Arizona Society of Homebrewers

First Time Brewer Using Brewers Best Hop Nog 2010

Howdy All,

 

I love beer, so I figure why not make some. Went to What Ales Ya this weekend and talked with the younger gentleman for some time. He walked me through the process with their Plastic Starter Kit and then through the Hop Nog 2010 kit(PDF or Recipe has been attached to this post). We choose this Beer Kit as my gal and I love hoppy beer and the guy at WAY felt as a beginner we should be fine getting it done. I want to say that I had a great experience at this store. The guy was very nice and enthusiastic about homebrew and was not condescending in any way.

 

The number one thing that is at the forefront of my homebrewing process is Sanitization. Everyone makes a big deal out of it, yet I have not seen many pictures or videos of people being what I consider to be overly sanitized. I come from a cooking background and have also watched a lot of hospital tv shows. To me I imagine having to scrub up and enter a semiconductor clean room to get this stuff right. Instead I bought a 5 gallon bucket at a local hardware store and used 5 packets of C-Brite to make 5 gallons of sanitizer. I then sanitized my hands and rinsed the insides of the Pot and Fermenter with a half cup each of this solution to ensure everything was covered with it. I did not rinse any of the sanitizer off at anytime. As I worked on the Wort I would re-sanitize my hands and any tool I would be using at that moment. Having the bucket of sanitizer made this very easy and I stayed very mindful of the whole process. Feedback on this would be a great interest, thanks.

 

The wort making process and yeast pitching took about 4 hours. All of the tools used were purchased just for homebrewing except for my spatula and wisk. Would it be a good idea to also purchase homebrewing only spatula and wisk to reduce more chances of contamination?

 

Started off with 2.5 Gallons of Fry's Drinking Water in a 20 Quart stainless steel pot to make the Wort. Getting the steeping temperature to hit 160 degrees before adding the grains was a little challenging. Learning the timing for a proper reading from the thermometer took a few tries. I notice that the thermometer is a floating one but I did not leave it floating in the Wort. Do you just leave yours floating in the Wort?

 

Adding the Extract and then following the timed instructions for Hops and Flavorings was pretty easy. Wrote down the times and used a timer to stay on track of everything. Had to use two burners to get a nice rolling boil going.

 

As instructed from WAY I put the boiler into my sink with ice water and brought the temp down to 100 degrees. Then poured the Wort into the Fermenter through a metal strainer to keep the Hop leftovers out.

 

Adding the additional water was where my biggest concern has come up. I put the additional 3.5 gallons of Fry's Drinking water in the freezer as instructed, but it got a little frozen. When I added the water the Wort got down to about 60 degrees. I did not pour any ice into the Wort. Instead I heated the ice peices up to about 74 degrees and then added it. The SG was within the guidelines at about 1.0570 so I pitched the yeast, sealed it up and put on the bubbler.

 

It is now in our storage room which I have covered the window up with an old sleeping bag. The temperature strip on the side of the Fermenter read 68 degrees about an hour after we put it in that room and has stayed there since Saturday.

 

The bubbler is bubbling but it seems quiet compared to what I have heard and read. I have attached a 30 second video here from this morning. Have a watch and let me know what you think. Am I on my way to having possibly made my own beer and therefore finding new independence from the Man?

 

I have also posted this on my website:

http://bit.ly/eN44JU

Tags: 2010, ales, best, brewers, hopnog, what, ya

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Permalink Reply by Ben Lipman on January 10, 2011 at 1:16pm

Hi Roger, I don't have time to go into depth so here are the important points in my mind:

1) you made beer, that airlock is going just fine.  You will see variable rates of fermentation depending on the gravity of the wort, temps, yeast used, amount of O2 and nutrients available to the yeast, etc.  That is normal though. 

2) worry much more about sanitizing everything that touches cooled wort.  Anything that touches it during or before the boil can be simply cleaned, boiling will sterilize it all and in the short time from "sugary water to boil" there isn't much impact that some bacteria will really contribute.  I don't stir the wort with my foot mind you but I don't autoclave my stir spoon either.  Rumors of my tea-bagging the a fermenter are baseless...never happened. 

