Well, I just finished my first brew. I brewed the Dry Irish Stout extract kit offered by NB. Overall, I think things went very well.
My only issue was getting the brew down to fermentation temp. I did an ice bath and got the beer down to about 90 and then added it to the two gallons of water in the carboy (per NB kit). I topped it off at 5 gl and thought that would get me into the sixties…nope. Once I had all that water in the carboy the ice bath no longer did much.
I let it sit for a while and eventually added the yeast at about 73 degrees. Yeah I know, probably should have waited longer, but was nervous about contamination. Currently I have the carboy sitting in room with an ambient of 60, hoping this brings temp down before yeast takes off.
Am I in trouble???
You will probably be fine. What yeast did you use?
I used White Labs WLP005 British Ale Yeast. I have the beer sitting in a tub as a just in case so I could add some cold water, if necessary.
I am assuming you did not make a starter, and with a 1.042 beer pitched at ~75 billion cells, and ambiet temp of 60F, my total random guess is that the beer will settle at 62F over the next 24 hours from pitching and you will see signs of fermentation at the 32 hour mark.
RDWHAHB, all is well with your beer.
Oh good. I have been nervous that i have ticking time bomb on my second floor. My next batch will go in a fermentation fridge and I will feel a little easier…well that and I will hopefully know more by then. The carboy is in the room that is connected to my attic, currently i have it open to the attic until the temp drops out of the 70s. I hope to settle at an ambient of 65.
I use this calculator to determine my finishing wort temp. I usually cool to about 90F and add ice water at 40F to get a cool 60* wort. Remember, 1 gallon = 128 oz.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm
