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Just finished my first brew. Here are the details, and a question.
SORRY THIS IS SO WORDY
So as the title stated, I brewed for the first time today. I went to a (not so) local brew shop and finally bought my propane burner, and wort chiller, which is what I was waiting on. I bought the brewers best "Robust Porter" kit for my first go. I decided to add vanilla bean to it, because my ambitious side got the best of me. I cut one bean down the center, scraped out the goods, and soaked it in about a quarter cup of a 40 year bourbon I have (I know, I love the way that sounds too) I added half the bean at flame out, and half in the primary, only becuase I couldn't find a definite way of adding the vanilla online, and this sounded the best to me. My OG is 1.050 and the whole process, over and done with, went pretty smoothly. I realized I need to invest in some ov gloves, and a better, longer thermometer, but all in all it went well.
As for the quick and basic questions I have. It came with flavoring, bittering, and aroma hops. They were labeled, "Northern Brewers Bittering Hops", "Northern Brewing Flavoring Hops," and "Willamette Aroma Hops." Are the two labeld "Northern Brewers..." just generically labeled? Or is that the type of hop, just in that particular amount, for this recipe they are used to Bitter and Flavor? Does that make sense? The reason I ask is because in my running back and forth from the garage to kitchen I mixed up the two packages and added them at the wrong time. They were only supposed to be added 5min apart (30min and 25min) so I'm assuming I won't have any problems, but thats were you experts come in. What do you think?
Also how soon after I pitch the yeast will I see bubbles in the airlock? Its been in for about 2 hours and I haven't seen any. I'm not really worried, just curious.
usually you'll get activity in anywhere from 6 hours to 24 hours. That is if your lid is on snug. sometimes bucket fermenters will leave a small space that the co2 will come out and you won't see bubbles in the airlock.
as for the hops, Northern Brewer is a particular type of hop. The longer the hops are boiled, the less hop flavor you will get from them, and the more bittering you will get from them. That is why one bag was labeled bittering and one was labeled flavoring. As long as the packages had the same amount of hops in them, you won't notice any difference from getting the 2 bags of Northern Brewers mixed up.
@Hogarthe
As usual, a huge help. Thank you.
I would suggest next time to put the vanilla in the fermenter after fermentation is complete. You'll get a more noticeable flvor contribution and the CO2 bubbling out during fermentation wont carry the aromatics away with it.
I do have one more vanilla bean, when I rack into my secondary I'll taste it and see if I'd like to add more.
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