3) my favorite sanitizer is StarSan, period.  It is fantastic and I see no compelling reason to use anything else.  It is no rinse, it takes about 30 seconds for nearly a complete kill on a clean surface, and it lasts a long time.  One oz to 5 gallons of water is all.  If you make it with RO water it will last many months (pH needs to stay in a certain range).  I keep growlers full of it to top off my spray bottle or pour into a carboy (you can re-use it even).  This stuff keeps killing even after exposure to things it kills...truly amazing stuff, can't say enough. 

4) my favorite cleaner is PBW; it is fast and fairly inexpensive.  I use about 2 gallons of water with 2-3 tbl spoons of PBW and shake to clean a keg or carboy (if you are lazy just use 5-10 tbl and fill a dirty carboy to its neck, soak, drain, shake with the remaining 1 gallon of solution...I almost never scrub. 

5) plastic fermenters work very well, just enough O2 permeation to feed your yeast (a bit much for aging though, stick to glass for sours and massively strong brew that needs to sit for months).  Plastic is soft though, be very careful not to scratch it.  Any scratch can be a place to harbor bugs out of reach of even the best sanitizers (minus heat but heat is not very plastic friendly).  I clean my plastic with a mild PBW solution and the soft side of a sponge, soak for really nasty buckets.  Replace once they get scratches...they are cheap. 

6) once you start looking for a 5 gallon unit to do aging, dry hopping, souring, etc...consider Better Bottles, they are PET and nearly impervious to O2, they are cheaper, safer, and lighter than glass carboys.  I wish I had purchased BBs for all of my 5 gallon units.  If they made a 7 gallon BB I would not own a single 6.5 gallon glass carboy. 

7) brewing is fun, enjoy it!  I was caught up on the details initially, relaxed and had a homebrew, it got more fun.  Then when I started getting used to the process, I began diving in gonzo and love it even more!  Congratulations on liberation from commercial libations!  Now you can buy commercial beer as a novelty!

Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on January 10, 2011 at 1:41pm
Hey Ben,

Thanks for the fast reply! You win the prize, dont call us, we will call you with the details.

1) you made beer, that airlock is going just fine.  You will see variable rates of fermentation depending on the gravity of the wort, temps, yeast used, amount of O2 and nutrients available to the yeast, etc.  That is normal though. 


Sweetness! All I want is beer for now. By batch 6 I might start getting a bit more picky.

2) worry much more about sanitizing everything that touches cooled wort.  Anything that touches it during or before the boil can be simply cleaned, boiling will sterilize it all and in the short time from "sugary water to boil" there isn't much impact that some bacteria will really contribute.  I don't stir the wort with my foot mind you but I don't autoclave my stir spoon either.  Rumors of my tea-bagging the a fermenter are baseless...never happened. 


Gotcha. For this batch I am not doing a second fermentation, but will be adding dry hops after the CO2 release slows down, as per the instructions.

3) my favorite sanitizer is StarSan, period.  It is fantastic and I see no compelling reason to use anything else.  It is no rinse, it takes about 30 seconds for nearly a complete kill on a clean surface, and it lasts a long time.  One oz to 5 gallons of water is all.  If you make it with RO water it will last many months (pH needs to stay in a certain range).  I keep growlers full of it to top off my spray bottle or pour into a carboy (you can re-use it even).  This stuff keeps killing even after exposure to things it kills...truly amazing stuff, can't say enough. 


I will consider this, but since C-Brite comes with the Kits I will stick with that for the first few batches. My plan is to brew 2 weekends out of the month to keep things in the 'hopper'.

4) my favorite cleaner is PBW; it is fast and fairly inexpensive.  I use about 2 gallons of water with 2-3 tbl spoons of PBW and shake to clean a keg or carboy (if you are lazy just use 5-10 tbl and fill a dirty carboy to its neck, soak, drain, shake with the remaining 1 gallon of solution...I almost never scrub. 


I will get some of this.

