Daily diary of a virgin (first ever) home brew!

[pilotsh 514]

With everyone in Isolation at the moment, and after being welcomed so nicely here at CDIY, I thought I would post a thread with updates of my first ever brew! I sort of hijacked my own thread about returning samples back into the FV, so thought I would start this tread and keep updating and ask ongoing questions here instead!

So I didn't take any photos on the day I started, Thu 9th April (Day 0), but the details were:

Malt: Canned- Coopers Craft DIY Brand New Kit (Mr.Beer Bewitched Amber Ale) - Date March 2017!

Extra Ingredients: 160g of Coopers Brew Enhancer 1

Water: Unfiltered, rested tap water (for the chlorine to evaporate)

Preparation: Added the Malt Can ingredients to some off-the-boil water, stir, dump into FV. Stirred in the BE1.

Yeast: FERMENTIS SAFALE US-05 DRY ALE 10G YEAST (Bought recently for freshness and did not use yeast that came with the kit because of date)

Pitching Method: Sprinkle Dry Yeast onto the top of wort (followed the kit instructions like a noob)

Initial Wort Temperature: 24.5C (A little warm because wort water was a little hot, but within instructions range of 20-27C)

Temperature Control: No cooling. 35W heat belt. Inkbird Temp controller, target 19.9C, Heat belt at 19.2C. Hasn't heated yet.

Initial Sample SG (OG): 1050

 

Day 1: Friday 10th April

Brew Temp: 23.8C

SG: Not Tested

Comments: Nothing specific.

Photo(s):

Edited April 11, 2020 by pilotsh

[pilotsh 514]

Day 2: Saturday 11th April

Brew Temp: 23.1C

SG: Not Tested

Comments: Foam has subsided. Ferment looks a little lazy, but assured it looks ok by experienced brewers. Nice light smell of CO2/Bread near the FV, which is promising.

Photo(s):

[MartyG1525230263 1,864]

Great idea. Just for future reference there is no day 0. It is day 1.   Must admit that is one good looking brew love the colour. 

 

[pilotsh 514]

Yeah that was my "accidental aging": ie buying a home brew kit about 4 years ago, putting it in the closet and forgetting about it until now!  I googled if the old can was still ok to use, and they say yes, but the malt extract gets darker with age... which I why I bought a new yeast sachet- I know that gets old because we have a bread maker too! 
 
If the brew is amazing, I can't repeat it for another 4 years!

Edited April 11, 2020 by pilotsh

[Goldcoast Crow 254]

Just so you can compare the colour, my day 1 and 2 of the exact brew was this. 
 

im up to day 7 now, this morning my sg was 1.025 and it seems like a slow drop, really keen to get to bottling as I am sampling after hydrometer checks daily and will lose a bottle worth before I know.....

[pilotsh 514]

9 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Just so you can compare the colour, my day 1 and 2 of the exact brew was this. 

Ha! They are twins, but yours is a fresh can?! What was it's BB date?

Thanks for the photo, good to see the foam isn't bigger on yours: I was a little worried that my yeast wasn't performing because I hadn't hydrated it before pitching/adding it.

Because my can says in CAPITALS let sit for a minimum of 10 days, I won't even sample/record SG until about Day 9 (17th April), so I don't run into your dilemma: nothing left to bottle because it tastes so good fresh!

I now know why people might have several FV's on the go at once!

[pilotsh 514]

Out of interest, what was your starting SG?

Edited April 11, 2020 by pilotsh
Typo

[Goldcoast Crow 254]

I didn’t do a start up sg but will be moving fwd.... the can was only about 4 months old

[pilotsh 514]

Day 4: Sunday 12th April (Days renumbered correctly from here on)

Brew Temp: 22.7C (gentle natural decrease- due to cooler days- towards target of 19.9C)

SG: Not Tested

Comments: Little Change; maybe a few more bubbles. Still a night light smell of CO2/Bread near the FV.

Photo(s):

 

[pilotsh 514]

Day 5: Monday 13th April

Brew Temp: 21.9C gentle natural decrease- due to cooler days- continues.

SG: Not Tested

Comments: Fluffier, foamier bubbles. Looks pleasing. Fine condensation on lid and larger condensation drops on the wall of the FV. After calibrating my hydrometer, discover actual OG was 1052, not 1050. Craft kit instructions said OG would be 1047, so interested if the 160g of BE1 I added made the 05 denser difference.

 Photo(s):

  

[pilotsh 514]

Day 6: Tuesday 14th April

Brew Temp: 21.9C, after rising to a high of 22.4C yesterday after my post. Today I will keep the laundry door closed and see if it keeps cooler.

