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New to brewing... and a few questions

Post #1 made 12 years ago
by darren131
Hi there!

I've been lurking around this forum for a while and read a whole bunch of stuff both here and elsewhere—needless to say my head is full of info... sadly I don't know how much of it is useful. Anyway—I've brewed one and a half (well the second one is 3 weeks into fermentation); these are my very first brews... right in the deep-end :)

Attached is The Calculator (i've since discovered the BIABacus which is a nice piece of excel magic) for my most recent beer. And this is where my questions begin:
  • According to The Calculator the amount of water to start with should be ~38L — which is what I started with (hoping to end with 23L. At the end of the boil I ended up with WAY more than that... I ended up putting 25L into the fermenter and there was still a bit left in the kettle. So after all the preamble I guess my question is: why did I end up with so much? I suspect it may be because I boiled with the lid on... is this correct? Should I boil without the lid? These are the plaguing questions...
  • Second question is about the fermentation process and more accurately the logging of gravity through these weeks... How often should I be taking these readings? Currently I'm taking them every few days... overkill? You can see my logs here:
    http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/brewsho ... logs/99263 Clearly you can see I'm very new at taking the readings which is why I'm doing it so often—to get better averages. Am I over thinking this?
  • This is less of a question but mainly a call for general advice for a complete novice to brewing. There is heaps of jargon which is taking a while to get my head around... but I'll continue to read...
Anyway—thanks for taking the time to read my amateurish questions—I look forward to your collective insight!

Thanks!
Darren
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Last edited by darren131 on 14 Jul 2013, 11:54, edited 2 times in total.

Post #2 made 12 years ago
by majorphill
Darren

Welcome aboard :salute:

I am no expert on the calculator but 25 litres plus a bit doesn't seem too far off the 23 you were expecting. Did the bit include trub that you don't want?
Was your GAW (Gravity of ambient wort) as you expected?
If it was a little low you could have boiled a bit longer to reduce the volume and up the GAW.
If it was as you expected your extraction may be a little better than expected.

Yes you do boil with the lid off. You are trying to get rid off "nasties" in the wort as well as reducing the volume and sterilizing the wort.

You can check the gravity as often as you like but it doesn't make it happen any faster. I check mine after a week or so. What your after is the gravity reading to remain the same over two or three days. Then you know that fermentation is finished. Patience is a virtue in brewing. Conditioning can take place it the fermenter or the bottle. It's all the same but .. it is nice to see your brew in the bottle.

That said three weeks fermenting for an ale is pushing it a bit. What FG are you expecting? Can you increase the temperature by a couple of degrees?

If the extra couple of litres is worrying you send it to me and that problem will go away. :yum:

Remember nothing here is an exact science. (especially at homebrew quantities)

As for the jargon.. yes it does get confusing .. but I recommend you study the BIABacus terminolgy (jargon). It is a very good at making the terms clear and meaningful

Phil

Post #3 made 12 years ago
by darren131
Thanks for the help, Phil. I guess due to the lid being on it didn't reduce as much as I'd hoped :)

Each brew is a learning curve and as long as drinkable beer is produced then we're living the dream!
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