5) plastic fermenters work very well, just enough O2 permeation to feed your yeast (a bit much for aging though, stick to glass for sours and massively strong brew that needs to sit for months).  Plastic is soft though, be very careful not to scratch it.  Any scratch can be a place to harbor bugs out of reach of even the best sanitizers (minus heat but heat is not very plastic friendly).  I clean my plastic with a mild PBW solution and the soft side of a sponge, soak for really nasty buckets.  Replace once they get scratches...they are cheap. 


Yeah I asked about glass but the guy at WAY sold me on plastic as its what he uses and its cheaper. Definitely gonna be careful about scratches and stuff. The beer making equipment has its own home away from everyone else to ensure if it does get messed up then one I can be held with blame.

6) once you start looking for a 5 gallon unit to do aging, dry hopping, souring, etc...consider Better Bottles, they are PET and nearly impervious to O2, they are cheaper, safer, and lighter than glass carboys.  I wish I had purchased BBs for all of my 5 gallon units.  If they made a 7 gallon BB I would not own a single 6.5 gallon glass carboy. 


Werd on this. It will be a few batches till I start expanding too much. I think a Kegging system will be the first upgrade. While Bottling hasn't yet happened it sounds like it will be the more demanding aspect of homebrewing.

7) brewing is fun, enjoy it!  I was caught up on the details initially, relaxed and had a homebrew, it got more fun.  Then when I started getting used to the process, I began diving in gonzo and love it even more!  Congratulations on liberation from commercial libations!  Now you can buy commercial beer as a novelty!


Werd up, I do enjoy how the Home Brewing book keeps reminding you to relax. Having a cooking background helps with understanding that there needs to be a process to getting this right, but that it is not rocket surgery or anything sad and depressing.

Thanks again for the reply.
Permalink Reply by Ben Lipman on January 10, 2011 at 1:48pm

"Life is too short to bottle homebrew"

-Mylo

 

Kegging is one of the most rewarding upgrades you will ever give your hobby.  I bottled initially, it sucks an evening out of your life you will never get back.  Sometimes it won't carbonate...ever...then you cry as you pour a batch of beer you put so much time and energy into down the drain.  Bottles are a pain to clean, they break, etc...the only reason my beer ever sees bottles is to give people beer (prefer growlers still, or at least 22oz bottles) or for competitions.  Perhaps when I have a beer I am growing tired of and want to save for later, I might bottle up the last gallon or so to get a corny back in the pipeline and open up kegerator space.  Once your sickness really sets in you might get as bad as I am and start buying silly things like conical fermenters or you might build a beautiful stainless brew stand (none of which you need to make good or even great beer).  Lol, again, part of the fun!

Will you be at the next meeting (the 18th)?  Say hello, there will be some 50 or so of us, all with good advice to contribute!  Oh, and beer. 

Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on January 10, 2011 at 1:53pm
Yeah almost bought the keg system first day, but will hold off a few batches there.

I plan on making the meeting on the 18th!
Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on February 9, 2011 at 3:58pm
This batch came out very nice and flavorful. Bottling wasn't as bad as I thought. Already bottled second homebrew the arrogant bastard clone. Messed up the OG on that though
Permalink Reply by Thomas F Tomczyk on February 9, 2011 at 5:17pm

Allow me to offer some insight as I have been brewing for just over a year.

 

1) Go to all grain as soon as possible. You need:

A cooler mash tun, I made the coleman extreme one pictured here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a...

A boil pot, stainless preferred, that will hold 8+ gallons (offers just enough head space for a 5.5 gallon batch, where pre-boil volume is almost 7 gallons). I bought my 35 qt on ebay for $60 shipped.

I use a 2nd pot (5 gal stainless) to catch wort from the mash tun, then I drain sparge into boil pot and add in first mash from 2nd pot.

Make an immersion chiller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EolKTDZUQ, I bought 50 feet of copper tubing from Amazon for $40 shipped, remainder of parts from lowes.

Buy a point & shoot infrared thermometer, you can get em for $30 on sale at Harbor Freight.

Buy a refractometer, cheap-o's on ebay for $30 shipped.

Use a brewing software, I use BeerSmith, there are several others.

