First Brewday coming up - last minute tips please!

[elproducto]

I'm about to embark on brewing my first batch of homebrew. I'm brewing John Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale.

I have everything I need, and have read the instructions on his site about 50 times.

Looking for any last minute tips/suggestions to make it go smoothly!

[phirleh]

Boilovers can happen very quickly when you start the initial boil, watch it like a hawk, that stuff can get sticky, especially if you are like me. I had used my outdoor burner to start the boil outside and it went quicker than anticipated, and the wort got on the outside of the pot . When I brought it inside to the stove the wort that overflowed to the outside was now burnt under the pot for about 60 minutes on a glass top stove. All that scrubbing to get it clean is easily remedied with a change to the old saying

" a watched pot, never boils over"

Have fun, and a few beers too. And to non beer lovers (like my wife) it can be smelly if done in the kitchen.

For cleaning stainless steel pots and glasstop stoves, I highly recommend getting "Barkeeper's Friend" in powder form.

[elproducto]

Boilovers can happen very quickly when you start the initial boil, watch it like a hawk, that stuff can get sticky, especially if you are like me. I had used my outdoor burner to start the boil outside and it went quicker than anticipated, and the wort got on the outside of the pot . When I brought it inside to the stove the wort that overflowed to the outside was now burnt under the pot for about 60 minutes on a glass top stove. All that scrubbing to get it clean is easily remedied with a change to the old saying

" a watched pot, never boils over"

Have fun, and a few beers too. And to non beer lovers (like my wife) it can be smelly if done in the kitchen.

For cleaning stainless steel pots and glasstop stoves, I highly recommend getting "Barkeeper's Friend" in powder form.

Thanks, I plan on doing the boil outside on a turkey fryer. It's only a partial boil, but I plan on watching that thing like a HAWK!

[matt7215]

Boilovers can happen very quickly when you start the initial boil, watch it like a hawk, that stuff can get sticky, especially if you are like me. I had used my outdoor burner to start the boil outside and it went quicker than anticipated, and the wort got on the outside of the pot . When I brought it inside to the stove the wort that overflowed to the outside was now burnt under the pot for about 60 minutes on a glass top stove. All that scrubbing to get it clean is easily remedied with a change to the old saying

" a watched pot, never boils over"

Have fun, and a few beers too. And to non beer lovers (like my wife) it can be smelly if done in the kitchen.

For cleaning stainless steel pots and glasstop stoves, I highly recommend getting "Barkeeper's Friend" in powder form.

Thanks, I plan on doing the boil outside on a turkey fryer. It's only a partial boil, but I plan on watching that thing like a HAWK!

what size is your batch? if you have a turkey fryer and can do a full boil i dont see any reason to do a partial boil.

[elproducto]

It's a 5 gallon batch.
I'm just following John Palmer's recipe. Total newbie here.

So I would just forgo the 2 gallons in the primary of water, and just boil with 5 gallons?

[matt7215]

can you do a full 5G boil?

if you post the recipe that would help out too.

[elproducto]

Recipe
Cincinnati Pale Ale
Ingredients for a 5 gallon batch

3-4 lb. Pale malt extract syrup, unhopped
2 lb. Amber dry malt extract
12 AAU of bittering hops (any variety) For example, 1 oz. of 12% AA Nugget, or 1.5 oz. of 8% AA Perle
5 AAU of finishing hops (Cascade or other) For example, 1 oz. of 5% Cascade or 1.25 oz. of 4% Liberty
2 packets of dried ale yeast


I'm borrowing the turkey fryer so I'll have to what size the pot is.
I have a 5 gallon brewing pot, but that won't be big enough for the full boil. I think the fryer has one of the large 30qt pots.

