far... Hoping to see another update of your first pour...


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## hooligan8403 (Aug 30, 2012)

Ok Ill get a pic of the first bottle up after work. Can't upload pics from here. After about 4 days in the fridge I tried one. Flavor was good however I beleive that something must have gone wrong in the bottle conditioning stage as there isn't much carbonation. I get a good initial head and then the retention is about on par for a brown ale however my wife and I feel it is somewhat flat. Iv still got about half the brew sitting out and i gave those bottles a little shake to see if that might wake some yeast up to finish the job. any suggestions? Also beer is cloudy but I expected that since it had only been in the fridge a couple of days.


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## bdawg (Aug 30, 2012)

(First, brew another batch or two. This is to get your pipeline filled so that you will eventually have enough beers to drink while the newer ones are fermenting and conditioning.)

Swirling (aka rousing) the yeast was a good idea.  Good job.

Next, try to take the bottles and warm them up for another week or two.  A good place is to put them on top of the fridge.  The warm air comes off the back coils and out over the top of the fridge.  The yeast love it up there.  Unlike primary fermentation, you don't have to worry about bottle conditioning too warm.  There is not enough sugar for the yeast to produce off flavors at this point. 

Also, if you have had the bottles on the concrete floor of your basement during conditioning, that will suck the heat out of them and the yeast will go dormant or at best work very slowly.  Moving them to a warmer place fixes this.

Sometimes, if somehow you hadn't adequately mixed the priming sugar into the finished beer, some of the bottles end up with a boatload of carbonation and others end up with almost none.  Be on the lookout for this.  If you somehow kept the bottles in order as you filled them, you should try one of the first beers to be bottled, one of the middle beers, and one of the last beers.  If they show unequal carbonation, then inadequate priming sugar mixing is your problem.  If you have no idea which bottle was first and which was last, then pull some randomly off the ends and middle of the case boxes.

The way to avoid the mixing issue is to put your priming sugar into the empty bottling bucket, then siphon the beer on top of it, pointing the siphon paralell to the sides of the bucket so that the beer naturally swirls from the motion of the beer coming out of the siphon hose.  This is enough to mix the priming sugar well without introducing oxygen which will cause the beer to go stale prematurely.  (I seriously doubt that oxidation will be a problem with any of your first batches!  I'm sure you'll drink them all up in no time.  But, its best to follow the proper procedures, so that you can rest assured that all of your beers can handle aging properly.)

HTH-


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## hooligan8403 (Aug 30, 2012)

BDawg said:


> (First, brew another batch or two. This is to get your pipeline filled so that you will eventually have enough beers to drink while the newer ones are fermenting and conditioning.)
> 
> Swirling (aka rousing) the yeast was a good idea.  Good job.
> 
> ...


First, brewing another batch this weekend. Probably an IPA. Ill have to find a warmer spot to put the bottles. they are currently occupying a spare bedroom in the cardboard boxes they came in. wood floor underneath. i mixed the priming sugar the way you described originally. Its how I had read to do it and figured if the method isn't broke don't fix it. I started with the bombers and Im trying one right now. doesn't seem to be much difference in carbonation level. Maybe next time a bit more priming sugar.













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## bdawg (Aug 30, 2012)

Doesn't look bad.  How much priming sugar did you use?  standard for 5 gallons to produce 2.5 volumes is 3/4 cup of corn sugar (5 oz).  If you use less, it will be less carbonated.

If you use more, it will be more carbonated.

Wooden floor should be ok.  Its the concrete that is problematic.  70F or so and they should carbonate fine.

From the looks of the glass, it looks like its not TOO bad.  Remember that English Brown Ale is typically carbonated quite a bit less than an APA or IPA.

Compare it with a Samuel Smiths for a good commercial example.  Also, there's a lot of condensation on the bottle.  That tells me you have them REALLY cold.

They should be served around 45 degrees F for best aromatics, etc.  The temp difference can make a dramatic effect on carbonation levels.

That said, It's your preference.  if you want both really cold and more bubbles, add a little more priming sugar.  I'd go with 7/8 cup and work from there.  Too much and you end up with bottle grenades and a hell of a mess.

HTH-


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## atio (Aug 30, 2012)

Looks like a beer to me!  I hope mine look that good, I'm bottling my first batch this weekend if I can empty enough bottles in time... I'm trying hard!  :)


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## hooligan8403 (Aug 30, 2012)

BDawg said:


> Doesn't look bad.  How much priming sugar did you use?  standard for 5 gallons to produce 2.5 volumes is 3/4 cup of corn sugar (5 oz).  If you use less, it will be less carbonated.
> 
> If you use more, it will be more carbonated.
> 
> ...


Not sure what my temp in my fridge is. I don't have a dedicated beer fridge or id tell you a more specific temp. My wife likes her beer cold so I try to keep them that way for her (i believe in a warmer temp personally). I added the standard 5oz that came with the kit I used. I understand the english browns are less carbonaed its really the wife complaining. To me its like they have been cask conditioned since that style to me has always been less carbonated. I let them bottle condition for about 3 weeks before putting them into the fridge. I think in the next few days Im going to side by side a couple different beers. Samuel smiths brown, wells bombardier, and probably hobgoblin. Maybe some more depending whats available at the class 6.


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