SG: Not Tested. Malt can said in CAPITALS to sit for a minimum of 10 Days, so I will take first SG reading Thursday or Friday.

Comments: Even thicker, creamier foam, and it is now 1cm think and uniform in colour: a nice light mocha brown. Condensation on lid and walls of the FV unchanged from yesterday. Very pleased with progress.

 Photo(s):
 

[Geoff S 77]

Don't be surprised if the krausen stays that way, my Unreal Ale with US-05 didn't drop until day 17, I usually bottle on day 14 but waited until it dropped to see how long it took.

[iBooz2 723]

On 4/11/2020 at 9:01 PM, MartyG1525230263 said:

Great idea. Just for future reference there is no day 0. It is day 1.   Must admit that is one good looking brew love the colour. 

 

@MartyG1525230263  There is a day 0 actually, its called BD (brew day).  The day after BD is day 1 and so on...

I have never seen any measurement start from one.  Zero is always the reference point for either moving forward into positive numbers or backwards into negative numbers i.e. ruler, tape measure, time measurement etc.  But I am just splitting beers here. ha ha 

 - AL

[pilotsh 514]

Yeah it was doing my head in! I'll go back to the 'correct' numbering tomorrow! 

[iBooz2 723]

1 minute ago, pilotsh said:

Yeah it was doing my head in! I'll go back to the 'correct' numbering tomorrow! 

Don't stress over it as it does not really matter, stick to what you have.  Only trying to TTP out of Marty 

 - AL

[MartyG1525230263 1,864]

57 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

I have never seen any measurement start from one.  Zero is always the reference point for either moving forward into positive numbers or backwards into negative numbers i.e. ruler, tape measure, time measurement etc.  But I am just splitting beers here. ha h

Ha that is ok it is a common mistake days are considered as discrete data therefor they do not have a 0 day.  Look at a calendar.    Zero has no value it is noting so it cant be a zero day.  In number theory zero is the place holder as it has no value.  Among other things I did before retirement I taught Maths for over a decade. 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by MartyG1525230263

[Goldcoast Crow 254]

There is a very basic beer brew app called beer tracker is very simple not complicated and seems to be working for what I need to check it out it’s free and it counts the days for you all you do is put in your date of brew and that’s where it goes from

[pilotsh 514]

For me, Pitching Day is "0", because then the next day the brew has been fermenting for ONE day, so it is Day 1.

(And i can count out how old my brew is on my fingers)

I will renumber back to my original way tomorrow. Tomorrow will be day six, as after pitching the yeast on Thursday, it has been fermenting for 6 days!

Each to their own!

[MartyG1525230263 1,864]

4 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

There is a very basic beer brew app called beer tracker is very simple not complicated and seems to be working for what I need to check it out it’s free and it counts the days for you all you do is put in your date of brew and that’s where it goes from

Does it start a zero day.  Because that is mathematically wrong. I should be day one.  You can have a zero minute on day 1 that is when you pitched the yeast. But day 2 will start at 12 midnight. It is the vagary of time. A calendar has no zero hence day one. However,  time does because time is continuous and days are discrete.  

  

 

[Goldcoast Crow 254]

I’ll check it out later but what I do know is you put in the day everything starts which I’m guessing would be the brew day/pitching/fermenting and then it just calculates it from there

[MartyG1525230263 1,864]

4 minutes ago, pilotsh said:

For me, Pitching Day is "0", because then the next day the brew has been fermenting for ONE day, so it is Day 1

Yep Nah.  It is day one. There is no day zero.   Not even the bible has day zero. "On the first day god created the earth".   You can have a zero hour but not a zero day.  You call it zero but it is day one.  

 

[pilotsh 514]

If I look at the clock at midday on a given day, then looked at the clock at midday the next next day, then I would say "I have been alive for one day", but others might say they have been alive for two days.

It depends on the reference point. For me, in this case, for brewing, mine will be when I pitched the yeast, and I count days in 24 hour blocks (days) from there!

[Journeyman 1,610]

Brew Day is day 0. (origin) Next day is 1AB (1 After Brew)  IMO 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Journeyman

[MartyG1525230263 1,864]

1 hour ago, Journeyman said:

Brew Day is day 0. (origin) Next day is 1AB (1 After Brew)  IMO 

[Journeyman 1,610]

56 minutes ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

I SAID... "Brew Day is day 0. (origin) Next day is 1AB (1 After Brew)"