[matt7215]

Recipe
Cincinnati Pale Ale
Ingredients for a 5 gallon batch

3-4 lb. Pale malt extract syrup, unhopped
2 lb. Amber dry malt extract
12 AAU of bittering hops (any variety) For example, 1 oz. of 12% AA Nugget, or 1.5 oz. of 8% AA Perle
5 AAU of finishing hops (Cascade or other) For example, 1 oz. of 5% Cascade or 1.25 oz. of 4% Liberty
2 packets of dried ale yeast


I'm borrowing the turkey fryer so I'll have to what size the pot is.
I have a 5 gallon brewing pot, but that won't be big enough for the full boil. I think the fryer has one of the large 30qt pots.

assuming you have the ingredients to make the above recipe here is what id do:

3 lbs pale LME
2 lbs amber DME
1 lb table sugar

12AAU bittering addition @ 60min

1.5 oz of your choice of finishing hop @ 10min
1.5 oz of your choice of finishing hop @ FO

rehydrate 1 pack of ale yeast (S-05?) and save the other

-fill your 5 gallon pot to 3.5 G and heat to 150 F
-remove from heat and dissolve your DME, LME and sugar
-top up with water to whatever level you are comfortable with probably around 4.5G
-return to heat and bring to boil (WATCH FOR BOIL OVER)
-once youve stabalized your boil add your bittering addition and start your timer
-with 10min left in boil add your second hop addition
-after 60min boil turn off heat and add FO addition
-chill your wort (probably 3.5 - 4G's left after boil) and top up to 5G
-pitch your rehydrated yeast
-ferment @ 68F for 2-3 weeks in primary
-prime and package as you see fit

[elproducto]

Thanks for the tips!

Newbie question. I bought Priming sugar (corn?). His recipe calls for that, but is the table sugar the substitute?

[matt7215]

Thanks for the tips!

Newbie question. I bought Priming sugar (corn?). His recipe calls for that, but is the table sugar the substitute?

no.

the table sugar is to add some easily fermentable sugar to your beer. you have no idea what is in your malt extract or how fermentable it is. adding the simple sugar will help dry out your end product but you'll still have plenty of malt body from the unfermentables in the extract your using.

the corn sugar in his recipe is the priming sugar you will need to add to your bottling bucket to carbonate (bottle condition) your beer. your about 2 weeks away from needing it.

[JerCraigs]

-fill your 5 gallon pot to 3.5 G and heat to 150 F
-remove from heat and dissolve your DME, LME and sugar
-top up with water to whatever level you are comfortable with probably around 4.5G
-return to heat and bring to boil (WATCH FOR BOIL OVER)

Make sure you leave plenty of space at the top of the pot. I have boiled over more often than I'd like to admit by not leaving enough room for it to foam/froth up in the pot.

[elproducto]

All great tips.

This may seem like a stupid question, but what is the best way to measure the water?

[hopaddict]

Also, don't forget to aerate the cooled wort. Just rock/shake that carboy until you can't anymore. Your yeast will thank you.

[iguenard]

The easiest way is to transfer litre by litre.

The best way is to calculate the volume of your pot, and once you've got your numbers, then simply measure in centimeters the space between the top of the water and the rim of the pot. Let me explain:

You need to gather:

- Height of pot in decimeters (from inside), or H (ex: 6.1 dm, or 61 cm)
- Diameter of pot in decimeters (from inside), or D (ex: 4.15 dm or 41.5 cm)
- Formula for Volume (Litres), or V = (D / 2) x (D / 2) x 3.1416 x H

- Now to get Height per Litre, or HpL = (H x 10) / V

That number is the number of centimeters it takes to have 1 litre of water.

So lets say you want 44.29 litres of water in your tank thats 61cm high, and 41.5 cm wide

Thats:

D = 4.15
H = 6.1
V = 82.46
HpL = 0.73966

So to get 44.29 litres, it would take (44.25 x 0.73966) = 31.98 cm.

Now if my water is boiling, i dont want to dip a measuring tape in the water, or worse, dip it in hot wort and infect it. So I measure without touching by measuring the from the top of the lid to the edge of the water.

If my pot is 61cm deep, 61 minus 31.98 cm means I should have 28.02cm from the top of my lid to the water. If this is correct, I have 44.25 litres in my pot.

Cheers.

Dr. Ian

[jaymack]

sanitation, sanitation, sanitation