First Brew Problems

You don't list any extract, just the crystal malt. How much extract did you use?

Also, 200 degrees to steep crystal malt is a little high. Most people would steep around 150 degrees farenheight for about 15 minutes. At 200 degrees you might extract tannins from the husks.

Anyway, you can always strain from your brewpot into the fermenter. I do all grain brewing using mostly whole hops and I wind up with a ton of them in the brew kettle. I found that after I cool the wort (using an immersion chiller) I let it sit for about 30 minutes and a lot of the trub will settle to the bottom. I get a helper with a strainer to help me siphon from the kettle to the fermenter. I don't use a racking cane, just a 5 foot length of vinyl tubing. Never suck on the end to get it started as your mouth contains bacteria you don't want in your wort. I just fill the tube with filtered water and pinch the end, just uncrimp the end and the siphon will start.

_Randal

Randal,

I forgot to mention that I used 5 pounds of pale dry unhopped malt extract.

I will keep your tips in mind for the next batch, but could you explain your technique with the 5 foot hose a bit more for me? How do you fill the hose with water? Do you pinch the bottom end, low to the floor, and fill from the above with water? After filling, which end do you put in the kettle, pinched or open, and when do you release the pinch? I found with the racking cane, that the wort would draw up to just past the bend in the cane, and then stop. It seemed like the there was not enough draw to get the flow to go.

Thanks for the tips.

Robert

steeping water, and also use only 1 gal./lb. of grain. This is because you don't want the pH to rise too much, which could leach tannins. You can then remove the grains before adding more water to be heated.

Next, please try a hops bag. Ordinary clam steaming bags work well for plug or whole hops. For pellets, I use two fine-mesh hops bags one inside the other. Tie off the open end with cotton string. This way you won't have nearly the sediment to clog your cane.

Lastly, there is a very simple technique which trumps both the "sucking on hose" and "filling with water" approaches: Simply take the bulb off a turkey baster, sanitise the narrow end (I use iodophor), then interpose the baster between your mouth and the hose end, by inserting the pointed end into the hose, then draw on the other end with your mouth. The only trick is to be quick when you see the wort start to flow, to get the baster off and the hose end into your fermenter.

Good luck!

John S.

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Robert,

First, remember Charlie's old homebrewing adage: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a HomeBrew: RDWHAHB! You will most likely be fine. The mouth siphon isn't a good idea, but many of us have done it when we had too! You long "lag time" with the yeast is still within reason. See what it is doing after a couple of days.

I do a siphon this way: * Have the source beer bucket higher than the destination beer bucket (that should be obvious, right?). * Over at my sink, I completely fill my hose/racking cane assembly with water. I just have both ends together at the faucet and let the rest loop around below. * At the buckets, I then put a finger over the "output" end of the hose and then quickly stick the "input" end of the racking cane into the upper bucket. IT MUST REMAIN SUBMERGED IN THE LIQUID. * Then, keeping one hand on the racking cane so it doesn't slip out of its bucket, I drop the "output" hose end into the destination bucket and remove my finger. * NOTE - do your best to keep all the above sanitized pretty well, including your hands... but also "RDWHAHB"!!! Remember, the higher one bucket is from the other, the faster the siphon will go. As the liquid levels get closer together, it will slow down some.

Derric

JS,

When you say to use a 'hops bag' would cheese cloth work? I assume that it would work just as well, but since I did three insertions of hops, I would need three bags. Is that still a good technique? The 'plugs' of hops I used were compressed discs of whole hops and they opened up pretty fast into a lot of material.

I will keep your turkey baster technique in mind.

Thanks for the advice,

Robert.

Derric,

Thanks for the tips, and I will remember to RDWHAHB. I am nervous today, as it has been almost 24 hours, and I have no sign of fermentation. I think that I didn't aerate my wort enough. I simply sterilized some plastic wrap, covered the top of the carboy and rolled it around a few times. I read later that it is recommended to shake it for 20 min, and then shake it again a few hours later.

Will my fermentation still work with little to no aeration?

Thanks again,

Robert.

On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 17:39:56 -0400, "Robert McKenna" wrote:

Yes, and I've used it myself. The kind that comes off the roll sort of tube-shaped, so you could put it around your hand and it would envelope it, works best. You will just need to tie both ends. You could use one bag for each addition, but if you can keep the top of the one in kettle loosely tied, say , to the kettle handle, you could open it back up and throw in the later hops. If I'm going to do this I secure the cloth with a bow-know, like tying your shoe. Just be sure to make yourself a bag of sufficient size to accomodate the expansion of the hops.

Also, you said you pitched a pack of liquid yeast. What size? The Activator size or the regular, 50ML one? Either one should really be made into a starter a few days in advance, but especially the small pack. Since you're just getting brewing, I'm rather surprised you've begun with liquid yeast. It's just a lot more trouble to use it right. If it really was the small size, I would recommend getting a good dry yeast, perhaps Nottingham, and pitching it pronto. The consensus of most brewers on these groups is that dry need only be sprinkled into the wort, whatever the directions on any particular pack. Also, dry tends not to have the oxygen requirements that liquid does. If you poured the cooled wort thru a strainer into the fermenter, that will have aerated it somewhat already. I don't subscribe to this shaking for 20 minutes routine. Personally, I oxygenate with pure O2 and an aeration stone. One suggestion: Use a copper or SS scrubby, boiled in water, cooled, then placed on the end of your cane before it goes into the cooled wort. If you draw the siphon from the bottom edge of the kettle, the mesh will filter out sediment. I did get one clogged on me once using pellets sans bag, and when I pulled it out to have a look, it resembled a hornets nest, being so encrusted with hops. All the more reason to use a bag. NOW, put a large funnel, sanitised, over the fermenter, and aim the runoff so that it makes a whirlpool in the funnel before draining out. This coupled with the resultant splashing into the fermenter will aerate the wort.

John S.

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The aeration helps to get the yeast population up high quicker. I don't remember what yeast you used, if you told us. Since dry yeast has much more yeast in it than liquid, it will start quicker and have a healthier fermentation without much aeration. Liquid will usually work OK too, just with a longer lag time.

The problems you will see is a slower start (24 hours isn't uncommon, with no aeration and liquid yeast). It is also possible that the fermentation may stop a bit early (ie., the final gravity will be higher than expected). Most likely, there will be no problems at all. In my early days I brewed plenty of batches with no aeration at all. Most things in brewing is just a matter of degree...

For aeration these days, I usually just put a "venturi" tube in the end of my siphon hose and just splash a lot while siphoning the COOLED wort. That works up a 2 or 3 inch head of foam in the carboy. My "venturi" tube is simply a piece of hard tube (like racking cane tube) that I drilled 4 tiny holes in the middle of to allow air to come in as the liquid passes by. It works fine and I get fast enough starts and very low final gravities.

Derric