Batch #2

With little fan-fare, and a lot of cold weather and "I'll do it later" attitudes, my second home brew batch is underway. I embarked on this journey with little knowledge under my belt other than what I had learned from batch #1 as well as tons of info from HomebrewTalk and r/homebrewing.

My first batch, American Wheat, did not turn out so well. I wasn't really sure of how to describe the off flavors, and the brew was definitively under carbonated. Was it my sanitation? did I oxidize the wort somewhere? I know with the carbonation I used carb tabs, and I wont ever be using those again. I also reused beer bottles (after washing and sanitizing of course) maybe something was left on the bottles to give that odd flavor? Anyway, with batch #2 I went with a Irish Stout,

With a little companionship from my girlfriend I was able to successfully brew this batch on a relaxing Tuesday. I even got wyeast liquid smack pack, as I had heard of all the great things you can do with liquid yeast. I think that was my problem. I only allowed about 3 or so hours for the yeast to activate, thinking "hey, I brewed it, cant turn back now, and 3 hours should be enough" Well apparently it wasn't.

I went down to check on my brew 3 days later ( I still don't know why I took such a lax approach to checking my brew this time) and saw absolutely no fermentation activity. The stick on thermometer read a cold 58, but that was still in the range for ale yeast! After doing research, I decided to bring the wort temp up ,using some gallons filled with hot tap water overnight I brought the temp up to around 72 degrees. (let me explain, I keep my carboy in a mini fridge, so I used the radiant heat of the hot water gallons to warm up my carboy) Still,  no yeast action. I decided it was time to go back to what I knew, dry yeast. I had has success in getting fermentation going with that, so why not try again? I went down to my local homebrew shop and picked up a Safale-04 dry yeast packet for about $4 and took it home, hydrated that beast and pitched it into my wort.

8 hours later and there were signs of fermentation! woo hoo! it had begun and I was felling quite happy again. Fermentation stopped about 4 days later, and now my brew sits in the primary just waiting to to racked into secondary. While I wait I have been looking up tons of stuff on the internet about benefits of secondary, pros and cons, and if it is even necessary. I really don't know how I feel about the subject, but I might as well rack it into secondary at this point.

I can say I was worried about infections and mold, especially since I let it get too humid in my mini fridge and  spots of mold developed on the outside of my carboy. I dipped a rag in Starsan and wiped it down, and left the mini fridge open to air out. I plan on spraying both the entire carboy and fridge with Starsan before moving on.