 

I use CO2 to push beer from primary carboy to 2ndary carboy to keg/bottling bucket. I use a cap that fits onto carboys, has two holes, one for a stainless racking cane, one for co2 tubing. I never liked the plastic auto-siphon thingies. I do use the auto-siphon to go from boil pot to primary, but I will be having my boil pot modified with a drain soon, just need to make it out to the far east valley to hit up my former welding instructor for the stainless work.

 

In contrast to Ben, I enjoy bottling. I like the process of opening up a beer bottle with my homebrew in it, hearing the escaping carbonation, and drinking the first sip from the bottle. It's an experience I'll never give up. I bottle elusively in bombers (22oz bottles) to reduce the # of bottles, and who drinks just one 12oz beer anyway?

 

I do keg, but I use 3 gallon corny kegs, they are rare to come by, but I got lucky and found 3 recently. This allows me to bottle 2.5 gallons, which only takes 15 bombers. OR, this also allows me to alter 2.5 gallons via dry hopping, adding fruit, or other additives.

 

I love glass carboys. Save money, buy them used.

 

I use Iodophor for santizing, I bought a 32oz bottle of concentrate. I may go to Starsan after that as Ben has been extolling its virtues for some time now. I also supplement with 70% iso alcohol (rubbing alc) for wiping down counter tops, keeping hands sanitized, wiping down tubing, etc.

 

I'm sure I'm missing something, but that's enough for now.

 

Make beer often! It's nice to have a variety to choose from and it sucks to run out!

Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on February 9, 2011 at 10:30pm

hey thomas! Thanks for the feedback, but I gotta say that your process sounds more like work than i like. you see i have allergies, i am allergic to work. my plan is to get a few more extract brews done and then invest in a kegging system, however I agree with you that the bottle is a nice way to enjoy a beer so will also keep bottling here and there. seems like a great gift for many occasions.

 

all that said i am getting curious about the more advanced methods of brewing and will be happy to sample your beer anytime!

 

cheers!


Thomas F Tomczyk said:

Allow me to offer some insight as I have been brewing for just over a year.

 

1) Go to all grain as soon as possible. You need:

A cooler mash tun, I made the coleman extreme one pictured here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a...

A boil pot, stainless preferred, that will hold 8+ gallons (offers just enough head space for a 5.5 gallon batch, where pre-boil volume is almost 7 gallons). I bought my 35 qt on ebay for $60 shipped.

I use a 2nd pot (5 gal stainless) to catch wort from the mash tun, then I drain sparge into boil pot and add in first mash from 2nd pot.

Make an immersion chiller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EolKTDZUQ, I bought 50 feet of copper tubing from Amazon for $40 shipped, remainder of parts from lowes.

Buy a point & shoot infrared thermometer, you can get em for $30 on sale at Harbor Freight.

Buy a refractometer, cheap-o's on ebay for $30 shipped.

Use a brewing software, I use BeerSmith, there are several others.

 

I use CO2 to push beer from primary carboy to 2ndary carboy to keg/bottling bucket. I use a cap that fits onto carboys, has two holes, one for a stainless racking cane, one for co2 tubing. I never liked the plastic auto-siphon thingies. I do use the auto-siphon to go from boil pot to primary, but I will be having my boil pot modified with a drain soon, just need to make it out to the far east valley to hit up my former welding instructor for the stainless work.

 

In contrast to Ben, I enjoy bottling. I like the process of opening up a beer bottle with my homebrew in it, hearing the escaping carbonation, and drinking the first sip from the bottle. It's an experience I'll never give up. I bottle elusively in bombers (22oz bottles) to reduce the # of bottles, and who drinks just one 12oz beer anyway?

 

I do keg, but I use 3 gallon corny kegs, they are rare to come by, but I got lucky and found 3 recently. This allows me to bottle 2.5 gallons, which only takes 15 bombers. OR, this also allows me to alter 2.5 gallons via dry hopping, adding fruit, or other additives.

 

I love glass carboys. Save money, buy them used.

 

I use Iodophor for santizing, I bought a 32oz bottle of concentrate. I may go to Starsan after that as Ben has been extolling its virtues for some time now. I also supplement with 70% iso alcohol (rubbing alc) for wiping down counter tops, keeping hands sanitized, wiping down tubing, etc.

