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Newb here reporting for duty!
Here is an overview of what I did
-Used 4 gallons for the boil
- Followed Williams instructions and ingredients
- Cooled wort to 82 Deg 17 Min
- Added 2 gal of distilled water to equal 5 and transferred to primary
O.G. was 1.060
* First issue was Wyeast packet was activated 4 hrs prior to brewing (pack was swollen but not fully)
I panicked and asked myself, what would Mcgyver do?
I ran out to my shop and grabbed my co2 tank and purged the primary.
5 hours later the yeast was swollen enough that I opened and pitched followed by 3 Min of rocking the Primary to aerate.
- Fermentation was steady 68 Deg and ended 4.5 days after start
-14 days the gravity was 1.032 followed by a 17 day check at the same
ABV= 3.6% (about 1.2% too low)
No bottle bombs but I am waiting to sample on the 17th
I just bottled a triple hopped ale which looks to be my best brew yet
-I allowed the smack pack to set activated for 3 full days prior to the boil at 65 Deg
- Fermentation started in 10 Hrs. and lasted 13 full days loosing a little steam each day after day 5
- O.G. was 1.062 followed by a final of 1.020 giving me a ABV of about 5.5%
- It is of note this was the first beer to finish with a higher ABV than advertised(. .5% higher). It is an educated guess, but I believe the yeast and pitching/fermentation temps are the most critical steps besides solid sanitation practices. I am taking the advise I got here and will make a yeast starter on all future batches.
Hope this helped
Why did you purge the primary with co2? Yeast need oxygen and thrive off of it being introduced into the chilled wort, so let it be! Also, a big thing I had to learn with homebrew was, PATIENCE! Just because the little paper says you can bottle in 15 days doesn't mean it will make the best beer. Sure, it will be beer, but probably not the best it could be if left alone. The best beers I have brewed have been a 2-2-2 rule. 2 week primary, 2 week secondary, 2 week bottle. So just calm down, relax, and have a homebrew! It will be beer and the longer you will let it settle, the clearer it will be, the better it will taste, and the more you will appreciate the time spent letting it age. Also, from my experience and research, the longer you let a wyeast pack sit, doesn't make much of a difference on lag time (time from chilling to signs of fermentation). I have smacked a pack 3 days before, or 3 hours before pitching and it is usually same result. The shorter lag time is usually related to aeration of the wort, temperature of wort, and proper handling of yeast before pitching. If the pack is swollen, she is good to go! There is only a few exceptions of some wyeast strains which are slow to respond to smacking or pitching (some belgian strains come to mind). Happy brewing and welcome to the obsession!
When I said I purged the primary, I meant I used the co2 to purge out the oxygen on top of the beer due to the yeast not being pitched. My thinking was that this will help "shield" the beer from contamination until I could get the yeast in and get some alcohol production. No Co2 was used to aerate the wort.
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