Nobody Listens

Finally got around to bottling my first batch of Pale Ale. 

I soaked my bottles in OxyClean to remove them and clean them Friday night thinking I would get to bottle on Saturday night.  One thing led to another and I wasn’t able to get to it until Monday.

I can see why people Keg.  Not only is the whole process a pain, but storing all those bottles sure does take up a lot of room especially considering I’ll need to bottle batch number 2 in a few weeks.

I tasted the brew and it tasted pretty bitter.  I’m hoping the carbination will cut that a bit.

My Final gravity was 1.014 so it hadn’t changed since I racked to secondary (which is expected).  My Original Gravity was 1.056 so that puts the ABV at 5.46%.  Not bad.  My target Final ABV was 6.02%.

Now, more waiting. 

• Total time in Primary: 12 days
• Total time in secondary: 16 days

Thought it was a good time to revisit easter with some photos I uploaded to flickr.

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   I decided to make something my wife might enjoy a bit more than the pale ale.  Homebrew USA had a Wit recipe that I decided to try.  I was pretty excited to get the next batch underway because I was going to do my primary in glass (Thanks, JP for the carboys!).

So on to learn from my first batch mistakes and make new mistakes with this batch (it’s how you learn, right?).

Recipe: “Wit” Way is Up?
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So I racked to secondary.  The kid in me won out (sorry John!).  

 I prepped all my gear and got to siphoning.  The whole process went pretty smoothly.  I did notice a Star San Snake appear out of the top of the carboy, but as I have read numerous times, “Don’t fear the foam!”

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I’m still pondering the same question from a few days ago: should I rack to secondary?

Being the newbie that I am, I e-mailed the Brew Dudes mainly asking what my Final Gravity should be and if when I should rack to secondary.

Brew Dude John was kind enough to respond:

“Now, for the secondary.  For this brew, I would leave it alone until Sunday and then rack to bottles or a keg.  I don’t think you are going to get another 3 points in another vessel for a while (do you really want to secondary for another 3-4 weeks?) if at all.  To me, I think you have gotten what you can from your yeast.  I think it’s close enough and you probably have a good beer on your hands.  So, you didn’t hit your final gravity…you got pretty close and that works most of the time.

I get pretty close most of the time and I am happy with that.I think secondary fermenters don’t need to be used for the ale you are making….I would skip it this time.” 

The impatient kid in me wants to use all my new toys.  I’d like to rack to secondary just to do it and use my new carboy.  The impatient adult in me wants to drink this beer ASAP.  So waiting an extra week or two is a week or two without this beer.

I know John is right.  I’m not going to get much more out of this brew in terms of drops in SG or any increase in ABV.

Decisions… Decisions…

John also pointed me in the direction of BeerTools.  They have a free registration where you can calculate your FG and some other cool stuff. 

Thanks again John!