 

I'm sure I'm missing something, but that's enough for now.

 

Make beer often! It's nice to have a variety to choose from and it sucks to run out!

Permalink Reply by Ben Lipman on February 10, 2011 at 8:53am

I am not fond of the idea of using a secondary carboy unless: you are doing extensive aging (sours, huge beers) or you are dry hopping (it works better absent yeast).  Doing a secondary for clearing a beer isn't really necessary and it invites one more possibility of infection. 

 

I didn't mind bottling until I got past about 1000 bottles (store, clean, sanitize, fill, repeat).  After that time, I started to understand why Mylo says "life is too short to bottle homebrew".  I still bottle for competitions, a little here and there to share w/ friends, or to free up room in my kegerator (if I had room and kegs to just store it all I would bottle less).  I brew a freakish quantity of beer though so I always have stuff to clean, brew, rack, etc; maybe my workload is just pushing me away from it but I find that it actually starts getting in the way of brewing.  Bottle conditioning (IMO) is for the birds...or people who don't have a keg setup and a bottle filler (I love my counter pressure filler). 

Glass carboys are great...remember they can kill and maim the safest most responsible users...seriously consider better bottles.  They are cheaper, lighter, and easier to handle.  If they made a 7 gallon unit I would immediately sell Tom all of my 6.5 and 6 g glass carboys and never look back. 

Don't fear aluminum kettles/HLTs/etc, the rumors are mostly wrong. 

 

I am glad you are enjoying the hobby Roger, keep it up, have fun, and share some brew w/ your club members!!! That is what it is all about! 

Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on February 10, 2011 at 10:50am

Werd. I will be at the meeting on the 22nd and will have two brews to share and will be looking for feedback.

 

I am referring back to your first post here often and reminding myself just to enjoy it. I created a Pandora station with Lee Scratch Perry and that is my homebrewing station, uber chill.

 

Goal for now is to brew 4 to 6 batches and then get kegger system, maybe even sooner...

Ben Lipman said:

I am not fond of the idea of using a secondary carboy unless: you are doing extensive aging (sours, huge beers) or you are dry hopping (it works better absent yeast).  Doing a secondary for clearing a beer isn't really necessary and it invites one more possibility of infection. 

 

I didn't mind bottling until I got past about 1000 bottles (store, clean, sanitize, fill, repeat).  After that time, I started to understand why Mylo says "life is too short to bottle homebrew".  I still bottle for competitions, a little here and there to share w/ friends, or to free up room in my kegerator (if I had room and kegs to just store it all I would bottle less).  I brew a freakish quantity of beer though so I always have stuff to clean, brew, rack, etc; maybe my workload is just pushing me away from it but I find that it actually starts getting in the way of brewing.  Bottle conditioning (IMO) is for the birds...or people who don't have a keg setup and a bottle filler (I love my counter pressure filler). 

Glass carboys are great...remember they can kill and maim the safest most responsible users...seriously consider better bottles.  They are cheaper, lighter, and easier to handle.  If they made a 7 gallon unit I would immediately sell Tom all of my 6.5 and 6 g glass carboys and never look back. 

Don't fear aluminum kettles/HLTs/etc, the rumors are mostly wrong. 

 

I am glad you are enjoying the hobby Roger, keep it up, have fun, and share some brew w/ your club members!!! That is what it is all about! 


2012 BoardPermalink Reply by Rob Fullmer on February 15, 2011 at 12:40pm

On Friday last, I had some of Roger's first beer and it was very good.

Lots of hops (good utilization).

 

The real test is going to be something that is lighter on the palate.   That's where you'll see the results of controlled fermentation and rapid post-boil cooling.

 

Great Start!

Permalink Reply by Roger Williams on February 15, 2011 at 2:47pm
thanks for the feedback rob, any beers you might recommend that are lighter on the palate?

2012 BoardPermalink Reply by Rob Fullmer on February 16, 2011 at 9:28am

The test is going to be a lager at some point, but you're going to need unfailing temperature controls for that.

Try a Kölsch and have it ready for SpringFest and our Kaptain's Cup.

 

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