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Adventures in Homebrewing Pt 1

I started my first batch of homebrew tonight. The process went fairly smoothly.. almost too smoothly. I’m suspicious that any good beer will come from this because it was so easy. I know I must have messed something up, like pitching the yeast while the wort as still around 90 degrees, or not rinsing the fermentation bucket thouroughly enough to get all of the bleach residue out. I rinsed that bucket for five minutes straight, but I won’t be satisfied until I’m sipping on my very own bleach-free English porter.

I talked to the guy at my local homebrew store, Beercrafters in Turnersville, NJ. The guy was really helpful and got me set up with a custom starter kit and everything I needed for my first brew. I decided to go with a porter and he suggested I start with a simple extract, but because of my tastes he also gave me some additional hops and a better yeast.

English Porter

Extract: Muntons gold docklands porter kit.
Flavoring hops: 0.5oz East Kent Golding pellets.
Aroma hops: 0.5oz East Kent Golding pellets.
Yeast: 11g Danstar Nottingham brewers yeast.

Started: 03-21-2009

Sterilized everything in the fermentation bucket full of water with 1/4c bleach and began 2 gallons of water boiling.

09:56 - Water is at full boil, adding the extract. Smells good.
10:08 - Full boil achieved, start timer for 40 minute boil.
10:28 - Added flavoring hops to wort. Used a satchel. Smells awesome.
10:45 - Added aroma hops to wort. Used a satchel. Smells incredible.
10:48 - Boil complete, turned off heat and began cooling process.

After a few minutes sitting covered on stove, moved the wort to an ice bath to help speed cooling.
Added water to fermentation bucket and added wort. Topped off to five gallons.

Original Gravity: 1.042. This supposedly means that my brew has a potential for just over 5% abv.

I tasted my brew at this point and it tasted really good. Obviously not beer yet, but I could taste the porter waiting to come out for sure. Very hoppy and already quite complex.

I got impatient and pitched the yeast while the wort was just under 90 degrees. This is a bit hotter than they recommend, but knowing what I do of yeast from baking it should do fine, I hope. I worked a lot of air into it with an industrial sized whisk we have (which I sterilized in the bucket prior.)

I sealed up the bucket with the hydrolock to create the one way valve and carried it to the basement where it will hopefully get a nice 65-70 degree average temperature. I’m a little worried about that, but it’s the best I can do for now. My wife likes it warm, so the living areas of our house are typically too hot, I think. Hopefully the basement doesn’t get too cold. I stuck it next to the heater, and a temperature reading down there said it’s currently 65.. good luck my little porter.

I’ll do another update in a few days once I see how fermentation is going. I have some more research to do, as I have a glass carboy and I don’t know if this beer would benefit from a second fermentation. The guy at the store seemed to think that any beer will, but I don’t quite understand the purpose just yet.